Interesting interview with Ren

JohnW63

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I would love to find out just what processes or design elements were not working together well, at New Hartford and more details as to why the facility was so expensive to make guitars in. I would like to ask him if any of the impressive machines made by Ovation might find a similar design in Guild production.
 

Westerly Wood

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Sounds like late spring for new Guilds. Sweet!
 

Neal

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Man, is it just me, or did he kinda throw the folks at New Hartford under the bus? And he didn't seem to appreciate the awesome guitars that came out of there.

Neal
 

JohnW63

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Yeah. He kinda' did. I hope he was commenting on the disjointed and inefficient production flow and not the end result. It could be that he felt it took too many man hours to put together the guitars to be able to make money.

I sure hope his feel for awesome guitars doesn't make Guilds sound and feel like... Gibsons! Not that I think Gibsons suck, but I prefer the Guild tone. I would probably choose a good Gibson over a Martin, to put it in context.

The other slight concern I had, after watching the video clips was that he wants to build guitars like they did in the 30s and 40s. Not everyone WANTS a vintage sounding or playing instrument. I am sure there have been advances in the design since the pre-war days, but nobody seems to want to hear that. So many get giddy about pre-war this and pre-war that. In the 80 years since those halcyon days, some well versed, highly skilled, luthiers MUST have had new ideas.
 

SFIV1967

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The only thing I thought not every ex NH worker might appreciate is that Ren said they didn't want to move to Oxnard because they all made loads of money from their severance packages or were to old to move...The latter I can understand but I doubt they all made loads of money...
Ralf
 

Neal

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Well, there is a yet-to-be posted Part 3 to the interview, so maybe he will redeem himself.

It is also possible that Ren is playing a bit of corporate politics here, underselling the virtues of the New Hartford guitars, which, for a while at least, will be in direct competition with the Oxnard Guilds in the marketplace.

And you can bet that Oxnard Guilds, however efficiently and well-crafted they are made, will not come at a bargain price. Will they will be better instruments? We will see.

Neal
 

gilded

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I agree that he was at the very least diplomatic when talking about Henry J of Gibson, but you can't work in the corporate world and rant against your old bosses in public. People who do that don't get jobs from new prospective corporate bosses. You can't kiss and tell.

I think he was being candid about the New Hartford work force. Not right or wrong, just candid. I don't think he was trying to throw anybody under the bus, just telling it like he saw it.

The test for me is, 'would I like to work for or with this guy?' And the answer is, 'Yes!'
 

chazmo

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Now I have to watch this... Did he really say loads of money? Like the NH guys wanted to be RIF'd... ? If so, the only justification I can find for a comment like that would be that they hated what Fender did to the place after Kaman was purchased... Anyway, I'll comment more after I watch this.
 

fronobulax

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Ren made a few statements that directly contradict personal communications I have had with other people who worked at the factory. I interpret this as a difference in perspective rather than anything malicious. I imagine that anyone who would move from California to Montana and then back to California just to build guitars will have a different perspective than someone whose passion for New England is at least as great as their passion for building guitars. There is also a difference between being the boss/architect and a worker or cog in the machine. I, for example, would not relocate across the country just to do what I am doing now. But I might if I had a task and a clean slate and I was going to be in charge of the team and the facility we build.
 

Neal

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All I know is this. Whenever I have picked up a New Hartford Guild, it is clear that they were made with exacting attention to quality. And their tone and playability are just magical.

Whatever faults there may have been in the NH workforce, quality of design and execution were not among them. Speed, maybe? Volume, perhaps? Profitability? Not sure to which of these Ren was referring in his comments. But to publicly label the NH workforce as resistant to change and the build process there as disjointed is a cheap shot, IMO.

Neal
 

jthrel

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Go to part 2 minute 28:40. But I don't think he saw that as something negative, it was mentioned in the context of how he experienced it. I am just not sure that is the truth.
Ralf

Alert (kind of)! Part 2 of the video (containing the questionable statement about the financial stability of the New Hartford personnel) has been made PRIVATE and is currently inaccessible to the public (5:50 pm Central time, October 21, USA). I assume that means CMG is listening which is a good thing but constant policing for political correctness is not a good thing. Sigh.... can't we offer people a little tolerance for just conducting an unscripted human-to-human conversation (or a lawyer at their elbow)? :disgust:

I watched the interview earlier today and it was obvious that Ren has an ocean of respect for his fellow guitar crafts-people. He was commenting based on his role as a PROCESS manager and trying to give some perspective on the minimal transfer of personnel from New Hartford to Oxnard. Ren did not choose the best possible words but nothing was deliberately mean. Given a choice similar to that of the New Hartford staff and crafts-people, I would have chosen to stay in New England. I think Ren was trying to say that the New Hartford personnel were not placed in a desperate situation by the factory closing. I'm glad that the New Hartford personnel could make that choice. Jeeze CMG, chill a bit (and tell your legal staff to hush-up)! :uncomfortableness:

My 2 cents.

Al
 

fronobulax

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It would be interesting to know why it has been made private. I think it might be premature to jump to the conclusion that CMG was responsible so if there is a basis for the statement that CMG's legal staff was behind the censorship it would be nice to know. In the meantime PM me for some ideas as to where a copy might be found.
 

Geotrio

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Right, we can't be sure who made the video private...but it touched a nerve somewhere along the line.

Saying that the NH workers were making 'loads of money' was off the mark. If there were issues with profitability or sales that is bad management. But then to come out and admit that Guild Oxnard has "no employees and no permits' and confess to not realizing the difficulty in setting up a new factory in California likely ticked someone off.
 
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