john_kidder
Senior Member
Well actually, since you ask.
"Reprehensible" is not a useful word to describe a company like Fender. Fender is surely less "reprehensible" than say, a company that makes cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines. Fender makes instruments, for heaven's sake.
Here's my story - just a story, no facts or evidence. Others know better.
Seems to me like Guild ran out of cash in the late '80s, and became a takeover target. After a few machinations, Fender bought the company. They have facilities in California, so naturally enough they moved Guild production (relatively small volume at the time) to their existing plants, and shut down the unsuccessful assembly plant on the east coast.
Turned out that it wan't a good mix. And the Corona Guilds (pace, those who've got 'em), didn't set the world on fire. Remember that big batch of "seconds" from Corona that are still turning up on eBay? So Fender had a Guild brand that worked, and a bunch of designs that their folks couldn't make very well without bigtime retolling and disruption. And when someone sold them on assembling guitars in China, the Guilds were the obvious candidate. Someone said at a meeting: "I get it. Let's get the goddam Guilds out of our plants, and make them in China." As it turns out, the GADs work OK, nice entry guitars, great cases, but still no marketing juice, no sudden surge in popularity. And, at the same time, their Tacoma acquisition is doing OK, but not really smoking. And it does have good builders. So they decide to use the excess capacity in the Tacoma plant to make the higher-end US Guilds. And we don't yet know the outcome, but I haven't heard a lot of bad things about the Tacoma Guilds.
So, maybe some seeming disrespect for a name held in high esteem by a few (that's us), but really just a series of commercial decisions by an instrument company. We're all just nutters, hanging on to our special knowledge of a relatively rare group of instruments made by a company that was around for about fifty years before it became part of the the conglomerate. Fender's just another company. "Reprehensible" doesn't cut it.
And it was all set in train by a failure of management long ago, during the Westerly days when the staff and the crew were making the great guitars we love. So the magical mystical "Westerly days" were actually the failure.
So: I remain intrigued about a head to head with the F-50R, D-60, D-55? I wish you had a GF-60R as well (no, you can't have mine). But I'll start another thread for it.
Cheers,
"Reprehensible" is not a useful word to describe a company like Fender. Fender is surely less "reprehensible" than say, a company that makes cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines. Fender makes instruments, for heaven's sake.
Here's my story - just a story, no facts or evidence. Others know better.
Seems to me like Guild ran out of cash in the late '80s, and became a takeover target. After a few machinations, Fender bought the company. They have facilities in California, so naturally enough they moved Guild production (relatively small volume at the time) to their existing plants, and shut down the unsuccessful assembly plant on the east coast.
Turned out that it wan't a good mix. And the Corona Guilds (pace, those who've got 'em), didn't set the world on fire. Remember that big batch of "seconds" from Corona that are still turning up on eBay? So Fender had a Guild brand that worked, and a bunch of designs that their folks couldn't make very well without bigtime retolling and disruption. And when someone sold them on assembling guitars in China, the Guilds were the obvious candidate. Someone said at a meeting: "I get it. Let's get the goddam Guilds out of our plants, and make them in China." As it turns out, the GADs work OK, nice entry guitars, great cases, but still no marketing juice, no sudden surge in popularity. And, at the same time, their Tacoma acquisition is doing OK, but not really smoking. And it does have good builders. So they decide to use the excess capacity in the Tacoma plant to make the higher-end US Guilds. And we don't yet know the outcome, but I haven't heard a lot of bad things about the Tacoma Guilds.
So, maybe some seeming disrespect for a name held in high esteem by a few (that's us), but really just a series of commercial decisions by an instrument company. We're all just nutters, hanging on to our special knowledge of a relatively rare group of instruments made by a company that was around for about fifty years before it became part of the the conglomerate. Fender's just another company. "Reprehensible" doesn't cut it.
And it was all set in train by a failure of management long ago, during the Westerly days when the staff and the crew were making the great guitars we love. So the magical mystical "Westerly days" were actually the failure.
So: I remain intrigued about a head to head with the F-50R, D-60, D-55? I wish you had a GF-60R as well (no, you can't have mine). But I'll start another thread for it.
Cheers,
