Interview: Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz
musicradar.com
Ed Mitchell, Tue 10 Apr 2012, 10:56 am BST
From page 4 of the interview:
Some Gibson fans have been grumbling about fingerboard woods like baked maple appearing in place of rosewood on guitars like the SG Standard. How much of this experimentation in materials is a result of ongoing issues between Gibson and the US government over 'illegal' wood?
"Well, we were cut off from our traditional supply of wood rather suddenly. It was just like the flood in a sense. It forced us to rethink: 'What are we going to do?'
"For years we didn't think about changing the wood because we feared customer push back. Well, now we're forced to do that and what we've found is that there are actually alternatives that are better than what we've been using."
That's obviously a tough sell for some of your potential customers...
"Yes, but what we were doing in the '50s was never tested in a lab or anything. It just happened to be the wood that was available. People project some magic qualities on that timber now but the fact is that the guitar craftsmen in those days weren't fundamentally doing tone research. It just happened to be wood that they could get.
"Now, we've got instrumentation and other tools, we can evaluate all kinds of different woods. In a very short period of time we've probably evaluated 150 species of wood and different construction techniques.
"We've come up with things that we believe are better that what was used in the past. That makes people uncomfortable but the fact is no one did that fundamental work in the first place. So, now we know. We've actually got things that work better."
Do you have any examples of that?
"Well, when you take two pieces of wood versus one you increase the strength of the guitar enormously, without changing the tonal composition. It's simple engineering. The cellular structure is exactly the same but now you've got structural rigidity.
"That's outstanding and it actually increases the conduction of tone. Now we can give our musicians options instead of saying it's either rosewood or ebony. We already have 12 choices and I feel really great about that.
"It's improved the state of the instrument. Some of the changes are subtle but it's all good. We wouldn't put it out if it wasn't."
In a sense Gibson is a victim of its own amazing legacy isn't it? You built what is considered the greatest electric guitar of them all, the '59 Les Paul Standard 'burst. People are obviously going to want that. Do you think those guitars are worth the £200,000 or so that they command?
"Yes. And I think the value is related to scarcity. There are only 300 or so. You could pay that sort of price for ink blot art which is really reproducible and just has a signature on it. The value is in the marketplace.
"It's just a very beautiful and desirable instrument. In general Gibson values have appreciated about 12 percent a year. That's remarkable. Almost nothing you can buy appreciates like that. Almost everything does the opposite."
Do you think you build Gibson guitars better now than in the late '50s?
"Absolutely. There's no doubt about it in my mind. With our vintage reproductions, we target the very best one made. With the new equipment and the tolerances that we have, that just weren't available in the '50s, we can do that.
"For example, just winding pickups in the '50s, the tolerances on windings was plus or minus 10 percent. Well, those are very different pickups. You can get a lot of different sounds with that kind of tolerance. Today, pickups are accurate to the winding. The wire dimensions are accurate... things that really weren't possible back in those days.
"It's not just the reissues. We're doing things to every guitar that make them far superior to '50s technology."
What's next for Gibson in terms of technology? Have you looked beyond the Robot guitars and the Firebird X yet?
"Yes, but we'll have to go slow. The Firebird X really is a gigantic leap. We could put a manual together of all the improvements and innovations in that guitar. The controls alone will make your eyes water with the amount of options you have.
"It's a decade full of innovations. So, it's really hard to go further. If we're losing people with this instrument we'll totally lose them if we keep going that rapidly. So, at this point we have a giant statement of what's possible." |
