Westerly

sailingshoes72 · Oct 8, 2015

Westerly Wood said:
Do we know the exact leave date to Corona?

According to an article in The Westerly Sun... "the operation will be closed and moved to Corona, CA as of Aug. 31, 2001."

An article in the Providence Journal at the time states... "the plant, which produces about 1,200 guitars a month, is too old to modernize."

I need to find a more productive way to spend my time! :biggrin-new:

Bill

Westerly Wood · Oct 8, 2015

sailingshoes72 said:
According to an article in The Westerly Sun... "the operation will be closed and moved to Corona, CA as of Aug. 31, 2001."

An article in the Providence Journal at the time states... "the plant, which produces about 1,200 guitars a month, is too old to modernize."

I need to find a more productive way to spend my time! :biggrin-new:

Bill

Thanks Bill! My only question to Fender then, looking back, would have been, if Guild is producing 1200 guitars a month, why not leave it alone? Why the need to modernize? This I find frustrating.

wileypickett · Oct 8, 2015

Westerly Wood said:
Thanks Bill! My only question to Fender then, looking back, would have been, if Guild is producing 1200 guitars a month, why not leave it alone?

Great question, Wood! Did any of the post-Westerly plants produce 1200 or more guitars a month I wonder?

sailingshoes72 · Oct 8, 2015

According to the same article in the Providence Journal: a Fender spokesman, Morgan Ringwald, said that "the humidity, the salt air... it's very hard to make a consistent product with that kind of environment."

Also, the Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck Chamber of Commerce said "more than 80 workers could lose their jobs." IIRC an article in Acoustic Guitar at the time said that none of the workers at the Westerly Guild factory made the move to Corona, CA., though some employees were offered that opportunity by Fender.

Westerly Wood · Oct 8, 2015

sailingshoes72 said:
According to the same article in the Providence Journal: a Fender spokesman, Morgan Ringwald, said that "the humidity, the salt air... it's very hard to make a consistent product with that kind of environment."

Also, the Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck Chamber of Commerce said "more than 80 workers could lose their jobs." IIRC an article in Acoustic Guitar at the time said that none of the workers at the Westerly Guild factory made the move to Corona, CA., though some employees were offered that opportunity by Fender.

ARRggghhhhh! yet my D25BR, that did require some work after 41 years, but don't all of us, has survived all that humidity flux. Hogwaller wash...
That being said, I know Larrivee loves the Oxnard area too for the more controlled humidity. Jean said it himself, yet his main base is in Canada, and they have similar and colder New England type weather.

Ok, I need to move on from my Westerly blues

But 1200/mo, holy cow. That is great production #s.

adorshki · Oct 8, 2015

sailingshoes72 said:
According to an article in The Westerly Sun... "the operation will be closed and moved to Corona, CA as of Aug. 31, 2001."

Ahhhh, but: That was only when they "offically" closed the doors.
The plant itself was actually in shut-down and shipping mode all the way into December of '01 at least.
How do I know? Because when I got my F65ce, it had a hang tag on it saying "Last of the Westerlys".
Thinking it might be the last F65ce, I wrote and got a letter from Fender in Scottsdale verifying my F65ce passed inspection on 10/26/01 and was one of 3 guitars shipped to Guitar Showcase on 12/17/01, and that they did have a record of one serial number higher than mine. So, the hang tag meant it was the "last Westerly" Guitar Showcase had in stock.
The very last guitar built in Westerly was an Artist Award signed by everybody who had a hand in building it.
We saw it here when the owner posted a few years back.
It was actually delivered in September of '01, "IIRC", shortly after the plant was "officially" closed.
We can allow for editorial "short-cutting" in that newspaper article, but I think I recall seeing here that it was completely shuttered by the end of December.
I've never seen Corona's "official start" date, but we do know they were in actual production before Westerly completely closed, because they were assembling kits of parts shipped from Westerly and Corona's first model year is '01.
The kits were intended to give practice to Corona builders because virtually none of 'em had prior experience building acoustics, but I believe at least some of 'em were fully intended to be production quality and were sold as "A" stock, because we've seen a couple of 'em with details of Westerly craftsmanship like a snakehead headstock on a skinny neck, but with Corona labels..
Anyway, I always assumed that meant they must have been doing this prior to August of '01, and I'm pretty darn sure Hans confirmed a very early Corona as being from spring '01, but I might be mistaken on that one.

