New Hartford Factory Second???

[alpep]

the event was for employees.

no need to speculate the guitar is legit

 

[SkippyX]

From my conversations with the Guild guys at LMG and some emails with a Guild dealer, it is clear that Guild's policy is a good one.

Here's what happens: If a guitar fails a final check due to anything cosmetic, the guitar is NOT marked in any way as a factory second, but is sold to a dealer as a new guitar with no factory warranty. The serial number is recorded at the factory as being one that has no warranty.

I'm willing to bet good money that these guitars we're seeing have an intact, normal Guild label, with a regular serial number. The only difference is that they are sold with no warranty. Street Sounds in New York has a few CT Guilds with no warranty as well and they have no markings indicating that they are factory seconds, which I think is a good thing.

Funny enough, after seeing a good bit of these non-warranted guitars, its interesting how usually no one can see what the cosmetic issue is. My idea is that typically those guitars with imperfect finishes (too thick, imperfect binding scraping, incorrect burst pattern, etc...) are marked to be sold with no warranty.

Wow. I was worried for a minute.

I just put a used Guild GAD-G212 on layaway at Guitar Center. It was stamped "used" on the back of the headstock. The sticker on the inside of the guitar looked exactly like the sticker on the inside of my GAD-50, save that where the serial number is on my GAD-50 there's another small white rectangular sticker with what looks to be a serial number of some sort printed on it affixed to the top of the original factory sticker.

I Googled "mirc, guitar" and got to mircs website. Here's what they've got posted over there:

http://mircweb.com/quality.php

When a guitar shipment arrives at our warehouse, our Receiving Manager and his staff unpacks, counts and inspects each guitar. The manufacturer’s serial number is removed and replaced with our MIRC serial number. Then the word “USED” is stamped on the back of the head stock. These last two steps are taken, to protect the interests of our manufactures and to prevent the filing of improper warranty claims. The guitars are then graded and prepared to go into our restoration shop.

And, to top it off, here's a photo of a guy at MIRC:

I wonder if there's a difference between the way Guild handles the GAD series and the rest of their line?

:?:

 

[chazmo]

From my conversations with the Guild guys at LMG and some emails with a Guild dealer, it is clear that Guild's policy is a good one.

Here's what happens: If a guitar fails a final check due to anything cosmetic, the guitar is NOT marked in any way as a factory second, but is sold to a dealer as a new guitar with no factory warranty. The serial number is recorded at the factory as being one that has no warranty.

I'm willing to bet good money that these guitars we're seeing have an intact, normal Guild label, with a regular serial number. The only difference is that they are sold with no warranty. Street Sounds in New York has a few CT Guilds with no warranty as well and they have no markings indicating that they are factory seconds, which I think is a good thing.

Funny enough, after seeing a good bit of these non-warranted guitars, its interesting how usually no one can see what the cosmetic issue is. My idea is that typically those guitars with imperfect finishes (too thick, imperfect binding scraping, incorrect burst pattern, etc...) are marked to be sold with no warranty.

Wow. I was worried for a minute.

I just put a used Guild GAD-G212 on layaway at Guitar Center. It was stamped "used" on the back of the headstock. The sticker on the inside of the guitar looked exactly like the sticker on the inside of my GAD-50, save that where the serial number is on my GAD-50 there's another small white rectangular sticker with what looks to be a serial number of some sort printed on it affixed to the top of the original factory sticker.

I Googled "mirc, guitar" and got to mircs website. Here's what they've got posted over there:

http://mircweb.com/quality.php

When a guitar shipment arrives at our warehouse, our Receiving Manager and his staff unpacks, counts and inspects each guitar. The manufacturer’s serial number is removed and replaced with our MIRC serial number. Then the word “USED” is stamped on the back of the head stock. These last two steps are taken, to protect the interests of our manufactures and to prevent the filing of improper warranty claims. The guitars are then graded and prepared to go into our restoration shop.

And, to top it off, here's a photo of a guy at MIRC:

I wonder if there's a difference between the way Guild handles the GAD series and the rest of their line?

:?:

Skippy,

MIRC was used in the past for a bunch of "seconds" from the US-built stuff; don't know about the GADs.

As Jazzman pointed out, the current process out of New Hartford is not likely to send anything to MIRC. These "seconds" would better be termed "blems" since they're almost certainly cosmetic only. Anything else would be bandsawed at this point. That has clearly *not* been the case in the past, however.

 

[alpep]

you can get some real stinkers from MIRC

but most manufacturers use them to get rid of old stock along with blems damaged items etc

remember guitars coming from china korea etc are not worth fixing if they have issues (at least by the manufacturers)

 

[Bill Ashton]

Well, that will make the original poster of this thread feel good

(Correction, mixing this thread up with another about a "used" stamp GAD 12'r)

But warning well taken, I have been trying to vear away from GAD 12's that
are constantly up on eBay with no warranty...

 

[SkippyX]

Well, that will make the original poster of this thread feel good

(Correction, mixing this thread up with another about a "used" stamp GAD 12'r)

But warning well taken, I have been trying to vear away from GAD 12's that
are constantly up on eBay with no warranty...

EDIT: There was a sentence here about me not wanting to hijack a thread. I think I misunderstood the above-quoted post. My apologies.

Still.......

I don't think I'd buy a factory second w/out playing it first to make sure all was well.

 

[chazmo]

Well, that will make the original poster of this thread feel good

(Correction, mixing this thread up with another about a "used" stamp GAD 12'r)

But warning well taken, I have been trying to vear away from GAD 12's that
are constantly up on eBay with no warranty...

Well, gosh. I sure wasn't trying to hijack a thread. I saw something in this thread that made me nervous about a purchase I was making and hoped to glean some additional info.

I don't think I'd buy a factory second w/out playing it first to make sure all was well.

That, I think, is the wise approach, Skippy. Else you have no recourse (other than passing the buck or spending $$ to fix the problems, I suppose).

 

[fronobulax]

I don't think I'd buy a factory second w/out playing it first to make sure all was well.

I'd probably want to play it first but the signs are that if it is a Guild "second" that was made in New Hartford, the issue that made it a second would be cosmetic. I also note with interest capnjuan's putting numbers to my speculation and concluding a factory warranty is worth about $500 in today's market. For that kind of a difference in price one could buy a NH second and an only slightly under-priced vintage D-25 and have the best of both worlds.