Sweetwater down to their last in stock Gibson electric guitar

[speyfly]

According to the prospective dealer in the video I posted earlier in this thread, they were told that supply issues go beyond COVID. A number of things like integrating a new software tracking system during a warehouse move, missing guitars, lack of parts and some lingering management issues apparently also exist.

Yeah, lets hope and pray things are getting better including QC under new leadership...

 

[MP4-22]

Yes people are major brand whores anymore me included.

Haha it just sold for 800 plus shipping.... Thought it would never sell.

 

[wildhawk1]

When people have to start paying rent and get a job Craigslist is going to explode with deals.

 

[timmytVA]

Yes people are major brand whores anymore me included.

Easier to move it when GAS strikes and you wanna try something else. The market for flavor-of-the-week boutique guitars and amps is narrow and finicky. It cracks me up when I see people listing things for 5% off new and wondering why it sits for weeks or months on end.

Tim

 

[madh4ttr]

It's not hard to look at American Musical or ZZSounds. They have some in stock if you are looking for an LP. I'm so glad I got mine before all this bullshit started.

 

[Speedshopandy]

Japan is what’s going on! Everything is in Japan. What’s up with that? Also, I’ve been buying from out of the USA, not a good idea! Customs really slows things down. Took almost 6 weeks from Switzerland and most of the time neither the seller or myself knew what the hell was going on. I also made the big mistake of purchasing a Strat from a Canadian seller thinking that the customs thing would not be that bad. WRONG! Locked up in customs for several weeks now with no end in sight. No more out of USA purchases for me.

Absolutely correct.
I went to Tokyo last autumn and found some "guitar warehouses" stacked with Gibson guitars in all shapes and colours. One of the stores were like 7 floors high - amps in the basement, equipment on the attic and 5 floors with guitars. One of the floors had just "vintage" LPs (older than 1990), the next newer LPs, one floor with Exlorers and Vs, one with SG and ES and the last with a mix of all. And that was far from the biggest "Guitar warehouse" in Tokyo ...
The japanese vacuumed the market for Gibsons some 20 years ago, why I don't know - I guess owning an american Gibson guitar was/ gives the owner some kind of status?
I don't know, but Japan has maybe 80% of all Gibsons in stock. And thery're not cheap (!)

 

[Oldgold]

There are also a good number of wealthy folks worldwide who just think it’s cool to own a large collection of Gibsons and Fenders. Some hardly even play at all. UPS once told me they see them shipped to the Middle East, etc. Probably doesn’t help availability.

 

[SkaneatelesLake]

I just looked at Sweetwater and they have ZERO Gibson USA Les Pauls available and only two Custom Shop Les Pauls. This is nuts! Now all my flipping guitars to pay for my habit seems not so crazy after all. I'm retired and it is my hobby. My wife always tells me she prefers me looking at guitars verses other women. =) Cheers all!

 

[reelman955]

GC near me in Commack NY had a decent amount of guitars but there were no cords of any length available. Strange.

 

[mjross]

I just looked at Sweetwater and they have ZERO Gibson USA Les Pauls available and only two Custom Shop Les Pauls. This is nuts! Now all my flipping guitars to pay for my habit seems not so crazy after all. I'm retired and it is my hobby. My wife always tells me she prefers me looking at guitars verses other women. =) Cheers all!

The real problem is that even if you make an order it takes quite a while to get it. My 50’s gold top took 4 months if I’m correct. And it’s not only guitars! I’ve had a Neural Cortex on order for several months. SW keeps moving the date out every month and this has been going on for several months now. It’s not SW, I’m sure they are doing everything they can to get inventory out their, that’s how they make their living. It’s this damn covid crap that is messing everything up! Companies are just not producing product like they use to.

 

[palmerfralick]

My GC looks like it's ready to close. I've never seen the guitar wall so barren. It's huge and there's barely anything on it. It's like ever since the bankruptcy was announced nobody gives a shit and the place if just plain dirty. There's trash everywhere that nobody wants to pick up. If you're trying to keep money flowing you'd think they'd at least want the stores to be clean and inviting.

I was in the Alpharetta Ga GC yesterday, I thought they were doing a going out of business sale and I was late. They had nothing. walls bare.

 

[timmytVA]

I just looked at Sweetwater and they have ZERO Gibson USA Les Pauls available and only two Custom Shop Les Pauls. This is nuts! Now all my flipping guitars to pay for my habit seems not so crazy after all. I'm retired and it is my hobby. My wife always tells me she prefers me looking at guitars verses other women. =) Cheers all!

Just checked SW website and confirmed this. Nuts indeed. They have only 10 Gibson acoustics in stock. Crazy. Wonder if they've lost or surrendered their Gibson dealer status?

Tim

 

[pillbug]

I went to GC on Sunday. They had about a dozen NEW Gibsons behind the counter, ZERO used Gibsons (they usually have 5 or 6 at this store), and oddly, zero used guitars, zero used basses, zero used pedals even. The only discounted guitars were two scrach n dent D’Angelicos which were still a little overpriced imho.
The guitar wall was pretty bare. They also had zero used keyboards/ synths. It was weird. Seller‘s market for sure.

 

[goodguy]

Canadian Customs sux - sent a Christmas package to my son in Canada with $140 worth of gifts in it. Shipping was $38 (which is fine) but customs sent me a bill for $70 additional before they would release shipment - so it cost me $248 to send $140 worth of stuff to my son in Canada. Just stupid - wont do that again.

 

[goodguy]

I guarantee you everybody is bitching about low supply but If I post my $3000 PRS or Gibson on FB Marketplace or Craigslist, it will sit there for 6+ months. Nobody has cash, they all have credit cards.

 

[goodguy]

Easier to move it when GAS strikes and you wanna try something else. The market for flavor-of-the-week boutique guitars and amps is narrow and finicky. It cracks me up when I see people listing things for 5% off new and wondering why it sits for weeks or months on end.

Tim

Like a $299 MSRP Strymon pedal for $275 used (w/o warranty)? Just buy new IMO.

 

[zdoggie]

man I dont know what to think I didn't see this one coming I just hope thhat gibson will be able to recover ,and not on the backs of its life long consumers they need to build superior guitars at very competive prices reater than selling their laurles

zdog

 

[moreles]

I can't stand the new guitar, warehouse-dealer retail market. Sweetwater is indistinguishable from the place where I bought my first new car. Yeah, they're friendly all right, and boy do they have a nice little speech about everything. But they're just moving microwave ovens and taking a cut for doing so. Like GC, every so-called discount, sale, or deal is simply them removing some of their markup because they have to -- they've got to keep churning product. And so sure, when new guitars grow scarce, all those wonderful, (fake) buyer-focused "deals" made because they are such wonderful people go away because there's much more money to be made and you have no choice. The world is full of great guitars for sale, and I can look at mine and say with absolute knowledge that they are better than anything similar at Sweetwater, GC, MF, etc., and I got way better value for money. I think it's way too bad that new players or people looking for a really good guitar will get hosed buying new, but their loss is a corporate gain, so any of you who are on the board of directors at one of these places can enjoy that.

 

[speyfly]

Like a $299 MSRP Strymon pedal for $275 used (w/o warranty)? Just buy new IMO.

Yeah, I had been looking for a used Les Paul but they wanted all of the money, I ordered a new one for the price they wanted for used.

 

[diogoguitar]

I sold my Ibanez recently. I left open for offers, but someone snagged it at full price in less than 6 hours.
It was in good condition but quite surprised me how fast it sold.

It was an awesome axe... I'm sure the new owner is happy