The honorable thing would be to honor the price at which a firm order was placed. But if there was no firm order placed there is nothing going on that cannot be explained by a simple error of the sort we all make. In fact I can imagine someone rushing to determine a price because Guild was trying to be responsive to a request and, in the rush, getting it wrong. Perhaps, for example, the quoted price was for an authorized repair dealer?
I'm with the greyhound on this one.
After speaking to Winnie this morning CMG did honor their original price and, as I understand it, their asking price for these pickups is reasonable. My concerns in this area are satisfied.
Update,
I received the pickup at the original price plus only $5 shipping. I'll install it this coming week and report back. It reads 7.17K and the package is from FMIC.
I am like the cat that ate cheese and stationed himself in front of the mousehole; I am waiting with baited breath.
An indication that Oxnard follows this forum with an admirable level of diligence?
I hope so. I know for a fact that Gretsch follows the two major Gretsch forums and have seen instances where Joe Carducci has become directly involved in customer satisfaction issues regarding Gretsch guitars, after having seen these on the forums.
All I ask of CMG, is to be forthright about the NS "Li'l Bucker" (I love that name) issue. There are probably a lot of Starfire players out there that don't care in the slightest. I've only noticed a problem when I got to volume levels associated with public performances. For band practice, or just playing at home, I was fine with the way things were from the factory. I don't think that a general recall is needed, but I would hope that CMG will make correction as painless as is reasonable; perhaps selling the pickups at a discounted price to current owners on NS and other FMIC era models.
I don't know if I'll end up doing much to the Starfire III, but the T-400 is unacceptable. Worse case scenario, I'll try some Seymours or maybe some humbucking-mount TV Jones pickups. I could things of worse things than a set of Supertrons on my T-400. It would be a total mongrel, but it would be a good sounding mongrel.
As frustrating as all of this has been, I will state categorically that my overall satisfaction with Guild guitars (all of mine are 2014 production) is very high. I recommend N.S. Guilds to others and my T-400 is the guitar I consider the best in my somewhat sizable herd. Like Default, I want Guild to succeed as a line. I believe that the marque deserves to be treated with respect and a degree of reverence. This is a gem of a guitar brand. They had an incredible selection of models and, IMO, their line was very imaginative compared to the more limited offerings that some of their competitors had. I'm truly proud to see Guild head stocks on my famous "wall o' guitars' and I see the Guilds as a wonderful counterbalance to my beloved Gretsches. I just hope that CMG is able to build upon the groundwork FMIC did in bringing the N.S. line to market.
On a semi-related topic: One of the best archtops I ever chanced to play was an Artist Award. I've played quite a number of 17" acoustic archtops with floating pickups and one Le Grande and one Artist Award stand out in my mind as the best sounding of all the 17" archtops I've ever played. (Colorado Jazz guitarist, Dale Bruning, has an 18" DW Stephens that is absolutely amazing and perhaps he best archtop I've ever played {and this includes a number of Benedettos}, but this is an 18" instrument and not even remotely a production instrument.) Anyhow, one thing I hope greatly is that CMG is able to make some truly memorable Artist Awards once they are fully ramped up.