digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at consumerist.com

Gibson Screws Musician Out Of $10,000 Worth Of Equipment

consumerist.com — A musician named Tonedeff won the Lolapalooza Last Band Standing contest in 2006. Part of the prize package was "$10,000 worth of equipment from our friends at Gibson. (yes, believe it!)." Well, Tonedeff believed it, and he's spent the last year and a half trying to get Gibson to make good on their promise.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 25, 2008

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

331 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Ozzsanity, on 01/25/2008, -22/+282What about scientology? Come on folks lets stay on topic.
  • Ghstfce, on 01/25/2008, -11/+224I read the headline without looking at the picture and thought to myself "Mel... First the Jews, now the musicians?!!!? Have you lost your mind?" Whoops...
  • The_Wallbanger, on 01/25/2008, -5/+137For as much money as some of these CEOs get paid, they should know that $10k of gear is a small price to pay to avoid the tidal wave of negative publicity for withdrawing a promise.
  • SwornPacifist, on 01/25/2008, -3/+84From the comments:
    "Isn't Gibson a big enough company that they can afford to give away $10k worth of stuff (that they legally agreed to) without being such dicks about it?" -PROPANIAC
  • McMaster88, on 01/25/2008, -6/+73Watch out Gibson, after anon is done with Scientology...you are next.
  • maja742, on 01/25/2008, -29/+92Just another reason to go with FENDER
  • mal1964, on 01/25/2008, -3/+57Gibson has been trying to call him forever, Tonedeff just cant hear the phone ringing.
  • ChewyBass, on 01/25/2008, -4/+56Contact the IRS as well. Companies do these promotions for advertisement and to get tax rebates for contributions to "charity". If they claimed the 10G on their tax return and didn't actually give away the prize, that would be tax fraud.
  • pmuse, on 01/25/2008, -3/+45If you have a comment or question about anything related to Gibson Musical Instruments, call our 24/7 Customer Service Dept. at 1-800-4GIBSON (1-800-444-2766), or send an email to service@gibson.com.
  • derrikirred, on 01/25/2008, -2/+35What, they can't spare $10k while making good sales on their overpriced instruments?
  • lostarchitect, on 01/25/2008, -0/+29and then find like 5 in his freezer next year, thinking " WTF?!"
  • lostarchitect, on 01/25/2008, -1/+29good job, internet avenger.
  • GhostyBoy, on 01/25/2008, -0/+27Gibson should ***** realize that word of mouth is pretty damn important with music gear. If only a hundred people hear about this and spend 2 grand on a fender or a Paul Reed Smith (like gibson but more reliable) that's two hundred thousand dollars they lost cause they refused to pony up.
  • 1337js, on 01/25/2008, -12/+37Just Hack the Gibson!
  • owenkun, on 01/25/2008, -4/+29I'm Steve Gibson and I approve of this post.
  • lazerus9, on 01/25/2008, -4/+25Just for that Gibson, I'm putting my guitar in the closet and I'm not going to play it for years!
    Oh, never mind, I've already done that.
  • akatherder, on 01/25/2008, -3/+23FTA: "Pitt responded with revised prices that were at least 50% higher, reducing Tonedeff's prize list by half."

    I'm no mathematician but that's wrong. If a guitar was $500 at Guitar Center and Gibson was charging 50% more, that would be $750. So he would get 2 guitars instead of 3 for $1500 (as an example).
  • Porch, on 01/25/2008, -2/+22This is normal in th game show biz. I know a guy who won 300k on a TV game show. In the fine print, it said he would only get the money if/when the episode aired. Then they took out 50k in game show "fees". Once he was done with taxes, it was a bit over 120k. Better then nothing, but still.
  • pak314, on 01/25/2008, -7/+26How about a lifetime supply of SpinRite software instead?

  • meierm01, on 01/25/2008, -2/+20Gibson is a bunch of money grubbing scumbags. Not historically, but only in the last 10 years or so.
    Just ask any independent music retailer (NOT Guitar Center) about Gibson's treatment of their retail chain.
  • surfacewound, on 01/25/2008, -2/+19Jew musicians better steer clear just to be safe.
  • SkylarEC, on 01/25/2008, -2/+19Exactly. I strictly play Fender because they are great guitar; but also because they offer great service. Just try, you can easily get a hold of anybody on that company, and they will make every effort to work with you. There's none of the elitism that goes along with Gibson.
  • GhostyBoy, on 01/25/2008, -0/+17Just got off the phone with them. I was polite and told them I'm a big fan of their stuff, which I am, and mentioned how fast news has a way of spreading on these social media sites and that I would hat e to see their good reputation tarnished etc. Of course the guy gave me a generic answer: "This was brought to our attention this morning and we are working to resolve the issue."

