Post by pitts on Jun 7, 2012 16:32:16 GMT
Hi all,
Well I am a fair way from home right now, Normaly New Zealand.
I am sitting in a high rise in Las Vegas right now.
While I was in Anahiem I had the opportunity to take the Fender factory tour out at Corona.
This is a "real tour " by that I mean you actually go into the factory with the workers, you are not looking through glass windows remotely as with some plastic tours you can do.
The factory is over 170,000 square feet so it's not small.
You are issued with safety glasses and a receiver so the guide can talk to you over the factory noise.
The tour takes you from the very start to the end. You see the blocks of wood as they arrive though the various processes to the end finished guitar.
That's about three weeks from start to finish by the way.
One of the things that struck me is it's a very eclectic collection of equipment they use.
On the one hand you see all these very old presses and drills that date back to the fifties and on the other there is state of the art CNC machines that process all of the mass production aspects. Most of the neck work is now automated.
They produce up to 500 guitars a week (where do they all go ?).
Despite the use of the CNC machines there is still a great deal of hand made art goes into the making. The guys working the bodies with the rotary sanders (air filled) they do the final shaping of the radius parts of the body. This is obviously a real art to get it right every time.
The factory is amazingly dust free given all of the sanding that goes on and has an amazing vacuum system on very machine.
The other thing you notice is they make nearly every part including the metal parts.
An interesting side point made was the little angle bracket that holds your jack socket on a Strat.... This is the original die.. So you are sharing that in common with even the most famous guitarists.... Even Hank's , Eric Claptons etc came from the same die... That's real history.
There are a lot of old machines that have that history in the factory.
You are free to take photos all the way through the only time you can't is in the Custom shop Team built area....I don't understand this as you can take pix in the Master builders area
?
If you look up there are hundreds ( in fact thousands) of guitars all overhead like in a dry cleaners. They are way up and they dry out up there for several weeks before final finish.
It look to me like they are having to turn more and more to CNC processing to stay competitive I hope they keep some of that history going it certainly adds to the historical atmosphere.
I was indeed fortunate to meets the famous Abbey and watched her making some pups.
I was also able to ask her about the much discussed "grey" backed pickups and the significance of this. The answer, simple, that was the only color their supplier could supply at the time so they made grey ones. Abbey was making black ones during my visit. So there is the answer to that old wife's tale direct from the horses mouth, so to speak.
I was amazed at how tiny the areas they have to work in. Even Abbey only has a tiny
cubicle.. Abbey as most of you know is part of Fenders original history going back to the fifties. She hand winds the pups ( still on a machine though of course). The other pups are once again CNC made for the non custom jobs.
Sadly it appears that Abbeys working days are numbered and she is training her replacement now.
I was able to watch the inspector at work and apparently he fails quite a few. They go back to be re-worked in the case of defects.
I can only presume That he doesn't check the Custom shop ones otherwise I wouldnt have ended up with my Custom shop guitar with its issues (still a sore point with me).
There are far too many parts to this factory tour to do it justice on here. I can highly recommend it if you are in the area.
Starting at the museum /shop area even that's worth a good look around. Naturally I now own the obligatory Fender hat and jacket...( don't you just love America, never let a dollar get away).
The shop has all of the gear they make on display also the other brands they represent like Grestch....
Anyway, it's well worth a look, you see a lot of real history and skill.
My visit didn't improve my opinion of the Custom Shop Team built guitars. I still believe that if you are going to hand build and produce a product that is three times the price , that fitting the wrong size pickup (as happened to mine) is totally unforgivable and raises some serious questions about the skill level in the Team built area.
Which by the way is also quite small and seems to have only a small team of builders.
Overall ( my moaning aside.) .. A great exerience well worth a look if you can.
By the way my ever suffering wife who was not keen to come on the visit and only did so as it was preferable to sitting in a hot car for an hour and a half , thoroughly enjoyed it.
Check the times carefully before you drive out there are days when they don't do tours and there is only two a day in the mornings. Suggest you get on the second one as ours was longer by far than the first tour. With the 10am tour he has to be back for the 1130 one.
