Guild Factory Westerly RI summer 1998

[ArchtopAnimal]

http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g379/ArchtopAnimal/

Scans from photos of my ( now deceased ) Guild Dealer . He tagged along with the Aussie reps ( his expense for flights and accomm ) and visited the
Fender Scottsdale and Corona facilities too .

 

[laverda]

Hi Archtop,
Welcome to LTG. Nice to have another Aussie about. Thanks for posting the links to the pics.
Cheers,
Mick

 

[ArchtopAnimal]

Will be taking photos of guitars and amps over coming days/weeks . Thanks

 

[capnjuan]

Thanks .. good stuff!

 

[dapmdave]

Welcome to LTG, and thanks for the cool post & pictures.

Looking forward to more!

Dave

 

[chazmo]

Welcome to LTG, archtop animal.

 

[West R Lee]

By golly, Hans has explained about the Asian women tediously placing inlay material in the rosette, fretboard and headstock. I believe you may have shown an illustration of those ladies doing that very thing..........thanks!

West

 

[6L6]

Thanks for posting and welcome to LTG!

Bill

 

[dreadnut]

Wow, is that a big stack of ebony in the first pic? Looks like it :shock:

 

[chazmo]

Wow, is that a big stack of ebony in the first pic? Looks like it :shock:

Sure looks like it!!!

How about the "GUILD" Connecticut license plate on the Estate Wagon!

What tour group was this? I was under the impression they didn't do factory tours in Westerly. I think I was misled! (edit: Oh, I see this was some Aussie dealer/rep tour, right)?

 

[hansmoust]

How about the "GUILD" Connecticut license plate on the Estate Wagon!

That's Willie's (the plant manager) car!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[ArchtopAnimal]

What's Willie doing these days , Hans ?

Neil

 

[chazmo]

How about the "GUILD" Connecticut license plate on the Estate Wagon!

That's Willie's (the plant manager) car!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

Cool!!! With that boat I'll bet he went on more than a few delivery runs, eh Hans!?

 

[ArchtopAnimal]

Found a couple more photos ( in gallery now ... ) ; Willie too !

Are there any tours of the latest Factory ?
Edit: found aYoutube link to spring '10's tour. There are comments wrt the latest factory having
better quality control than Westerly .

 

[Ian]

Hi Archtop,
Welcome to LTG. Nice to have another Aussie about. Thanks for posting the links to the pics.
Cheers,
Mick

Yep, nuther aussie, just what we need

Welcome along anyway mate, great photo's. Were you a dealer in Oz ?

Cheers,Ian

 

[ArchtopAnimal]

No . The guy who ordered my 2001 X500 ( late 2000 ) was a good friend of the Queensland FMI rep.
When he was told ( easter '98 ) that Fender Oz had arranged a FMI "all ports" tour , the rep suggested
that if he paid his way , he could tag along. He went for 2 weeks in all . I did have photos of all the
FMI facilities , but lent them to someone , and forgot all about them . Don't know where that
guy is now :-( He was an electric player , hence I've still got the Westerly photos . It wasn't
long after this visit that Marshall UK sued FMIC of fraudulent marketing of Made in USA on their
Mexican products . I had photos of those products , hence I knew what the scam was . Pay
someone 50cents an hour and tell the customers it's all Yankee . Despicable !

 

[fronobulax]

Found a couple more photos ( in gallery now ... ) ; Willie too !

Are there any tours of the latest Factory ?
Edit: found aYoutube link to spring '10's tour. There are comments wrt the latest factory having
better quality control than Westerly .

Search for LMG and you'll find most of our posts on our two New Hartford factory tours. There was also a dealer summit before LMG I. There is/was a dealer summit for European dealers this fall but otherwise it seems there are no tours. So your best bet it to stay active here until Fender invites us again.

 

[hideglue]

Yep, that's Willie's boat. Sharon scraping binding, and the legendary Joe "The Boss" Fusaro spraying the sunburst archtop.
Thanks for sharing, AA! Got any shots from Final Assembly or Repair?

 

[Default]

Hideglue, when I posted a link to a Fender '50s tour, it mentioned that Fender manufacturing was highly seasonal work. Was that the case when you were at Westerly?

 

[hideglue]

Hi Default,
No, it wasn't seasonal work. It was a year 'round, full-time time job in every dept.