Has Cordoba 'Dropped The Ball' With Guild?

[Charmed Life Picks]

They've been kicked around by so many. So sad. Such a wonderful line in their heyday. Hope they make it all the way back.

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[JohnW63]

As to all the builders in California. The ones that build large numbers, like Taylor, have been there a long time and have their factory built and permitted a LONG time ago. The others are small quantity guitar builders. A lot of Cordoba guitars are built overseas. Larrivee is the one that has moved rather recently, but he got in before a bunch of "Cap and Trade" legislation came into play, as far as I can recall.

So, a slow start-up and high costs of production are part of the price they have paid to be here. I suspect once the production numbers increase, as they get everything working smoothly, the prices will drop.

Guilds biggest hurdle may be there are plenty of used Guilds to be found in great shape. I suppose the same can be said of Martin and Taylor, but they build around 100K a year, so the cost per guitar is much lower, just because of the economics of volume.

[rwmct]

Originally Posted by JohnW63

Guilds biggest hurdle may be there are plenty of used Guilds to be found in great shape.

Guild fans also often have favorites when it comes to the various factories and time periods. For example, I would rather have a good New Hartford built guitar in excellent condition over an equally good new build, warranty or not.

[Epiphone100]

Originally Posted by 1Charlie

The new Guild facility is located in Oxnard because that is where Cordoba is, right next door. In addition, Larrivee USA is literally a block away. So there are already luthiers in the area.

I would also take exception to the comment made about Guild quality during the "Fender Years". Fender purchased Guild in 1995, and produced really good guitars at Westerly, Tacoma and New Hartford. Really good.

Fender also brought in Ren Ferguson to develop new models at New Hartford (the Orpheum Series), and to refine the process there. New Hartford was cooking with gas in 2014 when the "bean counters" at Fender decided to pull the plug.

Try to get your hands on a Tacoma or New Hartford-made Guild if you can. All were made with Adirondack bracing as standard. Some had Adirondack tops. Every one that I have seen had impeccable build quality.

Yes my F47R is a New Hartford and has an Adirondack top, plus superb build quality !!

[merlin666]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

Fender announced the sale of Guild to Cordoba Guitars on May 7 2014.
4 years ago yesterday.

There hasn't been a US made Guild jumbo 12-string guitar now for 4 years.
No F-512
No F-412
Nothing.

Last year I asked Cordoba when we could expect to see the F-512 back in store?

"Production scheduled for late 2017 - stock in stores early 2018."

Well so far it hasn't happened.

Feel sorry for Elderly Instruments - they've been faithfully listing them on their site for months 'On Oder - Expected Date Unknown'.

How many new model 12-string guitars has Taylor announced during this 4-year period?

Has Cordoba drop the ball?

Patience, Grasshopper. 12-strings are after all quite marginal and there is a vastly greater demand for regular 6-string guitars. But the Guild website now clearly shows an F512 .... should be in stores soon:

http://guildguitars.com/g/f-512-natural/

[drive-south]

My favorite Guild guitars were from Hoboken, the Westerly guitars designed by George Gruhn/Kim Walker, Tacoma WA, and the Orpheum series.

[maxr]

At the risk of opening the Chinese can of worms, I'd suggest that Guild are doing very well at making their classic designs available to a wider audience through their Westerley collection. My son has an F-1512e, I have an F-2512e, and I've played three D-1212s - all Chinese made. The F-2512 and D-1212 are solid sides and back with solid spruce and mahogany tops, the F-2512 has laminated maple sides and a curved laminated back. Although they sound different, all three (especially the maple archback F-2512) have the classic Guild jangly 12 string sound character, like Leo Kottke in a box. We played a bunch of other new sub $1500 12s before we bought these, and nothing else had this character . Some (Taylor 150, Eastman 30) were lovely guitars and first class value, but they all had a different, smoother sound, to me less characterful.

I've also played one recent US built Guild F-512. It was just like my boy's F-1512, but with better machines and more ornamentation (and maybe a better pickup). A lovely guitar, but here in UK, it's over three times the price of the F-1512, and the one I played sounded pretty much identical. A first class setup and better machines, and they'd be indistinguishable with your eyes shut. So (regrettably), why would you buy the US made guitar?

[rwmct]

I agree that the Chinese made Westerly Collection Guilds both (1) sound like Guilds (I know-whatever that means) and (2) are very nice guitars for the money. They are very competitive with other makes in the same price range, IMO.

I have not played any of the earlier GAD versions, but have read a lot of good things about them. Many people prefer them to the Westerly Collection versions.