and to further that point, the vast majority of people going into a guitar store and considering one of these instruments is not thinking anything at all about nitro vs. poly, usa vs. China...their budget is 300-600 not 3K. and they know absolutely nothing. other than "I like this $350 guitar as much or better than that $450 guitar..." we have all been there. dig deep, yes u have. long before LTG haaa
I agree 100%.
I was 50 frickin' years old and had been playing since I was 12 and still knew literally nothing except that the primary reason I bought a new American built guitar is I wanted an instrument that would be worth re-fretting when the time came.
That was the only thing I knew happened to 'em from a maintenance perspective. That, and I liked sealed tuners because sand wouldn't get in 'em at the beach. Seriously. (Busking in Santa Cruz)
anyway yes, they were doing great just calling it Guild Acoustic Design and those were some damn fine guitars being made in China, at least the ones they sent to Sam Ash on Long Island.
OK I'm willing to allow that Cordoba was entirely justified in wanting to re-image that line (I just wish they'd used a different image), and it's even possible that they didn't actually buy that name.
Think it was actually owned by Fender, not Guild, and they could create the "GAD" line because they owned the rights to the Guild name and brand.
But remember (and I don't mean precisely you, Mav, just anybody who didn't know or forgot) the GAD line had no connection to Guild USA beyond the name.
Sure the the designs were Guild intellectual property like blueprints that Fender owned through owning Guild , but G-USA had absolutely nothing to do with production. Never touched 'em. Never made parts for 'em.
Fender even handled all the warehousing/ distribution themselves and even broke 'em out as a different brand when it came to dealer franchises.
Each line had their own buy quota, they didn't combine.
Anyway, while writing that I started to suspect that Cordoba already knew they intended to rebrand the MIC's and wouldn't have bought the GAD name anyway.
even still, i'm starting to think the USA factory is the major
concern for Guild right now, not the entry level market. I just don't see Guild/Oxnard lasting any longer than New Hartford did. I hope they do, of course. they are off to a bumpy start though.
Yep. I hope it's just that our perspective is narrowed by our previous knowledge of the brand identity and core values (solid wood tops, NCL finish, dovetail neck joint, hide glue construction) and that they understand what a new buyer wants better than we do.