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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | edit |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | Henry? Who's Henry? |
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| edit................Peace Love Dope........! |
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Location: NJ | ". . So, how many people in the music industry does it take to piss on Henry? . ."
However many are IN the music industry . . . |
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Location: NJ | . . . or as it says in the recipe:
". . add enough liquid t'cover . . ." |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Cliff gets it right, almost
"however many there are in the music industry", plus 1. |
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Location: SoCal | Whoever has a full bladder at the appointed time? |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Just one ... to close the toilet bowl cover and flush. |
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Location: Nashville TN. | Um ....
who is Henry and why pee on him??? |
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Location: SoCal | If you don't know, then it's probably better that you don't ask..... |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | It's amazing to me how quickly the New Hartford factory is being expanded to accommodate Guild. |
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Location: NJ | I think this is gonna' be "Good"!! . . .
T'me, MasterKeller has always had that "CheshireGrin" . . .
. . . it just seemed t'come aLOT "easier" Thursday Night. |
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| I have a custom project finally underway to help in one small way to keep the Adamas shop with a long list of work.
I sure hope all is what it should be and business is good for all.
Randy |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Seems relocation is a definite option.
Economy of scale? Does that mean the overhead cost was too much, for the number of Tacomas they made? Also, that guy from Pierce County said that they'll have no problem filling the old plant. It would be a big problem if it were the reverse, there's been so much hollowing out here in the Northeast ... I'm glad to see more manufacturing come this way.
Anyhow, this is a more upbeat article.
They’ll still be Tacoma Guitars even after moving to Connecticut
C.R. ROBERTS; c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com Published: February 2nd, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: February 2nd, 2008 07:59 AMTacoma
Guitars is leaving Tacoma.
The company, formed in 1995 by Korean instrument maker Young Chang, will close production at its Frederickson plant by the end of the year. Seventy employees will be offered services from a menu including severance pay, benefit continuation, relocation and job placement assistance.
Fender Musical Instruments of Scottsdale, Ariz., purchased the company in 2004 for an estimated $2 million to $4 million plus the assumption of debt, former Tacoma Guitars President Ferdinand Boyce said Thursday evening.
He said he was not surprised by Fender’s announcement to close the Frederickson facility and move production of Tacoma- and Guild-brand guitars to a plant in New Hartford, Conn.
The Connecticut plant, which Fender acquired late last year, is also home to production of Ovation- and Hamer-brand guitars.
“Frederickson is a wonderful plant, a great deal of it based on labor-intensive hand-manufacturing processes,” Boyce said. “A lot of guys building guitars are going to robotics, machine-assisted manufacturing, which isn’t suited to the Tacoma facility.”
Fender spokesman Jason Padgitt on Friday denied that robotics will play a role in the manufacture of Tacoma or Guild guitars.
“There’s a lot of respect for everything everyone has done there. It certainly wasn’t anything anyone looked at as an easy decision,” he said.
Padgitt said the decision centered on an economy of scale.
“We looked at production facilities and compared what was going to be the most effective for the brands overall,” he said. “The New Hartford plant has 67,000 square feet. Tacoma has 44,000 square feet.”
He promised the name Tacoma will live on.
At its peak, Tacoma Guitars employed 96 workers, said Boyce, now 71 and living in Seattle. He retired three years ago. Lately, he said, “Tacoma just wasn’t big enough to run with the big dogs. Fender’s commitment obviously is to make money.”
“Fender, from the time they bought the company, they really put Tacoma on the back burner,” said Jimmy Davis, guitar sales associate at Tacoma’s Ted Brown Music. “It’s a great brand, as far as acoustic guitars go.”
Bruce Kendall, president and CEO of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, said he understands the move and doesn’t foresee a major local impact.
“It’s always unfortunate when good-paying jobs in Pierce County go elsewhere,” he said.
Kendall said the Frederickson plant, leased by Tacoma Guitars, should easily find interest from another company.
“There’s high demand for manufacturing space,” he said.
Along with Fender keeping alive the Tacoma brand, Davis from Ted Brown sees another silver lining. “At least they’re keeping it in America,” he said.
C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535 |
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Location: Seoul, Korea | Quite informative article an4340. Did not realize Young Chang owned Tacoma Guitars. The company must have realized that labor cost differential could not make up for art for lutherie. For many years famous Japanese and Korean luthiers tried to take apart very, very expensive guitars to understand the 'art' behind guitar making, so-called the secret behind the guitar sound. To my knowledge, at the least in the classical guitar area, only Kohno managed to figure out the art and commands prices similar to the best luthiers from Europe, Australia and the U.S. Epiphone guitars previously made in Korea are now made in China and only the top of the line in Korea. Maybe it is time to move back the Epiphone brand back to the U.S. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | STK : For many years famous Japanese and Korean luthiers tried to take apart very, very expensive guitars to understand the 'art' behind guitar making, so-called the secret behind the guitar sound.
