Gibson in public image rebuilding stunt

I love Gibson's guitars, but I sure as hell don't love Gibson. For years Gibson has filed lawsuit after lawsuit aimed at other guitar manufactures. So much so that their is an antire era of guitar building described as the "Lawsuit Guitar" era. So their latest attempt to prevent PRS guitars from selling their Single Cut models has made Gibson once again look stupid.

So out comes the PR team at the 23rd edition of the Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park team to try and fix some of the damage :

As part of the Blues Festival celebrations and its commitment to music education, Gibson Baldwin Music Education (GBME) will host "Blues in the Schools" and donate fifteen (15) GBME Les Paul Junior guitars to the fourth grade class at Stone Academy's located on the North side of Chicago. The school will receive a collection of introductory musical instruments which are designed to provide beginners of all ages with a quality musical instrument and give the school the opportunity to boost its current music education program.

On Wednesday, June 7, 2006 the class will receive a special visit from the Orville Gibson 2000 Male Blues Guitarist of the Year and Magnolia Recording artist, Larry McCray. After a special performance and classroom Q & A with McCray, the students, outfitted in official Gibson T-shirts, will perform a blues song that they have learned as part of their own continuing music education. Press is invited to attend and cover.

But in true Gibson form, where they get it wrong at one end of the scale, they get it so right on the other :

In addition to the stage sponsorship, Gibson will provide music fans with the ultimate guitar experience. A "state-of-the-art" custom trailer will be on-site during the festival. The trailer will have thirteen interactive guitar stations with a combination of both Gibson and Epiphone guitars, each providing the guitar lover with their own opportunity to jam. Music fans can also register to win a new Gibson Les Paul Vixen model guitar.

It will be interesting to see how this goes over with the casual player, and the dedicated players.

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