CV-1C LTG Member Review

How long have you owned the CV-1C: 20 months
Year & specific model: 2008 CV-1c (Blemish/used)
Purchased new or used: eBay aftermarket seller
Price paid: $900.00 (Total invested following repairs: $1600.00)

Owners rate 1 (least appreciated) to 10 (most appreciated) in following categories with comments as desired:

Build quality: 3 (when received from eBay seller - see below comments)
Present build quality: 10
Looks: 10
Projection: 8
Bass:8
Mids: 9
Highs: 9.5
Sustain: 8
Playability/comfort: 10 (following luthier surgery)
Dependability: see below
Fingerstyle: 10
Flatpick: 9
Strum: 8

Condition (Mint/Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor): Excellent plus but only after major surgery to repair neck and neck joint defects (see below)

Favorite Strings (one selection only): Elixer PB medium/lights

Would you buy another if lost/sold: No

Overall Assessment: See below

Most Appreciated Characteristic: F-40 cutaway body is probably the most comfortable of any guitar I've owned

Least Appreciated: Fender's decision to sell seconds to aftermarket retailers who then flooded the eBay market with them

Favorite CV-1C Story/Moment: The day Ross the Magic Luthier returned the guitar to me following his expert surgery.

Other observations/comments: The whole story is here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13293&hilit=trainwreck+neck

The bottom line is that after sinking several hundred dollars into neck and neck attachment repairs, I now love this guitar. Long story short: the bolt on neck had been overtorqued during assembly at the Tacoma plant. Once the joint was repaired, I took it home, then returned it to the luthier a couple of months later due to significant neck warping. We eventually concluded that the wood used in this particular neck was still green. Ross Jennings kept this guitar several months this time to ensure it had dried sufficiently, then sanded and refretted the neck a second time before releasing it to me. It was one of the last to be crafted in the Tacoma plant prior to Fender's decision to move operations to New Hartford. Many here believe (me included) that Fender tried to cut costs by selling off guitars that normally would not have been released for sale.

I own 3 of the Contemporary Series guitars, one of them is the Willy Porter Signature Series. There is a lot of talk regarding what happened to the Contemporary Series, why did it end. I believe Guild put 3 or 4 years of work developing this series and started the build when they moved from California to the Tacoma WA. factory and mill. Tacoma Guitars were also produced there at one time. Tacoma guitars and Guild guitars have at least one thing in common, they were both bought out by Fender Inc. Tacoma still builds guitars but just the ones that have sound holes in the top part of the sound board instead of the normal soundhole placed in the usual place. I have one of the Tacoma built guitars made before being taken over by Fender and it has the normal sound hole on its electric/acoustic guitar. Why did Fended stop Tacoma from building the competitive models with normal sound hole placement?? Who knows. Why did Fended let Guild spend 4 years developiing it's Contemporary Series and move from Ca to Tacoma Wa to start the production of the Contemporary Series just to shut down the Tacoma Factory and move Guild back East and have it's GAD series built in China. Seems like Fender did not want Tacoma or Guild to produce american made solid wood guitars to compete with Taylor and Martin which Guild was trying to do with with the Contemporary Series guitar and the Tacoma acoustic/electric guitar w/normal sound hole placement w/cutway body. It seems that Fender has stopped the production of several american made guitars that would be competitive with Taylor and Martin american made. I don't think Guild Co. had any choice in the termination of the Contemporary Series or closing down the Tacoma factory. I think the Parent Co. Fender made that decision for reasons known only to itself. Just my guess as to why the Contemporary Series was never really marketed and sent out to major retail music companies for sale and promotion. Gary

That sure is a beauty Ken, and that one hit the lottery when it landed in your house.

goldleaf said:

I own 3 of the Contemporary Series guitars, one of them is the Willy Porter Signature Series. There is a lot of talk regarding what happened to the Contemporary Series, why did it end. I believe Guild put 3 or 4 years of work developing this series and started the build when they moved from California to the Tacoma WA. factory and mill. Tacoma Guitars were also produced there at one time. Tacoma guitars and Guild guitars have at least one thing in common, they were both bought out by Fender Inc. Tacoma still builds guitars but just the ones that have sound holes in the top part of the sound board instead of the normal soundhole placed in the usual place. I have one of the Tacoma built guitars made before being taken over by Fender and it has the normal sound hole on its electric/acoustic guitar. Why did Fended stop Tacoma from building the competitive models with normal sound hole placement?? Who knows. Why did Fended let Guild spend 4 years developiing it's Contemporary Series and move from Ca to Tacoma Wa to start the production of the Contemporary Series just to shut down the Tacoma Factory and move Guild back East and have it's GAD series built in China. Seems like Fender did not want Tacoma or Guild to produce american made solid wood guitars to compete with Taylor and Martin which Guild was trying to do with with the Contemporary Series guitar and the Tacoma acoustic/electric guitar w/normal sound hole placement w/cutway body. It seems that Fender has stopped the production of several american made guitars that would be competitive with Taylor and Martin american made. I don't think Guild Co. had any choice in the termination of the Contemporary Series or closing down the Tacoma factory. I think the Parent Co. Fender made that decision for reasons known only to itself. Just my guess as to why the Contemporary Series was never really marketed and sent out to major retail music companies for sale and promotion. Gary

Click to expand...

Gary, the original Tacoma design had the offset soundhole, they started to build the traditional models under Fender's supervision, and they retained some of the peculiar building concepts for the Contemporary series (if I recall correctly, the Tacomas have a bolt on neck). To me what happened is simple: in 1995 Fender purchased Guild to compete on the market of high end guitars, at the end of 1999 they decided not to invest in the renewal of the Westerly plant and moved the production to Corona to cut the manufacturing costs. When they purchased Jackson and Charvel, in 2003, the plant was over crowed and they decided to move the production on the recently acquired Tacoma plant; at the beginning they thought they could keep two important acoustic brands, then they focused on Guild, a much more historic name. When they bought the Kaman music division they had the opportunity to move the production in a better plant, and since they couldn't keep tow plants they closed Tacoma. In New Hartford they found the same situation they had in Tacoma, two brands, and decided to sacrifice one (Ovation).

I'm pretty sure if they buy something like Taylor they would kill Guild like they killed Ovation and Tacoma.