re: Are the new Gibson guitars any good?

The new CEO is in the captain's chair, he's not on the production line floor getting covered in sawdust, metal filings and lacquer. Corporate reorganization in response to bankruptcy typically doesn't mean firing your employees and hiring better ones, it typically means downsizing the workforce if anything, meaning potentially experienced line workers may be shown the door in favor of more affordable workers who may lack years and/or training ... or no replacements at all, which strains QC in the name of production quotas and order fulfillment.

Keep in mind, too, that Gibson hired a CEO who oversaw an apparel company, not a musical instrument company. Successful marketing and branding can counteract poor consumer perception, but marketing and branding doesn't source the best maple and mahogany, or fret necks, or cut nuts, or wire control cavities. The best way to fix consumer perception is to make better guitars. I don't know if they are doing that yet. I don't know if they are tooled to do that, "tooling" being not only bodies and raw materials but also in corporate mentality and vision. I don't think they know if they are doing that yet, at least day in and day out, every shift, in each unit of the approximately 300 guitars they produce daily.

That being said, it's too early to say if Gibson's resolved their quality control issues, where it was common to see trash next to treasure in sequential serial numbers. I haven't seen enough new Gibsons to have formed an opinion that they are better overall unit to unit. Gimme a year to make that call.

In the meantime, I tell my clients interested in getting a new Gibson to play before you buy, or buy from a source with a liberal return policy should you not be pleased. Don't let the hit and miss mentality frighten you, there are literal jewels out there, just find it with your own hands, ears and ribcage, not with a mouse click haha