With all that said, in the last 20 years, I have hardly seen any representation of the brand...and I’ve seemed to notice that not a lot of the younger folk seem to give a darn what the name on the headstock says! I could probably learn a thing or two from them... And after all that, what do I know!
I'm sure it's more than coincidental that that period coincides with the close of Westerly followed in short order by the close of Corona, and Tacoma, and New Hartford.
Besides the issue that none of those approached the annual output volume of Westerly in its prime, they also suffered truncated periods of production, New Hartford lasting the longest of the 3, but each closure also resulting in at least a year or so of no new (domestic) production.
It also alienated dealers at least 2 of which I heard tell me they stopped carrying the brand
because they couldn't trust it anymore after the multiple closures (and associated inventory liquidations).
Further aggravating the issue was that this was a period in which "cheap imports" really began to make inroads in the US market especially since their quality was getting pretty decent.
And internet sales took off, and brick and mortar stores suffered and were smacked yet again during the great recession..the market really did undergo significant change over those 20 years.
Right here we used to bemoan the difficulty of even finding a piece on the shelf in a retail store to try out (due to the low production), so it's no surprise that the younger generation of flattop plyers never even knew the brand was there to seek out, except for the imports, and that was a niche from which
Taylor was able to grab significant share, besides Martin and Gibson.
And the Grand Auditorium (F40 family) bodies which Oxnard has abandoned.
No, I don't think a US built D25 would have kept the brand in front of the demographic you describe, especially considering the GAD line didn't, and a strong argument can be made that the GAD line is what kept Guild alive
at all especially from '08-'11.
See Extrakrispy's comment in post #1 here:
https://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?202096-The-Last-NH-F-30-Std-Sunburst
I asked why it hadn’t sold in 5yrs? “Most of our sales are $200-$600 guitars,” the manager said.
Given that my new D25 listed at $1199 in '96 and I got it for the super-double-secret discounted price of $700 Out The Door, I doubt very much whether Guild would have even been capable of providing a domestic-built instrument anywhere near that $2-600 range in the last 20 years.
On the contrary, trying to continue production of US D25's may well have
really nailed the coffin shut.
The good news is that all those US D25's is gonna start getting some respeck on the collector's market.
:glee: