factory seconds or?

dreadnut

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I see a lot of ebay Guilds for sale that have the serial number stamped out, or they say "2nd" or have other ways of designating no warranty.

Could someone in the know explain this phenomena? Were these all Coronas? What happened to these guitars? Can we tell if its a second even if the ebay listing doesn't say so?
 

Darryl Hattenhauer

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Drednut,

As far as U know, all Guild seconds have a two stamped under the "cereal" number. I've had a couple of Guild seconds that had no flaw I could find.

The Coronas with the white label across the serial number is a complex matter. I'd like to ask other Guilders if the white label Coronas are generally any better or worse than the other Coronas.

Doughnut

("Every picture tells a story, doughnut." --Rod Stewart and the Faces)
 

nochance

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Darryl Hattenhauer said:
The Coronas with the white label across the serial number is a complex matter. I'd like to ask other Guilders if the white label Coronas are generally any better or worse than the other Coronas.

There's been a lot of discussion/speculation about the white labelled Corona Guilds which began flooding the market a while back. Some state it was a move by Fender to eliminate stock when they moved production from CA to WA. This served two purposes in allowing them to clear the supply channels and provide only the newly introduced Tacoma WA built Guilds to authorized dealers, and to void all possible future warranty claims on essentially a discontinued product.

I currently own two such Guilds, a Bluesbird which suffered some cosmetic damage near the input jack and I was told is the reason why it was marked as such (this could be complete BS and it may have picked up the damage later), and a JF-30 which is as flawless as any other production guitar I've come across.

I do not believe that they released structurally defective guitars into the market. I do believe that wood is organic and one guitar may not sound as good as the next, and if it happens to have a "used" stamp on it, people assume it's somehow related to the build quality.
 

Benee Wafers

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My recently purchased GAD40C was a factory second. On the back of the headstock was stamped USED.
The guitar is brand new, no visible flaws or blems, dings , checks or cracks. I did however notice about a 2 inch strip of lighter colour extending from the bridge to the end of the body. There was also about 2 stitches undone on the Guild case..
The guitar is fabulous. I saved about USD250.00 on the purchase price.
With some luck and a vendor with scruples Factory Seconds can be a viable alternative.
Benee Wafers
 
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