For many people here (excluding myself), Cordoba guitars are not considered true Guilds. Its just some guitar with a Guild logo on it. Its considered that Guild died in Hew Hartford...
So you have Gibson the prodigal son, Guild the illegitimate son, and Cordoba the illegitimate son's bastard offspring.
So when you "dig" at your favorite brand, you're actually digging at the bastard offspring...
Oh I had smaller gripes with New Hartford, like open tuners and coated strings.
And since the brand has been bought/sold/relocated so many times I have no particular prejudices against any one location, although it's true when I joined here I was attracted by the late Westerly loyalists/purists based on my D25 ownership experience.
As for whether or not Cordoba is making "true" Guilds, lemme offer up this:
It's been proposed (by me, and with at least a coupla other members providing an avalanche of agreement) that Guild's single most iconic piece of machinery was (is) the legendary steam press that produced arched backs (and tops, too, I'm sure) and which had traveled with the brand to every location since Westerly (I'm not clear if it's actually even the same one that was used in Hoboken).
And yes, it's in Oxnard.
There's even conjecture that it might have been the piece of equipment that was delaying Oxnard's production start, because the real reason for the delays had nothing to do with getting certified to spray NCL but was getting a piece of equipment cleared by code inspectors that apparently drew so much power it could have taken down the local grid if turned on at the wrong time, which then quite literally could have cascaded into a southern Cal regional blackout, I mean, literally, the entire southern half of the state.
Hard to conceive of something drawing that much juice in a guitar-making plant except, maybe, a
steam press.
:glee:
"Where the archback press is, there is the heart of Guild."
As far as I'm concerned Oxnard builds true Guilds.
Now get out there and find those 16" F40 dies!!!!!!
:victorious: