In morning at confession....
OK - I'm going to agree with Chris on the belief that these new "improved technology" neck blocks are the way of the future - though Taylor's bolt-on (bend-over-and-pick-up-the-soap) concept makes me hurl. However, you are talking about the "commerical" guitar market - as designating the large, mass-producing-mentality makers - which includes Martin, Taylor and Fender among others. In the new Acoustic Guitar magazine there is a long article on how for some time makers like Bourgeois and others have realized that there is a need to go BACK to the old ways , correct a few things, but build wooden guitars that sound like those old revered Martins, Gibsons, Stellas and the like - while not having to pay $20-$30,000. So, that said, I believe there will always be two schools of thought - 1) how to make more, faster, streamline the process, and keep customers coming back for more (note how many Taylor's one can find for resale and on E-bay at any given moment - it is staggering and people still ballyhoo them right and left while trading in and up). And...2) how to make the best-sounding instrument possible with the best materials, with only slight consideration to cost, understanding they'll only make so many in a given time.
Sadly, as a working class musician, I can't afford to have even one of those in the second category and if I could, I certainly wouldn't take it on the road. I have a good friend we tour with a lot and he's got two Collins guitars that he never takes out of the house, except occasionally to the studio. He uses on the road Santa Cruz guitars that sound great and take a good walloping in stride.
As for the former category - I have completely lost interest in what 95% of those guitars sound like. O, I still try this or that when we stop in a store and the proprietor forces on in my hands.... but I NEVER stop in Guitar Centers - can't hear anything, feel like I'm in a big Spencer Gift Store (you know, the modern incarnation of what some lame yuppy remembers as a head shop), and can't take the pretentious "hey, dude" of the sales force. BUT I've come to the conclusion that all the guitars I'll ever own have already been made - and most prior to the mid-90's.
Let me add a sort-of codicil onto that statement and as a glance to these "new" guilds: In the 80's, I didn't like the new narrower headstock and didn't really initially care for a lot of the models during the Gruhn years. I thought they were well-made, I just didn't like the design ideas. Now, as many of you know, I own several Gruhn-designed guitars and swear by them. (Of course, the guitars I use predominantly for recording and for those "special" performances were all built in the 70's - what, I believe, was a hey-day for Guild newly moved to Westerly.) So, things change, people change, needs change, headstocks change, ownership changes and eventually dysfunctional marketing people either go somewhere else or retire and things change again. I've been openly ashamed of Fender's handling of Guild, thus far - but perhaps this signals a change in their handling and their representation of the great Guild name. Just perhaps, there is hope after all for the post-Westerly Guild.
Just a bit of philosophy and confession from one who truly loves his Guilds...from Westerly. Thanks for your patience - I'll now go back to my corner. Peace....dbs
it sounded a lot like my DV-52 