My review of the NEW OXNARD F55e

ClydeTower

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I spoke to my contact at Cordoba about the possibility of speaking to Drew. The message has been forwarded to him. We'll see if we get a response :subdued:

Chaz: I checked the serial number plate. It ain't moving anytime soon. Either the plate is glued to the neck block or its stamped directly to the neck block.
 

GuildFS4612CE

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I just want to say that the connection with Ren with the F-55 is kind of spurious, guys. Yes, Ren was responsible for setting up the shop in Oxnard and defining the build processes, but he left a while ago, and the F-55 was a recent addition to the line... I'm not saying there's no influence there, but I don't know how much of a hand he would've had in the F-55.

At NAMM this year in Guild's new upstairs display room, one of the Cordoba guys told me to look at Ren's work...the new acoustic Guilds...later, downstairs, when I saw Ren, he asked if I'd been upstairs to see the new Guild acoustics...good enough connection for me.

Remember, there's usually quite a gap between design and production.

And, Clyde...lovely review...lovely guitar...lovely house.:beguiled:
 
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Bonneville88

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FWIW - both the Guild USA lettering inside the sound hole on the back brace and the lettering on the neck block are
very cleanly laser engraved.

And yeah, forgot to mention... absolutely gorgeous house Clyde!
 

chazmo

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At NAMM this year in Guild's new upstairs display room, one of the Cordoba guys told me to look at Ren's work...the new acoustic Guilds...later, downstairs, when I saw Ren, he asked if I'd been upstairs to see the new Guild acoustics...good enough connection for me.

Remember, there's usually quite a gap between design and production.

And, Clyde...lovely review...lovely guitar...lovely house.:beguiled:
Well, that's good enough for me, Jane. I didn't mean to say that Ren's influence isn't felt on the acoustic production; he designed the shop! I only meant that I don't think there was any direct involvement with Ren, (e.g., say, shaping braces) on the F-55 (or any of these recent builds).

Anyway, lots to think about here, but mostly I'm jealous of Clyde. :)
 

jcwu

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I spoke to my contact at Cordoba about the possibility of speaking to Drew. The message has been forwarded to him. We'll see if we get a response :subdued:

Chaz: I checked the serial number plate. It ain't moving anytime soon. Either the plate is glued to the neck block or its stamped directly to the neck block.

Can you drill through the plate? That'll let you see if it's a veneer or one piece of wood.

:biggrin-new:
 

ClydeTower

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Oh, and Clyde, that's cool. You should invite these guys to come join LTG while you're at it. :)

Yep, that's exactly what I did. I extended an invitation to Drew to join LTG and hang out with us once and while, a great opportunity to get some feedback I would think.

I'll keep you posted!
 

chazmo

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Sadly, the Fender guys, back in the NH days, were a bit reticent to participate on the forum. I don't know if it was corporate edict or what, but I sure hope that CMG doesn't put such restrictions on its employees.
 

docfishr

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What a gorgeous jumbo! And kudos on a great review. I hope you will post a follow up in a couple of years when the honeymoon is over
and you can tell us how it has opened up. I can only imagine the love will grow.
 

Grassdog

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All I can say is wow . . . not sure which I'm more impressed with, the F-55 or Clyde's presentation/review. I think Cordoba should hire Clyde to do a photo shoot and review on the entire line of models coming out of the new plant. Or maybe if Hans needs some help with that new book . . .

Seriously, it's great to hear that Guilds of this caliber are coming out of Cordoba. Thanks for taking the time to put together such a thorough review. Congratulations on the purchase and enjoy.
 

ClydeTower

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What a gorgeous jumbo! And kudos on a great review. I hope you will post a follow up in a couple of years when the honeymoon is over
and you can tell us how it has opened up. I can only imagine the love will grow.

All I can say is wow . . . not sure which I'm more impressed with, the F-55 or Clyde's presentation/review. I think Cordoba should hire Clyde to do a photo shoot and review on the entire line of models coming out of the new plant. Or maybe if Hans needs some help with that new book . . .

Seriously, it's great to hear that Guilds of this caliber are coming out of Cordoba. Thanks for taking the time to put together such a thorough review. Congratulations on the purchase and enjoy.

Thanks guys! I enjoyed writing the review. Hopefully, Cordoba will continue to consistently put out some quality guitars. Time will tell.
Looking forward to see the new F55 Maple and F512.
 

fronobulax

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Sadly, the Fender guys, back in the NH days, were a bit reticent to participate on the forum. I don't know if it was corporate edict or what, but I sure hope that CMG doesn't put such restrictions on its employees.

I was part of some back channel comms with CMG when CMG bought Guild. There was some brainstorming about what relationship there should be, if any. My recollection was everyone wanted to preserve LTG's independence. Every scheme kicked around eventually boiled down to one more social media outlet CMG would have to craft content for and monitor. They decided they did not have the resources to do that. Based on what I've seen over the years, if we had the conversation today, they would ask interested LTG members to (join and) follow them on Facebook. They were very much aware of LTG and I believe someone at CMG is monitoring LTG.

