IS this Dearmond related to a Guild?

[Westerly Wood]

forgive me, I have no clue re electric archtop Guilds: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/msg/4744248856.html

 

[AcornHouse]

Yes, Deamond licensed (correct me if there was a different arrangement) Guild designs and manufactured them overseas. There are a number of Guild designs that Dearmond came out with, in addition to some of their own.

 

[Walter Broes]

It kind of sort of is a Korean cousin of a guild X175. mostly in the "look" department.

 

[Westerly Wood]

thanks, good to know. I only want US Guilds, so will just pine away. Ebay sounds most affordable avenue.

 

[shihan]

I had a Dearmond X-155 when I first joined This forum; I sold to help finiance my X-170. The DA was certainly not up to Guild standards, but was a cool guitar in it's own right. Played great, and had excellent PU's. I would get another if one appeared at at the right price.

 

[SFIV1967]

Wood: Just a few words about those import lines.
Guild had 7 import lines for guitars so far, at least as far as I can count.

In the 70ies the "Madeira" guitars from Japan and later Korea. Madeira had both acoustic and electric guitars and existed into the early 90ies I believe.
In the 80's and early 90's "Burnside" electric guitars. I believe they also came from Korea.
End of the 80's/early 90's for some time some classical guitars were imported from Alhambra in Spain, but they had a normal Westerly style Guild label just with "Made in Spain" instead of "Made in USA" on it.
Mid 90's to early 2000's the "DeArmond by Guild" line from Korea. (FMIC owned both Guild and DeArmond at that time, hence the connection).
In the early 2000's the "GAD" (Guild Acoustic Design) line from China started.
Also some models (like the Arcos line) were made in Ensenada/Mexico during FMIC ownership.
And in 2013 the Guild Newark St. collection from Korea started.

What is most interesting to me is the fact that the DeArmond support webpage was transferred from FMIC to CMG recently!
http://www.dearmondguitars.com/

And in fact I found out that CMG bought the DeArmond trademark from FMIC, same what they did with the Guild and Orpheum trade marks.
http://www.wysk.com/index/california/santa-monica/3v3d7lv/cordoba-music-group-inc/trademarks

So maybe CMG will re-issue selected Guild guitars with DeArmond pickups in future?

Ralf

 

[AcornHouse]

There was also a hidden import line between GADs and Newarks. They produced a number of acoustics that added 100 to the number, but otherwise didn't have a name for the series. For example: F-150 is the import version of the US F-50. M-120=import, M-20=US. Etc.

 

[Walter Broes]

Ralf, that IS interesting! The Newarks Street A150 guitars have a replica DeArmond pickup on them, as did the short lived New Hartford made Artist Awards. I hope They have more plans for DeArmond reissue pickups.

 

[SFIV1967]

There was also a hidden import line between GADs and Newarks. They produced a number of acoustics that added 100 to the number, but otherwise didn't have a name for the series.

That's not a "hidden" line, it always was the GAD series! The "GAD" just disappeared from the model number in 2012, but it was and is the GAD series, see: http://guildguitars.com/guitars/acoustic-guitars/gad-series/

The Newarks Street A150 guitars have a replica DeArmond pickup on them, as did the short lived New Hartford made Artist Awards. I hope they have more plans for DeArmond reissue pickups.

You are right, I forgot. FMIC had re-issued them on those models and obviously that is the reason it went to CMG now.
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...ctric-models&p=1572655&viewfull=1#post1572655
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...013-New-Custom-Shop-American-Patriarch-Series

Ralf

 

[jazzman]

The dearmondguitars.com link just redirects to the page fornthe newark a-150 guitar.
I find it interesting that fender sold the dearmond name but then again it doesn't stop them from using/making "dynasonic" pickups for gretsches etc.

 

[SFIV1967]

The dearmondguitars.com link just redirects to the page for the Newark St. A-150 guitar.

That's interesting, a few days ago the old page was still active. Actually a pity that such historical information is no longer visible. The only way is to use the wayback machine for the old FMIC page (mind the date shown there is just a script for the current date): http://web.archive.org/web/20140725105537/http://www.dearmondguitars.com/

I find it interesting that Fender sold the DeArmond name but then again it doesn't stop them from using/making "Dynasonic" pickups for Gretsches etc.

It's possible the production of the Dynasonic is now also under CMG's control, or CMG licenced it back to FMIC, or do you know for sure that FMIC is still responsible?

Ralf

 

[jazzman]

Well on the list of cmg trademarks "dearmond" is listed.
The only thing dearmond related that fmic would have interest in is the dynasonic pickups for gretsches.
The only trademark cmg has is the name "DeArmond" which fender has no need for.
Having the name allows cmg to have "DeArmond" on the floating pickups for the a150 etc.
Fender can still make "dynasonics" since there isn't an enforceable patent alive on that (meaning anyone can make them)