Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

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Larry Mal
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Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:07 am

Not sure how interesting this will be here, but I was talking about the travails of Guild the other day, and they are now under the ownership of Cordoba, who bought Guild about six years ago.

Frankly this is kind of reminding me of the beer mergers of a little while ago.

Anyway, I don't know what this means for Guild, hopefully good things. I think Guild has been selling well these last years, I think the import guitars are probably doing great. They are very well made guitars for the money. I don't see Yamaha really changing that. And it's not like Yamaha are some corporate liquidators or anything.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Embenny » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:16 am

Interesting. Yamaha knows how to consistently make great instruments of all types, so I don't expect them to be poor stewards of the brand.

I do, however, wonder how many instruments in the line will change factories, and if maybe we'll see some more active product development. Seemed like Cordoba mostly wanted to let Guild coast.

My T-birds continue to get more play time than just about anything else I own, so I hope they don't mess with the quality of the Newark line.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by sal paradise » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:28 am

Yamaha rarely make acquisitions compared to other big brands (aka US companies), so presume it’ll be fairly low-key and business as usual.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:37 am

Yeah, and unlike Fender, Yamaha is getting a Guild that is up and running well at the moment. Apparently when Fender bought Guild, the old Rhode Island factory was in disrepair and that's what sent Guild on their adventure in multiple factories across the United States. But now Guild seems stable, and popular, so I would hope not a lot of changes were to be in order.

Anyway, Yamaha is a great brand.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Telliot » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:38 am

I’m not sure how I feel about this, but it seems to be par for the course with Guild. I’m interested to see if Yamaha finally give them the support and love they deserve. That’s not to say Fender and Cordoba did a bad job, but it sucks to see such a cool brand never really get their footing in the marketplace.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:40 am

I'd guess it probably is what Yamaha says it is, there's nothing that Yamaha needs from Guild, although maybe they really wanted Cordoba and will sell Guild off or something.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Jonesie » Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:08 am

Interesting. As others have said, Yamaha seems to know how to run an instrument company and I'm willing to bet they'll do a great job with Guild. My prediction is that we're going to keep on seeing Guild USA acoustics, but we're also going to start seeing Yamaha USA acoustics.

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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:16 am

That would be interesting... I'm not sure why they would do that, though. While there is a largely undeserved perception of poor quality coming from Chinese factories, Yamaha has at least one Japanese factory, and I can't imagine there's anyone that would think that Japanese factories don't make guitars as good as American ones at this point.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Jonesie » Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:32 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:16 am
That would be interesting... I'm not sure why they would do that, though. While there is a largely undeserved perception of poor quality coming from Chinese factories, Yamaha has at least one Japanese factory, and I can't imagine there's anyone that would think that Japanese factories don't make guitars as good as American ones at this point.
I think it's a matter of branding. Yamaha and Takamine (I think still) make high end acoustics in Japan, but you never see anyone playing them, other than Springsteen with the Takamines. There's something to be said about the cache of a US made acoustic. I'm sure the Japanese Yamahas are the same quality as ones that would be made in the US, but it's the built-in branding of "quality" from a US made acoustic.

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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Telliot » Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:23 am

With the red label reissues out now my guess is Yamaha are trying to position themselves as a stronger player in the US and shift away from the 'budget brand' perception.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by Embenny » Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:28 am

I think we are more likely to see the opposite - Guilds made in Yamaha's usual factories (on top of the US factory).

Cordoba was already making Guilds in Asia, so maybe Yamaha will use the brand to try to improve their guitars' penetration into the Western market.

Most of the draw of "made in the US" instruments comes from the handful of well-established US brands. The Yamaha brand has been around forever and is deeply associated with Eastern-made guitars, so I think that making Yamahas with expensive American labour would be the worst of both worlds - expensive guitars with limited appeal to their main market.

Just look at how unpopular US-made Epiphones are, and that's a brand with actual American roots and history. The decades of being used as Gibson's Asian budget brand eroded the appeal of the "E," so the US-made Casino does nothing close to Gibson's 335 sale numbers.

Guild has a niche brand appeal compared to Martin or Gibson, but pulls on those nostalgic heartstrings a lot more than the Yamaha logo for Western buyers, so that's probably where the value of the acquisition lies.

That, or Guild is merely an incidental acquisition to Cordoba, who are major competitors to Yamaha's classical guitars. Both are major players - Cordoba being the new kid on the scene, who might have been taking too big a bite out of Yamaha's market share.

Back when I was a classical guitar student in the late 90's and early 2000's, Yamaha was the brand to beat in terms of student and entry-level concert guitars, although I never ended up buying one. I started on a La Patrie guitar (made in Canada by LaSiDo, the company that also makes Seagull acoustics and Godin electrics), and upgraded to an Alvarez-Yairi before moving in to luthier-built guitars.

One of my guitar teachers had a high-end Yamaha, and it was a thrill when he let me play it on occasion. I came close to getting a Yammie, but the Yairi had something extra in the bass register that I totally melted for. But these days, I see more and more Cordobas in the hands of players who would probably have been playing Yamahas 20 years ago. They cover the exact same range, from the low 3-figure beginner guitars to the high 4-figure entry level concert instruments.
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Re: Yamaha acquires Guild and Cordoba

Post by ludobag1 » Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:10 am

for me it is a great things cause this brand need to be alive,the prededent who buy the brand guild,dearmond extint it really fast and that s bad my dearmond t400 is a really good guitar in term of finish ,quality of build and sound
i an big fan of guild guitar even if i don't have one but the acoustic always attract me ,the electric too a starfire :-*

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