Pros

Good people overall. Great to be a part of the heritage of this classic American brand. Mecca for a guitar player.

Cons

An absolutely bizarre culture that top-to-bottom seems to revolve solely around trying not to upset the CEO. Meanwhile the erratic CEO seems to always be upset or flying off the handle about, well...anything. I've NEVER seen anything like it. So many smart people, who want nothing more than to give it their all, and do great work for this company that in many cases they were huge fans of before coming to work there; are reduced to keeping their mouths shut and keeping off of the CEO's "radar" by any means necessary. You will hear the phrase "stay off Henry's radar" echoed again and again by all sorts of folks top-to-bottom in the company.
Smart, creative thinking (or just plain logical thinking) is completely stifled in this environment. Through this culture Henry has cultivated, talented folks will routinely choose NOT to do what's best for the company/product/brand, but instead will choose what is most likely to keep them from incurring Henry's wrath.
The degree to which nobody seems to be willing to make a decision about anything is staggering. NOBODY wants to be the one to have to take the blame for anything. Doing so might make them accountable to Henry, and who knows what he might do on any given day? As a result, the buck gets passed indefinitely. Either that or employees begin cutting each others throats so as to avoid blame. Seen that happen WAY too many times, and it's always ugly.
Very often important decisions that require immediate attention by management simply get "submitted to Henry" directly which is a vague, nebulous, meaningless gesture. There's rarely ever an answer from Henry, and if there is you may be waiting months for it, at which time the situation will have long since turned into a crisis.
Information does not flow in this company. Strategies, goals, sometimes even basic product information are NOT communicated.
Morale is generally very low. I've heard the phrase "the land where nothing makes sense", repeated by employees from two different divisions in two different cities. That is not a coincidence.

Advice to Senior Management

I honestly don't see anything getting better under Henry's reign. He's been running the company this way for so many years, there is little hope that he will change. I've watched SO many smart, talented people walk out of this company in complete frustration. The best and brightest leave for better opportunities and better work environments. He needs to understand that the culture that exists in Gibson right now is sick. Not unlike the "sick culture" that Henry himself says existed in the Norlin-era Gibson when he first bought the company and took over. He remedied that by firing everyone at the time. Well, it's sick again. Really sick. Only this time, Henry himself has cultivated the sickness. That toxicity has trickled down to every fiber of the company. He needs to understand that he's got a LOT of smart people willing to do great things for this company, but it's all for nothing unless he positively affects the culture from the top, down. Unlikely to happen, but that's what it will take.