Re: Any thoughts for Gibson Mgt?

[Kim Flint <kflint@annihilist.com>]

>At 09:57 AM 9/16/97 -0400, you wrote:
>>Do you want to share communicate something about the Oberheim EDP to
>>managers at Gibson?
>
>I have been a lurker on this list for a 6 months or so, but events of
>yesterday have lifted my cloaking device. On a tip from a friend, I went 
>by
>the now defunct offices of Oberheim in Oakland.

Did you score any good deals on the furniture? I got office chairs,
bookshelves, metal storage cabinets with Oberheim stickers on them,
adjustable lab chairs, and other good stuff. Live/work space heaven. It was
going cheap....

>They are in the process of
>moving the entire operation to the main office of Gibson in Nashville.

yup. I talked to them the other day. They are indicating that this is a
serious effort to turn things around at Oberheim, so we'll see.


>With regards to thoughts about Gibson's management. I think it is a pity
>that Tom Oberheim, through no fault of his own, lost control of his
>company. I worked at Oberheim in the late 70's and have great deal of
>respect for Tom as a designer and innovator. This is a case where the
>pitbull aspect of global economics sucks and works to no ones advantage.
>Tom genuinely cared about the products he helped develop in an ineffible
>way that respected the bottom line, but, ultimately, put music making
>first. First with the move from LA and now this one to Nashville we see 
>the
>legacy of this concept weakened. Gibson must, of course, keep the profit
>margin in sight with each of these decisions, but what will make this
>division thrive and be profitable is the infusion of integrity and just
>"giving a good god damn" that makes anything of worth rise above the rest.

Tom is a really great guy. I've gotten to know him fairly well over the
last year. (oddly enough, I met him after leaving gibson. By some cosmic
coincidence we worked together at Chromatic Research.) His story is quite
tragic, and it has been repeated quite a few times in the music industry.
Synthesizer pioneers mostly, for some reason. To be fair, Tom actually lost
the company to his own lawyer, through some seriously evil financial
arrangements. The lawyer then sold it to Gibson some time later. Gibson
hasn't ever figured out how to make Oberheim succeed, hopefully the third
time is the charm. It would be nice if Tom could get something out of it
someday.

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
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