I hadn't heard the news. I'll have to go and look it up now.

I was listening to Chris Shifflet's Walking the Floor podcast a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about how there are no guitar idols now, but they brought up Taylor Swift as being instrumental in bringing in a load of young girls into the acoustic guitar.

All my instruments are single luthier made with the exception of my SCGC and haven't bought a guitar from a store in many years. Luthier made instruments seem to be doing okay, as are the higher end boutiques like you get at Dream Guitars or The North American Guitar in London. But if Gibson's gone bust, as I suspect from the content of your post @meno, that's a real shame.