FASCINATING place! I dropped off my OD100 for a checkup/tuneup since I only live about an hour away from them, and the CS manager was kind enough to give me a tour of the factory. I got to see pretty much everything being built from the ground up - guitars, pedals, amps, even the pickups!
I wasn't allowed to take photos or video of anything because they didn't want me to inadvertently photograph anything that was in development, but everything was so variegated that it was hard to tell custom-made stuff from production instruments. The whole place is a custom shop, really. The total square footage of the place is about 30k square feet and I got walked through basically everything except the office areas and shipping and receiving. It reminded me a lot of the videos of the PRS factory, but of course they use different processes here and there.
The attention to detail on each instrument is pretty incredible - astonishing really. Nothing is overlooked or left to chance. There's very little automation in the factory. A few CNC machines, a PLEK machine, a laser engraver and some pickup winders but that's about it. Most of the work is done by hand by the locals. They source very high-quality materials (a lot of which doesn't even pass muster and gets recycled or returned for QC reasons) and use as much US-made stuff as possible in the electronics.
I'm not totally sure what I can dish on and what I can't so I apologize for being vague but I just wanted to share the experience. If you have any specific questions that I can't answer here I'll just PM you.
That being said if you ever get the chance to tour a high-grade guitar factory, do it!
I wasn't allowed to take photos or video of anything because they didn't want me to inadvertently photograph anything that was in development, but everything was so variegated that it was hard to tell custom-made stuff from production instruments. The whole place is a custom shop, really. The total square footage of the place is about 30k square feet and I got walked through basically everything except the office areas and shipping and receiving. It reminded me a lot of the videos of the PRS factory, but of course they use different processes here and there.
The attention to detail on each instrument is pretty incredible - astonishing really. Nothing is overlooked or left to chance. There's very little automation in the factory. A few CNC machines, a PLEK machine, a laser engraver and some pickup winders but that's about it. Most of the work is done by hand by the locals. They source very high-quality materials (a lot of which doesn't even pass muster and gets recycled or returned for QC reasons) and use as much US-made stuff as possible in the electronics.
I'm not totally sure what I can dish on and what I can't so I apologize for being vague but I just wanted to share the experience. If you have any specific questions that I can't answer here I'll just PM you.
That being said if you ever get the chance to tour a high-grade guitar factory, do it!
