intelligentpony

If they closed the Ovation factory they would have no place to build acoustics in the USA. They moved Guild fron Rhode Island to Corona and that was a fail. No humidity control and bad build quality. Fender bought Tacoma, moved Guild to Tacoma where they could build really great guitars and killed off Guild electrics. Final move, closed down Tacoma and gutted the line, moved production to Ovation where they had no idea how to make an all solid acoustic. Well the Hamer guys did since they had the Improv model. It appears that Tacoma is dead as well. Fender's track record of screwing up a non Fender product other than Gretsch continues.

They must have been trying to keep up with BC Rich in the knob and switch counts...

I did some digging and found the '83 catalog online and it states that the AR1500 are hand made. It appears that the AR3000 and AR5000 were a couple of years before the AR1500. The AR3000 was in the '81 catalog and the AR5000 in the '81 and '82 catalogs and the AR1500 in the '83 catalog. Here are the AR3000 and AR5000

I have stumbled across a 1983 Ibanez AR1500 and was wondering if anyone here may know a value on it. Seems to be a pretty rare guitar as I can find nothing for sale other than one on a Japanese website. Stupid clean with the warranty card and original brown rectangular case.

What tells you it's got a refret? The frets are on top of the binding and the binding top edge has been beveled. Notice the two tone color of the binding. There should be binding nubs over the fret ends.

This is not a fair characterization of FMIC. They did not "gut" Guild. They have shown a consistent effort to restore the brand to premium status. They have tried many things to do this, including contracting with the NYC archtop luthier Benedetto to produce premium but affordable archtops and moving flattop production to Tacoma, WA to use Tacoma Guitar facilities. When the quality of Guilds coming out of Tacoma didn't meet their satisfaction they moved Guild back to the Ovation/Hamer facility. If Hamer USA has been put on a low-output back burner it's been to save and restore Guild. As far as what they've done with Jackson, that's what Hamer under Kaman did to/for themselves in the '90s. It's a survival trend that has been followed by many boutique brands, including PRS, Brian Moore, MTD (Michael Tobias Designs) basses, Lakland basses (the Skyline line is made in Indonesia), and even very upscale German bass-maker Warwick, who now makes various lines in Korea and China. Gibson has shown an inept, hamfisted handling of many of its acquisitions (e.g., Tobias, Steinberger, Slingerland), but I can't say the same about FMIC. They have tried very hard to bring out the best in the brands they've bought, trying to find the best facility to produce them, refining the product lines to enable the brands to become profitable again. Gretsch is a success story because it has iconic status in pop music. George Harrison played a lot of Gretsch, as did Chet Atkins and the Monkees. Brian Setzer and others still play and endorse them. Guild hasn't had a noted electric user/endorser since Jack Casady (who since moved on to Epiphone) and Muddy Waters (who isn't endorsing anything these days). Let's not forget that when a music company goes on the block, it's probably because their business model isn't working. Fender buys these companies up hoping to turn them around, but sometimes maybe that can't be done. There are a lot of guitar companies that thrived during the shred/metal boom of the '80s that have shrunk significantly since, including Jackson, Charvel, Kramer, Hamer, BC Rich. It's not just metal either. A lot of guitar-based pop/rock has been replaced by sampled and synthed hip-hop. Tough times for guitar companies, and there will be casualties. You left out the part about Fender first moving Guild production from Westerly to Corona which was a miserable failure. The Benedetto guitars were great but the prices moved way north moving the prices above what the normal Guild buyer was willing to pay, lowering sales. Fender then bought Tacoma and moved Guild there, gutting the Tacoma line, to get Guild pricing back down and back on track. Tacoma was making VERY FINE instruments when Fender closed Tacoma and moved production to Ovation (not "back to" as they were never made at Ovation previously) with quite a few Tacoma employees. If Tacoma was so bad why did they move employees? Fender stated that they were consolidating two production facilities.The only FMIC line that has not been gutted by Fender is Gretsch, due greatly in part that the Gretsch family are still owners.

Classic! Obviously Salesguy Dude thought eye candy trumps all. Maybe you should go back and 'educate' him. But DON'T bring the FM back, and make sure you keep the receipt! We should all email GC a link to this thread.

Guitar Center?

Cool guitar. First owned was a '93 Cherry Sunburst Studio. First played was my 0114 Standard the day the original owner received it back in '78.

Seems to work for this guy. It's a real '63. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuO8aBphh1U Changes to the Explorer at 4:32

Hit the Best Offer button and send him your price.

Really? I can clearly see the center seam. Notice the color changes from below the tailpiece to the bottom edge.

PRS also has GREAT benefits. After the first year or two they cover ALL of the employees medical. That alone is worth quite a bit. Not to mention the employee guitar program.

One thing I do with a two point trem is to raise it off of the top. If it is adjusted down where the forward edge if the trem plate is against the top it can bind against the top. I raise it so the trem plate is 1/8" off the deck. I then get it level with the top. Pretty much how a floating Floyd Rose is set up. With it set up like this it is a lot less likely to bind and go sharp. You will need to adjust the neck angle to get the action back down to a playable height (unless you are also wanting to play slide). Hope this makes sense and helps.

Ted McCarty? Perhaps they found their way to Maryland when Ted got involved with PRS? Per Paul at the Experience PRS event Ted gave the papers to Paul before he died. Paul is the first one to say they are just papers, Gibson clearly owns the patents.

Guitar Center was purchased this month by Bain Capital for $2,100,000,000.00 with over 200 stores as well as Musicians Friend and other subsidiaries. Are you talking about the Gretsch Spectrasonics? Hamer built the limited runs of those several years ago. I hadn't heard anything about Guilds... My brain storage capacity isn't what it once was so maybe it was Gretsch. Either way, Fender will now have a way to build USA guitars under the Guild and Gretsch banners without the upwards of 10K list pricing. How about a USA built Guild or Gretsch at the same price as the Japanese built Gretsch models? Sounds like a winning formula to me. That is if they don't gut Hamer the way they did Guild. Where would Hamer be building these guitars? Aren't they running their current plant at full capacity? If they have to hire a bunch of new people and build these speculative Gretsch guitars somewhere else, it's really not going to be Hamer building them at all. -Austin I did not say that Hamer would be building the speculative Gretch and Guilds. My point was that Fender having the capital would be able to take the knowledge and run with it. They could slowly higher and train more workers and start to use CNCs for production. Look at the quality of PRS guitars before you laugh at me. Other than the CNC for the rough carve of the bodies they are hand worked. If you have ever been on a tour of the PRS factory or have seen any factory tour videos or photos you would know what I am talking about. When Fender moved Guild to Corona they found out that couldn't build 'em right and killed off the electrics and bought Tacoma so they had a way to build a great acoustic again. Hopefully they learned a valuable lesson and will take Hamer's knowledge and learn how to build Guild and Gretch guitars in the USA.

Guitar Center was purchased this month by Bain Capital for $2,100,000,000.00 with over 200 stores as well as Musicians Friend and other subsidiaries. Are you talking about the Gretsch Spectrasonics? Hamer built the limited runs of those several years ago. I hadn't heard anything about Guilds... My brain storage capacity isn't what it once was so maybe it was Gretsch. Either way, Fender will now have a way to build USA guitars under the Guild and Gretsch banners without the upwards of 10K list pricing. How about a USA built Guild or Gretsch at the same price as the Japanese built Gretsch models? Sounds like a winning formula to me. That is if they don't gut Hamer the way they did Guild.

Don't be surprised to see Guild electrics back in production. Word was a few years back Fender was talking to Hamer about building Guilds and a few prototypes were made.

Did you ask about any headstock repairs? There was one on a few weeks ago that had a repair and there are no back of photos on this one.

Welcome to the 4 digit club!

If you have some original Dimarzios with the braided wire, you might want to put them in. The pickups in my 0114 sound killer. You really should try them.

That's the best eBay deal I have ever seen on an original Standard, swapped pickups or not. What amazes me is that it had 21 hits before you snagged it. Being broke or not, if I had seen it before you I would have been all over it. Enjoy it and welcome to the Standard club.