New Guild cases!

[Bill Ashton]

Wow, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde!

 

[capnjuan]

Wow, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde!

yes ... but even though it was '63/'64 ... they don't get a pass for not playing Guild guitars ... :evil: :wink:

 

[Bill Ashton]

But EVERYBODY played Gibson J-160's, just like the Frabulous Four...at least they weren't EKO's :lol:

 

[capnjuan]

But EVERYBODY played Gibson J-160's, just like the Frabulous Four...at least they weren't EKO's :lol:

Some more of the two-English-boys-with-Gibsons thingie .... with pickups ... not the strongest material lyrically or technically but .... that didn't seem to make much difference when it came to selling records ... :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6WaCVv5kRg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB6l4i-z ... re=related

 

[Bill Ashton]

Ah yes. Sadly, Gordan Waller passed away in 2009, he had been living in Connecticut. His lot wasn't as good as Peter Asher's, who of course went on to be a record producer of some note.

How far we have veered from guitar cases

 

[coastie99]

His lot wasn't as good as Peter Asher's, who of course went on to be a record producer of some note.

How far we have veered from guitar cases

And, who had a rather scrumptious sister !!

 

[adorshki]

Would I get flamed again if I said "Yea verily, count me in on that!"?

"Flaming" around here is more in the nature of a "roast"

 

[adorshki]

Insider info: New Hartford Guild currently builds less than 10 acoustic guitars per day.
Interesting tidbit: When I was attempting to get a CT D-55 ATB, I got Bing from Guitars of Montana (who is a great guy, btw) to place an order.
4 months later, the guitar was finally made and shipped to us.
While I too would love to see Guilds everywhere with 100 different models, keeping the same vision as the late Mr. Dronge of having high quality, handmade, boutique guitars is fine by me.
Keeping the legacy alive 8)

THANKS FOR EYEWITNESS FEEDBACK! Now I'll have to come up with some other kinds of wild speculation. :lol:

 

[Bill Ashton]

I seem to remember that in front of the group, Frank U. kinda dodged the question of how many units were produced a day, but I think concensus would be as Jazz has reported...and I do not mean to infer that he (Jazz) did not have discussion where that number was stated.

While the floor area covers quite an area in the old mill complex, I certainly came away with an appreciation for how intricate the construction of a guitar is. Frank U. (I think it was) refered to Martin and Taylor as the "General Motors" of guitar manufacturing, and I can see why...at some point, one of the Guild personnel refered to Collings as a like operation, refering to scale/units produced.

 

[Jeff]

......floor area covers quite an area in the old mill complex, I certainly came away with an appreciation for how intricate the construction of a guitar is. Frank U. (I think it was) refered to Martin and Taylor as the "General Motors" of guitar manufacturing, and I can see why...at some point, one of the Guild personnel refered to Collings as a like operation, refering to scale/units produced.

Here's a quote from Taylor's Kurt Listug, CEO, Fall issue of Taylor's "Wood & Steel" page 4

http://www.taylorguitars.com/woodandsteel/

"We’re presently at a
record level of employment, having
added scores of jobs this year. Our
production is at the highest level
of guitars we’ve ever made — more
than 500 per day."

 

[chazmo]

So at LMG 2010, I had spent a good bit of time with (Guild Product Manager) Dave Gonzales and picked his brain about a few things.

After casually talking about things, I had shown him Chazmo's Guild Custom Shop case (the ones with an Alligator skin-like exterior) and I had made the argument that the Guild line needed a refresh of cases. We talked about the history of cases that came with Guilds and what the line needed in terms of updates.

I made the recommendation that the new Standard series cases should be differentiated from the Traditional Series ones and all in all, we didn't want to skimp out on anything either.


Anyways, heres the result of that:

Late model 2010 Traditional Series Guilds are now shipping with new cases that feature a faux alligator finish, similar to the Custom Shop cases of yore, but minus the insane weight. ( CHAZMO! :lol: )
Standard series Guilds will continue to use the TKL cases that we've all seen with Guilds since Corona (which have only varied in interior color since then). These are still awesome cases and I'm glad that no corners were cut in this decision.


Additionally, we had talked about some other things, but I'm glad that my feedback was taken by the Guild guys and I hope some of the other things that Dave had seemed excited about will take hold in the future.

Just as a teaser, he was excited about the prospects of small things: Stenciling the G-shield and Guild logo on Traditional cases again (back to Westerly tradition!), and going back to stamping MADE IN USA on the back of the Guild headstock, which I was very excited about as well.

Anyways, just thought I'd share that little tidbit with you all. Its nice to have feedback considered and executed on.

-Mike

Yo, Jazzy!

All good stuff. When you're ready to trade a new case for the Custom Shop one, give me a holla!

So, do you have any info about who/where the new Traditional Series (with faux alligator) cases are made? Are they TKLs?

 

[fronobulax]

I seem to remember that in front of the group, Frank U. kinda dodged the question of how many units were produced a day, but I think concensus would be as Jazz has reported...and I do not mean to infer that he (Jazz) did not have discussion where that number was stated.

I specifically asked for production numbers during the open Q&A in the afternoon and the response was effectively "it's proprietary" so that confirms your memory.

As far as I can tell no guitars were actually completed on the day of LMG 2010. That could have been deliberate or it could indicate a low production number. Given the number of work stations in the final finishing room and the number of employees observed 10 a day seems to be a very plausible estimate to me. That puts annual production in the 3,000-3,500 range.

 

[jazzmang]

I seem to remember that in front of the group, Frank U. kinda dodged the question of how many units were produced a day, but I think concensus would be as Jazz has reported...and I do not mean to infer that he (Jazz) did not have discussion where that number was stated.

I specifically asked for production numbers during the open Q&A in the afternoon and the response was effectively "it's proprietary" so that confirms your memory.

As far as I can tell no guitars were actually completed on the day of LMG 2010. That could have been deliberate or it could indicate a low production number. Given the number of work stations in the final finishing room and the number of employees observed 10 a day seems to be a very plausible estimate to me. That puts annual production in the 3,000-3,500 range.

I got my initial estimates by checking out serial numbers. The last 3 digits represent what number unit that was for that day.

I've never seen higher than an 008, so far, but I'm sure they have their offset days when several more are completed than usual.
Dave confirmed without having to specifically say an exact number. Its less than 10/day.

 

[adorshki]

As far as I can tell no guitars were actually completed on the day of LMG 2010. That could have been deliberate or it could indicate a low production number. Given the number of work stations in the final finishing room and the number of employees observed 10 a day seems to be a very plausible estimate to me. That puts annual production in the 3,000-3,500 range.

You're taking all the fun out of wild speculation! :lol:
But I LIKE it. Thanks again Frono and Jazzman. Maybe this'll also help calm down those of us who keep wondering, "Where the h--l ARE they?!" Think about it, even 3500 divided by 50 states is still only 70 per state per year. Even if you throw out Alaska 'cause of low population, and Texas, 'cause West ain't gonna buy any yet, lol that's still a pretty LIMITED amount of production. And I still don't see anything wrong with a limited production product. Usually that means higher quality, as Guild itself claims it intends.
Sadly, the downside is that scarcity tends keep prices relatively high. But that thread's already 31 pages long. :wink: