So I'm pleased to see the Gibson guitars' issue has been resolved, but I'm amazed at the faith expressed that this wasn't an intentional fuck-up on their part.

We've got a CEO claiming he personally approves every contest, and that he'd never heard of this one.

If he really has the time to do approvals for a mere $10,000 expense, I have to wonder if the Gibson board is getting their money's worth out of this guy. That's a level of micro-management that just screams that something is very wrong. Then there's the fact that his claim of ignorance seems to be a blatant admission that his company doesn't do even minimal due diligence of protecting their trademark. Plus it means this guy who claims to care about the reputation of his music related business, didn't pay attention to one of the big tours of 2006...yeah, that really sounds like someone with their pulse on the music world, someone who really cares about the music, about the brand they represent.

Most telling is the fact that in the end, they didn't give him ANY Gibson gear, just a check. Innocent people don't right checks, only people who are or FEEL guilty try to buy their way out of problems. It says a lot to me about Gibson's commitment, and it's not saying good things. From now on, when I see someone complaining about Gibson's declining quality, I'm not taking it with a grain of salt, I'm assuming the complainer is 100% truthful, and Gibson is 100% in the wrong. Funny how broken trust works that way.