Fender to close New Hartford operations

Just returned from an extended camping trip and now saddened by the news. Sincere condolences to the affected employees and your families. Best wishes for each of you to land on your feet...

Can't say I'm overly surprised. Hard to forget the way FMIC turned their corporate backs on the Tacoma plant employees in 2008; then flooded the market with green wood (mostly contemporary series) guitars as they left town for CT. A credible company would have pitched them in the dumpster, rather than squeeze out a few bucks to support the move by pushing them off for 'reconditioning' and eventual eBay resale. Just my opinion, but it would be wise to carefully inspect any recently crafted NH Guild at this point... Not sure I'd purchase one off eBay...

I hope LTG survives. Since joining, not many days went by without checking in at least once per day to catch up on the latest Guild news... The only potential good news is that Hoboken and Westerly Guilds (12-strings in particular) will eventually maintain a cult-like following with market values increasing in time. There are lots of us folks who love Guilds and LTG is the logical place for us to continue to gather...

My next serious guitar will probably be a Martin. There's something soothing about one Nazareth PA. family's commitment to quality since 1833.

Where's LTG going?

This should add to the debates over which era was best, lol. I don't think the brand itself is going anywhere but I sure hope that the procedures began by NH are continued wherever they are made in the US. I'm wondering though. How much of their debt did FMIC recoup by ****ting down Guild? It can't be that much. The cost of shipping the machinery to wherever. The minimal amount of money they can sell the property for? It's in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. So they consolidate the manufacturing in one place.
What are going to be the cuts in the rest of the corporation? I heard over on the GDP that the Gretsch custom shop laid off one of their best luthiers.

It hasn't even begun yet.

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It hasn't even begun yet.

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I'll second that. This is distant smoke, signaling a huge fire that is burning in Scottsdale.

when the current stock of NH guilds are gone I bet it is just an import brand and maybe it even goes away all together.

who needs GAD guilds when you can have import acoustics with Fender on the headstock.

but then if GC goes belly up Fender may too and that will mean a big hole in the market and maybe that would be a good thing

If Fender did that badly with a brand known to have good/great tone, how well with a brand (Fender) that has the reputation of sounding like crap?

alpep said:

...who needs GAD guilds when you can have import acoustics with Fender on the headstock.

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But every imported Fender acoustic I have seen sounded like crap whereas many of the Guild GADs are actually really good guitars at that price point! I would never ever buy an imported Fender acoustic. I just saw a D-140 last week and it had a great sound.
I also never understood that Fender started that Fender Acoustic Custom Shop in NH instead of promoting Guild for that purpose. How much money did they waste by designing and manufacturing those Fender Custom Shop Acoustics and diverting assets away from Guild? I assume a huge load of money.
Ralf

alpep said:

when the current stock of NH guilds are gone I bet it is just an import brand and maybe it even goes away all together.

who needs GAD guilds when you can have import acoustics with Fender on the headstock.

but then if GC goes belly up Fender may too and that will mean a big hole in the market and maybe that would be a good thing

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Really good thought... Nature abhors a vacuum. And regardless of how anyone feels about GC, it has seved as an entry point for a lot of new musicians.

I wonder if they'll just expand the Arcos line? It's not like that line is going away.

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I wonder if they'll just expand the Arcos line? It's not like that line is going away.

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Good point. Is arcos line considered above GAD?

Westerly Wood said:

Good point. Is arcos line considered above GAD?

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Uh-oh....here we go, again. :tranquillity:

Joe

killdeer43 said:

Uh-oh....here we go, again. :tranquillity:

Joe

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Really? I don't understand why we can't have these types of discussions? Seems like a reasonable question, and why is it that the intent is immediately considered inflammatory?

It's a legit question. Where does the Arcos line fall in the lineup of Guilds? And keep in mind that the Arcos Guilds are made in North America. Just not USA.

davismanLV said:

It's a legit question. Where does the Arcos line fall in the lineup of Guilds? And keep in mind that the Arcos Guilds are made in North America. Just not USA.

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I have been hearing good things about them.

Arcos is upscale from GADs and downscale from NH. I haven't looked at the map on those, but I suspect that a run of D-25s or D-4s would fall into the upper range of the Arcos series. That may be why Fender did not manufacture lower priced American Guilds. Looks to me like Fender's price range was so stratified that It was not considered feasable to have the branches of Guild competing with each other.

Default said:

Arcos is upscale from GADs and downscale from NH. I haven't looked at the map on those, but I suspect that a run of D-25s or D-4s would fall into the upper range of the Arcos series. That may be why Fender did not manufacture lower priced American Guilds. Looks to me like Fender's price range was so stratified that It was not considered feasable to have the branches of Guild competing with each other.

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So Arcos will be the new arched back westerly type guilds one day?

Your guess is as good as mine, WW. I've never played one in person.

The idea that the GAD import line gets shut down is foolish. They are really good sounding and playing guitars for a reasonable price point. They probably MAKE money on those when they sell them, and they fit a buyers price range that has a lot more sales than the $1000+ market. Don't believe everything you read.

Default said:

Arcos is upscale from GADs and downscale from NH. I haven't looked at the map on those, but I suspect that a run of D-25s or D-4s would fall into the upper range of the Arcos series. That may be why Fender did not manufacture lower priced American Guilds. Looks to me like Fender's price range was so stratified that It was not considered feasable to have the branches of Guild competing with each other.

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Not necessarily. MSRP on the Arcos range (per the Guild website) is $849 for the AD3 Dreadnought to $1399 for the AF50CE Cutaway Jumbo. MSRPs on GAD 6 strings ranges from $739 for the M120, to $1679 for the F150RCE Jumbo, with 12 strings ranging up to $1829 for the F1512E. Smacks of more brilliant marketing by Fender: cannibalize your own low/mid-priced line...

Westerly Wood said:

So Arcos will be the new arched back westerly type guilds one day?

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I saw and compared them all at NAMM and also played both GADs and Arcos in shops, last time last week. The Arcos were not my type of guitar, I would mostly prefer the GADs. Arcos are like plywood guitars (sorry to say) even by the hand-rubbed satin polyurethane finish to me, even if GADs are sometimes too shiny for my taste...But the pure look of the Arcos is too simple for me. So both are not for me anyway. Comparing a MIM Arcos to a US Guild is just not right...No way you can compare them. To me Arcos is lower than the GADs. I cannot imagine that Guild sells many Arcos.
Ralf