SFIV1967 · Oct 8, 2015

Westerly Wood said:
Do we know the exact leave date to Corona?

We know exactly by hour when the building was officially empty and closed... (which was not when they left for Corona).

Ralf

SFIV1967 · Oct 8, 2015

adorshki said:
I'm pretty darn sure Hans confirmed a very early Corona as being from spring '01, but I might be mistaken on that one.

I have never seen any 2001 Corona Guild yet, but that was a time where I know almost nothing about yet. I thought the first Guild from Corona shipped in early 2002. But that is something that Hans hopefully clarifies in his hopefully soon to be available Volume II ! I might have to search LTG for that info in the meantime, it's probably here from Hans already, even if I don't really want to do that special search (it's a bit of a hazzle to say the least...)
Ralf

Westerly Wood · Oct 8, 2015

SFIV1967 said:
We know exactly by hour when the building was officially empty and closed... (which was not when they left for Corona).

Ralf

That was just a terrible year, all in all.

SFIV1967 · Oct 8, 2015

SFIV1967 said:
I might have to search LTG for that info in the meantime, it's probably here from Hans already, even if I don't really want to do that special search (it's a bit of a hazzle to say the least...)

Well, I did all kind of tricks to find such info with no success. We know what the last Westerly made guitar was (a honey blonde Artist Award Benedetto with S/N GBB1088 made prior to August 31, 2001 - I don't know the exact ship date) but I didn't find what model and when the first Corona made Guild shipped...or what the last Corona and first Tacoma Guilds were...We know the last NH made guitar...but I don't know the first NH made one either...
So we need to wait for Volume II for Corona I am afraid...
Ralf

adorshki · Oct 8, 2015

Westerly Wood said:
ARRggghhhhh! yet my D25BR, that did require some work after 41 years, but don't all of us, has survived all that humidity flux. Hogwaller wash...

Musta been built at the right time of year. I'm sure mine was. :friendly_wink:

adorshki · Oct 8, 2015

SFIV1967 said:
I have never seen any 2001 Corona Guild yet, but that was a time where I know almost nothing about yet. I thought the first Guild from Corona shipped in early 2002.

My bad, first "official" model year is '02, I got caught explaining the "overlap", that they were in fact making guitars in Corona before Westerly actually closed.

SFIV1967 said:
But that is something that Hans hopefully clarifies in his hopefully soon to be available Volume II ! I might have to search LTG for that info in the meantime, it's probably here from Hans already, even if I don't really want to do that special search (it's a bit of a hazzle to say the least...)
Ralf

I've tried to pay attention and remember what Corona history I've seen here since I have one, and I'm still 99% certain he's verified '01 build dates from there but that doesn't neccessarily mean they were shipped in '01, although I'd think they'd want to ship finished product as quickly as possible.

adorshki · Oct 8, 2015

SFIV1967 said:
Well, I did all kind of tricks to find such info with no success. I didn't find what model and when the first Corona made Guild shipped...or what the last Corona and first Tacoma Guilds were..So we need to wait for Volume II for Corona I am afraid...
Ralf

I suspect the info's not actually in our archives. I spent a lot of time reading archives before I officially joined and as mentioned I tried to remember stuff I learned about Corona but there was very scarce info.
I suspect maybe it was related to the way in which the plants were shut down and so much stock was liquidated through MIRC?
We did have a couple of members who worked at Corona, and we've seen the Corona production protype D55 which was absolutely an '01 though not a true production instrument, but that's the biggest Corona milestone I can recall seeing here.
Just so you know your search efforts are not unappreciated, and the scarcity of results is corroborated.

