Now, you can appreciate the handful of guys who kept the Ovation building in good shape, at New Hartford, just in case they could bring it back to life. And it worked, on a Custom Shop scale. I look at a building like the Westerly place and wonder just how much it would cost to buy and do SOMETHING guitar and Guild related with it.
No, I'm not made of money to actually do that, but you have to figure if a food bank is using it, it must not have cost much to open.
We've seen reports here that the a major factor in Fender's decision to close was the expense of upgrading the building for controlled climate, more appropriate to guitar construction. Those huge windows on the top would have needed complete replacement, for starters. They were literally vents IIRC, operated with hand cranks. OK for late 1800's when built but expensive to change.
And while that article's pretty informative, I do take exception to the phrase
"Meanwhile, Fender Musical Instruments, Guild parent company since 1995, moved the production of Guild guitars a few times around the country since leaving Westerly in 2001, while outsourcing most production to China."
OK it's vague but I'd like to see the production figures that validate that.
I got a suspicion it don't wash.
Also it didn't happen for at least a couple of years after close of Westerly (I first saw 'em in spring '04 price list) although granted Fender
may have been trying to put together the GAD line for a year or more before it was announced.
As we've seen it takes a while to get an
existing plant up and running again (6 months between purchase and first Guild production in Tacoma), let alone finding a reliable source in China and setting up all the supply chain logistics besides.
And Corona was on the ropes at the time of introduction. So I suspect there was lot more to the creation of the GAD line than we'll ever know.
One thing's for sure, even naysayers here have conceded Guild probably wouldn't have survived as a brand if there hadn't been
something available to cover the costs through all the relocation trials .
OK I get that it's a blog and it's editorial opinion and the author's playing on the
James McMurtry "We Can't Make It Here" lament, but little inaccuracies like that give some folks a reason to question the validity of the issue.
And lack of background causes other folks like Westerly Wood to misidentify the
real problems.
Dash, no snark intended, I think that's
your blog, right?
Final note is that the new owner Cordoba Music Group is responsible for the "Westerly
Collection" (not "Series") moniker.
(And no I don't like it either, it's already being used confusingly on internet seller's sites.)
B-u-u-t....maybe an update about the miraculous survival of our beloved brand through all these trials would be of interest.
They even still have the same steam press that was used in Westerly to make their signature arched backs in place there in Oxnard.
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