"I really think the acoustics that Gibson's been making for the last ten years or so are as good as any the company has ever produced and that's saying a lot"
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Mumy is doing a very actorly kind of persuasion here: he delivers a fan’s endorsement with the cadence of someone who knows the brand mythology and wants to sound fair-minded inside it. Gibson acoustics come with a heavy suitcase of nostalgia, “golden era” fetishism, and cork-sniffing skepticism about anything made after the first wave of rock canonization. So when he says the last ten years are “as good as any the company has ever produced,” he’s not just praising guitars; he’s poking at a whole hierarchy of taste that treats newer instruments as inherently suspect.
The phrase “and that’s saying a lot” is the tell. It’s a preemptive rebuttal aimed at the purist in the room, the person who believes excellence ended sometime around the invention of color television. Mumy signals he understands that Gibson’s legacy is the measuring stick, then claims modern output clears it. The intent is credibility: he’s positioning himself as a sensible insider rather than a hype man, even as he’s clearly excited.
Context matters, too. Over the last decade, Gibson has been both scrutinized and retooled, with players tracking build consistency, materials, and QC like sports stats. Mumy’s comment functions as consumer reassurance and cultural permission. It invites musicians to stop paying the vintage-tax in their heads and listen with their hands instead. In a gear world addicted to romantic backstories, he’s arguing for the radical notion that “new” can still mean “great.”
The phrase “and that’s saying a lot” is the tell. It’s a preemptive rebuttal aimed at the purist in the room, the person who believes excellence ended sometime around the invention of color television. Mumy signals he understands that Gibson’s legacy is the measuring stick, then claims modern output clears it. The intent is credibility: he’s positioning himself as a sensible insider rather than a hype man, even as he’s clearly excited.
Context matters, too. Over the last decade, Gibson has been both scrutinized and retooled, with players tracking build consistency, materials, and QC like sports stats. Mumy’s comment functions as consumer reassurance and cultural permission. It invites musicians to stop paying the vintage-tax in their heads and listen with their hands instead. In a gear world addicted to romantic backstories, he’s arguing for the radical notion that “new” can still mean “great.”
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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