adorshki
Reverential Member
A CTT number was built in Corona, period, and the only person who could tell us if it was actually built in late '01 is Hans, unless there's a date stamp on the end block. I don't recall seeing a regular production Corona flattop with an '01 build confirmed by Hans. And reiterate, never seen anything yet confirming they were actually building production models (as opposed to the pre-production trial builds) in late '01.Oh I was just saying he posted he had an ‘01 and you said can’t be.
Corona's history isn't nearly as well documented as say, Westerly, and we may not know the real answer until Hans puts out another volume.
I'm 99% certain he's mistaken or misinformed about year, it's why I gave him the heads-up in the first place. The only person I'd trust to verify the build date on that guitar is Hans, although I've gotten pretty good at estimating 'em, since there's really only 3 years anyway, '02-'04.Though I recalled his recent thread that showed his had the CTT serial number. Now I don’t know what year it is and maybe he didn’t for sure either, but if he was sure on the date, and we do know it’s a CTT serial#, and if your statement was true as well, that there was no Corona production in 01, well then we’d have a mystery… unless it was made in late 01.
Sorry, don't mean to sound irritated, just in a "Say it as short as possible" mood.
Edit: Fender did build some Starfires and Bluesbirds in Corona in the electric shop, even seem to recall some Corona Custom Shop BB's, (as distinct from later Guild Nashville Custom Shop builds) in '01.
But they built a dedicated shop for Guild flattop production and even installed a new state-of-the-art spray booth (which had teething problems of its own). But although they made offers to Westerly employees, nobody came. So Fender had to train a whole new build crew. All that takes time. It takes a minimum of 6 months to transition a factory that's already running, let alone start one up from scratch.
That's why they sent "kits" of sub-assemblies (like necks and probably rims) to Corona for the new builders to practice on. As far as I know those pieces were never intended or offered for retail sale, or "regular production".
The primary reason I doubt any regular production was built in Corona in '01 was simply the time involved in getting the plant up to speed. I don't know when they started building it (the Guild flattop plant), but doubt it was earlier than maybe spring or more likely early summer of '01.
Hope that helps explain my belief about where and when built.
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