Guild Moving to CT?? Have you seen this?

Wasn't there a change recently where FMIC and Taylor made a mutual marketing agreement?

Smelled a rat, then. Now we see the rat poop.

I'm afraid this is the deathblow for USA-made Guilds, my friends. I don't see how the brand can recover from this. They lose all market credibility after this, especially after the corporation just crowed so mightily about Guild Tacoma in that ACOUSTIC GUITAR cover story.

And, apparently they are taking Tacoma Guitars out with the same rock.

How pathetic.

Anyone else wondering if this step was part of FMIC's deal with Taylor?

So the new Guild line will be the GAG line of guitars?
Wonder where they will be made, Korea?

Wonder where they will be made, Korea?

Click to expand...

Or Viet Nam. Wouldn't that be a kick in the butt.

sunpowder said:

FMIC’s recent (Dec. 31, 2007) acquisition of Kaman also included Ovation and Hamer guitar brands and their manufacturing facility in New Hartford, Conn. After closing the KMC acquisition, an extensive review of the Tacoma and New Hartford manufacturing facilities was conducted to determine the best long-term home for Guild production. The final decision to relocate Guild to New Hartford was driven by FMIC’s desire to improve overall production processes as well as meet the growing demand for Guild throughout the world. Approximately 70 Tacoma employees will be affected and will be provided with comprehensive assistance, including retention and severance packages, benefit continuation and outplacement services.

Click to expand...

I like the look and the words here - Hamer Brochure - could be a great home for Guild hollow- and solid-body electrics? Don't see any expertise at Ovation or Hamer for building acoustic flattops, though.

If they're going to move "selected Tacoma models" as well as all Guilds, I wonder if the "retention packages" might include offers to move some key Tacoma luthiers to Connecticut? It does seem a risk though, after the terrific reviews (so far) of the Tacoma Guilds

Thanks for the link, JK. That brochure is an impressive marketing piece, but it also seems to me that Hammer already has the former Guild electric and archtop lines pretty well covered.

I hope you are right, but I'm out of faith myself.

I agree with you guys. I thought the Tacoma plant was the world's largest production plant for acoustic guitars - what would be more economic than that? All fine spruce, mahogany, rosewood and mahogany concentrated at one place with tools (and workforce) that are interchangable between Tacoma and Guild brand guitars.

Speaking of jacks, Ovation know jack crap about acoustic tonewood for back and sides. All they know is ground nutshells, they may know it well but that doesn't make them an institution on acoustics.

What value will the Guild brand have by the time they finish

In the short time that I have been following Guild, it seems that in the 50 plus years of existence, it has always had a problem with really getting any traction, so to speak, by staying in one place with one owner. This seems to follow its history like a dark cloud. I would be curious to hear an estimate as to what the Guild name is worth now? I hope its fate doesn't follow the path of Schwinn bikes, who after mismanagement and being bought, sold and repackaged, ended up with really just a name and nothing more.
tj

my understanding is that this had nothing to do with the taylor distribution deal, at all. strictly a manufacturing consolidation move. the question being asked inside fender must be 'why would you run two plants seperately at moderate capacity when you can run one?'. mergers and buyouts are messy business.

sitka_spruce said:

I agree with you guys. I thought the Tacoma plant was the world's largest production plant for acoustic guitars - what would be more economic than that? All fine spruce, mahogany, rosewood and mahogany concentrated at one place with tools (and workforce) that are interchangable between Tacoma and Guild brand guitars.

Click to expand...

With all due respect to you sitka, Tacoma is far from the world's largest production plant for acoustics

Search of recent local newspaper articles http://www.courant.com/ doesn't mention anything; tax abatements, new biz coming to town, expansion of local plant...Bupkis.

bluegrass jubilee said:

[quote="sitka_spruce":e5657]I agree with you guys. I thought the Tacoma plant was the world's largest production plant for acoustic guitars - what would be more economic than that? All fine spruce, mahogany, rosewood and mahogany concentrated at one place with tools (and workforce) that are interchangable between Tacoma and Guild brand guitars.

Click to expand...

With all due respect to you sitka, Tacoma is far from the world's largest production plant for acoustics[/quote:e5657]
My understanding was the Tacoma plant is suppose to hold some kind of record, though. I'm sure no one brand can ever measure up to CF Martin in terms of units of one brand name.

Believe Tacoma now holds the record for shortest term manufacturing site for Guild guitars.

Pardon my sarcasm, Tacoma workers. My heart goes out to you folks and I wish you the best of luck.

guildzilla said:

Believe Tacoma now holds the record for shortest term manufacturing site for Guild guitars.

Pardon my sarcasm, Tacoma workers. My heart goes out to you folks and I wish you the best of luck.

Click to expand...

Beat me too it! At one time, Tacoma Guitars were the third largest American guitar company and the fastest "growing". Doesn't mean much in the end.

We'll see how the Guildovations compare to the Guildomas next year? I predict not bad, but certainly no better...at least for a time.

Gruhn must be pulling his hair out. He designs guitars for Guild, Guild gets bought by Fender and moved out. He designs guitars for Tacoma, they get bought by Fender and moved out. Fender must have something personal against the guy!

Gonna get to the point where Guitar Guitars is going to be the only brand in America.
It'll be a doubleneck with a 25.5 neck and a 24.75. It'll have 7 pickups, 3 single coils, 2 buckers, a Dearmond and a lipstick pickup.
Probably 3 cutaways, half hollow jazzer and half pointy shred stick. Not sure how to mount the Kahler and Bigsby on one neck, because the hardtail and trapeze bridges are on the other neck. It'll weight 14 pounds and cost over twenty thousand dollars, because it's "a relic".

Ok Graham, the ball's in your court!

Just when the Tacoma factory is acquiring chutzpah with dealers and the discriminating consumer.........FMIC sticks it to them. :?

I truly wanted to buy an F50R ATB, but not sure if I'll be able to now. How depressing.

Just for the heck of it, allow me to propose a truly paranoid and cynical scenario.

1 - Disappointed with the sales figures for the Tacoma Guild guitars, but having established baseline sales numbers, FMIC decides to give Tacoma Guild one final boost.

2 - FMIC gets (choice of many verbs here, some more descriptive than others) AG magazine to run a cover story on Guild that paints the rosiest of pictures of the success and higher quality of the Tacoma guitars as the finest acoustics Guild has ever made. A brilliant future is declared.

3 - FMIC marketing and management then carefully track new Guild guitar sales after release of the AG cover story and compare the increases to the established baseline sales numbers (see # 1). Did it work? How much? Short term trends are extrapolated into longer term projections. Do we shoot the horse or ride it?

4 - FMIC dispatches an illiterate janitor to read LTG and other forums to assess if their trick moved the choir. (Perhaps we are a marketing focus group after all). The janitor reports back that he just can't figure out how to milk the steer.

5 - FMIC finishes crunching the numbers, determines that the grade is too steep, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. A deal is completed with Taylor.

6 - FMIC shoots the Tacoma horse and releases cover story about the benefits of moving Guild production to Connecticut.

7 - (TBA) FMIC announces new artist endorsements for the Guild GAD guitars and, in the final paragraph of the press release, states that its plans to restart USA Guild production in Connecticut have been postponed indefinitely.

:shock:

bluegrass jubilee said:

the question being asked inside fender must be 'why would you run two plants seperately at moderate capacity when you can run one?'

Click to expand...

The answer is because one plant makes good guitars and the other makes plastic bowls.

Jim

So this explains why I can't find any American made Guilds in DFW. I was hoping to purchase a Tacoma made D55 but I can't seem to find any. Oh well the Dallas show is coming up in April, this may be my last shot.



~Jon

How 'bout this;

Ovation production moves to Tacoma, Guild acoustic production to Connecticut, ultimately being built side by side (as it were) with the re-introduced line of Guild electrics, by some of the same folks who were building them in Westerly?

Had a good lesson tonight so I'm being optimistic.