Fender Factory Tour pictures.

SpeedRacer said:
Mark I think you covered the pictures just fine! I was surprised at how much manual labor goes into each guitar. I assumed machines did more if it than they do.

Working on the factory floor looks like no fun at all. However in the teambuild Custom Shop area they seemed to have a great time. The master builders are sequestered away each in their own area. My favorite guitar of the tour was a Telecaster made up like a White Falcon by one of the master builders. He called it the "White Chicken". Said the price would be $5k - $6k. Unfortunately to rich for me.

The coolest sight was the drying racks in the ceiling that can hold 7,000 guitar bodies.

Thanks to Grover for driving the bus, I had a great time!
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Mark Wein said:
I dug the White CHicken too. SO ugly but so cool :embarrassed:

Also cool was seeing Abigail Ybarra in her cubicle winding pickups when we got there. :)
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The trip to the Factory was a blast and Speedracer said it best that Mark pretty much captured the whole tour to a "T". I too dug the White Chicken but I could have sworn the cost on that was much higher - oh well. It really was cool to see Abigail Ybarra sitting isolated from the rest of the production. She was adjacent to the custom shopwas had it's own room away from it all. What I consider incredible is that the Corona factory builds approx 500 guitars a day and the Mexico factory 700 per day.

Here is the link to my photoalbume that contains 59 Pics of the my day the factory tour.

http://s1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/modernsaintmusik/Fender%20Factory%20Tour%20in%20Corona%20CA/

Mark has covered most of the tour so here are just some of my personal treasures.

Fender Visitor Sign

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Custom Painted Stealth

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Custom Painted Stealth

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Jerry Murads Harmonicats

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Brian Setzer Gretsch Custom Models

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Brian Setzer Stray Cat Model

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Reverend Horton Heat's Gretsch

ReverendHortonHeatsGretsch.jpg


Wild composite structure in the showroom

InterestingFenderStructureintheShowroomStore.jpg


Yours Truly

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Great stuff. I love this behind the scenes stuff. I can think of many manufacturing jobs that would suck far worse than working there. I was in Ensenada back in '05. It was a quick trip and I never saw the Fender shop. Wonder if they do tours there too?
 
this is awesome!!!! so did you check out the section where you can put together your own guitar? what was that like?
 
What do the stampings on the end grain of the lumber represent? I see that they are glued together and have a number, Daniel, Poncho and custom lumber stamped.
 
mystixboi1 said:
this is awesome!!!! so did you check out the section where you can put together your own guitar? what was that like?
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Actually we didn't see that at all...

k4df4l said:
What do the stampings on the end grain of the lumber represent? I see that they are glued together and have a number, Daniel, Poncho and custom lumber stamped.
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I'd imagine it's some sort of control number and the name of the guy who put the blanks together. Nothing like a little accountability :)

baimun said:
Okay... now this is a cool ass shot I was not expecting to see....

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that whole thing is like what you see at a dry cleaners with the clothes going around on a track. I think he said that it takes a few hours to go all the way around it when they are pulling instruments down.
 
Nice tour. As a person who has worked in many factory settings, I would love to work in a place like that so that the people who bought guitars which I worked on would benefit from the passion and effort that I put into my work.

I always think about just how great the 'original' instruments are...I often see people saying "I played a XXXX Strat and it was a piece of junk" or *insert Gibson* into that line as the instrument. Gibson and Fender put out a great product IMO.
 
smorgdonkey said:
Nice tour. As a person who has worked in many factory settings, I would love to work in a place like that so that the people who bought guitars which I worked on would benefit from the passion and effort that I put into my work.

I always think about just how great the 'original' instruments are...I often see people saying "I played a XXXX Strat and it was a piece of junk" or *insert Gibson* into that line as the instrument. Gibson and Fender put out a great product IMO.
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There were great and terrible instruments then, too. The consistency of modern manufacturing has made a more consistent product over the years but there were many choices made in the last 40 years by both companies that had to do more with the bottom line or fashion that affected the end product. I think you can get good instruments from each company today just like then but you have to do your homework. just because a 2011 strat looks roughly like a 1954 strat to the novice doesn't mean that they are anything alike.
 
Mark Wein said:
There were great and terrible instruments then, too. The consistency of modern manufacturing has made a more consistent product over the years but there were many choices made in the last 40 years by both companies that had to do more with the bottom line or fashion that affected the end product. I think you can get good instruments from each company today just like then but you have to do your homework. just because a 2011 strat looks roughly like a 1954 strat to the novice doesn't mean that they are anything alike.
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Oh I completely agree...by 'original' I just meant the original names of the business - the ones who hold the rights to the original designs. So, I suppose the point I was trying to make is that I NEVER run into bad modern Fenders and I NEVER run into bad modern Gibsons. There is a premium to be paid but you either do or you don't.
 
Coralkong said:
That is really neat.

Thanks for sharing!

:thu:
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Tiltsta said:
Really cool pics. I would love to take that tour someday. :thu:
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:thu:

I recommend it....

smorgdonkey said:
Oh I completely agree...by 'original' I just meant the original names of the business - the ones who hold the rights to the original designs. So, I suppose the point I was trying to make is that I NEVER run into bad modern Fenders and I NEVER run into bad modern Gibsons. There is a premium to be paid but you either do or you don't.
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Oh...you're talking vs. companies like GFS and whatnot? I think with musical instruments it's always a case of "if it works for you do it, but realize that there is a reason why decent instruments can't be purchased for $120".
 
Hey Mark, did you see a PLEK machine? I know a bunch of companies have gone with PLEK setups recently, as it cuts down on hand work, and frankly, does a better job that a person probably can. I wondered if Fender went that route yet on the custom shop or american line up.

FWIW, I had a Steinberger PLEK'd back when these machines were pretty new, and there were like two in the country. I thought it was the best thing ever, and I'm really happy to see more people using them. My LP standard was PLEK'd at Gibson, and I can get the action lower on that guitar (and my steinberger) than I ever though possible.
 
Tiltsta said:
Hey Mark, did you see a PLEK machine? I know a bunch of companies have gone with PLEK setups recently, as it cuts down on hand work, and frankly, does a better job that a person probably can. I wondered if Fender went that route yet on the custom shop or american line up.

FWIW, I had a Steinberger PLEK'd back when these machines were pretty new, and there were like two in the country. I thought it was the best thing ever, and I'm really happy to see more people using them. My LP standard was PLEK'd at Gibson, and I can get the action lower on that guitar (and my steinberger) than I ever though possible.
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Fender is one of the companies that doesn't have a Plek yet...Suhr has one and both of my Suhrs have been Plek'd so I know it's a worthwhile investment. In Gibson's case I think it was more a matter of necessity considering how bad their factory setups have been over the years.

Denverdave said:
Looks like a killer tour! Where is the factory exactly? In Orange County?
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In Corona, which is actually just across the county line in Riverside county.
 
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