Behind The Scenes At The Fender USA Guitar Factory!

[Music] speak out light that's true yes there's no any of you seen it now I do your finest I'll find it we'll find it we're in Corona we're at the fender Factory we're just about to dive in and meet Mike and some of the guys are going to take us round but as you walk in here the very first thing that you're greeted with is the most stunning selection of guitars so to our left here are some of the guitars that the Custom Shop here have made over the years recognize this one yet Andy Summers Blackie oh that's all of these I see 40th anniversary yeah yeah also none of these are artist models but it's just some of the kind of the more interesting crazy gold stated yeah just a bit understated there you might recognize something on this it's all here Stevie this is a great color that's that is finest silver stuff yeah it's the homes linzstoker the holly berry signature it's like a Day of the Dead kind of things yeah awesome anyway this is gonna freak you out so the other side is the real deal so this is like museum piece stuff what was this one this is this was this is one that allegedly Leo fender made for an old Fender artist I forget the guys name maybe will annotate it over the screen yeah oh maybe you do later on yeah face six missing a string okay I got champagne sparkle Oh Jack your jazz masters I think there's one down here you a is definitely recognizable does pick up the smurf headstock yeah yeah it's a 50 for this one so this is a repro can you imagine if that wasn't a repro in that condition that's the original we'd like the snake head I mean head stop yeah did you see the Brad Paisley thing on the seymour duncan video he did the other day when he played want to leave the circus said Brad Paisley he's done this video with Seymour Duncan we know I've basically decided I wanted a Paisley telly yeah I think yeah so he bought forget where he said he bought it from norms of GC or whatever it was he bought a black 60-something tele and he was just gonna strip it and get somebody to redo it in pink Paisley and guess what was underneath the black they stripped it really and it was pink Paisley underneath the mask so it's like what are the chocolate that was mint yeah it's like a fake moment meant to happen fast so that is it no caster you look at the headstock you'll see there that's an original in between where broadcaster came off and before Telecaster went on that's what they look like thanks 1951 so it's valuable yeah and then we got a jazz bass it as listen this is the one where people I stole this this was the original strat that Leo fender had ever made yeah managed to sneak first gone and nobody's noticed don't say anything [Music] [Music] Mike Lee I was gonna say here we are everybody in fenders pretty impressive facility in Corona in California this is Mike Lewis he's vp of product development in the Fender Custom Shop and I was just saying the last time I was in a Fender in in Corona was lit I think I was introduced to you and you just started back in 1991 is crazy long time I even remember I think you had like a like a baseball shirt on or something like that it's just it's mad anyway it's it's it's really weird two different different place much much smaller but here we are again nearly 30 years later exactly it's amazing so tell us what this room is well this is our design lounge and we've had this room now for almost two years and we use it do we bring in a showcase dealers like yourself to design guitars visit the shop artists will come in this is where we had Jimmy Page when he came you know or a VIP customer or something like that you know we also have meetings in here but it's just a great vibe a great place to have a showroom and when you walk in you certainly feel transported it's a beautiful thing now is it fair to say that you've headed up almost every division at fender since you've been here haven't you not every not quite a few different ones I did amps and I did the peel 10 guitars and the peel 14 you know some Gretch yeah guild over the years I mean certainly when I was here the whole facility was much much smaller I think you know Custom Shop was in its infancy but for you what's the you know what what are the biggest changes that you've seen in that sort of 30 years I think you know when Bill Schulz headed up the group to acquire the company from CBS they literally started over you know and what I saw was there was such such a gaping hole in the market you know for fender that the people the customers and the fans there was so much hope hmm you know for fender you know it's like everything we would come out with something new or we would grow they would just eat it up you know it's so ready and so much hope for it to come back you know so I think that's the thing that I remember the most was just the growth over the years that I think there's that there's a very sent a very British sentiment but I think perhaps with guitar players it's probably a worldwide sentiment of you know everybody loves the underdog don't then I think when fender were coming back then it was like there was a huge willingness for you to succeed not dissimilar I know it's you know different company but but not dissimilar to some of the sentiment when there was a big change of management it Gibson recently you know there's a real you get that please do well you know I guess different when you when you become number one and you know offender must have been number one by some distance for a long time now it is a bit more challenging isn't it you know people that the sentiment changes almost they're looking for the trip up milk so good for you that you haven't I did I mean so if I was a super famous artist and I was in here talking to you about trying to do something is it just you know you've got like a ton of different net carbs bodies colors you assure me in the drawers it's like full of all the different stuff who do is you know you say what are you looking for you're looking for a strat LEP bass Jay bass and it's you know say he wants a strap so you know you see a color you like you know if you these are our you know faded aged colors those are the standard colors so say you know say the artist says ah I like this color and I want a strap let's pick out a pick guard you know what do you think looks good but you might pick one out and go oh yeah well that looks really good you know oh like a roasted neck would be nice a bird's-eye maple neck could almost like start to design it right there and all these necks we have there's only you know you know maybe 10 or 12 necks up here but they represent almost every option with the frets and the neck shape and the finish the number of frets and type of wood that it is so you know we have cheat sheets here where you can say okay this is a sharp V this is a mild V this is a u-shape you pick out the neck you can feel how it feels and so on what was your of all the artists that you've met over the years what was the one that you had to pinch yourself about just going like I can't believe I'm in a room you know designing something with was it Jimmy Page or so having every page sure was quite a treat yeah he he really was such a fine gentleman and and it was great to be with and and a lot of fun and of course you know it's Jimmy Page what can you say what can you say cool well let's move on so it's a custom shop we are pretty much self-contained okay we have our own paint we have our own mill and we have our own final of course now the one part of the factory that we should with the regular line is the metal shop now this is a piece in history here we walk in you're gonna see a collection of old old machines and some newer machines right now some of these old machines go back to the earliest days of Leo fender and you'll be able to pick them out because they look old yeah okay they can be like so that is olive green you can come zactly yeah just like in the old photos of the factory those that big row of punch presses you're gonna see them in there and some of the tooling that we use to make up make the metal parts yeah is the original tooling that's cool okay for example like the covers on the PBS and the jazz bass and the jack dish for the strap in the tele bridge the tool that made the first one 50 60 70 years ago is the one they're using today to make the same part where you got your money's worth out of that much that's right you sure I don't think Leo had any idea that we're gonna be making these bridges 70 years later let's have a look this is obviously a newer machine where we make pic guards with some of the newer models to make amp jassi's we go Trimble some blocks to make boats here I don't think you realize how heavy these are no this must be about 10% of the weight of a whole guitar isn't it a great relative tool also you're giving away oversea paparella came here saw like a the american standard block right Wow my old girlfriend so this is one of the ones that I do a saying probably was from the it's pretty old 50s or the 60s oh man you can feel them all over that that's right even the grease is old or even the grease milling out a bit the trend books and everything right a lot of it's done by hand yeah these are original no these are the ones that Leo bought no they're still in service and how much of this tooling would have even been custom-made for a fender back then you know some of it was but a lot of this stuff was stock right and they would modify it build these tables and stuff yeah look at them again a sewing machine or something doesn't it aurélien yeah it doesn't alienate so you're talking about some of the guitars that are probably you know go to auction and sell for two or three hundred thousand dollars or whatever sure would have been made yes you think about all the guitars that were made on these equipment and all the music that was written written on those guitars I mean they were guitars that ended up in the hands of Jimi Hendrix Jimmy Page were made using the Machinery amazing so cool this one always blows my mind with the saddle for the deluxe tremolo he's polishing them all by hand each one oh my word that is crazy because I sometimes think to myself there are other branding and like friends like PRS or whatever will often make a big deal about the fact all the hardware's kind of hand down and a new sort of thing and yet and now you're just saying fender well you do it too you guys don't really shout about it there it is yeah Wow oh so they start off looking like this and then look at all the edge my word every single one and wonder if this guy skip count of how many he's done millions of good this is an original shoe for which part till it goes back to the original days but it's so these are they I forget these are like the templates are they for that you put on the drills and that's how you would make the the various metric press [Music] oh yeah simply by is it so amazing so junior rear panel there's some older ones over here too these you see the tool the tool that punches this at least the feet of a handful no this is the jacket right Eliot course it is but the tool that makes this the punch yeah same one that made the first one and then so these are all in this is copper or something is around all right what is it brass right cross yeah and then you just plate them in the click phone plates right whereas are they didn't know that wow that's amazing a little tentacle slipper pick up plate since that original tool really in the original and that's it and that we're just going to it like at a standard stratum area or a professional straddle something so it's over tele sorry yeah think about using the original tooling yeah is that when another company makes copies of our stuff that's a copy when we make it it's the real thing look at these things all the parts are made on these punch presses I supposed to some sense this gives you a sense of relevant what what defend the factory back in the 60s would have would have been right yeah make no it's big obviously but still still an idea of the kind of machinery she sees punch punching the neck plate bender logo oh cool wow it's not punching the serial number at the same time so it's got like a sequential right thing on it all right so if you are if you've got a serial number are 104 475 on your Telecaster yes it see this is making these bridge abyss yeah the original the original died [Music] [Music] I don't have anything cut that out it's not they you don't get the lip on that video yeah it's it goes into another right another machine the cards is where to make the pick guard yeah each one is finished by hand so cool it's absolutely magic this is what bevels the edge yeah who votes in the factory if you got this been hit uh you know doing that this kind of job you know many many years I don't see him but there's a guy named Roger who's been here since 1961 oh that's so cool there you go the original guys that's amazing [Music] so we make parts here not only for to10 pol for King and all the custom shop parts are also made in here you probably need to explain KL 10 and PL 14 PL 10 is the u.s. line yeah american-made fenders steel 14 is what we make in Mexico oh wow so all the hog way about all of it but a lot of it some of it is made here for Mexico to know a little bit that's collected things all right let's go down here to the mill there's a lot of tenure here people work in the mill 15 17 20 25 years people doing the same jobs and all the the next shape yeah we're all shaped by hand okay and the body radiuses and contours are all done by hand in the custom shop no come through now we do use some CNC yeah right to get some good thing started but everything's finished off by hand go see the templates for the next shape do stuff come on it's do it here we got some of our sample next a lot of the base necks right here the Steen Hurley ritchie blackmore robin trower Pino the Hendrix Isabella whoa whoa whoa slower as well Buddy Holly I think the last time I was here bender would had just bought some sort of machine that you could put an existing neck in and it would profile right that's the ovaries River life that's over the regular line we don't do that here but write that over there so look at these neck flanks you see this piece of paper yep called the floor traveler yeah yeah well so every order yep we print three copies of the same thing there's a body section and next section at a hardware section and everyone's different so if you in the next few months by a 59p base relic from Sweetwater this could well have been the piece of wood that they made the neck from very well how cool is that this is the Andersons ones here I just quickly checked it's gonna say there's no real sense wanna see so here he is right shaping the back doing the backstage all by hand look at that and is that to a certain extent why here you know I mean by the looks of things you're gonna get like you know 99.9% tolerances here but like I guess that's why they'll always be just that tiny tiny difference yeah that's the beauty of it yeah so when you get you know when you pick one up and you're going yeah this is the one that that this is why I guess isn't it he's looking at the traveler yeah getting those measurements and he's checking each one okay this is the tempo I see 12th fret the a horse prep it's amazing so a seizure our similar is the way this is done to how it would have been done in the old days but where were they did just have the same kind of templates he's had a nice little Harris looking at these dimensions that's what he's measuring him for the new column yeah I see and every one could be different yeah Gilmore haha there we are look there's a new shape 9050 black garter somebody's a rock caster so this is one of the new one of the ones for 20 25 signatures drive six at each other custom Jimi Hendrix Jaguar that's great that's quite a big difference isn't that when he goes to like we're up over 60 different profile 606 the defendant will change them yeah based on the thickness that's great that's amazing [Music] and this is all for custom shop right how many years how many years 33 years that's fantastic man it's great very good nice to meet you there's a very good chance that you know these guys are the guys that have made I guess all of the guitars that we yep we hold over the years right not to mention you know guitars that have ended up in the hands of artists or songs are written on them it's in that weird to think that who knows like one of these random bits of wood could end up in you know on the next big guitar ant firm isn't it like whoever it might be it's a there's a certain sense of that sort of like I don't know every single one of these is like sort of embryonic baby isn't it design who knows one will be the next you know president and that's very cool right it's very cool this rugged glue arm a rosewood fingerboard yeah this is a firehose material okay just go over there it's just a press there's a really old-fashioned press - man this kind of changed much in 50 is there any way that it's been done Wow I think most people watching this will have a sense that it's way more automated than it actually is appears to be regards the rumor you know people think you put a piece of wood in here here that comes out a guitar but no we've got over up five six seven hundred hand operations for every guitar oh great so here of it hey man we're putting inside docks and yeah installing truss rods to make the truss rods here we make this so I'm I mustn't matter that what on the on the next side of things is to process that it's it's not fretted before it's rounded is it it's round it's wrapped that it's car first and then press it it this right yeah so you see over here we get a rough cut here right this is the same same machine out in the rough goes like this that we've kind of gone a bit back to front there we down the yeah okay starts off like this yeah then it goes in here and they cut them across the perimeter and this is a CNC and it's a macro program yeah so he could program multiple different things as opposed to programming the whole next yeah oh I see I don't want this kind of it needs to be a 56 strategy extract oh I wanna see shaped neck buh-buh-buh-buh-buh you know so it gets her ready for these guys over here to do it by hand and there's two of these machines is there that are just presumably going 24 hours to title something so what we've done is look at the tolling I mean it's just mind-blowing that all this has to be you know custom-made doesn't it but there's rules that we've told the headstock perimeter and where though machine heads go because we want that to be really really consistent yep so what we do is you look at old guitars and figure out because we're all different you know which one we want this one that one where do we pick that copy of the program Wow this is seeing some action st. Andrew bodies it's all gone on a macro level yeah throw that 56 crap 56 crap Oh Floyd Rose tremolo word rule tremolo Oh one humbucker one humbucker you don't I mean as opposed to programming the whole thing this looks like one of the new and machines it is running some pretty advanced tech Oh very roomy Albert Collins so this is no the hand finishing at the bodies right so when they come out of the CN soon all of these edges are still quite sharp on a that's that's where you're in policy so they're all of this will be hand finished exactly if that because the CNC machines just can't get it or is it is it just a preference we defend this point of view what about right tons of different stars it comes of different grits of sandpaper it's all pretty fine though isn't it like how it's going to be finished will depend on what how much or less sandpaper there is right they finish everything differently if it's a relic or a ha I see and he's better since that some some of these processes are more skilled than others so they're like do you kind of work your way up to doing one of these sort of like doing the hand finishing on the necks and the bodies always that it's all pretty highly of high level skills yeah all these guys have been here for years doing this extremely tenure remember that traveler we looked at yeah there's three of them one for the body she isn't one on the body there's then there's one on the neck so number two that's the neck for that right okay and then inside you'll see there's a kit you're putting the parts together in a kit with the same traveler so there's three travelers right body neck part yep it all comes together in here so this stuff was probably for tomorrow to bring it in here like this Oh painti look so this is uh this is buff and polish yeah gets you all the buffers and you guys are working on the next no look at the Trog record if I got to do with this just Hamas is it a relic if it what so this is absolutely where it's all Finnick coming together now right yeah I thought that everybody's gonna want to know everybody's gonna want to know which lucky guy gets to do all the relic Inc those guys these are the relative guys oh we can't look at that ah it's too secret it's like top secret how it all gets done the relic King Park come on I'm gonna go and look anyway I've described we can take the camera okay so upstairs I'm gonna show you upstairs okay sub-assembly area where they whine where they whine pickups and stuff but it comes down here in these fine people are we called they're called builders yeah and they're putting it together sort of in a rough rough form there's the parts fit oh I say Hayes you traveler Kate with all the thoughts in so they're just matching my buddy and wonder there's a gag on a body with that same number on it so Laura's been here over 30 years doing this amazing it's nice to meet you I'm sure I'm sure I played many guitars that you've made I'm sure you have it's great so you see what she's killing she's that she's soldering the Jack played for a strap at some point soon saw it forget the pickguard on it's gonna be a Gilmore strap very serious and there we are there's the giveaway it's busy it's busy business is obviously good and then when it gets to this point these are called tune testers right so Laurel will hand it off to these fine gentlemen and they do the final two testing put it together cut the net set it up adjust the tremolo it's also for and it's a done guitar that's a great color yeah Barmes gold that's very cool let's go upstairs and look at some I think here used to be downstairs right so this is sub-assembly but for Gretch now no this is this is fender yeah right okay just for Custom Shop oh it's nice and quiet up here isn't it hi hello this is where they put together those kits for the parts it's still Christmas here love it he's leaving it there till next year just saves time took a bit bridges parts if she's wiring up a strap so she's got a traveler here he's telling her what what wiring diagram to use it's great looks like it's almost finished Madalena brony all that all those components for the stamp fen there you know the capacitors and stuff these are all made in-house are they not made in-house but made for you made for us yeah yeah they're up because of the original one hello see I did I made one I made one just like this last year in another guitar Factory and it just again it fascinated me I had to wear like an eye patch so that I could kind of doesn't it Zone in on with one eye on just watching that stuff go around but it's again it's another technique that I think people just assumed the wire is so small yeah it's like I don't even if the camera will pick this up but you just can't see it but and I love the fact again but you know because of the fact that in essence there's no way of winding two pickups identically you know yeah they're all that's the beauty of it just something each one has its own it's very skilled as posit might be this just a tired look at that super charming sound individual each one's each one's like a little snowflake you know each one's day yeah it's beautiful what's a great way of describing it I like it Sam tool a level with the different traveler kits it's just great each color represents a different day true tone music so in the center Oh master builder cubes right master builder apprentices here okay and over there in that court is I'll show you right now or directly there oh the Master Builders they get a bit of an upgrade don't they it's like flying first-class they get their own little cabins and everything well when we did the design lounge we also upgraded this area nice in that let each guy design his own room we've decorated the way he wants it this part right this little wing right here it's really only a couple of months old right look at that Game of Thrones one no no John Kruse for now Wow last minute yes a last minute you got about five minutes to get that finished gonna get it down the show amazing sorry week okay so about a year and a half ago all of this was right there right did you see how we're growing yeah so some of these are duplicated upstairs because they need some of the parts down here as well as upstairs but then we have three versions of everything you know nos relic of cool journey man right so these are all the Picard's think you think you think we have enough pickguard Wow was that say John Kruse Oasis John Kruse sea gets it let's say when he does master boat stuff he has his own little signature on the back on the next place is if the customer wants it if they want it because you can have anything you want that's the point Suzy should keep track of all parties he looking over we would do without her it's Jason Smith excellent there he is right now hey there's Kyle we'll see him in a second cool this is wrong thorn aah meet you finally I am loving the guitar Instagram man thank you then you should actually if you didn't know this you can follow all that the fender master-builders on instagram and as they make stuff especially the crazy stuff they just photograph it and you make something cool is guitars a brand new master builder that's awesome not if you'll hear there's a mad scientist she invents stuff I love it we love mad scientists Paul Waller I think you're gonna see him later yeah absolutely I host afina is not in right now she's our master winder yes she's been again with the business a long time long time she's not not not editor station right now I like the red cupboards it's like around this would look also in this verse a little spot it's good to see you again are you good you're so talented it's unbelievable it's so and we love what you've done with his life is that what's going on that um what was that like are you over there that Levi was working on so cool don't show Pete that guitar where's Pete check out the yellow one inside here you're gonna love it there's Kyle McMillan hey Kyle come and eat with URI for seven years oh wow fantastic who's been a master builder not fried a year and a half yeah I got my 54 is one of URIs from you when you did the 50 years so what is that 2004 yeah so I've got yeah very cool this is basically it doesn't get any better than I'm Lee how are you look at that I didn't realize I had the red stripe around the outside as well well it's great yeah it's so cool man did you do all the ND summers once brick this is only the second one but yeah that's amazing I know touch it just now I can say I touched it there we go how hard is Leandro ten how are you it's lovely to meet you how those four claps on the bass a or more yeah you are that go-to man for like all my guitar heroes so it's very honor to meet you it's like that's amazing just think in this little room how many guitars have ended up in the hands of players like Eric and Jeff I'm getting overwhelmed let's go see you later next time oh we're back at the beginning yeah this is cool it's like a special s we've done this beside the crystal maze fender well thank you Mike for that tour around the fender factory it's awesome that was the custom shop then we're gonna go and check out I think one or two other areas now with Paul but yeah thank you so much thank you man so good to see you it's great to see you too I'll see you again in what 2053 I would probably see you tomorrow night yeah I hope so yeah all right anyway cheers guys stay tuned it's not over yet okay guys I'm with Paul Wallet wanted fenders master-builders and he's agreed just to give us a little bit of a deep dive into like a day in the life of a master builder and the kind of I guess I'm interested in and you know the extra sort of DNA if you get if you like that when you go through a masterbuilder rather than having it built in the in the shop so how many how long have you been at bender I'm chipping away at 17 years now a Fender Custom Shop I started in May 2003 so I'm 10 years as a builder now and I recently promoted the senior master builders right did you apprentice under one of the existing muscle several yeah I worked when I first started Bob Benedetto was doing jazz boxes and I work upstairs kind of started with the the Gretsch Custom Shop as it as it started to come to life quickly moved downstairs and work for several master builders and some of the veterans like Todd Krause mark Hendrick Johnny which was still with us when I was a boy I got to learn a lot of the whole school stuff and then apply a lot of my own and do you have a you know when orders come through and it's the customer hasn't chosen a specific master builder is it sort of divided up into you know do you have a speciality of the kind of guitar that you'd like to work on versus oh the other guy yeah this seems like that there's there's these little you know clubs of things I tend to build a lot of Telly's I have a lot more telly orders than right than some of the other guys well that leads on nicely then to the George Harrison thing that you were talking about this yeah just a lot of the projects I've worked on I've been telecasters just cuz I love that guitar so much it's it's the roots and fundamentally it's if everything you need so did you get some hands on how much hands-on time did you get with the original you mentioned I think you're doing one of you said rocky and I'm not massively familiar with that so if we could sort of fill in that was a kind of an iconic sergeant pepper's Beatles guitar you know that George Harrison doing a psychedelic painting and that was a popular thing to do in the 60s show up that you would do some wild paints on it and just capture the capture the eye very quickly that's the most famous album cover of probably all albums ever is not so yeah so and it when you're building then he will you go through everything you'll do the actual the woodwork right and right through to the final paint as well yeah I'm a guitar like that the details are all at the at the end so yeah it's putting paint on and then taking it off very carefully and it's something that we excel out here the Custom Shop and something that we pride ourselves on doing the best well we'll see that because we were just saying we're at the fender shop lit for the day before name kind of kicks off so that guitar along with you know hundreds of other guitars that they'll be released to the show we'll get to see tomorrow which is exciting but what is still here which is probably the craziest thing that you're going to see and the coolest request ever as you were saying George's son said you know would you mind you know yeah what you doing my dad's telly would you mind making me so when when when Michael Schwartz and I were and he's our artist relations cat we were in friar Park taking the guitar apart and which is amazing story in itself but his dad's collection is there and I moved me to tears when I got there I actually I actually shed tears it was massive importance in in guitar and music history hanging on the walls and it just moved me but one of the instruments that was sitting there was an original four string mandolin and I was talking to Danny about how I had handmade some off the original templates and and I I salvaged the punch press Wow tooling that we had it was falling apart but I I had one of our veteran metal shop guys John cherry and and Roger who works out in the middle shop still today he's our oldest current employee yeah legacy employee we've found the tool cleaned it up and started making parts again so it we brought it back to life and I thought out it's not making mandolin so I did I miss ya you go ahead pick it up that's a piece of roasted birds i heavily flamed maple swing my touch is what I will signed up for Danny in it well that's a one-of-a-kind isn't it yeah and and then when I hit him up I said Danny I'm making your mandolin right now and what color would you like it and 10 seconds later responsible fluorescent pink as a you got a brother so he's got a charvel that he plays pretty regularly his band the new number two which is awesome are you gonna check it out in the air little was his last effort and it was actually really amazing so he's got a charvel that's in this highlighter pink with the black hardware and it's got a white rose so we'll say that what this is what this mates this Nate's like an AMG pick up hair and employed on here I actually had a custom humbucker made by Curtis Novak so that he could yeah so that he could take it out in it it wouldn't cause any issues you know so cuz a lot of his guitars have on buckets and I'm in he's custom Curtis Novak mandolin humbucker one of one right there I'm I'm kind of loving that the extra mile that you'll go to for you know to just I don't know it's just seemed like a sweet thing to do just a whole you know make the whole experience well it's in your head cuz I don't shop yeah you got to do it you get a it takes a long time now I will say that the biggest gripe I would have with my customers as the wait time yeah but it's because we're doing this is there is there an element of competitiveness between the master-builders to see you can build up the longest wait time of an order but no not a wait time in terms of you know surpassing quality Ryan and creativity yeah there's a healthy who do you think currently is seen a king of the crop plane in order base or in creativity I don't know it's an opinion is anything yeah sorry but I I'm definitely the best no yeah would you question if you were gonna order a master belt strap offender who's oh it depends on where it was I was looking for obviously because you're the telly matters well then I would have to order it from me then but if I wanted a relic strata I'd probably have day on my buddy Dale extractors he's doing just some immaculate work over there and it doesn't it drives you to want to do better at that all this stuff so it's it's such a great environment to be working with these guys are I call my family that many others I spend more time with them than my family and and this is what we we are all passionate about this is what we love to do that's why we're able to put out this quality product for everybody I kind of love I love that within the fender kind of you know sort of catalog or whatever you want to call it you know you've got everything from really inspirational $150 bullet guitars coming you know which if you're gonna give that to someone to learn to play on it's the best best possible style you don't have right through to being able to talk to someone that's yeah I've done this George Harrison thing or I made something for Eric Clapton or Jeff but it's just like it's mind-blowing yeah we're you know aggressively trying to capture every level so then a player at any level can approach us and we've got something for you that's great I'm one offender getting into making kitchen cabinets as well so before I worked at fender I used to be a cabinet maker and I thought I'm gonna design my own cabinets and then I quit champ this is well if it ever goes wrong a few at fender you will have a great career as a kitchen cabinet maker definitely definitely I can imagine a lot of guitar fans would love their kitchen to look something like this yeah it's dirty and dusty but you know it's proper guitar workshop look ma'am thank you so much thank you I look forward to seeing you at the show expect or seen in some other time but yes yeah great job it's always a pleasure to have visitors no thanks a lot thanks for letting us see what you do see you later man Cheers right okay so we've done our tour with Mike Lewis now it was amazing spent some time with Paul Walla now we're being treated extremely well by fen today Chris Fleming who is head of custom shop and a friend of Anderson's been on our YouTube channel for some interesting opinions like the universe and maybe tonewood so Chris is going to take us around the next bit starting first with the acoustics on ik error this is uh this is where we make all the Cousteau Sonics so fine we're gonna make a bunch up well and it's topical given the news from today it is so let's go in here let's go check it out hey everybody say hi hello we're gonna do a little tour so so yeah this is our final area where we actually put all the instruments together so we come in at the end if you have the acoustic area now that one of the things I remember being told last year when acousto sonic telly came out was you had to build a completely separate production area for acoustic sonic we didn't because there was no real overlap in its processes so this this area started out in it was it was here the wall was there so this this little area was the first acoustic sonic and everything then we we showed it an AM and the next thing you know we had to build a whole much bigger area so Wow yeah that's right this this area set up though where we can double production in here by moving things around so yeah these guys get all the good background music speakers ooh they're like luxury it's also humidity controlled and temperature control hey man how are you yeah I'm good so we're starting to see the straps come through they got revealed today on social media and so on so we're making a lot of straps right now to to send out to folks this is great so it's the even the woodworking for a Cousteau sonic isn't done in the mill shop over there it's it is right now it's part of the Custom Shop mill actually there's their cells inside of there that that are also Sonic's Wow Mike probably didn't point those out because he was talking about custom show yeah