Legendary guitar manufacturer Gibson has ordered the company peddling a range of expensive Donald Trump guitars to get the hell away from its intellectual property.
The owner of Trump Guitars, 16 Creative, was sent a cease and desist order after Trump Guitars began flogging a range of acoustic and electric guitars, per Guitar World.
The prices range from US$1,000 (A$1,548 ), to US$11,500 (A$17,800) for autographed guitars. The quality of the guitars is unknown, but the company claims all of items “were custom designed and developed by a Veteran owned company with the help of a master luthier”.
The key problem here is that the electric guitars on the Trump Guitars website look just like the iconic Gibson Les Paul single cut solid body.
Any guitarist worth five cents knows – and probably loves – the Gibson Les Paul, named after the American musician, luthier and inventor. First released in the early 1950s it is – along with the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster – the most famous electric guitar ever made.
So when the next President of the US attaches himself to yet another merch money-spinner and it happens to look just like the Gibson Les Paul, feathers are going to be ruffled.
Gibson told Guitar World “the design infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape”.
Gibson makes its Les Paul electric guitars in the US, and you’d assume Trump would have insisted, demanded, his guitars were also MADE IN THE USA! USA! USA!.
But you’d be wrong, as 16 Creative offers no such guarantee: “These guitars have been manufactured by multiple providers and include parts/features that are both domestic and international. This is standard with most guitar manufacturers.”
Delve into the fine print on the Trump Guitars website and you’ll find some of the guitars will be delivered by Christmas, while others will take five to six months. It suggests at least some of the stock is being made to order.
“Buyers will receive periodic email updates updating them on the manufacturing progress and delivery updates,” 16 Creative says. “All sales are final, unless your purchase arrives damaged or incorrect.”
Crucially – and somewhat bizarrely – the website states “the images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product”.
“I don’t care what it looks like, or what it plays like, I’ll buy one,” said no guitarist ever.
Which makes the whole concept of Trump Guitars – “the ONLY guitars endorsed by President Donald J. Trump!” – seem pretty tacky and opportunistic.
As tacky and opportunistic as Trump Superhero Non-Fungible Tokens, Trump Seasonings, Trump Golden Sneakers, Trump Faux Lego MAGA Build The Wall set, Trump Rubber Duck and Trump Chinese Bibles?
Hard to say.
