Guild factory in R.I. is closing

Subject: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: LR Mole
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 10:01 AM

Fender, which owns Guild, is shutting its Westerly, R.I. operation, and moving it to California. They had a job fair this week to retrain/relocate/god knows all their workers, and maybe this will result in wonderful things in a sparkly new factory and save trees and embrace musical universality. Or maybe they'll stripmine whatever goodwill there is left in the brand name, make endless copies of copies with artificially-applied wear-marks the original players might have put on them had they (the musicians)not died.Who can say? Another bit of Mordor.

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 10:09 AM

This was of course the big fear when Guild was taken by Fender. With Westerly gone.........................It's been in the mill for several months now and last week I was sad to see it was a certainty. Who knows? I'll hope for the best, but when the roots die, the tree falls.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 11:23 AM

Doesn't Guild have a history of surviving moves?

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 11:28 AM

Shit! My best friend and her ex both work there. No wonder I haven't heard from her in lately.

Guild has survived before, but I don't think huge moves like this. I'll have to give her a call.

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: dwditty
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 12:25 PM

Crap, now where to I take my 30 year old Guild F50R for the little tweaks she needs. I pass the place a dozen times a year. I have always honked my horn, and will continue to do so.

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 12:30 PM

I can hardly wait to see how much the price goes up on "Westerly Guilds."

They will survive, at least the name, and they may be better than ever. Anyone seen the Easter Bunny? He was supposed to stop here last April.............

Spaw

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: BlueJay
Date: 28 Jul 01 - 03:29 AM

It can only increase the value of my 30 year old six string and 20 year old twelve string. And the old Guild bass, which was beautifully restored to the natural mahogany by my son-in-law, luthier David Enke. All three are still quite roadworthy, in fact I'll be gigging this weekend.

I've always hated Fender acoustics, and I'll bet they're going to farm Guild out to Samick, so we can once more buy four to five hundred dollar Guilds. From Korea. Hope I'm not being too negative. Maybe American made Guilds will survive. I sure hope so. I really have no insight on the corporate plans, so maybe I'm wrong about theSamick thing. But the closing of this factory doesn't reassure me much. BlueJay

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jul 01 - 06:14 AM

The Guild Website is here (click). The site is a bit hard to navigate, but I found a nice history of the company here (click). I didn't see anything about the plant closing. where in California will they be?
-Joe in Sacramento-

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jul 01 - 10:37 AM

I talked to my friend's son, last night. Her last day is today. Her son thought her ex, who is the head of repair, will be until the actual close date, sometime in August. I will try reachign her later, today, to see if I can find out more details.

Subject: RE: Guild factory in R.I. is closing
From: GUEST,who cares the new ones were junk
Date: 29 Jul 01 - 12:02 AM

like the man said the value on my 72 will go up . but then again compared to martin and gibson the are really under valued