so that's cool so actually anybody that has an acoustic sonic built to date or built in the in the near future I'll have will be the woodwork and we got into custom shirts correct there you go well acoustic sonic is part of what we call custom operations which includes Fender Custom Shop Jackson char-broil evh grudge an acoustic song I'm always kind of like I always think it's like super cool to go is there a serial number on this see see if you get us one nine eight nine eight nine you've got this one yeah how cool is that let's talk we just add added moment fifty dollars to its eBay price yeah auto taking it away maybe that's cool well I play your guitars all the time so there you go we're equal that's great you enjoy making these yes did you work in it did you work in a different area or offender before they started doing the acoustic Sonics though so you started in there yeah the first I'd say about seven or eight people in the department we're all brand new that's great that's very cool it's bestbear eco well I think this is a great guitar we could take a quick look in Jackson if you want they would love that wouldn't you like that it's gonna see Jackson yeah let's go see Jackson so the guitars in this area are more complicated than Fender guitars see obviously most of them our next two we have a lot of that a lot of custom things in there largely made by hand you can see here yeah in fact that's interesting you see if you know you can see that this is a neck through guitar so you can see this it adds an extra layer of complexity do you know about that the machines have got to be able to cut the cnc pups from a bigger piece of woods geometry is is dependent on the type of bridge yeah whether it's a recess ploy deployed on top or a hardtail can I touch one of these sure look at that they wonder what that's gonna be in then with five straight reply to bring base yeah there's the giveaway I'm skating someone's messed this up there's a hole missing than that I say so if I don't think they see in the interior we put yeah they're actually like little [Music] look at that back we can play some cricket in here if anybody's got a bowl guys got a tour yeah you've been here for a while haven't you tell Jackson think sometime practically four years this year for you man good for you yeah that's not even your anyone straight through the cradle into the custom shelter yeah so awesome what do you have here yeah what this is is a reproduction of the first sea level serialized Jack sea guitar right actually the tar was made in Leyte - but this is Phil Jackson's 40th anniversary so that's cool that stuff is so different isn't it yeah I mean the body you can kind of almost see as a you can see where the Randy Rhoads and stuff is going to kind of evolve from this but I think that could they ever reuse this headstock you there's probably six guitars six seven guitars made with this headstock let's go to the show yeah that's Larry that's the old school if that the tram system that has got three started using this on the charvel didn't it wasn't this was a little bit different Robin the other one your involvement at Jackson it didn't go back so when would this is what later late 70s kind of thing this would have been around 82 right there was some eight before this one but they didn't get serialize driver call the neck drew Charvel and so you were there at the time men run this was all a deed I was there before we paid next to the body dry again which connected the bodies yeah look at that even the strap pins look like they've been custom-made please as opposed to just using it that's not just like a one that would go on a strap something lighter I've done most of my research on the Internet to do this so much detail all the way original pattern that's so cool oh it's great to see you we're taking it sir yeah I hope to see it and show yeah here we are haha now you get a sense yeah here's our warehouse where all the parts are kept and stuff goes in and out of the building am flying back this way and then this is the shipping area you know what I actually thought there'd be more stuff I think is it just that as fast as you can make it it's going out yeah it goes out as we make it yeah I mean I think the fender area of our warehouse has more fender stuff in it than offenders or what else yeah it goes out here's a bunch of stuff though Wow it's like magic guitar rain that's our dry cycle up there so when a guitar gets painted it's ready to dry we put it up on this conveyor belt and it goes through it's dry cycle and it's off the floor and safe until we pull it out for production that's cool and this is Americans stuff which I'm not sure it guys if you've heard anybody in this video referring to PL 10 or PL 14 yeah PL 10 is what's made in America and it's sort of non custom shop range and PL 14 is what comes out Ensenada in beautiful Mexico right obviously shipping here here's a bunch of guitars are ready to go out these are all in various stages of going through production so it's just just a life advice there stop and seek help and then there's where the guitars put together to my how run activity absolutely that's awesome I still get weird goosebumps every time I see like a brand-new shiny electric guitar music I did it's gonna go off on some journey and you never know it might be in the hands of the next kid that's gonna be the next guitar hero it's exciting it's very cool very very cool Wow so I'm sure the rest of the tour you saw with the Custom Shop all of this stuff is really hands-on yeah you know it starts on a machine a lot of it but very quickly it goes in the in camp there's not as much machinery particularly not in final assembly and fighting a final finishing that you would think that they don't be so a lot of guitars we make a lot of guitars I'm quite I quite like the suit if there's a quite a few constant reminders for the for like the staff here yes as to you know actually what is what happens to the products that they're making like that constant reminder that you know these are going into the hands of some of the best musicians in the world yeah you're doing your job and it's easy to forget yeah for sure a big deal I can imagine you know you're making it like you know 50 guitars a week or 100 guitars a week whatever goes through the hands of these people it can you do you could sometimes forget that you know you're making magic