My dealer still sends Gibsons back now and then.
If there's a flaw, they never make it to the wall.

It comes in spurts, not really any different now than 5 years ago.
I have a minor b!tch on my new goldtop, when I pulled the pickguard off for cleaning (and to see how it looked naked) I found a small ding on the top.
Completely hidden by the pickguard, I'm guessing it was done during installation.

Is it bad?
No.
Not really visible, most people would never see it. Still, it was a small bummer.
PRS deserves their reputation for quality, because they try a little harder, but Gibson is still building great guitars.

Prices?
Cry me a fxcking river...

Look, prices have gone up on EVERYTHING, and not just this year!
That's what we WANT in a growing economy.
Not inflation, but slow, steady increases in price (and value) of products.
When prices start to slide the other way we have another Great Depression, and we don't want that, now do we.
(Well, if your party is trying to get elected maybe you do...)

A new 59 Les Paul was like $300, 50 years later a new Standard is 10 times that.

My '66 Ford Mustang was $3,000 new, today they are 10 times that.
Do a little research if you're too young (or clueless) to remember.
Go price eggs, blue jeans, houses, boats, airplanes, jewelry.

If that's not good enough for you, then think what happens when Les Paul sales fall on their ass.
Anybody here remember the early eighties when Les Pauls were stacked like cord wood in guitar shops?
You could buy them all day long for $300 because nobody wanted them.
Would that be good enough for you guys? $300 for a new LP Standard?
Then why would nobody buy them then?
Seriously, my dealer couldn't give them away. But he could sell Japanese Super Strats for $1,500 all day long.

Gibson concentrated on their other models until Slash brought the market back in 1987.
They have weathered up and down markets, and finicky consumer tastes, and music trends for over a hundred years.
In the eighties, rap was gonna finish off guitar rock after the damage disco had done just a few years before.
When the Beatles first started up, there were people already predicting this whole guitar craze was just a fad.
MIDI was gonna make the guitar obsolete, or just another cool sound effect.

I challenge any of you guys b!tching about prices to build your own guitar and beat Gibson in the market with it.
PRS was gonna be the DEATH of Gibson - didn't happen.
There are several American brands who build great guitars to compete with Gibson, but they remain tiny.
There are a dozen import choices that are "just as good" as Gibson for a third of the cost - Gibson is still alive.

People can afford nice Gibsons, so they will continue to sell.
Look around you - somebody is paying for those big houses, the BMW and Mercedes, and employing US.
Nobody ever got rich building the cheapest product they could, it has to have some value or nobody wants it.

I think Gibson is making a mistake trying to get beginners into the brand with cheap-ass finishes.
The price gap widens between the Gibsons people dream of owning and the Faded, Worn, Satin and otherwise unfinished guitars they now have aimed at the lower end. They did those guys no favors...
All that cheap sh!t SHOULD be Epiphone with the step up in price getting you a REAL DEAL Gibson with a real finish.
I thought the LP Studio was a bad idea, and they went WAY down market after that.

There's a reason a Standard (or Custom that he loves) costs 5 times as much - they're worth it.

If you want a Gibson, buy it.
If you think they suck or are priced too high, then go get a PRS or an Epiphone.

If you're loyal to the brand and can find what you like in their products despite their stupid marketing sh!t - Good!
I'll be hanging around for a few more decades myself...