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That`s what has been said for the past 7 decades , concerning anything from photo -camera`s to motor -cars , and anything in between , Truth is , the Japanese and Co. , " bought " the Engineers , simply copying , using reverse -engineering , will only get them into legal disputes , it`s a Fable , nothing more.
Vic |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | STK, An Yang Hah Sah Yo
Well, if the dollar keeps dwindling, you may be right STK, you may be right.
As to reverse engineering, I think STK is exagerating. For example, Eastman Guitars watched a Benadetto video and started making dynomite archtops in china. |
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Location: Seoul, Korea | No, I am not exaggerating. There is a thick handbook on Guitar written about 20 years ago and there is a chapter describing a group of Japanese classical-guitar-luthier-to-be trying to photograph anything and everything when they visited world renowned luthiers in Madrid, Barcelona and Granada. Likewise, they bought and 'massacred' guitars made by famous Spanish luthiers to learn. If you PM me are interested I can provide you the name of the book. The education in Asia is more based on cramming than creative problem solving. This is also why it is not easy for them to come up with breakthrough technology but rather improvement of the proven technologies as mentioned by Vic above. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | When I bought a Takamine Dread for my sister in 1980 I remember talking with the sales manager about how the Japanese had reverse engineered much of it.
Also of note are some of the discussions going on at the Tacoma Guitar Forum where I posted this:
A Pig and a Rooster were sitting outside the Farmhouse and looked inside to see Farmer Bob eating his breakfast of Eggs and Ham.
The Rooster says "I sure hope he enjoys his breakfast. You have no idea how much commitment went into it"!
The Pig looks the Rooster straight in the face and says "YOU were involved!" "Us Pigs, WE are committed"!
I told ya that story so I could tell you this one.
I learned to play on my Sister's Guild D50 and later bought my very own Ovation Custom Balladeer. Years later we moved from Massachusetts to Washington State.
Whilst wandering the local Ted Brown Music store I ran across my first Tacoma guitars, and of course, the Papoose.
I have learned to enjoy all three Makers and relish the pride and craftsmanship that each has presented. I am also a member of the Ovation Fan club and have been back to New Hartford to visit the factory and meet my extended "Family".
So...
My point is that as the "Consumer" we are just a bunch of Roosters.
I am deeply and apologetically thankful to the craftspeople that turn the wood and wire into working instruments that are capable of inspiring us and allowing us to celebrate our breath and our lives! They will be going through a lot of transition, change and opportunity.
An Era has ended and another may be beginning. When inspired Craftspeople reach a road block - they usually end up starting new lines of instruments!
Watch for them and encourage them!
I still take pity on players I run into and have stopped playing because their tired old Fender acoustic has a crappy and painful setup. Time to use my gifts and a little elbow grease to repair/realign and get them back up and running! Maybe a call to the StewMac Hotline is in order...
I do hope that FMIC will be able to recognize the Soul of the Tacomas, Guilds, Ovation and Hamers and empower them to keep the dream making machine on-line.
Let me step down from my soapbox and just say that in time all these instruments and efforts will rust, fade or crumble but the impact of time spent with each other in song and worship of life will stay with us forever.
May God's blessings be upon the Luthiers that have been called to their craft, and craft to their calling. May each Worker find peace and opportunity. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | If reverse engineering was just copying, I would have a problem with it, but the Japanese have done a good job of making many good products better.
Another way off track example: I was working with a well-known engineer and was talking about my VW Vanagan. He told me that he worked for Toyota and when he was in Japan he found a whole junkyard of new VW Vanagans that Toyota had done crash tests on. They apparently were studying others while they designed Toyota minivans. No one would say the Sienna was a copy of the Vanagan. In the mid 90s when Porsche was struggling they brought over some Japanese consultants to help them with their manufacturing processes. Then came the Boxster etc. and Porsche became the most profitable car manufacturer. There are many good and bad products produced by most any culture.
I hope that this change is good for everyone, especially for those who may be displaced by it. Things have a way of working out. |
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| Takamine sent Mr Hirade to Spain to study with one of the great makers (I think it was Ramirez but I can't be bothered to go and check) and he then went back and taught his staff in Japan. And over the years he added his own touches. The guys at Yamaha are even better and make truly world-class instruments.
You'd have to explain the difference between an American luthier copying the great Ramirez/Hauser classical guitar designs (which every single living classical guitar maker does) and a Japanese or Korean doing the same thing. The days when all they did were cheap copies finished 20 years or more ago. Ask the automobile industry who copies who these days. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I wish the Germans would copy the Japanese electronics in cars. My check engine light is on again. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Good one Mark. |
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Location: SoCal | Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mazda have gone way beyond "copying" other brands...... |
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Location: Upper Left USA | "Plagarism saves time!"
Please feel free to use that line... |
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guild moves to new hartford
