I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one side I think humour (and I love it) is important to keep things from getting too serious, and on the other hand I think it’s important, certainly in a case like this, just to keep sort of straight with the facts. The legal arguments can be interesting, but then we’re talking also about the appropriation of history and culture. In the same thread.
So how long before Gibson goes after Epiphone?
Northfield F2S
Howard Morris A-4
Eastman DGM3 Mandola
Eastman MD805PGE
Miscellaneous tingums
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
So it does. Thanks! So it appears Gibson applied (unsuccessfully) for a trademark for the F-style body shape in 2014 (!)...after other makers had been using it for forty years or so if not longer, it had long become a standard shape for mandolins, and Gibson themselves had been using it for nearly a century. A bit late to the party with the trademark application, n'est-ce pas? Like their present actions, seems like it was more of a desperation move by a desperate company than anything...
Roger Siminoff tried to alert them to the emerging market for F-5 mandolins in the late 70's. Had they started something along the line of the Opry Mills shop back then, then possibly Flatiron and others wouldn't have even gotten into it.
OT, but interesting: he made a few, and five still exist (I saw one years ago in the Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota). Only one is still playable, apparently, and you can hear it here http://www.sabionari.com/Home.html and here https://forgottenguitar.com/2016/02/...in-1679-video/.
It appears Krishnasol Jiménez has recorded at least two CDs playing the Sabionari Stradivarius guitar - I might have to get them just for the coolness factor.
David Hopkins
2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
Therefore, players of the modern boutique instruments, and their makers, should thank Gibson for dropping the ball and allowing a generation of talented luthiers to perfect their skills. Also Gibson should thank these luthiers for both improving the breed, so to speak, as well as encouraging the company to reach new heights of excellence under Derrington, Harvey et al, as they rose to the challenge in the face of such stiff competition.
A tangled tale, to be sure. Conflict and challenge stimulates evolutionary change,
I see a business opportunity: Headstock Condoms. Simply cover the headstock of your instrument with one of a number of nicely colored devices so as not to offend Gibson. I have, in these latter days, found that A Gibson is only Good Enough, but not really good enough.
I thought that Henry was bad, but he was just incompetent. Next: Martin goes for enforcement of the Dreadnaught shape and concept.
I seem to recall a pretty famous acoustic musician saying "It's a Gibson, it'll have to do...." Kinda sums things up IMHO!
As an aside, the Harvey built mandolins I've played have all been fine instruments. I hate that Dave and his team are or will be caught up in this mess.
Shaun Garrity
http://www.youtube.com/user/spgokc78
Well, wasn't it about 20 or so years ago Taylor pulled some stuff that had the acoustic community up in arms at the time? That's one reason the original Taylor Guitar Forum changed to the Acoustic Guitar Forum. And why dealers could not advertise even used Taylor instruments.
Brentrup Model 23, Boeh A5 #37, Gibson A Jr., Flatiron 1N, Coombe Classical flattop, Strad-O-Lin
https://www.facebook.com/LauluAika/
https://www.lauluaika.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Longtine-Am...14404553312723
Yeah, good point, I’d forgotten about that. And it's true, they didn’t allow their dealers to advertise Taylors online for a while. Still, they’ve settled down about that (I think), and even at their worst I don't think they weren’t throwing threats around the way Gibson is doing.
And the reason Mandolin Bros. dumped Taylor.
FYI. In the early 1980s, Martin Guitars issued a letter asserting that the Takamine F-340 and other models featured a logo design that was allegedly nearly identical to their own. A law suite was threatened but never enacted according to Martin.
Last edited by Bernie Daniel; Jun-27-2019 at 9:23pm.
Bernie
____
Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Maybe Gibson should trademark the word "The", while they're at it.
I mean, look, there's all these other non-authentic builders putting the word "The" on the headstocks. They have no right to use the word "The" in such a manner, because Gibson invented that. It's illegal!
Even if the "The" is in front of some other name instead of Gibson, it doesn't matter! They still got the idea from Gibson! It's stealing to even contemplate using the word "The" on the headstock like that!
Further, it will soon be prohibited to use anything that even remotely resembles a script font on the headstock. Gibson invented that too, the same year Gibson invented hide glue (don't believe the false stories about ancient luthiers inventing hide glue, that's just a vast conspiracy theory to try to justify the theft of more ideas from Gibson). No one else should be allowed to use a script font on the headstock, or anywhere else on the instrument for that matter (just on principle), without paying some sort of licensing fee to Gibson. Wanna use a script font to make your instrument look more Gibsonish? Then pay up and "play authentic".
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Oh come on now, settle down, it's just my amateur try at parody.
I don't think Gibson wasn't the first one to use "The". I believe it was a common marketing practice to use it as a way of elevating the product.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
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