HI Gravel, Welcome aboard! We have a resident expert who's written abook on the first 25 years of Guild history and he generously donates his time here. Hi name is Hans Moust and if he doesn't see this question and answer it (usually within hours!) he'll be more that happy to answer you via the private messaging function. Sometimes he IS doing other stuff... :lol:
Guilds' website has some dating information but it is not 100% reliable and can be incomplete.
The Westerly plant simply had a reputation for producing very high-quality guitars at a very reasonable price consistently for over 30 years. There was more hand-construction than other makers like Gibson and Martin and many unique designs. By simple numbers more Westerlys were built than any other place so the percentage of high quality guitars with Westerly labels is simply larger. I also see evidence of "Fender bashing" by some avaricious internet sellers who I think are simply trying to inflate the values of their Westerly-labelled offerings by claiming Guild quality went down after Fender moved production to Corona. Some of these same guys conveniently ignore the fact that Fender owned Guild for 5 years before they shut down the Westerly factory in 2001, and at least two members here (I'm one of 'em) feel that late '90s Guilds are some of the best ever made. The other guy even has pre-Fender Guilds so his opinion's even better informed than mine!
I'm also the proud owner of a Corona built Guild and it's every bit as good as my Westerlys and in fact the finish is the best of all 3 even though that's one of the most frequently cited Corona defects. Other Corona-built owners agree with me. Several Tacoma owwners also feel their guitars are every bit as good as a Guild should be, including a couple who have guitars from Westerly.
In the end though, Westerly is kind of like the place where Guild established its legend and so it holds a special place in the hearts of Guild lovers. Most of the members here are old enough to have probably fallen in love with a Westerly as their first Guild.
Ha! I took so long writing this I see Hans has already been by! :lol:
