adorshki
Reverential Member
To be fair, there were some known finishing issues very early on. Sprayers had to be trained fresh, but they did install a new state-of-the-art spray booth.
@Silver Creek :
Welcome aboard!
One of our early members Jay Pilzer wrote a piece for Vintage Guitar about Fender's relocation of Guild from Westerly to Corona in late '01. (Westerly was still shipping finished goods and transferring raw materials inventory from close of business in August '01 through late November of '01).
https://www.vintageguitar.com/21567/guild-in-the-post-fender-era/
Even he comments that some of the Corona build techniques weren't well-received. But I recall an interview with somebody way up in the Fender hierarchy, one of the guys who went on to be a chairman of GC as well IIRC, back around '09 or '10. He said he thought the good guitars hit their high point after ten years.
It always stuck and resonated with me because by golly it was true for my own D40, bought new in early '04. When I bought it, Fender had just announced the import GAD line. I thought the writing was on the wall for US-built Guilds, and I'd better get one more while I could.
It was a Havens Signature edition with UST.
I was expecting a cannon that would blow my D25 away, given Richie's rep and style. I was amazed, the first few years I literally called it the sonic runt of the litter, compared to the other 2.
Yet it has every bit the build quality of my 2 Westerlys (although it's from the "built like a tank" school), and actually has the best finish and my favorite top of the bunch.
I pondered if the combination of the exceptionally thick finish, the 2nd 'guard, and the UST could be conspiring to choke off the top. When I had to rest the D25's top from a sweat-softened spot for a few months I really had a chance to start bonding with it, and playing time helped a lot.
Finally after bout 8 years and close to a couple hundred hours she finally started really finding her voice, and I began to appreciate the subtle differences between the flatback sound of the D40 and the archback D25. At this point I can say that the best sound I've ever recorded came from the D40.
So Coronas didn't get a lot of respect when I first joined up, but sure enough, as they aged, folks really started loving 'em.
Guild always quarter-sawed their top wood at the time. One of the reasons the tops are so nice. Even those JF30-12 tops are "only" supposed to be AA, but it'd be AAA by today's standards. It is possible they may have been using up old Westerly stock and did use some AAA on those, but the double-A is distinguished by more color variegation for one, and slightly coarser silking.
I actually prefer my D40's AA top to my F65ce's AAA for aesthetics.
There was also a guy at Westerly who was responsible for most of that gorgeous wood and I'm pretty sure some of it was still being used in Corona.
God bless Willie Fritscher:
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