It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 3:07 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 26 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
Post subject: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:31 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:05 pm
Posts: 684
Location: Canada
On Oct 1 while vacationing in sunny California I drove out to Corona and took the Fender factory tour. It was awesome!

Here's the photos:

They make all their own pick guards in house. The machine there stamps them out and then the edges are hand beveled and sanded.

Image

One thing that surprised me is that Fender makes almost all of its metal parts IN HOUSE. From neck plates and bridges to amp kick back legs. They're all stamped and cut in house and then sent out for chrome plating. The white board on the wall there has all the parts they make right there.

Image

Right here is a stack of American Standard Tele bridges. All the screw holes are being hand drilled before they're sent for chrome plating. As you can see, they are solid brass.

Image

Body blanks. It was explained that in the Corona facility, all transparent finishes are either two or three pieces. Solid finishes are a maximum of five pieces. Also any two or three piece blanks that are identified as unsuitable for clear finish (ugly grain, mismatched colour between pieces) are also used for solid finishes.

Image

_________________
The ultimate Rolling Stones experience!
https://www.facebook.com/TheMainStreetExiles


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:34 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:05 pm
Posts: 684
Location: Canada
Neck blanks. Hard rock maple. Note that a few "golden ticket" pieces end up in regular production. Our guide found a few with really nice birdseye and flaming.

Image

Fingerboards glued on.

Image

Necks further along. These ones have not had the backs shaped yet.

Image

Selfie!

Image

_________________
The ultimate Rolling Stones experience!
https://www.facebook.com/TheMainStreetExiles


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:38 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:05 pm
Posts: 684
Location: Canada
This CNC machine can shape 4 necks at once.

Image

Fret slots cut on these necks. They have an interesting machine with a jig that cuts all the slots in one pass.

Image

This machine presses in the frets. He explained that the workers there used to do it by hand with a mallet, and they were very skilled and even faster than the machine at it. However, they use the machine for consistency. It uses the same amount of pressure on every fret. Means they're more level coming off this process which means they take less fret material off during leveling.

Image

Talk about fret sprout!

Image

_________________
The ultimate Rolling Stones experience!
https://www.facebook.com/TheMainStreetExiles


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:45 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
Great photo essay and narrative, PTM!

Thanks for sharing.

8) 8) 8)

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:45 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:05 pm
Posts: 684
Location: Canada
Fret dressing and leveling.

Image

Bodies are all hand sanded. They work in teams which are trained together so they all output very similar work. They're remarkably consistent!

Image

Sanded and ready for the paint shop.

Image

Final testing and QC.

Image

Unfortunately we only got a small glimpse of the Custom Shop area.

Image


Overall it was an impressive tour! It was something anyone who is an enthusiast should go experience if you're in the Southern California area. It was explained that they do not warehouse parts or guitars. All parts are made on a "just in time" basis - so the parts are done just when the line needs them. All the guitars produced are already dealer ordered. They don't just make say, 1000 Strats and box them up and ship them once there's an order. The output of the factory is about 400 instruments a day. It takes 4-6 weeks for a guitar to be completed from start to finish and it passes through about 70 people's hands in the manufacturing process. It's staggering how much labor goes into these things!

_________________
The ultimate Rolling Stones experience!
https://www.facebook.com/TheMainStreetExiles


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:21 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:03 am
Posts: 575
Location: In the Land of "Stratocaster"
Thanks for sharing the tour. Cool to see how they do it in Corona

_________________
★ ★ ★ ★ ★


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:54 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:12 pm
Posts: 327
Location: Canada
Love the pictures. Always cool to see how things are made.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:59 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2012 12:23 pm
Posts: 666
Location: Nashville TN
that's awesome. thanks for sharing!

_________________
~Dan


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:14 pm
Offline
Roadie
Roadie

Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:25 am
Posts: 268
Final testing would be a dream job for me, I'd do the Hendrix thing of course, and my vibrato is weird enough

_________________
My Gretsch is cool
Try these guitars out man!


Nathan from Oz


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:57 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:57 pm
Posts: 1868
Location: Kansas City Mo
Its nice to see where the real Strats are born.
Fab shops are great, that press for the bridges looked ancient.

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fenderguitarandamp/


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 4:38 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:13 pm
Posts: 19026
Location: Illinois, USA
Good to see your post PTM. Thanks for sharing your experience, very cool. 8)

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:28 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:22 pm
Posts: 53
Thanks for the pics. Looks awesome , hope to make it there one day myself.

_________________
2011 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster Pro

2013 Fender Select Stratocaster HSS

Mesa Boogie Express 525


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:48 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:50 pm
Posts: 4602
Location: ˚ɷ˚
Nathan Brown wrote:
Final testing would be a dream job for me, I'd do the Hendrix thing of course, and my vibrato is weird enough

I hate to tell you, but you may have the wrong impression of what final testing is.
You'd likely go down a checklist of things to check for, not skipping a thing. Like fret edges, truss rod, bridge height, each coil working, machines moving smoothly, check for nicks. And making sure you meet your allotment, not holding back other cells.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 8:18 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:05 pm
Posts: 2333
Thanks for posting PTM! That must have been a great experience. :!:

I am noticing more lately than ever the use of drastically 2-tone rosewood fingerboards. I guess it comes down to wherever the material is being sourced. In my mind a rosewood 'board needs to be dark. 8)


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Fender Corona CA factory tour!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:02 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:57 pm
Posts: 1868
Location: Kansas City Mo
Toronado wrote:
Thanks for posting PTM! That must have been a great experience. :!:

I am noticing more lately than ever the use of drastically 2-tone rosewood fingerboards. I guess it comes down to wherever the material is being sourced. In my mind a rosewood 'board needs to be dark. 8)



Most older dark ones are from years of sweat and linseed oil or other wood sealers.
Mostly its dudes who ate Cheetos and didn't wash their hands though lol :)

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fenderguitarandamp/


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 26 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: