Gibson turns guitar into ‘music lifestyle’ enterprise
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Resting in its case on top of a desk at the corporate headquarters of the company that makes Gibson guitars is a technologically head-spinning model that Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz describes with parental pride.
The craftsmanship that went into Gibson’s Firebird X “hexaphonic” limited-edition electric instrument is obvious. Less apparent is this contraption’s ability to do just about anything short of brewing a cup of coffee.
Consider: Advanced sampling technology allows it to sound like any one of dozens of vintage electric or acoustic guitars at the touch of a button. A player can also quickly shift among any number of conventional and unconventional tuning setups at the touch of another button. And thanks to automatic tuning technology, one will never worry about it going out of tune.
And that’s barely scratching the instrument’s high-gloss surface. “This has got more technology than you can shake a stick at,” Juszkiewicz, 64, said at his office.
It’s a glistening example of a strategy that has driven Juszkiewicz since he bought the company in 1986: to gradually remake Gibson into a lifestyle brand. His methods — rapid expansion, a planned West Hollywood outpost and a reliance on technology — have sometimes been met with skepticism or even legal challenges, but none of it has deterred Juszkiewicz’s ambitions to, in his words, become a powerhouse on par with Nike.
This aggressive approach is necessary, he says, as longstanding companies such as Gibson, Fender Musical Instruments and C.F. Martin & Co. are facing a conundrum: How can a guitar maker survive in a world largely devoid of old-school guitar heroes?
Today’s biggest hits are often the result of elaborate studio productions — unlike the 1960s, when rock gods such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and guitar-centric bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and others were at the forefront of pop music.
Juszkiewicz has been down a similar path in the mid-1980s when he undertook his mission to revive the Gibson brand, which today generates about $3 billion in annual revenue.
At that time, he was up against the onslaught of electronic keyboards, synthesizers and programmed sequencers that were de rigueur in ‘80s pop music. He survived, in part, by putting the spotlight back on the iconic Les Paul guitars and created a clear delineation between Gibson and its subsidiary Epiphone brand, stemming the tide until the grunge wave helped bring guitars back in the 1990s.
Having earned an MBA from Harvard while still working for General Motors, Juszkiewicz combined his Ivy League business school education with a lifelong passion for rock music when he took the reins at Gibson.
But even with that background, the guitar industry remains as much art as science. Making things even more complicated is that Gibson’s competition comes not just from other guitar makers but from its own vintage creations.
“Personally speaking,” said Jeff King, lead guitarist for country star Reba McEntire’s touring band, “if I’m going to spend 10 grand on a Les Paul, I’d want it to be an older vintage one, a player’s guitar, and hopefully one that would retain its vintage value. The newer ones — you’d think they’d be better with all the new updates and the manufacturing gear they’ve got today. But I’ve never had the urge to pick one up, no disrespect.”
That’s one example of how the technology of guitar-making can still be trumped by the psychology of guitar-playing. As Jeff Goldblum’s eccentric chaos theorist character said in the original “Jurassic Park,” “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
Another case in point: The self-tuning guitars that Gibson pioneered in recent years tripped up the company when Juszkiewicz insisted the technology be rolled out on a broad swath of its models, turning off some traditionalists.
“Technology is a wonderful thing,” Juszkiewicz said. “But technology doesn’t always sit well (with consumers), mostly because there’s not enough marketing dollars to let everybody know what it’s all about.” Broadening its vision Juszkiewicz’s grand plan for Gibson goes back to the beginning of his association with the company: to do for music what Nike has done in the world of sports.
The company’s latest business motto, “Play. Record. Listen.,” reflects Juszkiewicz’s aim to plant its flag in all corners of what he often refers to as “the music lifestyle.”
In recent years, Gibson Guitars morphed into Gibson Brands, the parent company of a growing array of instrument makers, recording equipment, playback hardware, studio software and other consumer electronics products.