Gibson Brands, Inc., the world’s most iconic instrument brand, today announced that it has confirmed Luke Ericson to the permanent role of Chief Operating Officer (COO), reporting to Cesar Gueikian, President, and CEO of Gibson Brands.
Acting as Interim Chief Operating Officer since May 2023, Luke has been instrumental in reorganizing the business with the creation of the COO office around Manufacturing, Planning and Supply Chain, and Enterprise Solutions, globally. Luke has been a leader, and a key player in shaping and implementing Gibson’s global strategy.
“I am excited to confirm Luke as our permanent Chief Operating Officer,” says Cesar Gueikian, President, and CEO of Gibson Brands. “Luke's overall experience as an operations expert, successfully serving in multiple leadership roles, uniquely positions him to drive operational excellence for Gibson. I have full confidence in Luke’s ability to lead our office of the COO, and Gibson, into the future.”
Luke joined Gibson from the global private equity firm KKR, where he was an Operating Partner. During his time at KKR, he partnered closely with the management teams at KKR Investments to develop and execute growth strategies. Luke has also held interim executive roles at KKR-owned companies. Before joining KKR, he was a management consultant with AlixPartners, where he helped consumer and retail clients improve profitability through operational improvement programs. Earlier in his career, Luke worked as a turnaround and restructuring consultant in Australia. Throughout his career, he has gained significant experience in supply chain and manufacturing operations, typically as part of large-scale business transformations. Luke has worked extensively across Europe, Asia, and the U.S.
Luke grew up in Australia and has lived in the United States for the last decade. He studied Economics and Finance at the University of Technology, Sydney. Luke is also a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, in Australia, and New Zealand.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
A renewed lineup of Revstar electric guitars feature a unique 5-way switching circuit and comes in three tiers: Element, Standard, and made-in Japan Professional.
All new Revstar models feature unique switching options for increased versatility. Revstar Element models feature the Dry Switch high-pass filter introduced in the original series. Revstar Standard and Professional models, available with either humbuckers or P90-style single-coil pickups, feature the Focus Switch—a passive boost function that evokes the sound of overwound pickups—as well as a unique five-way switching circuit that offers a new twist on classic “in-between” sounds.
The new Revstar series comes in three tiers: Element, Standard, and the made-in-Japan Professional. All models feature chambered bodies developed with the signature Yamaha Acoustic Design process. Using advanced measurement and modeling tools, Yamaha developed the chambering pattern to precisely shape tone and increase resonance while lowering weight and optimizing balance. The renewed lineup also introduces a new neck profile across all models, a new range of racing inspired finishes, and the first left-handed models in the series’ history.
Yamaha | Revstar Series | Cardinal Black Perform at Rockfield Studios
RSP02T/RSP20 MSRP: $3,200.00.
RSS02T/RSS20/RSS20L MSRP: $1,260.00 and $1,340.00 left-handed models.
RSE20/RSE20L MSRP: $786.00 and $864.00 left-handed models.
More info at: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses
A gigging guitarist in Boston needed a lighter guitar with humbucking support, so he called on a local luthier to build it.
Name: Conrad Warre
Location: Boston, MassachusettsGuitar: The Beecaster
As the guitarist for the Boston-based, acid-blues band Bees Deluxe,there were two different guitar problems I needed to address. We sometimes play shows that can last more than three hours, and we occasionally play venues that have prehistoric electric wiring in the building, especially if they’re running older kitchens for their dinner crowds. The extremely long shows could be helped by my playing a much lighter-weight guitar than I typically play.
The older (more venerable) venues who haven’t shielded or upgraded their electrical wiring properly result in my single-coil guitars picking up local television news stations and re-transmitting their signals or merely humming along with them tunelessly, and require some level of humbucking support. So I commissioned a local expert luthier, Michael McCarten of Athol, Massachusetts, to build me a single, noiseless-pickup guitar made of the lightest appropriate wood.
McCarten specializes in building archtop guitars, mandolins, resonator guitars, ukuleles, and pocket violins, and proved very amenable to collaborating with me on the design. We chose basswood for the single-cut body, a maple set neck with ebony fretboard, and a Seymour Duncan Noiseless Stack Neck P-90. I wanted him to install a P-90 because they aren’t as far removed from single-coil pickups in timbre as full-blown humbucking pickups. I need a certain amount of bite in the guitar sound to cut through the similar keyboard frequencies in the band.
In order to enable the guitar to have as wide a range of “voice” as possible, we threw in two push/pull pots. The single volume and single tone pots each push-pull. The volume is positioned as close to my right hand as possible to enable “violining” and switches the pickup output from series to parallel, and, at McCarten’s suggestion, the single tone pot changes the capacitor in use, bringing a sharper, spankier, brighter, more Telecaster flavor to the P-90 when needed. The Beecaster weighs less than 6 pounds, so now as soon as the venues in the Northeast reopen, and we get back on the road headed north and south, I’ll be ready to play the guitar tirelessly from dusk to dawn, like a musical vampire.
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