The century-old guitar brand, Gibson, is facing bankruptcy after being in business for 116 years after many seasons of waning guitar sales. After the recent departure of chief financial officer, Bill Lawrence, who took on this position for less than a year, it has been made more apparent that Gibson is struggling with debt repayment deadlines. In a recent report in the Nashville Post, “Gibson Guitars faces a $375m (£268m) deadline for a debt repayment in less than six months’ time. A further $145m worth of bank loans are due to mature immediately, if those notes–which were issued back in 2013–are not refinanced or repaid by July 23.”
Previous chief financial officer, Benson Woo, who specializes in working with business in distress will be making a return in hope to solve their predicament. This American guitar maker has been a staple for many bands we know and love. Did you know that the first ever guitar hide from X Japan received from his grandmother was a Les Paul Deluxe?
On the same lineup, Pata’s trusted weapon of choice has often been a Gibson. We can fondly remember the yellow 1959 Les Paul Standard, but in recent times, he favors the black 1972 Les Paul Custom or the 1955 gold-top that is now rubbed down to the wood. The appearance earned it the nickname “Hage” (ハゲ) which means “bald” in Japanese. Grammy Award-winning musician, Tak Matsumoto from B’z was the first musician in Asia to be given his own Signature model Les Paul from Gibson in 1999. He currently holds the record with seven different signature models with Gibson.
We’re intrigued to see what will happen next with the company as there have been rumours for the re-release of Tak’s signature models to celebrate B’z 30th anniversary. For now, we will have to wait and see. What do you think about this news? Do you know any other Jrockers who also uses this brand?
Other Jrockers who use Gibson
Gotch (ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION)
Kensuke Kita (ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION)
Shunichi tanabe (BLUE ENCOUNT)
Yuya Eguchi (BLUE ENCOUNT)
Kazu-ya (BOMB FACTORY)
Hiroaki Masukawa (BUMP OF CHICKEN)
Motoo Fujiwara (BUMP OF CHICKEN)
Takeshi Hosomi (ELLEGARDEN, the HIATUS, MONOEYES)
Shinichi Ubukata (ELLEGARDEN, Nothing’s Carved in Stone)
Daisuke Nakano (giraffepot)
Ken Yokoyama (Hi-STANDARD)
Satoshi (Lycaon, Initial L)
Taniguchi Maguro (KANA-BOON)
Takemasa Ono (KEYTALK)
Kazutoshi Sakurai (Mr.Children)
Tamaki Kunishi (MONO)
Kentaro Kasahara (Northern19)
NAOTO (ORANGE RANGE)
Ryutaro (Plastic Tree)
Akihito Okano (Porno Graffitti)
Haruichi Shindo (Porno Graffitti)
Gen Hoshino (Sakerock)
Heita Matsuzaki (SHANK)
Makoto Ayukawa (Sheena & The Rokkets)
Atsushi Horie (Straightener)
Special thanks to the readers who helped us create this extensive list of Gibson guitarists on our Discord!