    I think they will fix it...they aren't stupid and ten g's is nothing compared to the bad press they could get from this.
  • inactive, on 01/25/2008, -0/+16$10,000 worth of equipment!?

    so...that's like one Gibson tuning peg or something...To be fair though, I would like to own that new Gibson Robot guitar. mmmmm
  • MikeyTwit, on 01/25/2008, -3/+18Being a Gibson/Epiphone man myself, I'm really disappointed with Gibson. It's Kinda funny, my first guitar that I bought that I still have and cherish is a '91 Gibson SG '62 Standard(AC/DC's Angus Young's preferred guitars). I worked all summer when I was 17 to pay for it($1000 in '91 was a lot of money for me back then). After that my guitars have been their Epiphone versions('56 Goldtop Les Paul, '56 Les Paul Jr., Dot Studio) and honestly, these guitars are way cheaper to buy than their Gibson cousins(asian built, these Epi's) but play and sound just as nice as their expensive cousins. Sorry Gibson, no more money from me in the future. I was looking at a real nice acoustic, but you just put yourself out of the running.
  • SleepingOrange, on 01/25/2008, -2/+16A friend of mine's band (retrograde out of vancouver) won a contest that had a prize of $175,000 in various promotional/marketing work and musical equipment (molsen canadian rocks contest). Pretty sad that a behemoth like Gibson can't even make good on $10K.
  • Namco, on 01/25/2008, -1/+14[arbitrary anecdotal guitar choice here] is what you should play, they're the best!
  • Lord_oftheTrons, on 01/25/2008, -4/+17Great artist. I've supported him for a long time and bought his album which is phenomenal. http://www.qn5.com

    It was great news to hear he won this contest but upsetting to know Gibson isn't holding up their end of the bargain.

    Any blue school diggers out there?

  • praisethelard, on 06/06/2008, -0/+12Right, because Fender is the only other guitar company in existence.
  • Capta1nA, on 01/25/2008, -0/+12Fender is no better. I'd even suggest that Fender is worse. You're almost always better off going with a smaller, independent company. Fender's quality control is pretty bad, although their newer basses are definitely getting better.
  • rstarr, on 01/25/2008, -1/+12Expect them.
  • Neiby, on 01/25/2008, -1/+12Not me. The electric guitar I play is substantially better than a Gibson. :-)
  • blahtastic, on 01/25/2008, -0/+11*****, that's 40,000 ish picks. If you used the size i have...that's would stack up over 115 feet. 0.o

    Wonder what you could do with all of those...Wallpaper?
  • hollywoodphony, on 01/25/2008, -1/+11Maybe he's saying he likes Fender because they don't have a history of pulling ***** like this.
  • petebot, on 01/25/2008, -0/+10I've heard you actually have to pay them a fee just to have the privilege of keeping their guitars in stock...
  • Otto, on 01/25/2008, -5/+15I emailed some people at Gibson about this, let's see what happens. Should be interesting.
  • fluidfoundation, on 01/25/2008, -0/+10Thats ridiculous. Its a tuning peg AND a gibson pick.
  • simplicityiskey, on 01/25/2008, -1/+11I don't play Gibson products anyways because they're too expensive for my budget, but this is still a pretty lame thing to do.
  • potisreallygood, on 01/25/2008, -4/+13So because they screwed some guy that won a contest that makes them have bad guitars and somehow you foresaw this event taking place, thus making a decision in the past on which guitar company to pledge allegiance to based on the moral ethics of the companies higher ups.
  • EinXIII, on 01/25/2008, -1/+10Seems like prizes offered should be awarded...
  • fluidfoundation, on 01/25/2008, -0/+9My band got past the first round, but it looks like its a good thing we didnt win. wow... a big company screwing the little guy... thats unheard of!


    And why is this guy getting dugg down?
  • dierobots, on 01/25/2008, -4/+12i'm a fan of tonedeff's rap, i really hope he gets what he's owed
  • mfratt, on 01/25/2008, -0/+8Well I'm a bassist, so Gibson can bite me. Fender Jazz Bass FTMFW.
  • MattB123, on 01/25/2008, -1/+9Play a tissue box with rubber bands around it. Works for my four year old!
  • rstarr, on 01/25/2008, -1/+9It must be so cool to be you.
  • bjs3171, on 01/25/2008, -2/+10one day these companies will learn that lesson.
  • Grova, on 01/25/2008, -2/+9PRS!
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 329 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...

© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.