SE Factory Tour: Surabaya, Indonesia | PRS Guitars

hi my name is Jack Higginbotham I started working at PRS in 1985 as an entry level guitar sander and eventually a guitar builder I've been able to look at this company for a few decades now and I think one of the keys to the success that we've had is we have a very good recipe we also feel strongly about ingredients which are all the materials that go into making that guitar but if you have good ingredients and if you have a good recipe and you have the self-control to stick with those things time in and time out you end up with a guitar that looks good feels good sounds good it performs as you want it to perform and it can be an inspirational conduit for your art as a musician our goal is to make inspirational instruments whether we're making them here in Maryland or we're making them with one of our manufacturing partners at procedes today we're going to talk more about the PRS se series the notion of the PRS se series started in 1999 Santana had a resurgence of popularity that led to a large growth in his fan base and Carlos came to us and wanted a guitar to be available with his name on it at a new price point and that is what started the whole se series so fast forward and today we have a dedicated factory and Sur buy at just making PRS SE guitars that means we have a dedicated engineering staff process control quality control the management of Factory and the guitar builders themselves are solely dedicated to making our gear similar to what we do in Maryland what we found is you have to have the same robust manufacturing process as Quality Assurance process controls training all the things that are important for us are important wherever it is that you're making the PRS guitars so we're going to spend some time now on a factory tour in Indonesia and we're gonna meet the team we're going to see our processes and basically see how we go from a design standpoint of the guitar to deliverable guitar outside of this Factory in Maryland to anyone that has toured our Maryland shop this tour is going to look pretty familiar because we're involved in process development there ends up being a lot of parallels so let's head inside just as in Maryland it starts with the wood wood is the foundation of a good guitar and the bloodline of our business all wood is not created equal you have to select the right species for the right components so the ingredients are very important but so is the way you process them after you choose the right wood you have to dry cure and dimension it correctly and this is all about tone and stability tone is vibration water dampens tone it stops the wood from vibrating as well and vibrating is long high moisture content in the wood also doesn't allow wood to stabilize which means that a guitar won't stay in tune we know it doesn't take much pressure on a headstock to change the pitch of a note so a neck moving just a little bit will not stay in tune each type of wood has a different drawing process for example because we have a significant amount of experience with rosewood fretboards we're really mimicking our Maryland factory process in Indonesia here we have an oven that gets hot enough to not only drive the moisture out it crystallizes the resin that leads to stability in the instrument the fretboard shrinks to its minimum size that are over time and seasonal changes it doesn't expand and contract too much a similar drawing process is done for each component the neck atop the back wood so drying is one of those foundational truths we believe is required with good guitar making once the materials are dried and compiled they move into the woodshop this is where bodies and necks are made again if you've been to PRS the process here looks extremely similar bodies are laminated meaning the back wood and the top wood are glued together and pressed together the body is band sawn to a perimeter shape and then taken to the CNC the CNC machine cuts the outer perimeter the electronic cavity tremolo cavity and the carve one process we do not do in the USA shop that I find fascinating is it the veneering of tops when we first started using curly maple veneers on the SE guitars we shot an ad to make clear these se guitars did not have solid figured maple tops but had a veneer laminated to a maple cap as a background in the ad we used an antique sideboard of mine to show that veneering as a time-honored art form when the body comes off the CNC machine its sanded and glue is applied evenly over the surface then a thin figured veneer is applied to the maple top and the body goes into a press where the veneer is thoroughly bonded to the solid maple cap when it comes out of the press a laminate trim bit cuts the veneer to the perimeter shape this same bit is used to cut any through holes like pickup or bridge cavities that process allows for one very figured top like we would use in Maryland to be utilized on several PRS SE guitars while still offering a solid maple cap for the guitar because the veneers are the same organic material the sanding and staining processes and the final look and tone of the guitar are very much what you expect from a PRS for the neck process after the blanks are rough milled to size tooling holes are drilled to locate the neck blank onto the CNC fixture the CNC carve programs are actually created here at PRS in Maryland our engineers develop the programs and then share them with our sister shop in Indonesia so the moment you pick up SSC it feels right if we go back to the fundamentals it has to look good feel good and sound good the way the neck feels when you pick up an instrument is one of the first and one of the most important things you check off in your mind and say this is the guitar that I want to play after C and C the neck is ready for truss rod installation with our dual action truss rod and to have the fretboard slotted and glued on the neck will then be sanded while the neck is taking shape the body will also be sanded sanding is not just about removing tool marks but it's about holding a consistent shape to the body and to the neck this is one of those stages where the human I feel and attention to detail are extremely important and that is a point we make both in our USA shop and in Indonesia there are jobs that machines do very well and very efficiently in a way that no human can easily match but there are also jobs that a person is absolutely irreplaceable at the end of the wood shop process the body and neck are joined together the neck angle is set and there's another sanding process to get the entire guitar ready for finish which we call final sanding at this point in the process some of our guitarists receive binding on the headstock and body a CNC machine will cut a channel along the edges with a rabbet bit and then the binding will be placed and glued into the channel when the binding is sanded flush with the body then the guitar is ready to begin the staining process along with the figured veneers our stains are a critical part of the guitar looking its best the staining process and even some of the dyes are identical to those used on core guitars we make back in Maryland to create colors we make a reference stain after we've made the reference stained will cut the sample in half we keep half we ship half to Indonesia over time we can refer back to this sample and make sure that we're staying true to the color that we in visioned this is a finicky process and staining requires a skilled craftsman to pull it off after staining we moved to base coat the guitar is put on a conveyor belt and is sprayed using an electrostatic process