cjd-player
Senior Member
Dang, that stinks, Ken
Sorry to hear that.
Sorry to hear that.
My Blem CV-1 Arrived - Trainwreck Neck
- Thread starter Scratch
- Start date
Scratch said:
Sorry to hear this news Ken. My CO1's been in the case for several weeks, your post caused me to take it out & look things over. I went so far as to retreive a straight edge from my shop & check things out scientific like. I don't believe she's moved since Brady finished the tweak job . Plays great as a matter of fact.
West R Lee
Venerated Member
I agree with Kenny, these posted by Cappy and many before them sound as if Fender had a room full of seconds and when they made the move to New Hartford, they dumped them on a bunch of wholesalers for peanuts, who are turning them on eBay. Buyer beware.
West
West
Hi West; I think that's exactly what happened. When they shut Tacoma... they had this stack of either unsold or blemished stuff. It's reasonable to think that, by the time they started to consider closing Tacoma, some of the neck-block cows had already started coming home. Instead of packing them off to Nasville for, as Chazmo calls it, 'reclamation' and dripping them onesy-twosey into the market via retailers who might have already told them 'no more COs/CVs', they wrote the value of the remaining inventory down to $300-$400/ea and periodically sell them in small batches off the loading dock. I think the worst of it is the way these resellers shuck and jive on the subject of warranty ... 'lightly stamped used' ... my foot. :evil:
kitniyatran
Senior Member
What a big time sucko; sorry to hear this, Ken. :evil:
One of these days, I need to check with Gatorguild about my mandolin he's supposed to try to fix the neck on.
One of these days, I need to check with Gatorguild about my mandolin he's supposed to try to fix the neck on.
Scratch
Enlightened Member
It was playing and sounding great until this latest setback. If anyone can make it right, Ross can. I'm learning another lesson in patience. :? :roll:
good golly miss molly.
Scratch said:
Sorry to hear this, Scratch, your guitar seems to be cursed.
On my side, my two CV-2Cs don't have any problem. the blond one has a better action, though, while the sunburst has a great and deep sound...I should sell one of these but I'm still undecided... :?
Scratch
Enlightened Member
Hey Cuthbert.
Ross surmised the neck was actually of 'green wood' and had not sufficiently dried. He kept it in a humidity controlled environment for two months and eventually put it back together. It now plays and sounds like a dream with no relapses. I've certainly got more in it than I had originally intended, but now, at last, it has finally turned into one of the nicest playing, nicest looking guitars in the corral.
Long time no hear; nice to see your post.
Ross surmised the neck was actually of 'green wood' and had not sufficiently dried. He kept it in a humidity controlled environment for two months and eventually put it back together. It now plays and sounds like a dream with no relapses. I've certainly got more in it than I had originally intended, but now, at last, it has finally turned into one of the nicest playing, nicest looking guitars in the corral.
Long time no hear; nice to see your post.
Scratch said:
Hi Scratch, unfortunately real life (and real job) sucked me out of music for a long while, now I'm on holidays for some days and I took the girls out of the cases after...I think approximately the same time the same time I stopped writing here. Blondie was Ok (and still in tune) but Sunnie needed some truss rod adjustment. I did it tonight and now it seems it's better...I'm disappointed to hear that Guild sold guitars made of fresh wood, definitely not a good sign on the quality of these instruments, anyway if your magic luthier solve all the problems so far so good.
What's new in the Guildverse? I heard that they discontinued all the cutaway models... :?
CV-1C "used"
Hi to all, I just got on here and read with interest all the information on the "used" Contemporary Guild guitars. Mine was found on Craig's list here in the Mpls St Paul area. I had been looking for a cutaway with a 1.75" nut, pickup in sunburst. Thinking of a Martin OM GT or something like that. Anyway mine is really nice, action great up the scale, finish topnotch and best of all, the guitar only cost $700. The serial number sticker was kinda unsightly so I carefully peeled it off, and sure enough, the original number had been obliterated. I trimmed the taped on serial number and re-attached it on the original sticker and it looks much nicer. Kevin here @ Hoffman Guitars had a good look at it and pronounced it sound. It sound great too. Since it's a couple or more years down the pike from when it was made, it's likely stabilized now, so should stay that way. After all the scary stories here, I thought a happy ending would cheer up others who are thinking of getting one of these Contemporary Guild bargains. Pete
Hi to all, I just got on here and read with interest all the information on the "used" Contemporary Guild guitars. Mine was found on Craig's list here in the Mpls St Paul area. I had been looking for a cutaway with a 1.75" nut, pickup in sunburst. Thinking of a Martin OM GT or something like that. Anyway mine is really nice, action great up the scale, finish topnotch and best of all, the guitar only cost $700. The serial number sticker was kinda unsightly so I carefully peeled it off, and sure enough, the original number had been obliterated. I trimmed the taped on serial number and re-attached it on the original sticker and it looks much nicer. Kevin here @ Hoffman Guitars had a good look at it and pronounced it sound. It sound great too. Since it's a couple or more years down the pike from when it was made, it's likely stabilized now, so should stay that way. After all the scary stories here, I thought a happy ending would cheer up others who are thinking of getting one of these Contemporary Guild bargains. Pete
Re: CV-1C "used"
Hi Pete; welcome to LTG and congratulations on your new-to-you C model. I think you're probably right that if the neck hasn't gone south yet, there's a reasonable chance it won't. Nobody ever said all of them were bad. The fact that Guild refused to warrant so many of them and then abandoned the neck block system altogether ... that's the troubling part. Agree with you that they can be bargains ... sometimes. :wink:
Hi Pete; welcome to LTG and congratulations on your new-to-you C model. I think you're probably right that if the neck hasn't gone south yet, there's a reasonable chance it won't. Nobody ever said all of them were bad. The fact that Guild refused to warrant so many of them and then abandoned the neck block system altogether ... that's the troubling part. Agree with you that they can be bargains ... sometimes. :wink:
Re: CV-1C "used"
Nice, I tried to remove the sticker but the serial number was canceled with a sort of pen, therefore mo way that I could find out the original number. If you can post your pics and impressions it would be of help, all I can say is that mine didn't move through the years and although the blonde one has a better action and an steeper angle of joint making it on pair with my Ovations the Sunnie is not as good but still with a very low action (unfortunately the saddle is very low).
Anyway the second one projects much, much better and it's louder than all my other guitars.
Pixelpete said:
Nice, I tried to remove the sticker but the serial number was canceled with a sort of pen, therefore mo way that I could find out the original number. If you can post your pics and impressions it would be of help, all I can say is that mine didn't move through the years and although the blonde one has a better action and an steeper angle of joint making it on pair with my Ovations the Sunnie is not as good but still with a very low action (unfortunately the saddle is very low).
Anyway the second one projects much, much better and it's louder than all my other guitars.
Re: CV-1C "used"
>Nice, I tried to remove the sticker but the serial number was canceled with a sort of pen, therefore mo way that I could find out the original number. If you can post your pics and impressions it would be of help, all I can say is that mine didn't move through the years and although the blonde one has a better action and an steeper angle of joint making it on pair with my Ovations the Sunnie is not as good but still with a very low action (unfortunately the saddle is very low).
Anyway the second one projects much, much better and it's louder than all my other guitars.<
Hi again cuthbert, I put a pic up on the CV-1C on ebay thread if you wanna see... These are really nice when they are nice!
Pete
>Nice, I tried to remove the sticker but the serial number was canceled with a sort of pen, therefore mo way that I could find out the original number. If you can post your pics and impressions it would be of help, all I can say is that mine didn't move through the years and although the blonde one has a better action and an steeper angle of joint making it on pair with my Ovations the Sunnie is not as good but still with a very low action (unfortunately the saddle is very low).
