The Westerly factory's acoustic guitar production was nearly stopped for a time, and Guilds were supposedly made in Tacoma longside the Tacoma guitars, but then at the end of the 1990s, the acoustic production was re-started in either Westerly or New Hartford again.
Throughout all this Yamaha also was working with Fender, and the Guilds returned to the Westerly factory,
Mike, you mixed up some things. That's not what happend.
FMIC bought Guild in 1995 but did not change the factory location, so Guild guitar production continued in the old Guild factory in Westerly by the Guild workers. There was no "nearly stopped" time or return during Westerly production as far as I know.
In 2001 FMIC decided closing the Westerly factory towards end of 2001 and moved all production in the FMIC Corona workshop, where a dedicated Guild area was opened. So all Guilds were made in Corona, CA now mostly by existing FMIC workers from late 2001 to 2004.
Only in 2004 FMIC bought the Tacoma, WA factory (not before).
Now FMIC again decided moving the Guild production from Corona into the Tacoma, WA factory. At that time production of electric models stopped and only acoustic models were built there, now by former Tacoma workers.
With the move of US production to Tacoma FMIC introduced the low cost GAD (Guild Acoustic Design) line for Guild which were built in the GREE (Grand Reward Eduction & Entertainment) factory in Hui Yang city in China.
In 2008 FMIC acquired KMC (Kaman Music Corporation) in New Hartford, CT where Ovation and Hamer guitars were built and moved Guild production from Tacoma, WA into New Hartford. That was the time when in 2012 Ren Ferguson joined FMIC and started creating the Guild Orpheum line in New Hartford.
In 2014 FMIC decided getting out of that business and closed the New Hartford factory. FMIC however was looking for a buyer for Guild and found CMG (Cordoba Music Group) as buyer. CMG had a little workshop in Oxnard, CA and CMG acqired a large building next door and moved the factory from New Hartford to Oxnard. Ren Ferguson also joined Guild under CMG and was in charge building up the entire Guild factory in Oxnard before he retired. (in fact he did help two other Guitar brands in Germany afterwards before moving back to Montana to start his own guitar production).
A few Guilds were also built in the FMIC Ensenada, Mexico factory. The production of the Guild DV-4 and DV-6 started around the time when the factory in New Hartford/CT started in 2008. In 2012 the new Guild Arcos line was introduced, replacing the DV models, and production for Guild in Ensenada stopped in 2014 when CMG bought Guild from FMIC.
CMG also changed the "GAD" line to the "Westerly Collection" line, those were and are also built in the GREE factory in China.
So since 2014 FMIC has nothing to do anymore with Guild and Guild continues to be owned by CMG until today.
CMG was aquired by YGG (Yamaga Guitar Group, Inc.) based in Calabasas, CA in 2023.
However CMG continues as is as a daughter company (division) of YGG and Guild still belongs to CMG along Cordoba Guitars, DeArmond and Humicase. Guild production is unchanged in Oxnard, CA as of today.
And if you wonder about electric models which were re-introduced in 2013, you can find out the factories
here.
Mind that also the New Hartford factory built a few Guild electric guitars until 2014. (GSR and American Patriarch models).
Hope that cleared this up.
Ralf