I am very happy with my CV-1. It is truly a fine instrument and a great value. Guild was smart to introduce this line. Guilds have always been a tremendous value for what you get. I wanted a dread again, especially a Guild I could play, which doesn't exist for me any longer with the traditional models. I checked to see if I could get a custom D-55 with a 1 & 3/4 nut but they don't do custom orders any more, at least for a grunt like me.
There was no formal announcement of the CD-1. I stumbled across it one night the 1st week of October perusing the Guild website looking at the Contemporary Series. I couldn't believe it. It was like someone had read my mind. It was not on the price list but showed "introduced 10/07". I contacted my dealer and he was not even aware of it. He called Guild, got the price, and I ordered it two days later. Since then I kept wondering why Guild didn't show it on the "new models" page and it was still not on the price list, and why it was still not featured on the website with other new models. My dealer would periodically E-mail me with information he got from his Guild rep about delays due to hiring of a new quality control manager and then quality technicians. Probably true, just not the whole story and the complete reasons for the delay are now known with New Hartford. I just finally reached the limits of my patience. My dealer didn't even know about New Hartford. I guess FMIC/Guild didn't provide notice to anyone other than their press release. IMHO the whole way FMIC/Guild handled this model introduction was incredibly misguided. Most dealers don't even know the CD-1 exists. It's obvious the deal with Kaman was coming down at the same time and unfortunately the CD-1 got caught in the middle. FMIC does a very poor job of communicating and/or releasing information.
Never played a Goodall before and I am taking a risk buying it, but the dealer is one of the best in the business with a 48 hour "try me" policy. He doesn't get any returns...and everything I have heard about Goodall is spectacular. Whether or not it will be better, or sound better than my CV-1 will be an interesting comparison. I misread the shipping info and it will be this evening or maybe tomorrow morning before I receive it.
Hopefully in the future Guild will be back on track at New Hartford, and I may yet acquire a CD-1 when the time comes...