Corona Headstock Stamp

[GTGUILD]

Greetings -

New to the Forum. I am a longtime Guild fan with an early X-500. I was researching Corona built X-500s when I came across this site. You have a cool thing going here.

I am trying to figure out the significance of a headstock stamp that says "CX000000" - Does it mean it was a factory second? I figure the "C" stands for Corona since it is of that age and clearly a newer guitar. However, I don't know why they would have gone to the trouble of the stamping it that way unless it means something. I understand that many Corona built Guilds came out with no headstock stamp, but this one seems curious.

Any insight? Thanks.

 

[GTGUILD]

In follow-up, I talked to a great guy at Fender/Guild customer service and he had no quick answer. It seems pretty clear that the transition from Westerly to Corona threw any set practices out the door. He said the stamp could have meant something as easy as marking it to be used on a X-500 guitar for production. He said any seconds would have been marked with the traditional words and not typically by putting a series of zeroes on the headstock.

Though probably old news on this Forum, he did mention that production of Guild has now been moved to CT from Tacoma on higher end stuff following Fender's aquisition of Ovation. Though it has not been announced, he said the move seems to open up the opportunity to start manufacturing Guild electrics again.

Thanks - G

 

[wright1]

Hi GTGUILD, Hans is the expert on this sort of thing but Corona seconds usually have all the digits stamped over with what looks like a zero and 'USED' is usually stamped in the head. Also the label inside is changed with the removal of the serial number stickered over with a new number. With the CX still intact it may be that you have some sort of pre-production model. If you can put up a series of really good photos showing all the detail Hans will make a pretty good guess or know exactly what is going on.My impression is that many of the guys on this forum have no faith in Fender at all (understatement??) so I am not surprised that the guy you talked to couldn't give you an answer however nice he was. The history of Guild from the time Fender bought it seems to be that Fender really didn't know what to do with it and the constant transfer of production around the US combined with a changing product line and now no production at all has saddened a lot of Guild enthusiasts.
There is a wealth of information on this forum. Just ask and you will find out just how fantastic the people on this forum are. We all love Guild.
Good luck, Steve.

 

[northbayj]

Hi GT,

You've found the right spot - welcome aboard. I've got an X500 that Hans tells me is most likely a 2003, and its serial number starts with CX0000. So it looks like the serial number on yours is in the right ballpark. Though if it's ALL zeroes after the CX, you might have something odd on your hands. You'd think that they'd start with 1, but who knows. Hans will be by sooner or later to set us all straight. BTW: we want pictures!

John

 

[GTGUILD]

John-

Does your X-500 have a different number inside on the label?

Thanks- Greg

 

[northbayj]

Nope. Headstock number and label number match perfectly.

 

[GTGUILD]

Thanks that helps and causes me some concern about this guitar - The headstock stamp and the label numbers are different. The label decal is a long number without any "CX" in it.

I will look forward to seeing if Hans has any input.

Thanks, Greg

 

[wright1]

Is the serial number decal inside a white strip with deep black numbers? If it is, it sounds like a second especially as it is a different number with no CX pre-fix.Pics please!
This doesn't mean that you have a 'bad' guitar. There can be any number of reasons why it has a changed number.

 

[GTGUILD]

The word is the number is directly on the inside label and not on a white strip. The photos look solid and the seller says it plays great.