All the hype indicated a grand launch for the new Les Paul, including events in Beverly Hills, Nashville, Paris and Mexico City. Then the world was notified that “New Delivery Dates for Dark Fire” were now to be expected.
With the highly anticipated release of the new Dark Fire electric guitar, many Gibson fans had December 15th marked in their calendars for quite some time. All the hype indicated a grand launch for the new Les Paul, including events in Beverly Hills, Nashville, Paris and Mexico City.
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In the weeks before Christmas, Gibson hit our inbox with “Dark Fire Hits U.S. Stores Today,” offering further enticements such as a dealer finder link and a listing of the various worldwide events. But the next day the world was notified that “New Delivery Dates for Dark Fire” were now to be expected.
The explanation hinged blame on high demand and delays in the process of installing the technology, concerns one would think Gibson might have allayed or made preparations for prior to a worldwide launch extravaganza. From the outside looking in, one can’t help but think that in the excitement over their new guitar, Gibson may have set an arbitrary date without anticipating the time it takes to actually build and ship a Dark Fire guitar.
Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz spun the delay as a decision made with customer satisfaction in mind. The new dates will allow the company to bring smaller quantities of product onto the market at a time, thus more effectively meeting demand. While there is certainly something to be said for fine instruments being made with patience and care, Gibson fans having been pumped up and teased for months may feel otherwise.
Gibson may want need to turn their attention now to waning consumer interest in a product with such an elusive release date, hoping that the Dark Fire doesn’t become the musical instrument equivalent of one of 2008’s other debacles, the release of Guns N’ Rose’s Chinese Democracy.
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