Oh absolutely, but they had QC issues for most of those years. And, yeah, they dumped a bunch of people in the 70s to make it 'leaner'. Then after the late 2010s they fired the CEO - which was actually a good thing as Gibson's reputation was being dragged through the mud. The QC was so bad that some absurdly high number of them were being returned. Some of the shops were reporting like a 5% return rate - before they even made it to the customer. The shops themselves sent them back rather than putting them on their shelves. Then, customers returned a bunch. The 70s and late 2010s will forever be black marks against Gibson. But, to be perfectly fair, most manufacturers in the 70s (and into the 80s) were lacking in quality. That's what made room in the market for foreign guitars - specifically from Japan. That led to the 'lawsuit era' guitars, where buying an import looked just like the real thing but often worked just as well and sometimes better. It wasn't until much later that we'd see the Chinese move into the market - which is kinda odd. China has a LONG history of working with stringed instruments. That's why they can pump out $200 guitars that are perfectly playable - often straight out of the box. For example, my Chibson Les Paul had a slight intonation issue that you'd only notice if you had a very good tuner. It was also fixed in about two minutes. I think we're in a golden years situation with guitars right now. The pandemic helped a great deal as seemingly everyone bought a guitar to keep them company during the pandemic. Guitar prices are expected to rise - a good deal's worth of rising - largely due to shipping costs. So, if you're going to buy a new guitar, you have a perfectly good excuse to do so!