Corona was basically Fender, as far as I know, and Fender was never a true player in the acoustic segment. One of the first hopes when Fender bought Guild, was they would finally have a true higher end acoustic brand.
Let's not forget that Fender's acquisition of Guild was finalized in Nov. '95, so for sure the '96-'01 Westerly period was under Fender ownership, although I believe I've read that on-site management was largely left intact.
Long time ago member
@hideglue (Paul correct me if I'm grossly incorrect here) who worked at Westerly at the time, said that "Guild QC reached a zenith under Fender".
It was misinterpreted by some as implying that the "Fender Guilds" (my term) were better than what came before, so he had to take pains to clarify that it was the overall
level of QC that Fender introduced, with things like a checklist to ensure no step was overlooked, that increased overall percentage of "good" builds.
Let's not forget, either, Fender set up the Guild Nashville Custom Shop which ushered in a new even higher class of design and build, seeking to revive to and give modern expression to Guild's roots, with things like the 45th Anniversary, the Valencia, and the F30RLS (Long Scale).
Move to Corona began in '01 for '02 model year production, and for sure they had their teething pains, but Corona production was driven by a new build philosophy: "Vintage Justified" as explained by former member Jay Pilzer, here: whoah, "error establishing database connection" from several avenues.
Basically Pilzer described how Fender acquired examples of "vintage" models to see how they were built and what was "good" was kept, and what maybe wasn't so good wasn't necessarily retained just because that's how they did it.
They made never-before used blueprints to codify build consistency across models. (I also have a pet hypothesis that those same prints may have been used in designing the MIC GAD line which was introduced in '03)
But I also think it may be why my Corona D40's "built like a tank" compared to the 2 late Westerlys.
And it took a while, but I love it just as much as the others now.
Fender also built an entire new section in Corona to be dedicated to Guild acoustic production, even installed a brand new spray booth for NCL. (Although, yeah early Coronas have been to reported to have had a somewhat high degree of finish blem 2nds...
)
But in my opinion, yeah, they were serious.
Yes I agree I've always suspected they bought Guild precisely so they
could become a serious and respected player in the US build flattop market, although I myself began to get sense of "corporate big fish gobbling up the little fish competitors" when they acquired Tacoma and unceremoniously moved Guild production up there virtually lock stock and barrel (Don't know about the spray booth, though
)
But they fostered design innovation in Tacoma too, investing in Guild's R&D personnel with what appear to be very good results, barring the perhaps undeservedly notorious "Contemporary Series" with their bolt-on neck design.
And many people were delighted when Ren became involved. But was there a bit of Gibson introduced?
Just realized perhaps that was "rhetorical", otherwise was just gonna say that Ren's Orpheum series have been said to have some Gibson-like characterisitics, like a slope-shouldered dread. And maybe that's what you meant.
Branding is very subjective. We tend to stick to something once we find it. So for me Guild was Hoboken and Westerly. I played them, I know them. Everything else is new.
Brand loyalty is a very personal ting, I have my own favorites, but yes, when one's favored brand changes on you, one feels a bit betrayed..
I think Fender respected and preserved the Guild brand identity better than CMG. Let's not forget the impact of the Great Recession, yet Fender kept the brand alive through it all.
I came to Guild because my early '80's MIK Fender F210 flattop (a nice decent little guitar) was stolen. I wanted to finally buy a good "lifetime"
US-built guitar, one that was worth re-furbishing as needed. With a warranty.
Was having sticker shock, best buddy (himself an owner of an '87 JF30-12) said "Y'oughta check out Guild. Fender just bought 'em."
So I did, and I found my D25.
I just realized I don't think I ever thanked him enough for that tip.