Rumor is Fender brought a more thorough QC system and the whole of production improved.
I assume you're using the term "rumor" casually, but for clarity for folks who may take the term literally, in fact that was explicitly stated by member Hideglue (who was there) many years ago.
The confusion is about whether the guitars were better or just more stringently QC'd because he said "Guild QC reached a zenith under Fender".
That caused some push-back and he had to clarify that what he meant was the QC process became more stringent: Fender instituted checklists to ensure no step was missed, not that the guitars were inherently any better.
Others claim it all went down hill once they moved from Hoboken. Others will argue the same of NYC.
How's that for a definitive answer?
LOL, yep.
As for Corona when I first joined they weren't gettin' no respect, and at least part of that was because Fender released so much unsold inventory to market through MIRC when they closed, and none of it had warranty.
Even I was kind of surprised that my ("A" stock) D40 was the sonic runt of the litter, before I ever joined her and found out what happened.
For the first few years I was here Corona definitely had the highest percentage of new owner disappointment, around 15% based on my informal mental tally.
Even that's a lot lower than what seems to be reported for Martin and Gibson, although I don't hang around on those forums, just going by comments made by members here who do.
But around the same time I started noticing my D40 was finally finding a voice, we also started seeing a very high satisfaction percentage of buyers of Corona "A" stock and even MIRC's (See Cougar's JF30-12 and Retro Rocker's F50 for example) , coinciding with an observation Fender's CEO during Corona made in an interview: He thought guitars hit their high point at around 10-15 years old.
IIRC that was Larry Thomas' son but I couldn't find the interview last time I looked. It just always stuck with though, because my D4-0 was proving it out.
Build wise Coronas have a "built like a tank" rep but fit and finish is every bit as good as my Westerlys, and finish is even better.
Generally speaking, for your friend, it's been said her many times that sure GUild has a dud once in awhile but no "bad periods", that the overall percentage of great guitars to merely good or duds is much higher than "the other guys".
I think it's due to the lower output allowing 'em to pay more attention to each piece, and the fact that in Westerly a least, it was normal for folks at workstations to vet the work of the last station and send a piece back for rework if needed.
There was just a higher level of actual hand-bulding involved.
's why they got soul.
:friendly_wink:
I'd suggest something from "late Westerly" ('96-'01, "Fender era") forward for reasons of likely having a good long life before repairs are needed, and Corona in particular may be a very good bang for the buck simply because the market still undervalues 'em.
But watch out for MIRC pieces being advertised for "A" stock pricing.
They'll always have that barcode sticker over the s/n on the label