adorshki
Reverential Member
I also question the meaning of NH's being "top-to-bottom redesigns" when we already know a few changes introduced in Tacoma carried over to New Hartford: Dual action truss rod, single truss w/ graphite reinforcements in 12-string necks, adi braces/tops, and even those recent prototypes we've seen with Tacoma-style "contempory" headstocks.However, the closing of Tacoma and New Hartford were not done the same way. In fact, we know through all the trainwrecks that a whole bunch of unfinished / shelved material made it into the hands of MIRC when Tacoma closed. And, I know firsthand that wood was shipped to New Hartford. Not sure how much of the machinery made it, but New Hartford was very good about building/tooling their own shop; that's one of the reasons New Hartford got Guild.
Jay Pilzer's article mentions that none of the tooling from Tacoma made it to NH EXCEPT for the arch-back press, which also made it to Oxnard.
I do get Steve's general point that in many instances Fender deemed it cheaper to dispose of stuff than store it and that's probably true. Even storage has a cost, and that's why I would have been surprised if that bridge on the new bass was actually leftover US Guild stock.
But I'd be equally surprised if they ordered up a new batch to be made.
It just looks too much like that DeArmond Jetstar I posted, even the body's similar, so I smelled "recycled", that's all.