The only guy I can recall that we know specifically built certain guitars is Carlo Greco during Hoboken period, and yes his guitars are highly sought after.
Hans may know of other folks who were dedicated to building specific instruments (ah, just remembered, Greco mentored a guy named Julio Costa who went on to "responsible for the top-of-the line MarkVII classical guitars which were almost entirely made by him") but the instruments were mostly built "team fashion" with certain folks specializing in top construction, or back making, neck building and then shaping, completing the guitar from all the components, finishing, you get the idea.
Westerly's production flow was laid out by Carlo Greco, much like Oxnard's was laid out by Ren Ferguson almost 50 years later, to address the question of actual changes in production methodology and the fact that layout is deemed to be an important element in getting good builds, and we know tooling has changed over the years too: the only piece of tooling left from Westerly that is still in use in Oxnard is the archback press. Been at 5 different factories now.
Certain guys became mentors for new hires as seen above, so changes in the "ways of doing things" did occur over time as new guys came in, like George Gruhn in the mid-80's, from being asked by Mark Dronge to offer up a couple of fresh F40 body and dreadnought designs in '84 to the introduction of the Nightbird family.
Personally I think he was a major factor in Guild builds beginning to "lighten up" again in the late '80's, as he was even a part owner for a while. His "partner" Kim Walker has said he was involved in bringing some of Gruhn's ideas to reality even after he left.
The "snakehead" headstock was introduced by Gruh.
Oh yes, I believe the Guild Nashville Custom shop ['97-'02(?), it became a factory repair facility around the time Corona shut down, never an actual date on the, but stayed that way until around '11, IIRC.] also had who could/would build complete pieces ala Fender's "Masterbuilt" guitars (of which their are also a few Guilds, so there's another name: Chris Fleming at the Corona
Fender Custom Shop)]
Also, in the Guild Guitar Book, Hans Moust said Westerly in the late'60's was actually more like a custom shop than a production house. They were trying all kinds of ideas, building lots of "Specials" or one-offs "just because", it seems like, and we've seen numerous examples of specs that got changed on the fly during production either to accommodate a need, or to improve quality.
Thing is, they were small enough to do it without being "hamstrung" by the limitations of a massive production machine like Gibson or Martin.
Now are you sorry you asked?