Anyway the second one projects much, much better and it's louder than all my other guitars.<
Hi again cuthbert, I put a pic up on the CV-1C on ebay thread if you wanna see... These are really nice when they are nice!
Pete
MikeyB59 said:
Welcome to LTG Mike! Pull up a chair and hang out a while!
kittyboy
Junior Member
Just chiming in to say that the blem CV-2 I bought off ebay is one of the best guitars I've ever owned and I'm about to pick up a blem CO-2C from the same seller.
When I was getting ready to buy I wrote to several of the ebay sellers and said "as you know, there have been neck problems..."
I got a very coherent and reassuring reply from one seller who said he's aware of the problem and passes on most blem Cs that he sees, but he sees some that are fine and resells them.
There's lots of reasons to be wary, but these are going for 1/3 their original street price and if you find a good one it's quite the deal.
I like mine enough that I'm going to part with my Westy D-55. It's redundant anyway since I have a D70, but it was my main "plugged" guitar, and now it's on its way out.
If anyone gets more info on the Contemporary series mystery, please share it here. Thanks!
When I was getting ready to buy I wrote to several of the ebay sellers and said "as you know, there have been neck problems..."
I got a very coherent and reassuring reply from one seller who said he's aware of the problem and passes on most blem Cs that he sees, but he sees some that are fine and resells them.
There's lots of reasons to be wary, but these are going for 1/3 their original street price and if you find a good one it's quite the deal.
I like mine enough that I'm going to part with my Westy D-55. It's redundant anyway since I have a D70, but it was my main "plugged" guitar, and now it's on its way out.
If anyone gets more info on the Contemporary series mystery, please share it here. Thanks!
Hi KB and congratulations on your new Contemporary CV-2. With the exceptions discussed in this thread, most everybody who bought one has been pleased with it. In 2009, the behavior of the eBay C model re-sellers did as much/more than FMIC to discourage interest in Tacoma C and Traditional 'used' guitars; no specifics on what - if any - cosmetic blems were fixed, who did the fixing (a bona fide reclamation center/tech v. the seller's nephew v. not doing anything at all), and going out of their way to disguise the absence of a warranty. i.e., tiny print at the bottom of the auction text that never accurately explained that FMIC meant no warranty when it called the guitars 'used'. Unless FMIC decides to 'fess up, we're not going to know whether they were really excess inventory, legitimate factory 2nds, or returns from dissatisfied customers or dealers. But I think the over-riding factor was that FMIC wanted to be off the warranty hook for the out-years obligation to repair or replace whatever they had in Tacoma no matter how it got there.kittyboy said:
The 'proof' is that if all the blems were as minor as the re-sellers say they were, then the blems could have been corrected by Guild itself at modest expense. The economic fact is that new, warranted guitars sell for more than unwarranted guitars so it should have been in Guild's interest to fix them. But, at some point Guild had to have asked itself 'suppose we fix them, are we willing to be on the warranty hook for them?' and that answer apparently came up no. So, whatever was on hand in Tacoma, regardless of why it was there, was stamped 'used' and dumped on the gray market. This would explain why otherwise perfectly fit Traditional and Contemporary models could be on the market without a warranty.
The neckblock: the 4-barrel Rochester carburetors that I had on my General Motors 454 cubic inch boat engines had almost 800 parts ... fuel injection requires a fraction of that. Traditional dovetail joints are labor-intensive and require a fair amount of skill; a machined chunk of graphite ... I think you know where I'm going. I'm not a luthier or a mechanical engineer but I think in addition to getting a more reliable, repeatable neck joint, the block system would have minimized those nagging cracks that appear along the tail of the fingerboard running to the soundhole ... so, maybe the block system was to fix more than just neck-to-body problems. Although the FMICs say they still hold the patents, it's worth pointing out that none of their products currently being offered uses the graphite block.
Again, congrats on you Contemporary model; there are probably plenty of good ones out there.