we're very conscious about the amount of finish on our instruments like I said earlier one way to kill tone is with water on the inside of the wood another is to put a thick blanket of finish on the outside the electrostatic spray process allows us to very carefully monitor and apply the appropriate amount of finish on the guitar our end goal with the look is clarity and a mirror-like reflection while the base coat is very thin it does allow the guitar maker to level the finish that's needed for that mirror like reflection after base coat sanding the guitar is prepped and then receives its color coats all of our color coats are applied by hand whether it's a black packet our or one of the other colors we've developed or one of our sunbursts after color the guitars are taken to the silk screening process our Paul Reed Smith se logo is applied to the face of the headstock and the name of the manufacturer is applied to the back this name on the back of the headstock has always been important to us for a couple of reasons for one we believe it's more transparent we wanted to make sure there would never be a question as to where the guitar was born when I was building guitars in the 80s we would put our initials in it it gave us a sense of pride and ownership and the guitars we were building when the manufacturer puts their name on the headstock it allows them to feel that same sense of ownership and pride in their work after silkscreen the final coat of finish is applied much in the same way the base coat is applied the guitar goes into a topcoat spray room similar to the base coat room to be sprayed using the same electrostatic process as before which will once again allow us to put a very precise amount of finish on each instrument then they are inspected and sprayed by hand to cover any light spots after that the guitar has all of the finished material on it and we allow it to sit in a dry room for a while and cure the finish wet sanding is next and is the beginning of the final finished process after the wet Sanders are finished with their work the flat surfaces of the guitar are buffed by machine and the entire guitar is meticulously buffed out by hand to a mirror-like Sheen if we've done our job well then what we get is a finish that's exactly what you'd expect from a guitar with PRS on the headstock when a player picks up a guitar the fret work is one of the elements that can make or break the feel of the instrument as such we've really honed in on this area to make sure that the instrument plays and feels just as good as it looks there are a few differences in process of how we do fret work in Maryland and how we do fret work in Indonesia but the goal is the same in Maryland the fretboard is radiused and fretted prior to the neck body glue up with the SES the guitar is fully finished and put into a protective bag and then put on to a machine once it's placed in the machine dial indicators are used to ensure that the fretboard is level in relation to the sanding belt then the sanding belt is used to create the proper radius for the fretboard we use a few different radii on our guitars but the most common is 10 inches now we're ready to fret the instrument a light bead of glue is put into each fret slot and frets are placed and tapped in lightly by hand once all of the frets are tapped in we use a hydraulic Arbor press to seat the frets in the slot this assures maximum contact from the frets to the fretboard which also ensures maximum tonal transfer from the strings the guitar is then moved to a different machine that uses a cutter to run along the bass and treble sides of the fret to trim the frets and strike the initial angle of the fret edges to get ready for the fret leveling process the fret leveling process is very similar to the process used on the Maryland made guitars we use a notched ruler so we can check that the fretboard itself is flat a long straight edge to ensure the tops of the fret are also flat the frets are then leveled using a radius sanding block and checked with a short straightedge for high frets the Fred ends are dressed with a fret file and then we use 600 grit sandpaper to break the edge of the fretboard and get rid of any sharp edges we do this to give the guitar the feel like it's a well-loved instrument and it's been played for years even when it's brand new last we dressed the tops of the leveled frets with 600 grit sandpaper from the base to treble side removing any sanding scratches that would make bending strings feel gritty or hear any noise when you bend a string another big difference in building guitars in Maryland and @pt Court is how and when the nut is installed in Maryland the nut shelf is determined in the woodshop very near the beginning of the neck process in Indonesia the surface for the nut is determined after fret when the final fret height is known this machine measures the height of the fret locates the correct distance from the twelfth fret then cuts the nut slot based on the thickness of the fretboard the base of the nut may sit slightly above or slightly below the neck surface itself with either method the bottom of the fret slot is correct in relation to the top of the fret pickups and the Indonesia factory are made in an adjoining business we've developed quite a relationship with this company as well many of the discoveries we've made in the world of pickups in Maryland have found their way into the process for making pickups for se and s2 guitars similar to the recipe analogy for guitars pickups are their own dish and ingredients for the cooking instructions are almost like a parallel universe to the guitar these two major components come back together at the PT Cort factory where the pickups electronics and hardware are installed after the pre assembly process stringing final adjustments and the play tests are conducted the guitar is final inspected for cosmetics it's put into a gig bag box and prepped for shipment we've spent a considerable amount of time attempting to show you what we're doing in Indonesia we're putting a lot of energy into this business we're putting a lot of energy into these guitars and the reason we're doing it is because we are certain that a better product just going to come out of it a more inspirational product is going to come out of it it has become a large part of our lives on a daily basis and it wouldn't be exciting if we didn't see the advancement in the instrument itself and so I'm hoping that through this footage and this tour you're able to draw some dots particularly if you've come to the factory in Maryland and if you've seen the way that we built guitars I think you'll start to see the similarities and philosophies and it's really about making the best instruments that we can at every price point and not compromising on what we want as instrument makers and guitar players ourselves we're very excited about what's going on and very appreciative to all of the manufacturing partners and the factories around the globe that are helping us to achieve that goal so thank you all very much [Music] [Applause]

Channel: PRS Guitars

Views: 582,138

Rating: 4.9116445 out of 5

Keywords: SE, SE Series, #wemakePRS, #myPRS, Factory, Tour, Surabaya, Indonesia, PRS, PRS Guitars, Guitars, Paul, Reed, Smith, Paul Reed Smith, Import, overseas, Boutique, brand, hand, made, handmade, indo, SE Factory Tour, Factor Tour, Jack, Higginbotham, Jack Higginbotham, 35th Anniversary, PT, Cort, PT Cort, Maryland, USA, affordable, model, electric, acoustic, instrument, design, build, veneer, top

Id: N4xyS5ZTjAg

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 23 2019