Cheers
Ray
New Zealand / Las Vegas..( this week)
Well I am a fair way from home right now, Normaly New Zealand.
I am sitting in a high rise in Las Vegas right now.
While I was in Anahiem I had the opportunity to take the Fender factory tour out at Corona.
This is a "real tour " by that I mean you actually go into the factory with the workers, you are not looking through glass windows remotely as with some plastic tours you can do.
The factory is over 170,000 square feet so it's not small.
You are issued with safety glasses and a receiver so the guide can talk to you over the factory noise.
The tour takes you from the very start to the end. You see the blocks of wood as they arrive though the various processes to the end finished guitar.
That's about three weeks from start to finish by the way.
One of the things that struck me is it's a very eclectic collection of equipment they use.
On the one hand you see all these very old presses and drills that date back to the fifties and on the other there is state of the art CNC machines that process all of the mass production aspects. Most of the neck work is now automated.
They produce up to 500 guitars a week (where do they all go ?).
Despite the use of the CNC machines there is still a great deal of hand made art goes into the making. The guys working the bodies with the rotary sanders (air filled) they do the final shaping of the radius parts of the body. This is obviously a real art to get it right every time.
The factory is amazingly dust free given all of the sanding that goes on and has an amazing vacuum system on very machine.
The other thing you notice is they make nearly every part including the metal parts.
An interesting side point made was the little angle bracket that holds your jack socket on a Strat.... This is the original die.. So you are sharing that in common with even the most famous guitarists.... Even Hank's , Eric Claptons etc came from the same die... That's real history.
There are a lot of old machines that have that history in the factory.
You are free to take photos all the way through the only time you can't is in the Custom shop Team built area....I don't understand this as you can take pix in the Master builders area
?If you look up there are hundreds ( in fact thousands) of guitars all overhead like in a dry cleaners. They are way up and they dry out up there for several weeks before final finish.
It look to me like they are having to turn more and more to CNC processing to stay competitive I hope they keep some of that history going it certainly adds to the historical atmosphere.
I was indeed fortunate to meets the famous Abbey and watched her making some pups.
I was also able to ask her about the much discussed "grey" backed pickups and the significance of this. The answer, simple, that was the only color their supplier could supply at the time so they made grey ones. Abbey was making black ones during my visit. So there is the answer to that old wife's tale direct from the horses mouth, so to speak.
I was amazed at how tiny the areas they have to work in. Even Abbey only has a tiny
cubicle.. Abbey as most of you know is part of Fenders original history going back to the fifties. She hand winds the pups ( still on a machine though of course). The other pups are once again CNC made for the non custom jobs.
Sadly it appears that Abbeys working days are numbered and she is training her replacement now.
I was able to watch the inspector at work and apparently he fails quite a few. They go back to be re-worked in the case of defects.
I can only presume That he doesn't check the Custom shop ones otherwise I wouldnt have ended up with my Custom shop guitar with its issues (still a sore point with me).
There are far too many parts to this factory tour to do it justice on here. I can highly recommend it if you are in the area.
Starting at the museum /shop area even that's worth a good look around. Naturally I now own the obligatory Fender hat and jacket...( don't you just love America, never let a dollar get away).
The shop has all of the gear they make on display also the other brands they represent like Grestch....
Anyway, it's well worth a look, you see a lot of real history and skill.
My visit didn't improve my opinion of the Custom Shop Team built guitars. I still believe that if you are going to hand build and produce a product that is three times the price , that fitting the wrong size pickup (as happened to mine) is totally unforgivable and raises some serious questions about the skill level in the Team built area.
Which by the way is also quite small and seems to have only a small team of builders.Overall ( my moaning aside.) .. A great exerience well worth a look if you can.
By the way my ever suffering wife who was not keen to come on the visit and only did so as it was preferable to sitting in a hot car for an hour and a half , thoroughly enjoyed it.
Check the times carefully before you drive out there are days when they don't do tours and there is only two a day in the mornings. Suggest you get on the second one as ours was longer by far than the first tour. With the 10am tour he has to be back for the 1130 one.
Cheers
Ray
New Zealand / Las Vegas..( this week)