SFIV1967 · Oct 8, 2015

adorshki said:
and we've seen the Corona production protype D55 which was absolutely an '01 though not a true production instrument, but that's the biggest Corona milestone I can recall seeing here.

Can't remember that, if I find it I let you know...
Ralf

SFIV1967 · Oct 8, 2015

Al: Interesting enough just today that came up: http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?187021-Nice-quilted-Bluesbird-on-eBay
The seller shows:
Serial Number: CM000077
Manufactured 09/2001

I would have thought a Corona BB with S/N 77 would be from 2002, not sure where his 09/2001 date came from, but who (except Hans) knows...

2nevets had an very early Tobacco Sunburst Bluesbird S/N CM000009 and said it was from 2001.
duke54 had a Goldtop BB with S/N CM000010, also confirmed by Hans as 2001.

So there are known 2001 Corona made Guilds.

Ralf

adorshki · Oct 8, 2015

SFIV1967 said:
Al: Interesting enough just today that came up: I would have thought a Corona BB ... info for [I]acoustics[/I] that seems scarce.

adorshki · Oct 8, 2015

SFIV1967 said:
Can't remember that, if I find it I let you know...
Ralf

My memory is that it showed up in the eBAy/Craigslist forum and the backstory was that it was either acquired from, or being offered by, a Corona worker to whom it had been offered by management on closing of the factory.
It generated some questions here about legitimacy and I think that's when Hans confirmed.
At the time it stuck in my mind as being a benchmark for Corona production timeline.
If you do find it, I'd be interested in knowing if my memory is still accurate about it.
I've recently been painfully aware that it's not what it was even 5 years ago.

Bill Ashton · Oct 8, 2015

Some months ago, a dred that was porported to be a prototype...or THE prototype...from Corona was up on either eBay or Craig's, location was in AZ I think. There was some discussion about it here, as well as before that posting I am speaking of. Anyway, I contacted the owner, asked a bunch of questions, and in fact our own favorite employee from NH verified that yes it was indeed the real thing.

Wasn't a function of price, never tried to knock him down, just wanted to verify it was for real...but ultimately he decided not to sell it to me, if I can remember it right the shipping was an issue and he though I would not be pleased with it...

D#$%!, just trying to buy a quasi-historical piece to give to my son...he wouldn't have cared if he had to reset the neck!

EDIT: The guitar I wan speaking of was not a D55, it was either a D40 or D50, cannot remember..but definitely NOT a D55...

SFIV1967 · Oct 8, 2015

Bill Ashton said:
Some months ago, a dread that was porported to be a prototype...or THE prototype...from Corona...
our own favorite employee from NH verified that yes it was indeed the real thing.

Why would our man in NH confirm about a Corona prototype? Not sure I understand, neither do I remember that from a few month ago...
I remember discussion about the 50th anniversary D-55 prototype (S/N P000011) which was shown at NAMM (made prior to #1 of 50), also there was a D-40 or D-50 prototype from NH (not Corona) that one of our members offered here for sale.
I searched LTG and even the Fender forum and found no info about the first Corona acoustic models. I found a lot of posts where Al mentioned that D-55 prototype from Corona but no post from Hans talking about it.
Ralf

Bill Ashton · Oct 8, 2015

Ralf, guess I will have to go back through my emails, if I still saved them, maybe I am in error saying it was discussed here. Somehow I stumbled upon her. Definately not a D55. Had to get permission for SWMBO to even discuss it with the owner, though I was strong in my "prosecution" in that regard...

The piece was a "player" and not a museum piece, the sound hole tag was the kicker. End all was that he just didn't want to ship it to me, and I wonder where it went.

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