HoboKen
Member
With the advantage of reading the other inputs to this thread, and finding a shred of truth in all of them......it comes down to: Do you see the glass half empty or half full? I sugest we have all of both views.
Me, I prefer to see it like when Epiphone (a far superior guitar) was bought out by Gibson.
There were some very good Epi luthiers that ended up working for Mr. Dronge ya know at that up-start Guild Guitar Co. in NY. Great idea, but Mr. Dronge, it will never make it! The factory is not big enough in NY. OK! We'll move across the river to Hoboken, NJ and do it even bigger & better......then....to Westerly, RI......even bigger & better!
By the way, Gibson moved Epiphone to Kalmazoo, MI and built the same guitar body on the same assembly lines as Gibson, only keeping the Epi MOP headstock and fretboard inlay that was better than the Gibson's......and it cost less! Finally Gibson sent Epi overseas so as not to be as good a guitar....for less. That may happen to Guild.....or it may not. Interesting to find that the Epi-Japan factory was relocated to the China for the cheap Epis......and then Gibson let Epi-Japan build the Elitist Series that is equal in quality of materials and better in luthiership than the USA Gibsons now....shipping the electric guitars to Nashville to get the USA electronics added to the Japan luthiership. Don't think all this has not be observed by the folks at Fender.
So what's new! Martin stays in one town and builds a completely new factory across the valley from the old factory.......And begins, after all the advertising about completely being hand-built all these years, to automate the neck-making process for most of its guitars, etc. They set up the over-seas Sigma line of guitars.....only to watch the overseas Saga-Blueridge Guitars build an almost equal product to the USA Martin D-28 for Sigma money.
Its a tough competive guitar world. I only hope that Fender finds a way to save Guild and
we see the Name continue to mean what it has in the past. If not, we are the LTG Forum about preserving our vintage quality guitars.
HoboKen
Me, I prefer to see it like when Epiphone (a far superior guitar) was bought out by Gibson.
There were some very good Epi luthiers that ended up working for Mr. Dronge ya know at that up-start Guild Guitar Co. in NY. Great idea, but Mr. Dronge, it will never make it! The factory is not big enough in NY. OK! We'll move across the river to Hoboken, NJ and do it even bigger & better......then....to Westerly, RI......even bigger & better!
By the way, Gibson moved Epiphone to Kalmazoo, MI and built the same guitar body on the same assembly lines as Gibson, only keeping the Epi MOP headstock and fretboard inlay that was better than the Gibson's......and it cost less! Finally Gibson sent Epi overseas so as not to be as good a guitar....for less. That may happen to Guild.....or it may not. Interesting to find that the Epi-Japan factory was relocated to the China for the cheap Epis......and then Gibson let Epi-Japan build the Elitist Series that is equal in quality of materials and better in luthiership than the USA Gibsons now....shipping the electric guitars to Nashville to get the USA electronics added to the Japan luthiership. Don't think all this has not be observed by the folks at Fender.
So what's new! Martin stays in one town and builds a completely new factory across the valley from the old factory.......And begins, after all the advertising about completely being hand-built all these years, to automate the neck-making process for most of its guitars, etc. They set up the over-seas Sigma line of guitars.....only to watch the overseas Saga-Blueridge Guitars build an almost equal product to the USA Martin D-28 for Sigma money.
Its a tough competive guitar world. I only hope that Fender finds a way to save Guild and
we see the Name continue to mean what it has in the past. If not, we are the LTG Forum about preserving our vintage quality guitars.
HoboKen
