Yeah. Gotta admit though, I was guilty of "shooting first" before I remembered to take into account that that article was written in 2016, when Oxnard was just starting production.
I realized that that reviewer may well have been spoon-fed some of that stuff from Cordoba, as it fits with at least a couple of many grievances we've had with 'em since the takeover:
Re the M&T neck joint, Cordoba didn't actually acknowledge that new construction method change "up front". It was discovered here by accident when a pic of a neckblock in a body in process revealed the tell-tale "boltholes".
IIRC correctly it was TXbumper who first caught it, and he was understandably even further angered that they actually initially denied it when he questioned 'me on it, again, "IIRC".
Might have got some details wrong but I'm still quite sure of my memory about the real problem: lack of transparency from Cordoba.
They didn't want to cop to it. So they may have told that reviewer the D20 had a dovetail neck joint.
Also, in '16, D20's did get satin varnish. It was before they were spraying NCL which they were reserving at the time for the higher-end/Traditionals like the F55 and D55.
Where the 1-3/4 nut spec came from for the D20 I don't know, can't recall if that might actually have been the original spec and has also changed, or if perhaps somebody at Oxnard gave the spec for the
Westerly Collection D120 , thinking they'd be the same?
Still, one wonders if the reviewer actually played the guitar. One'd think he'd notice the difference between a 1-11/16 and 1-3/4 nut.
Most folks can at least "feel it" whether they have a preference for one or the other, or not.
We saw examples of other spec info errors from 'em early on, such as one member being sent 2 different replacement bridges for his F150, Oxnard not realizing that the original F50, the GADF50, and the later GAD F150 actually had different bridge pin spacings.
Finally, another one of my pet peeves with Cordoba is their revisionist history. Could explain some of that "hogwash", although I think he got the part about Fender ruining Guild from the usual internet myth-mongers.
Still think he was derelict in not performing his due diligence fact-checking though, something I can't abide in a journalist.
There's
still flat out incorrect info on Cordoba's Guild web site in the
"History and Heritage" page:
"and Bonnie Raitt picks up her first
Navarre F-50,
which is a new version of the F-50 with rosewood back and sides."
Um, no. The F50 started life with the Navarre name, the rosewood-bodied version was simply the F50R.
"In 1983, the Talking Heads' groundbreaking live concert "Stop Making Sense" is filmed. Lead singer David Byrne uses his
solid-body Guild."
Byrne never played a Guild solid body although there's a couple of pics of him playing a different make solid body with what looks very much like a Guild headstock and has even been ID'd as a Guild, though it's not.
What really pisses me of though is that this totally draws attention away from Byrne's well-known love for his F15ce.
Which brings me to my single biggest grievance with 'em: Calling an F48 an F40, and completely ignoring the importance of the 16" jumbo body for Guild, going all the way back to the original F40, and having always been present in the lineup in some form (like the F15ce, one of many "Fxxce" types) in every factory, all the way up
until Oxnard.
From their F40 page: "...our jumbo-shaped F-40, made in Southern California...Its predecessor, the F-48 Navarre, was only produced from 1972 to 1976 and original versions are a rare treasure."
Ignoring the fact that there was a 1 year re-issue in '93 IIRC, what's unsaid is that Guild didn't drop models if they sold well.
They dropped 'em if they didn't.
So one kind of suspects the market yawned at a 'hog body17" jumbo back then. And even though at least a couple of members love their Oxnard F40's I suspect it still isn't a formula with real broad appeal.
And now the venerable F40 model name is saddled with confusion about what a
real F40 is.
I'll drop my gripes when Oxnard brings back the one true F40 body.. Until then I will never give up the fight.
oldtimemusic.com
letstalkguild.com