It would be nice if they would post but I don't expect them to. If someone posts and identifies themselves as a CMG employee then those posts have the potential to obligate CMG. If they post without CMG oversight or permission they risk losing their job. (See https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/woman-flips-off-donald-trump-fired_us_59fe0ab4e4b0c9652fffa484 for one example of the lengths a company will go to control employee's social media).
 

chazmo

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Fro, c'mon... I just don't get this ridiculous, old-school thinking, if that's really what's going on. There's no recourse here on LTG for us to hold CMG to any commitments. How would that ever work?

OK, sure, I don't expect them to assign anyone to be a corporate interface here. I don't want that anyway. There's no reason that participation by a Cordoba employee endangers anyone's independence.

Well, whatever.
 

adorshki

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Can you drill through the plate? That'll let you see if it's a veneer or one piece of wood.
:biggrin-new:
While I love the humor, when I look at this pic from post #16 on my new 20" monitor, it looks like a pretty clear seam (or some kind of non-contiguous edge) on that "plate".
IMG_3494.jpg

Doesn't look like a grain matchup to the side of he block, either, but that's really hard to tell from the pic.
And it just seems like it'd be a whole lot easier to laser etch a plate like that and glue it in than to try to etch a block which one would then have to be sure was put into an F55.
What I'm wondering is if there's actually a sequential correlation of the s/n to the year build, ie, if that's the 1611th guitar built in 2017 regardless of model.
The day/month correlation was obviously a non-starter unless they were only building one guitar per day.
Which, now that I think about it......
:glee:
 
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ClydeTower

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While I love the humor, when I look at this pic from post #16 on my new 20" monitor, it looks like a pretty clear seam (or some kind of non-contiguous edge) on that "plate".
IMG_3494.jpg

Doesn't look like a grain matchup to the side of he block, either, but that's really hard to tell from the pic.
And it just seems like it'd be a whole lot easier to laser etch a plate like that and glue it in than to try to etch a block which one would then have to be sure was put into an F55.
What I'm wondering is if there's actually a sequential correlation of the s/n to the year build, ie, if that's the 1611th guitar built in 2017 regardless of model.
The day/month correlation was obviously a non-starter unless they were only building one guitar per day.
Which, now that I think about it......
:glee:

IMG_3557.jpg


This picture shows that a plate was in all likely hood glued to the neck bloc, probably after the guitar was assembled because you can see the center brace pass under the plate.
You can also see it partially covers a hole that is bored into the neck bloc.

What I'm wondering is if there's actually a sequential correlation of the s/n to the year build, ie, if that's the 1611th guitar built in 2017 regardless of model.

That is what I was led to believe.
 
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adorshki

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My recollection was everyone wanted to preserve LTG's independence.

THAT'S what I was trying to remember.
I read (past tense) that as a question about to whether LTG would be seen as nothing more than a marketing front for whoever the current owners are.

Fro, c'mon... I just don't get this ridiculous, old-school thinking, if that's really what's going on. There's no recourse here on LTG for us to hold CMG to any commitments. How would that ever work?

I remember when Fender's Dave R did post here very occasionally. It must have been tough for him to present his personal perceptions as distinct from the "corporate philosophy/goals", if and when they differed.
And let's not forget some of us can get pretty vociferous and nit-picky when venting our dissatisfaction with certain decisions...not that I'VE ever had that problem of course, (except when they want to call an F48 an F40)..... but you know what I mean. :glee:
I'm happy to let 'em watch without feeling obligated to respond.
Except to tell us WTH that catalyzed varnish finish really is.
Otherwise sure why would they want to hang around this hornets nest?
:biggrin-new:
 
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tommym

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Beautiful guitar CT! I just put my Orpheum jumbo on the scale, and it read 4.4 pounds. It's by far the lightest jumbo body I've ever hoisted, and even my luthier remarked about the same.

Wow that's light; my 73 F30 weighs 4.6 pounds......

Tommy
 

chazmo

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That is what I was led to believe. [that the trailing digits are some sort of sequential build number]

I think this is highly likely. There's probably a single station in the shop that makes these laser-etched plates, and thus the sequential nature of serial numbers can be preserved. It's when you have parallel stations for doing stuff like this (like when the necks are actually built, for example) that the sequential numbering scheme breaks down. In any case, two things:

1. The branded wood plate is MUCH better than a paper label, which is all we ever got from Tacoma and New Hartford builds. Better security, better fraud protection, and better protection of the legacy. I'm quite grateful that CMG took this approach and got away from the paper labels. Paper was fine, back when a branded headstock proved the authenticity, but I like this.

2. Knowing which day a guitar was actually finished on or assembled is cool but not all that important. The year is paramount, so I'm OK if that's all that's encoded in there, date-wise.

Tallyho
 

merlin6666

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This picture shows that a plate was in all likely glued to the neck bloc, probably after the guitar was assembled because you can see the center brace pass under the plate.
You can also see it partially covers a hole that is bored into the neck bloc.

The hole is quite obvious and it looks like rosewood is visible at the other end, so what's the purpose of that? Likely they are using standard neck blocks and on other models the hole is used to bolt on the neck, or access the truss rod (Orpheums).
 
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