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Location: Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire | I must have missed that one but after reading the write-up on Fenders spin-off of Ovation and KMC percussion to DW I see Guild ended up somewhere else away from the Ovation herd! So I guess that Guild sign on the side of the Ovation Factory in New Hartford is no longer??? |
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Location: Taxed To Death State | All that is left is a little Ovation sign on the side pointing to the service department which is still in operation. |
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Posts: 137
Location: Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire | at least that's something for this group to hang on to! |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Guild Guitars are just another company the Fender ruined.
Cordoba might do a good job with them.
Cordoba is already making woodbox guitars.
So they won't be looking to flip the company for a profit.
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Posts: 137
Location: Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire | I saw Takamine was another Fender dissection! I guess those early law-suit guitars may become collectible after all (lol)!
Having a local company that made instruments (Ovation, Guild, etc) kept it somewhat close to us, but the new world order of businesses seeking out-sourced low cost assembly takes the history out of the brand. Hence why we embrace the remaining "Legacy" products!
What would've happened to Stradivarius had he outsourced his violin parts? Just another violin! |
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| All this buying, selling, flipping, mergers, etc in the guitar world reminds me of the biotech industry - anymore, it's nearly impossible to know who really owns what. More so, it appears that buying a name and making a profit is king. Pretty sad commentary on our society, if you ask me. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | All this buying, selling, flipping, mergers, etc in the guitar world...
is mostly being done by FMIC (Fender Marketing Investment Corp).
Martin just makes the same guitars for centuries and hires employees for Life.
Peavey bought Composite Acoustics to Save a good company/product.
Fender buys companies and closes them. There is a big difference.
All that said, I hope that Cordoba retains and resurrects the Guild brand.
Not by making $14K boutique guitars, but by making a dependable USA product.
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Location: Texas | "Takamine was another Fender dissection" I am not sure what that means, but Takamine doesnt have a thing to do with Fender, visa versa. Takamine owns Takamine.
Edited by jay 2015-01-25 6:13 PM
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Location: SoCal | Tak was distributed by KMC. Didn't I see something in the last couple of weeks that was going to end? Somebody help me out here with the correct info..... |
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Posts: 137
Location: Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire | You may be right. There was a blurb or something
that KMC distributed Takamine (not owned). Who can keep up with all the spins on this stuff! |
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Location: Texas | Paul, best that I remember, Tak dropped Fender last year as its distribution channel provider and picked up someone else...Maybe there is more to that story and it is the other way around...dunno, because the exit came during the time Fender was in the midst of scuttling all the KMC acquisitions. Fender was probably going to sell the distribution channel to Mattel and Tak said nah.
Edited by jay 2015-01-26 9:30 AM
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Read or heard somewhere that since they "rescued" Guild from the jaws of Fender, that Cordoba has built exactly ... wait for it ... ZERO Guild guitars. |
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Location: SoCal | Jay, Mario was at NAMM and said that Tak was in a corner of the Fender booth. I really don't know what's currently going on with it...... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Takamine (at least in the US) died the day they let Mike M go. Speedy killed the line, fracked up all the naming, nobody knows what the freak a PD2C is and nobody gives a rats *** anymore, Fuckner screwed the rest and there you have it.
The only good thing compared to Obortion is that the Tak factory is still intact and building the same kick-arse guitars as ever. They just need to figure out how to rework the distribution channels and things could be very much back on track. Their 2015 Collector looks like a stunning guitar. |
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Location: Texas | I found this law suit filed by Takamine against KMC (Fender). From what I can figure Takamine asserts there is no written agreement for KMC to distribute their products in the USA and are awaiting the outcome of proceedings to find a new distributor. It appears that Takamine has a new distributor but KMC is deliberately interfering with the business relationship between Takamine and the new distributor. And then you have THIS which doesnt cover America, but may be part of the domino chain. So...you probably have no distribution in America at this point. Unless you go to NAMM and find a dark corner and a couple of Taks at Fenders booth. |
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Location: Canada | It looks like there is also a divergence of Tak websites: takamine.com now does not show links to international sites and has KMC label, whereas the rest of the world is covered by http://www.takamineguitarsworldwide.com/ which also has a reference to NAMM ... |
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Guild sold off to Cordoba Guitars?
