fronobulax
Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 24,790
- Reaction score
- 8,921
- Location
- Central Virginia, USA
- Guild Total
- 5
No problem. Just because I act like you are the burr under my saddle doesn't mean you really are one.West R Lee said:Well I'm sure this will raise some eyebrows and probably really tick some of the New Hartford fans off, but that is not my intention, but merely to state the facts.
[snip]
.......I got the sense that was the case with Guild, combined with the new pricing and relative obscurity, especially in this economy......they just ain't sellin'.
West
I think we (LTG) are in violent agreement that NH Guilds are hard to find in stores.
There is more opinion than agreement on the reasons why and the things Guild should do to remedy that. The great divide seems to occur between people who are comfortable with NH Guilds being a premium, boutique, luxury, sometimes hard to find and "something to aspire to" kind of brand and those who think "Made to Be Played" means available to be played by anyone, including the great folks who go to Guitar Center to upgrade from their starter acoustic. This is complicated by people who remember when Guilds were the "best value" option and are troubled because that does not seem to be true (yet) of NH Guilds, especially when compared to American made Guilds in the used and vintage market.
Having established that I can be reasonable and see many sides of the discussion, I do want to ask why you conclude that NH Guilds are not selling? In most cases when a product does not sell, it is widely available in many stores and dealers are discounting it sharply in order to move it and get it out of inventory. If it is not selling because dealers refuse to stock the product then there is evidence of scaling back production and Factory Direct kinds of sales.
I would suggest that NH Guilds are selling quite well because the current production has not ramped up to the point where it has eliminated backlog, let alone met demand. I base that on statements made at LMG 2010 by the production manager and others that talk about increasing production of Guilds in NH. I base that on the number of dealers who are willing to order NH Guilds but don't necessarily have any in stock. I believe my own SWAGs that suggest until production ramps up, the dealer network gets trimmed or both, a typical dealer will see on average 3 or 4 NH Guilds per year.
Now whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, something to be accepted or something to be changed probably depends upon which side of the Great Divide you rest on. But if we are talking facts there are probably some nuances to be considered. It is certainly true that Guild is not selling 10,000 NH guitars a year at present but the reason for that is that they are not making 10,000 NH guitars a year at present.
So just what is not selling?
:wink:
Edit: Typo'd "new" when I meant "used"