There has been some evidence based speculation that there is now more than one Korean factory and there are definitely some solid body 6 strings being made in China.
We are in the bass area here, but nevertheless this is my break-down of the entire Guild Newark St. line:
Hollow and semi-hollow bodied models (Starfires, Aristocrat, A-, X-, T-models,...) come from
SPG Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. (SPG="Sound Professional Guitar") in
Korea. (
KSG serial numbers =
Korea
SPG
Guild).
Update 2022:
The new Surfliner models come from
PT. Cort in Surabaya,
Indonesia. ("G4" serial numbers like
G4220739)
Update 2020:
The new oddly named "
Starfire I series" now comes from
P.T. Samick, in Cileungsi near Bogor, West Java,
Indonesia.
(
ISG serial numbers =
Indonesia
Samick
Guild).
"P.T." is an acronym for
Perseroan
Terbatas, a business entity that is formed and acts per commercial law. A
member on Gretsch-Talk said this factory is operational since 1992 and their current guitar production capacity is 35.000 guitars a month (420.000 a year)! Now those are numbers!
EDIT 11/2022: The S-100 Deluxe also is ISG. (4 screws on the lid only).
EDIT 5/2023: The
S-100 "Limited" also is ISG.
EDIT 12/2023: The "
Polara Kim Thayil" is also ISG.
Solid-body electrics like the T-Bird, Bluesbird solid and S-100 come from
WMI (
World Musical Instrument Co. Ltd. ) in Incheon,
Korea.
(
KWM serial numbers =
Korea
World
Musical).
The S-100 for instance already switched from SPG to WMI during CMG's ownership of Guild. (WMI mounts the lid over the pot chamber with
6 screws on the S-100 model vs. previously with
4 screws on the former SPG versions).
And since 2018 a new factoray was introduced with the new Jetstar model, coming from
Yako Musical Instruments (Zhangzhou) Co., Ltd. in Zhangzhou city near Xiamen,
China.
(
GY serial numbers =
Guild
Yako).
EDIT: Also the 2019 introduced Aristocrat P90 and Aristocrat HH have GY serial numbers.
All those factories are also producting loads of guitars for other well known companies:
SPG in Korea produces for many like Gretsch, D’Angelico, Comins....
P.T. Samick in Indonesia manufactures for Greg Bennett, Silvertone, Fender/Squier (includes acoustics), Epiphone, Cordoba, Washburn, and Hohner among others.
PT. Cort in Indonesia manufactures for PRS, Squier, ...
WMI in Korea is producing for PRS, ESP, Agile, LTD, Chapman, Schecter...
Yako in China for instance is producing for FMIC (Gretsch, Squier) since 24 years already!
Ralf