New to the forum here, but thought I would share my recent experience with a new refurb CO-1C that I "won" on eBay. To start with, I bid on it before I found the thread here on the "train wreck necks," so needless to say, I was a little worried, even though I did get it for a crazy low price. Upon receipt, I unpacked it, and checked it out with a fine tooth comb, and really could not find anything close to a flaw, except maybe for a discolored bone nut, and a few pencil tip-sized nicks on the side of the fretboard at around the 18th fret. So, basically perfect. The first few notes were amazing - loud and ringing. First impression was wow! After a little more playing, noticed that the action was stiff and a little high - almost 6/32" at the 12th fret. Now I am worried again. Did the straight edge ruler check, and it fell about 1/8" below the top of the bridge, so I am thinking, here we go, neck reset time. Took the strings off, adjusted the truss rod to get a straight neck, and was prepared to start unbolting. Did a straight edge check one more time, but this time it hit just a hair below the top of the bridge, so I opted for lowering the saddle instead. I sanded off about 4/32," put it all back together, and the action is now a hair over 3/32 at the 12th fret. Easy fix - the guitar now plays really nice, sounds great, and is a keeper. They may be unloading these on eBay, but Guild did originally produce these to be fairly high end, expensive guitars, so even with the neck block stigma, it seems crazy not to grab one at these china-guitar prices! Anyway, just my 2 cents of rambling, because I am a very happy Guild owner!
Another eBay Guild CO-1C Story (but a positive one)
- Thread starter Spark
- Start date
Welcome aboard, Spark. Glad you like your new Contemporary!
Hi Spark and congratulations on your new C model. When those guitars were designed and built, they were intended to fill the middle of Guild's price spread. They were making top-of-the-line Guild guitars in Tacoma and making GADs, the entry-priced models, in China. What they wanted was a US-made guitar to fill the middle price range. At the time, the MSRPs were in the mid/high $1,000 range; less than Tacomas, more than GADs.Spark said:
For (ugly and sad) business reasons, they elected to sell off the unsold inventory at less than 'china-guitar' prices so that the resellers could offer them at 'china guitar' prices and still make some money on them. If you struggled all the way through the Trainwreck thread, you found out that not every shot lands on the green; despite a lot of money and time going into an entirely new line of guitars built around the neck-block, it didn't work out.
It looks like they were trying to engineer out a lot down-stream ownership/warranty issues; neck re-sets and fingerboard cracks particularly and still have a good-sounding guitar. Nobody who owns one in playable condition has said they were unhappy with the tone. Guild has recently introduced the Standard Line ... these are fundamentally the same as what they now call the up-market Traditional models (what they've been making for years) but with less bling so they can be offered at a moderately reduced price ... to fill the hole they'd hoped the Contemporary models would fill.
Anyway; welcome to LTG and congratulations on your new guitar!
Capnjuan - Unless I missed something, these were made in Tacoma and had a Listed Retail Price of $2,499.99 when introduced. Street price was about 25% less (before the "dump"). Anyway, I got mine cheap enough that I was ready to pull the neck and experiment if I had to 8)
Hi Spark; that's correct ... they were made in Tacoma; I don't think I said otherwise but apologies if I gave that impression. As for the MSRPs, they made a price range of models with various materials, levels of bling, and with/without electronics. I don't have any hard-copy in front of me and was only going off recollection. As an older American ... :wink:Spark said:
I'm not sure what you mean by 'these'; do you mean your particular guitar or any/all of them? If you have hard-copy that says so then so be it; if you're basing your comment on what an eBay re-seller said your guitar's MSRP was .... well ... not sure they'd be the best source for that kind of information.
When they closed Tacoma, they threw a few babies out with the bathwater; included in the sell-off were otherwise perfectly good but un-warranted standard Guilds. They show up on eBay from time to time although buying one is a risk/reward kind of thing. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoy your guitar and welcome to LTG.
Welcome to LTG land. Congrats on the new Guild. I've never played one of the contemporary series but have heard a few. Sounded and looked good to me. The fact your guitar needed a relatively minor setup/adjustment is no biggie. Most new guitars do.
Post a pic or two or three. We always like to see the members of the herd.
Post a pic or two or three. We always like to see the members of the herd.
Well, I can't post pics here(?), but nothing extroardinary in looks about the guitar. The CO-1C series is pretty bling-free - no abalone inlays, no fancy bindings, no wow factor, just a nice "guitar next door" look. Here is a link to a retailer website with the guitar (hope that is not a no-no here):
http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?ProductCode=32019&Category=Acoustic_Guitars
Just pulled the DTAR VT (volume tone) module out of it because it was defective. Don't know if that classified the guitar as a reject or not, but I don't plug in anyway. At worst, it is a $40 replacement, or maybe DTAR will take care of it- we'll see!
http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?ProductCode=32019&Category=Acoustic_Guitars
Just pulled the DTAR VT (volume tone) module out of it because it was defective. Don't know if that classified the guitar as a reject or not, but I don't plug in anyway. At worst, it is a $40 replacement, or maybe DTAR will take care of it- we'll see!
Hi Spark; the BB software won't let you post a pic directly. You need an on-line photo-hosting account somewhere ... Photobucket, ImageShack ... any one of them will do. Here a link to directions to post pics on LTG. Okay to post links to retailers ... unless you're the retailer.
I saw the 'Retail Price' at 8th Street. I'm glad you got a good guitar at a good price but I personally wouldn't put any weight on what a seller ... even an authorized Guild dealer ... says was/is the 'retail price'. The guitar has been out of production for some time ... their concern is moving guitars ... not accuracy.
I saw the 'Retail Price' at 8th Street. I'm glad you got a good guitar at a good price but I personally wouldn't put any weight on what a seller ... even an authorized Guild dealer ... says was/is the 'retail price'. The guitar has been out of production for some time ... their concern is moving guitars ... not accuracy.
Ok, last one on this for me! DTAR was very helpful ( :lol: ) - they immediately offered to sell me a new VT module for full list plus shipping. No thanks. Luckily, I like to solder, and I happened to have a non-functional Boss Micro BR hanging out, so I removed the thumbwheel volume control and replaced the defective one on the DTAR - victory, there is sound (not that I plug in much). Also, a link to Chuck Cheesman's blog on the Guild - interesting and detailed, for those that care...
http://midwesternsongs.blogspot.com/2009/11/guild-contemporary-series-co-1c.html
http://midwesternsongs.blogspot.com/2009/11/guild-contemporary-series-co-1c.html