Darryl Hattenhauer
Venerated Member
From what I can gather (out in the berry patch) Corona was the first place to use the cases with the oval label on the side by the handle. Were any of those used on guitars from Jim..., I mean from Westerly?
switch from RI to CA cases.
- Thread starter Darryl Hattenhauer
- Start date
adorshki
Reverential Member
MY two Westerlys' cases are gold paint logo'd. The D40's got the oval plate. the F65's an '01 shipped in December of '01 so that's about as close to the end of Westerly production as you can get. My money's on no oval badges prior to Corona. :wink:Darryl Hattenhauer said:
Darryl Hattenhauer
Venerated Member
I doubt if all of the last Westerlys came with the old cases and all of the new Coronas came with the new cases. That's because the supply of old cases probably didn't run out with the last Westerly guitar. Instead, they probably either sent leftover Westerly cases to Corona, or sent new Coronas to Westerly.
Another way that a Westerly could come with a Corona case is if the Westerly was at a retailer after the Corona cases came in, and the retailer sold the Westerly guitar with a Corona case.
I think that's the case. It depends on what Fender's people in Corona do.
Another way that a Westerly could come with a Corona case is if the Westerly was at a retailer after the Corona cases came in, and the retailer sold the Westerly guitar with a Corona case.
I think that's the case. It depends on what Fender's people in Corona do.
The change probably occurred when TKL became the vendor. Was that part of the move to Corona? I know that TKL was used by Tacoma and New Hartford until very recently.
adorshki
Reverential Member
ALL of my cases are TKL. So it was TKL from '96 at least. Also, to answer Darryl's hypothesis, I suspect most of the guitars were ordered and shipped WITH cases. ALL of mine were priced "with case". You could buy a standalone case or a standalone guitar, but there was a discounted price when ordered as a "bundle". But I was never even offered a standalone guitar. They didn't want a spare "Guild" case lying around, they already had it.Chazmo said:
In fact it took 'em a while to find the case for the D40 as it was pretty well buried in storage. But they KNEW that case was for that guitar. For one thing it had the second pickguard inside, and they'd labelled it on the outside. It obviously came with the guitar.
Sure, "crossover" may have occurred at the dealer level, but I still suspect there was no need to send oval badge cases to Westerly to ship with. They knew it they were being shut down, and probably had a very accurate idea of just how many cases they'd need to finish shipping what was completed. If anything I'd think maybe some old cases made it to Corona.
I always wondered about the change myself, but it wasn't due to a source change.
I think there must have been some cost efficiency reason, like most reasons. Probably due to uncertainty about what kind of volumes would be needed. Probably cheaper to buy the badges and put 'em on generic cases as needed. No minimum silkscreen run requirement.
adorshki
Reverential Member
You should know that by December of '01 just about everything was already gone. I have a letter from Fender saying my F65ce was literally completed ("passed inspection") in October and shipped in December of '01. That's what I meant by "about as late as you can get". Nothing was shipped out of Westerly after that. I think the "ramp down" was such that there was no need to send oval badge cases to Westerly. There's also the possibility that it was fully intended to distinguish the Corona production with a new case "look", just like the label re-design and the launch of the reissue flatback D25.Darryl Hattenhauer said:
The more I think about it, I'll bet my last set of original L350 strings there was never an oval badge case shipped out of Westerly.
IIRC I think West's burst D55 was one of the very last guitars manufactured in Westerly according to Hans. Assuming it came with the OHSC, that might be a good indicator. Maybe Jim'll chime in here.
adorshki
Reverential Member
I've got an awful lot of credibility at stake here. I'm pretty deeply invested in the accuracy of that answer, regardless of how many smileys I've put up til 'now. JIM, DON'T LET ME DOWN! :lol:twocorgis said: