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Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Well, we are here at the (Guild) factory tour. Al, T28, Mitch and myself. Day 1 all the guild guys except one went to bed around 830 pm. The one straggler Mark brings in the bottle of JD and we jam past midnight. Proud of my OFC boys. |
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August 2009
Posts: 602
Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Sounds like fun. Enjoy it furthermore. |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Pez is here as well. |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
Day 1 all the guild guys except one went to bed around 830 pm. Yaz gotts ta showz dem how itz dun boyz! |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
The one straggler Mark brings in the bottle of JD and we jam past midnight. Proud of my OFC boys. Especially since you all did it only last month.
Soldier on, boys! |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Sounds like they got some learning to do |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
Day 1 all the guild guys except one went to bed around 830 pm. Where are you staying? The Moodyville Hotel? |
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March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | Tell my "cousin" Dave O. I said hi. |
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December 2004
Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | Any pictures??? |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I want to see a video of "The Performance" |
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June 2006
Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | "Especially since you all did it only last month.
Soldier on, boys!"
practice makes perfect. |
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July 2003
Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
Pez is here as well. I was ...... |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
Well, we are here at the (Guild) factory tour. Al, T28, Mitch and myself. Day 1 all the guild guys except one went to bed around 830 pm. The one straggler Mark brings in the bottle of JD and we jam past midnight. Proud of my OFC boys. I did not realize anyone was there past 8pm
The tour was interesting.
Kinda sad too..
Very few Ovations being made. |
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December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | I just got home from the tour and I'll share some of my thoughts with the OFC faithful.
Kim Keller put on this tour and he did his usual fantastic job. Kudos also to Dave Gonzalez, the head of Guild marketing. He conducted an excellent Q&A session.
Fender's objective in this venture is to preserve an American guitar manufacturing icon. To acheive that end they made the best possible choice by having all Guild production moved to New Hartford. The production guys, Frank Untermyer and Darren (Conners?), are the most enthusiastic, dedicated and knowledgeable people in the business. Guild guitars are not designed to be stage guitars. They are acoustic instruments. The factory is concentrating on a "Traditional" series of guitars. The finishes are nitro-cellulose. The neck joints are dove-tail. The bindings are hand laid. The factory tour was focused on wood quality, high technology for building the guitars and the labor intensive final finishing. The end product is IMHO the most consistent and highest quality line of acoustic guitars period. The level of craftsmanship is evident in every single element of the guitars. They are simply stunning and made in limited numbers. You're not going to find New Harford made Guild guitars at Guitar Center.
The factory graciously put out about 30 different examples for our review. Each has is own voice, but there remained a tone connection between all of them. Several examples with just strumming a few chords became alive with sound. Some would make most of us here drool and promote an instantaneous GAS attack.
The Tour itself was great. The factory has been re-vamped to build wood box guitars. I didn't see any completed Ovations, just some parts here and there. This is now a dedicated Guild plant. Some of the high tech machines are new, while some of the other machines have been re-programed to make the necessary parts for wood box guitars. The blanks for the sides, for example, are cut on the same laser cutter that is used to make Ovation epaulets. As always, the goal is consistent high quality for every part, operation and construction technique. The results are beyond impressive.
The folks from the Let's Talk Guild site were a friendly group. There were displays of some really unique vintage Guild stuff. Our own Al Pepiak topped everyone with a '55 gold arch-top electric that he actually played at the ski lodge jam. It looked and sounded way cool.
Unfortunately though, there weren't that many Guild devotees playing their guitars this weekend. The lobby jam group was a mere six people: me, my friend Craig, Dave/Gallerinski, Al, Steve/T28 and one lone LTG member Mark, a very talented player. Perhaps LTG members need some time to get acquainted with the concept of a lobby jam. The OFC Tours with the infamous all-nite lobby jams were well established by the time I went to my first OFC tour in '06. Were the lobby jams at the first few OFC tours as lively as the ones I attended?
I'll admit to being biased. I've met a whole bunch of great people here at OFC. We're an eclectic group with widely ranging ideas on life but we have one thing in common. We LOVE to play guiar. When we have a get together it's a real festival and celebration of that love. I just didn't feel that type of enthusiasm for playing from the LTGers. Kim assured me that they will get the hang of it. I sure hope so because they all were excellent at the tour but a bit lethargic when it came to jamming. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | IT was more museum art.
by that I mean a lot of the guild members would bring 2-3 or more guitars into the lobby or skidown, set them up on stands for everyone to see....and then NEVER PLAY THE DAMN THINGS!
Darren did "hint" that there was some exciting stuff in store with Ovation but he along with everyone else was really tight lipped about it. Time will tell!
The JAMS WERE GREAT (as expected) with Al, Dave, Mitch, ME, Craig, JOAN and JESSIE on vocals...
Fun times....last night we had a hotel employee join in and sing and also just a guest at the hotel.
Strange that we got more enthusiasm and participation from casuals than from the group that was sponsoring the event. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7222
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | We were a little timid the first OFC Event, but maybe not quite as much as this new group. Everything was new the first time. But the "lobby jam" took shape in proper form early on year two especially with the encouragement of the hotel staff that actually had employees asking for the shift that evening.
Sounds like a good time had by all. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | In 07 (5th tour?) I stayed in CT to do some work and spent my last night there in our hotel. I talked to people working there and they loved the music and party atmosphere of the gathering. I think it helped that nobody was overtly obnoxious or drunk and everybody was polite to anybody walking thru the lobby.
And nobody put their guitars out to just be on display. Every guitar put out was played by anybody who wanted to play them. In 07 when Al devlived my OFC guitar (ding!) that Thursday nite, I took it out to the lobby and didn't see it for the rest of the evening. Everybody played it. Even (choke) Weas.
Fun times. I miss them..... |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
We were a little timid the first OFC Event, according to the t-shirts, this was their 4th gathering. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | well we rocked the house.
it was a fun time.
as for ovation remember this was a GUILD event and we did not even get onto the main ovation floor in the building.
there is new stuff in the works that I cannot talk about and will not until given the ok by "management" |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | One of the best parts of the Ovation Tour was the included Hamer Tour.
If (and that's a big if) there is ever another Ovation thing I sure hope it includes some time with Guild. |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I wish I could've been there. Lots of memories of playing lots of guitars in that lobby. There's lots of pictures too. :rolleyes: I always have so much fun jamming with all the ofc'rs. Especially alpep and all the usual suspects. |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | I was there for 3 of the Tours...bringing young,impressionable guitar loving teens with me. It's been a few years and I have a ton of fond memories. If there's another one I will be there for sure. |
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October 2005
Posts: 5330
Location: Cicero, NY | "And nobody put their guitars out to just be on display. Every guitar put out was played by anybody who wanted to play them. In 07 when Al devlived my OFC guitar (ding!) that Thursday nite, I took it out to the lobby and didn't see it for the rest of the evening. Everybody played it. Even (choke) Weas."
That's absolutely correct. If I recall, I was sitting with Jerome, Tom and Waskel and I was trying to pry up a couple of the eppys to see if they had changed the glue at all on the OFC's but ran out of Tequila before I could get into it...ah, good times. |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | The QA session was right out the Ovation book ...
Why don't you still build electrics
Why don't you have any endorsees
Why can I never find your guitars in stores
Gee, sounds like THEY GET NO RESPECT!
The tour was extremely impressive. To see what they have done to transform the factory was amazing and only took a few minutes to see that the complete emphasis was on quality, not one just building a certain quantity. It was easily as impressive as Martin or Collings tours. If you like the Guild guitars is just personal preference. And if you resent the fact that the hands that used to build round backs are now building wooden boxes, well nobody can help that. But as Mitch said, Fender object was not to squeeze the last nickel out of the bottom line. Their objective was to preserve an American icon in new England and build the best darn wooden box that they could. Inthink the result spoke for itself.
Now, AL ... How do I get one of those 10 GSR-30 models? |
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July 2003
Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | Does this mean there about to be a Guild Gallery?
I think the OMG Guild are being made by Ovation will pass in time.
Guild was no respect brand even before Ovation was. |
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Factory Tour Report
