Watch: New video allegedly shows Gibson destroying ES guitars in factory

The former Gibson employee who posted the now-infamous Firebird X video has reportedly shared another similar clip, this time showing a few ES guitars being destroyed.

While the original video has been removed, YouTuber Shnobel has shared a copy, which you can watch above. In it, a man can be seen stomping on a few new ES guitars in a factory, slicing them apart, then tossing the pieces aside. The video “surfaced from a former employee at Gibson, BJ Wilkes, [who] was the one who put up the video with the Firebird Xs’ destruction”, the YouTuber said.

This video was allegedly shot in Gibson’s Memphis factory, which corroborates with Wilkes’ claim that he’s “seen them take, daily, 10, 20 ES guitars that were painted and ready to go, and just cut ’em up because there was some teeny-tiny little blemish”. Wilkes had gone on to say that these guitars were not repurposed or donated because “under Henry [Juszkiewicz], nobody was allowed to do that for the fear of losing their job – that’s firmly ingrained in the company now”. It is, however, unclear if this footage was shot during or after Juszkiewicz’s tenure as Gibson CEO.

Wilkes has also unpublished the original video of the hundreds of Firebird Xs being trampled by a construction vehicle. According to The Guitologist, Wilkes “took them down because he didn’t want to contribute to any negativity against his former employer”.

For more industry news, click here.