Gibson is really hyping up something Back to the Future related.

[ThisIsHuhWow404]

Back to the Future's 40th anniversary is this year. In celebration, Gibson have been running a series where they’re looking for the exact ES-345 used on the set of Back to the Future in the Johnny B. Goode scene.

The production value of these videos, and the fact that they’re using actual footage from the movie, would suggest that Universal Studios is involved and they were really expensive to make, probably a lot more than that guitar is actually worth. Naturally, people are suspecting that Gibson already has the guitar and has for a while, and this is all some marketing campaign. Obviously there’s some "Special Back to the Future Edition ES-345" in the works.

Which leads to the speculation of what this is going to be. Will it be…

Accessible? Will ordinary people be able to buy a Gibson USA Back to the Future ES-345? Will there be an Epiphone version?

Somewhat inaccessible? Will it be a Custom Shop or Murphy Lab release that you can access…but only if you can afford it!

Super inaccessible? Will this be the Greeny Les Paul all over again? Only a select group of 100 or so millionaires will be able to get the guitar, and attend a meet and greet with the movie’s cast?

I’m only passively into the speculative market and collecting guitars. I’m more into actual utilitarian features of instruments I actually want to play. Collecting is not a hobby of mine, but I still find it interesting to read about.

If the Back to the Future ES-345 is something I can reasonably get my hands on, it’s one of the few exceptions I’d make. A couple years ago, Fender Japan put out a Neon Genesis Evangelion "Asuka Telecaster" that I could have afforded and considered buying, as I was in the market for a new guitar. I didn’t have any guitar at all at the time, and didn’t want to spend the money on something I wanted would avoid touching, so I decided against it. They’re currently going for around $8000-$9000 on Reverb and I’ve been kicking myself.

I hope old man me gets a chance to steal a time machine, go back and tell myself to get the Asuka Telecaster, causing the timeline to skew into an alternate 2025 where I own the Asuka Telecaster and rule the world from my casino palace.

So, yeah, I’m not making that mistake again. If the Johnny B. Goode ES-345 isn’t absurdly expensive, I’m going to find some way to get my hands on one.

 

[Hodgo]

Well now I want an Asuka Tele.

 

[NedRyerson]

Didn't know about the Eva themed guitar so I just looked it up. OMG, it's gorgeous! Very subtle for those who don't know the Eva series but very clear to those of us who do!

But for the BTTF guitar, it's clearly a marketing campaign for this scavenger hunt. The actor who played Marvin is a little too "acting" in his clips for this to be a sincere "they actually did lose the instrument and I'm just volunteering to help." At least Lea Thompson & MJF were able to deliver their lines more believably (Christopher Lloyd was also acting more than speaking).

I'm sure the Huey Lewis appearance was actually a surprise to MJF but the rest of it appears staged.

My take:

The guitar is actually out there and is waiting for someone to actually find it. It might even be on the move and doing a road-show of its own, kind of like a really expensive Pokemon Go campaign (just spitballing; I only have vague superficial understanding of how that game worked). The actual location is only known to a handful of people who aren't revealing it even to other Gibson employees.

It gets the Gibson brand out there again to the more casual audience using the BTTF hook, and moves some foot traffic into the music stores. It promotes the anniversary and is a unique way of rehashing the whole "and one lucky winner will receive....!!!!" bit. After the sweepstakes is over and winner is selected, they'll receive a custom replica while the original goes back into storage or displayed somewhere like at MoPop in Seattle or at the Universal Studios theme park* in Orlando. There'll also be something like 100 limited-edition replicas offered, blah, blah, blah.

To me, it's targeting collectors, not players. Just like what seemed like an exponential uptick of interest in Frankie after EVH's passing. People wanted a copy of the guitar for their collection, not to actually play it at gigs (and any Van Halen tribute band out there already has a Frankie in their arsenal).


* and now that I just typed that up, what if the guitar was at Universal Studios in Orlando somwhere? Gets the ticket sales going, especially now before the school year starts up again and families have to wind down their vacation plans.... And now I'm just being conspiratorial

 

[NedRyerson]

While I was telling my wife about this, she interjected as I got toward the end with what would be an absolutely magnificent and magnanimous idea: suppose the original is "found." What if the plan wasn't to just put it on display straight-up, but offer some compensatory prize to the person who "found" it then auction off that original with proceeds to benefit the MJF Foundation?

Then the winner of the auction would have the option of just holding onto it themselves or loan it to a museum program like MoPOP for display, since MoPOP has a bunch of items from private collections on loan for exhibits.

(aside: I miss when MoPOP was still EMP; it's a shadow of its original self when it was focused on music)