Then , one August evening in Seabright , Nova Scotia , in our summer cottage , Jimmy Rankin came over and he says , “ Hey , I got a couple of guitars , let ’ s figure out a way to play tonight .” At about three in the morning , I ’ m playing one of his Gibson J-45s and I looked over and said , “ Jimmy , I gotta tell you , I ’ m going to be the new CEO of Gibson .” He thought I was kidding , but I woke up the next day and made the call and said “ I ’ m in .”
CMT : From the outside , it seems that the positive turnaround of not just the company itself , but also Gibson ’ s reputation among guitarists and dealers has been surprisingly fast . You ’ ve been talking about refocusing on quality at all price points and so on , but what were the key things internally that allowed that change to happen quickly ?
Curleigh : Well , you don ’ t have to go too far down into the land of social media to know that quality was a major issue . Also , price value was a major issue , artists relations was a major issue , and dealer relations was a major issue , too ; treating the dealers right . Everything just became transactional , which isn ’ t what partners and premium brands should be doing .
I remember going to every one of our facilities and saying , “ From this day , every guitar that goes out has our new fingerprints on it , guys . We can ’ t make the past any better , but from this day forward , our fingerprints are on it . I want to make fewer guitars but better guitars . And while we ’ re doing that , we ’ re going to focus on quality .” I ’ m talking about , for example , declaring a war on dust . What ’ s the number one issue with guitars ? There ’ s debris and trash on it that gets locked into the lacquer finish , the nitrocellulose , and then you can ’ t buff that out . But it ’ s , “ Oh , it ’ s good enough ,” and over time , you just go , “ That ’ s just how it is .” So , we ’ re declaring a war on dust . We recognize , too , that , our lighting was sporadic . So , when someone got our guitar and they put it under the light , it wasn ’ t the same light that we were looking at it under . And that ’ s not an excuse . It just these years of old equipment in the factory …
So , we went on a very specific quality journey . But that wasn ’ t enough . We then built relationships with our dealers , because we were notoriously difficult to work with .
So , we declared , “ Make it easy to do business with Gibson .” That ’ s all we said . Gone were the harsh minimums you had to buy into and all these other things . We just said , “ Look , all we want you to do is represent us .” To this day , globally , we ’ re the most premium distributed of the major guitar brands . Meaning , we have fewer partners but we demand more of our partners to say , “ Represent us properly and we ’ ll support you properly .”
CMT : When you joined Gibson , there was a lot of talk about the health of the guitar market as a whole . I recall two newspaper articles specifically that got shared a lot a few years apart . One was from the Washington Post in 2017 declaring that the guitar was dead . Then in September 2020 , a New York Times article you were quoted in had the headline , “ Guitars Are Back , Baby !” So , as you understand it , what led to that decline and current rise of the guitar ? Or was that a false narrative that was more about perception than reality ?
Curleigh : I wasn ’ t in the industry , but as a participant of the industry on the outside looking in , I saw that [ Washington Post article ] and I was like , “ I wonder who drums that up ?” There ’ s a certain narrative and if you connect enough dots on anything , it ’ ll lead you to a certain conclusion . But – and this will confuse some people when I say this – sometimes I have this point of view that I don ’ t let the facts get in the way of the truth . And the truth is that guitar has always been synonymous with music , and it ’ s been the central instrument of music . Without the guitar , music wouldn ’ t be where it is . At the same time , what I ’ ve recognized is that , at the high level of choice , there might be fewer people playing guitar in that moment because , let ’ s face it , there ’ s so much choice out there competing for your time , money , and passion … The era when that article was written was exactly the height of the instant gratification era . It ’ s so much easier to just download and stream someone else than it is to learn yourself .
That was in the real moment where content was owned by few but consumed by many . Today , three or four years later , we know that the majority of people who are consuming content , they ’ re like , “ I can also be a creator .” And through this COVID pandemic … people go back to Maslow ’ s hierarchy of needs . It ’ s about health , shelter , happiness , friendship , and then all of a sudden there ’ s this self-actualization part . People start going , “ Wait a minute , I got time on my hands and I ’ ve always wanted to learn to play guitar , or learn to surf or cook . I ’ m going take some time to do it .” I have a really good friend in Canada who never played guitar and he picked it up last summer . I saw him two months ago ; he ’ s a guitarist now !
So , I think that narrative [ of “ the guitar is dead ”], if nothing else , it served as a warning signal to the guitar industry , whether it was true or not . So , don ’ t let the facts get in the way the truth . Like the number of units sold and this or that metric over time , or kids are going to rap music , which they were . But go check out who the top touring acts were that year ; it was The Eagles , Taylor Swift , Ed Sheeran — keep going and they ’ re all guitar players . I mean , Post Malone plays a J-200 . So , it ’ s interesting that there was this narrative that got created , but what I like is that it gave a wakeup call to the industry to say , “ Let ’ s do something about it ,” and now the guitar world can ’ t make enough guitars . Through a very unfortunate situation in COVID , it ’ s been a beneficiary of a creative dynamic that got sparked and now it ’ s up to us to keep this new generation of guitarists going .
CMT : Do you think this sales increase for guitars and other instruments during the pandemic will turn into a larger and sustained market long-term , or is it a pleasant-but-short-lived spike ?
Curleigh : It ’ s a great question and I wish I had the exact answers … We all read the research a few years ago that said eight out of 10 guitar players stopped playing after one year because they didn ’ t think they were good enough , their fingers hurt , their friends made fun of them , and all that . Well , now people have time to actually learn it ! So , at what point does an individual consider themselves a guitarist ? It ’ s probably when you learn five chords and maybe five to eight go-to songs . That ’ s when it ’ s like , “ Hey , this is my friend , JC , and he ’ s a guitarist ,” whereas a year ago they never would have introduced him like that .
So , I think the answer to that is , you don ’ t turn down the surge or the spike , you lean into it . With my team , I ’ m leaning
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