Gibson Destroys Hundreds Of Guitars

Marcel Ardans

Gibson’s reign of bad publicity continues, it seems no musical instrument manufacturer can possibly take the throne of most Bond-villianesque guitar company from them. Oh wait, have you not heard about all of this yet? Yeah, Gibson is cancelled. Go read last month’s article about lawsuits and stolen designs. But after years of decline, I’m sure those of you that are caught up on the gossip and drama are wondering, “How could it get worse? It’s not like Gibson is running over guitars with construction equipment and destroying the one thing that kind of makes sense in this clown world that we live in!”

Spoilers: Gibson is running over guitars with construction equipment and destroying the one thing that makes sense in this clown world that we live in.

These are Gibson Firebird X’s, possibly one of the worst instruments Gibson ever made. Needless to say, they weren’t selling well. So with the close of their Memphis factory, Gibson executives were hitting the jazz cabbage pretty hard and passing around their best “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas and “Wouldn’t it be cool if we ran over a bunch of guitars with a tank!” was the winner. Sadly, they couldn’t afford a tank because they’re bankrupt.

The YouTuber, BJ’s World, posted the footage and is shown above substituting hot coals for bad guitars. He leaked the destruction video last week on YouTube and it is now well on its way to 200k views. The uploader stated in an interview that he was instructed to film the event and had not signed a non-disclosure agreement with Gibson. I can only assume that management at Gibson asked that the destruction be documented because “it’s going to be totally sick” and they just had a flat screen installed in their island shaped like a skull.

Of course, I understand that sometimes product doesn’t sell and lowering prices can hurt industry perception but certainly this is worse, right? Am I expected to believe that these guitars are so bad you couldn’t give them away? Like to a local School of Rock or to Veterans or a Children’s Hospital or anywhere that isn’t underneath the treads of construction equipment. Maybe donating these instruments would have changed the public perception of a company that’s now famous for stealing designs, deforestation, failed lawsuits, declining quality, bankruptcy, and being raided for illegal ebony from Madagascar?

If you’re going to waste possibly endangered woods you’re terrible but with all of the money Gibson has put into electronics lately, at least save the hardware. These guitars have pickups, saddles, tuners, knobs, switches, and other electronics that could have been sold or re-purposed.

I mean at least they took the hardware out of these 335’s before they stomped them and cut them into tiny pieces. After all, that’s just smart business.

Gibson, everyone really wants to still like you. Stop making it so difficult and leave the guitar smashing to the bankrupt rock stars. It just feels evil when its a bankrupt corporation doing it.