Opinion of Tacoma Built Guilds

Rich Cohen

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I wonder what your opinion is of the Tacoma built hogs. I'm a fan of New Hartford, and of course Westerly.

Rich

F-412 (NH)
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chazmo

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Tacoma did nice work, Rich. I fell in love with an F-512 (rosewood) from Tacoma years ago and that's the reason I became a Guild fan. I've played many of the guitar from Tacoma including their homebrew Tacoma brand guitars, and I really liked a few of those dreads too. Most of my experience is with their rosewood guitars, though. Not a ton of playing time with their mahogany products.

The only bugaboo is you have to watch out for the guitars (mostly Contemporary Series) that got dumped into the reclamation market at the end of 2008 when Tacoma was getting shuttered. Some of those guitars should have been bandsawed, but weren't.
 

Brad Little

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I have a Tacoma built F-40 and I think it's as good as any Guild from other shops.
Brad
 

richardp69

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Although not a Mahogany guitar I can honestly say my Tacoma built F 50R with DTAR id one of the finest Guilds I've ever laid my hands on.
 

txbumper57

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Tacoma made Guild Traditional Series Guitars are some of the Nicest Guitars Guild ever made. I am a big fan of them as Tacoma was when they started using the Scalloped Adirondack Red Spruce bracing on the Traditional series which continued through New Hartford production. It was also the beginning of the introduction of the lighter overall builds which makes for a more resonant Guitar. They definitely had Quality Materials, Designs, and Craftsmanship throughout. In the used guitar market I find that Tacoma Guild Traditional series guitars tend to go for a little less than the New Hartford made models which makes an already amazing deal even better.


TX
 

jeffcoop

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I have two, an F30 and an F40, both mahogany and both from 2007. They're terrific instruments, both of them, and the F30 is my regular companion when I play out. As you can see from my sig, I have experience with every Guild US factor except New York and Oxnard; as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing subpar about Tacoma Guilds.
 

mavuser

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The Tacoma Thunderchief Bass is an amazing playing and sounding instrument. My friend owns one of the original ones and I have played his. Also Dave Schools from Widespread Panic has used one, and I believe Mike Gordon of Phish has used one as well. I would imagine a Tacoma Guild to be the "perfect baby" so to speak, of those 2 brands coming together.
 

adorshki

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If you like dreadnoughts, consider a Tacoma D40 Bluegrass Jubilee model which features the first use of an "adirondack" top by Guild on a hog-body dread.
(The Richie Havens Signature D40's were still sitka-topped).
Can't recall anybody not liking or loving their Tacoma versions of those models.
 

midnightright

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As it was explained to me by someone from an Authorized Dealer with knowledge of some of the different eras--& in an attempt to not pair me up with the wrong guitar, from a "taste" standpoint... These models (Tacoma/New Hartford) were described as being closer to a "Taylor" in tone than some of the more "Martin" or "Gibson" of the Westerly period. I, of course, have never played one so I cannot say for sure. Naturally this is very subjective, and he was trying to help me: in other words, if you like that, then you might not like this... From my untrained eye, the quality of build certainly seems to be as good as any from those last two factories (not counting the current, of which I have even less clue about!). Good luck!
 

fronobulax

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Nit to pick or perhaps someone who needs to do their memory exercises?

Tacoma Guitars existed. Fender bought the company. Fender produced Guilds on the formerly Tacoma (brand) factory but never produced Tacoma branded guitars. These instruments are casually referred to as "Tacoma Guilds" but "Guilds built in Tacoma" is more precise.

If the above is true then I am confused by some answers that seem to suggest there were Tacoma branded instruments produced after FMIC purchased the company.
 

Neal

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+1 for Tacoma-era Guilds. My personal favorite was my Adirondack/Mahogany F-30 Aragon, which I sold to Jeffcoop back before I knew any better.
 

chazmo

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Hey, fro, I'm not sure about whether the Tacoma facility continued building Tacoma-brand guitars after they'd moved Guild up there in 2005. I am hazy on this and definitely not certain, but I think a few of the dreads I tried (Tacoma-brand) were from a later date than 2005 which would imply that they did. They used the same serial numbering system that Guild took on, but for Tacoma-brand instruments there was no "T" prefix. Anyway, I wouldn't swear to any of that.

I presume Fender bought the Tacoma brand as well as the facility. I think it originally branched off in the 90s from Young Chang (sp?) which was a piano maker.
 

fronobulax

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Hey, fro, I'm not sure about whether the Tacoma facility continued building Tacoma-brand guitars after they'd moved Guild up there in 2005. I am hazy on this and definitely not certain, but I think a few of the dreads I tried (Tacoma-brand) were from a later date than 2005 which would imply that they did. They used the same serial numbering system that Guild took on, but for Tacoma-brand instruments there was no "T" prefix. Anyway, I wouldn't swear to any of that.

I presume Fender bought the Tacoma brand as well as the facility. I think it originally branched off in the 90s from Young Chang (sp?) which was a piano maker.

The always reliable wikipedia states that Fender bought the Tacoma brand and never used it for any of the instruments produced in that factory. Or I failed reading comprehension, again :)
 

6L6

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I've been playing Guilds since 1965 and have owned examples from Hoboken, Westerly, Corona, and Tacoma. My favorites are definitely the ones from Tacoma.

I've owned a Tacoma-built D-40NT, D-55NT, and F-412NT. All were super guitars and the D-55 was my partner for 100's of solo gigs and never let me down.

That said, my favorite was the D-40NT and I'll be looking to get another one from Tacoma soon.
 

adorshki

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The always reliable wikipedia states that Fender bought the Tacoma brand and never used it for any of the instruments produced in that factory. Or I failed reading comprehension, again :)
What I see on Wiki, obviously pertaining to the closure of the Washington factory:
"A Fender spokesman said the company intended to move Tacoma production to existing Fender factories in Connecticut to take advantage of economies of scale.[5] However, Fender never resumed production of Tacoma guitars."
I thought Tacomas were still being made while Guild lived there, too.
Since the Wiki page is about Tacoma brand and not Guild, even though they lived in the same place together, it does imply that Tacomas were being made right up until closure.
 
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