Gibson Guitar Factory

This was a really interesting experience. As Dad said I've been to a distillery, car factory, jelly bean factory, and maybe a few others. I find factories very interesting. The difference here is that there is no manufacturing line per se. These guitars are not mass produced. They make 45 or so per day. At capacity I think they can make 100.

The innards of a hollow body electric.

All the various hollow bodies waiting to cure.

The machine the operator is running is a CNC machine (computer numeric control) and it is setting the holes for the electronic controls on the guitar.

Guitars ready to be machined.

Guitar necks prior to being added to the body. The fretboards are attached to the necks in Nashville. These necks are waiting to be sanded down and rounded. The tolerance on the necks is 1/64th of an inch.

Guitars as they are going through the painting process.

If you look very closely at the second or third guitar it has a red tag that says "CRAP". Well it says "SCRAP", but the point is that at this point the guitar has been completely made except for one major part (the electronics, the strings, and tuning). This is the final assembly point where the workers are all guitar players. The important thing to note is that the guitar that is marked scrap has had some defect in it that was noticed. Gibson does not release guitars onto the market that have any defects. So the guitar that is marked will likely be cut up on a bandsaw. FYI the guitars that come out of this factory will typically retail for a minimum 2000 dollars. I'd take the defect.