ArrowHeadNLI said

[orig][quote]

Up til '76 was the "golden" era for gibson. After that, they shipped the plant to nashville when Norlin bought out Gibson and the product took a CONSIDERABLE cut in quality. However, at this time lefties and custom guitars were still coming out of the Kalamazoo shop. (thus why Ian's '78 Custom impressed him so much.)

The original Gibson shop in Kalamazoo is still making guitars. Same people that were originally making Gibsons, too. Only now, the company is called Heritage.

From '76 until the early 90's Gibson is reputed to have released some of the poorest quality instruments of their history. In the late 90's and early 2000's things have been making a great improvement, but after the release of the Zoot Suit guitar (made of real quality PLYWOOD), and rampant rumors that Peavey is making a legit bid to buy Gibson, I think Gibson will never be the same company their reputation was built by.