really aren't correct yeah is that the cab ronita oh yeah go ahead you can I touch one yeah just don't drop it this was this is probably one of my favorite guitars of the of the recent last few months releases that's so cool so so cool we have the hand wired side of the amp Department so which is you've got because you've got the new hand wide the elack's or is it princeton i forget what my princes than you isn't it and so they're all working on this now this is a regular relaxed reverb right and and these are are you guys working on Princeton's or deluxe 57 right as a pleasure Princeton is that one of the hand wired yeah about 64 yeah this is the new one so there's no there's no sense of any kind of tracking on a board here at all this is all every single component is wired to the next one so is this is this what you you'd actually refer to this as a point-to-point wiring would you rather than any kind of turret yeah so every single component is soldered to the next one yeah no traces yeah it's great wires go directly to the parts or control yeah so this is about as boutique and labor-intensive as you can possibly make an amplifier isn't it really yeah it's very cool very very cool isn't it amazing how just all the noise like the magic noise that we all think of that comes out of a guitar just starts with that and some valves and a big transformer each one that is very cool thanks man it's very cool oh yeah and so one of the folks on this line will be attaching all these controls I think again it's when you're into a hand wide stuff it's as labor-intensive is making a guitar yes yeah very much so and actually I know from other amp brands that I've worked with they're the people who do the vinyl covering that's like one of the most skilled jobs that you can have in the whole you know whole of making Institute was difficult to do properly yeah it's very cool yeah I can't wait to try one of these me too I haven't played one yet oh look at this what is it this looks like a blast from the past its inserts eyelets that only does distance as the eyelets in the board a massive big machine like oh yeah [Music] yep that's great man very very cool so this is painless done yeah the bodies come over to this side and get buffed up and the next come over to this side and they get processed so we call this B and P buff and polish buff and polish head of buff and polish what a great job yeah I I always think to myself when you when I think of my earliest memories of Fender Strat and I kind of think of the Fiesta red stripe that Hank Marvin you know play it is it's that sense of the pop of the color of the shininess and I think maybe even more so with a strat and a tip thinner than a telly because of the curved side you is that is that pop isn't it that comes from the color that it's a real iconic part of what you know made the strat such a beautiful object of art isn't it yes yes so these this is where it all happens yeah where he goes we kind of get a shot again it's very hand done yep all hand sanded this is a throwback from the old days fenders always use these automotive type of welcome wheels yeah the final buff out so I was gonna say how much has this changed from you know that the 50s in this final element of the buffing isn't much not much no no actually not more much at all well here's some of the Texas - I know this is this is the most popular it's a great color I haven't met a guitar player yet that doesn't think that that Ultra Series is the biggest kind of you know step up from Fender in in there so there's regular American stuff ever a such a gorgeous color Texas team and such a gorgeous color whereabouts in the shop men are you doing the the nitro the actual color spraying rather than the the back part of the shop that we don't go into now exist it gets contaminated yeah sure it's all behind this area right okay that's super skilled as well as it is the idea of the way it's sprayed up and we also have three robots in there Wow one of them does a top coat and the rest to under coats okay all the colors put on my hands right okay hand spray that's cool these are it's a cute color such a great guitar so this gives you some sense of the kind of number of people buying strats and Telecasters these days yeah look at that that's so cool I wonder every day where all these things go you know yeah so many that is a great color what's this this kind of grainy color is that good sort of metallic sort of green I think yeah I don't know what that's on is that well she to Recor it's so good yeah you can see oh a coupe is it could be parallel universe good Nick yeah maybe gives you an idea just how popular Texas tea is at the moment there's summer Johnson oh yeah the air polaric Johnson yeah man that's so cool I love it and why do they tell you up the paint shop that you said that obviously the major all the stuff that's done comes out in the next room and then what ends up back then it goes all the way around back there yeah and how many days is it up here to dry then what's the possibly pose on the material anywhere from five to ten days five to ten days yeah wow that's a long time to cure isn't it but that's great well a critique so longest yeah takes eight to ten days it's so cool yeah it's super super it's mad isn't it I must have seen a million guitars in my life but I still I still love it I still yeah yeah well Chris thank you so much oh it has been just the most inspiring you know couple of hours looking around the shop I hope you guys have enjoyed watching it so thank you to you and everyone else at fender for your hospitality it's been a really really great day and hope you have a great name and a great 20 20 and I hope you guys enjoy all the NAMM coverage too and we'll see you in another video probably about 10 minutes after this one's finished right anyway see you later bye [Music] you

Channel: Andertons Music Co

Views: 820,456

Keywords: Andertons, Andertons Music, Andertons TV, fender, fender factory tour, fender factory, behind the scenes at fender, fender usa, fender custom shop, the captain, danish pete, fender namm 2020, Fender stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Fender Basses, fender guitars, fender american, behind the scenes, factory tour

Id: WBDOdXEL3Jw

Length: 62min 44sec (3764 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/dex1999]

Their American factory is about 90% Mexican workers