I still maintain machine error. The sheer number of guitars turned out each week by any of the fender plants would make hand finishing near impossible. Fender mexico turn out between 2500-4500 a week according to the target/acheivement chart on the wall of one of the factory tours. That means you'd need atleast 25 people doing level and crown jobs. You wouldnt want to do more than 100 level and crowns a week would you? The plek does it in minutes and doesnt need wages.

http://namm.harmony-central.com/SNAMM01/article/Plek/Plek.html

It may not be plek but some other machine they have developed. Look at all the money they spent on the air filteration system just so we can have nitro finished guitars.

Bet they put a lot into research of new tools.

Does fret wire come in precut lengths or is it spooled?

I wonder if a "fretting machine" ( mechanized fret system) grips the end of the fret length and the mechanism for controlling the wire made those marks.

It also could be a grinding or buffing wheel with some sort of burr that marks the wire with every rotation. Maybe the grinding or buffing wheel, sufficiently worn at its mechanical end of life, might have exposed screws or something that impacts the wire with each rotation. As the wire travels, relative to the grinder/buffer, the impacting burr would gouge at an angle.

This might be indicative of lax maintenance of the machine.

Bet its an MIM!!!! HAH HAH HAH!!!!!!

Whilst i agree with Ceri's statement that you never see file chatter marks as uniform as those lines. I believe that is largely due to (in my case) never seeing a machine's chatter marks before. Chatter marks from human error are a lot more random. People are nowhere near as consistent in movement as a machine...