Fender Guitar Factory, 1959

[LarryG]

This is a pretty cool transfer of some 8mm film shot in the Fender guitar factory in 1959.

There's quite a bit of woodworking going on throughout the clip, and a lot of finishing too. They were obviously pretty lax about workplace safety in those days.

Amazing what a cottage-industry feel the operation had to it. At this point the Fender company was only about 10 years old, and the CBS buyout was still some six years in the future.

[Tom Slick]

That is great.
You'd still see a lot of the same processes in a modern American guitar factory.

Side Note:
Leo Fender must have copied the workbench design to his next venture, Music Man, because the Ernie Ball / Music Man factory has identical benches. The entire Music Man factory was purchased from G&L by Ernie Ball in the 1980's. To this day Music Man guitars are assembled on Leo's original bench at Music Man.

[sangus]

That was real cool, or 'way cool' as they say. I enjoyed it. Thanks for the link.
My Mex Strats and the Tele have gone up quite a bit since I got 'em.
GO FENDER.

Art.

[sparkeyjames]

I loved that film. Do you realize that just one of the strats those guys were working on if still around today in mint condition would fetch many 10's of thousands of dollars. 57-59 are some of the most valuable player guitars.

Jim

[Alex Franke]

Loved it! Thanks!

[LCHIEN]

After you watch that one, Look at the current NC router built Srat manufacturing lines.
Music change matches the pace change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj9a6...eature=related

[dbhost]

Stunning. I never would have thought so many things in an American business could possibly be so lax... Dress code? What dress code? Who needs shirts, or even silly things like respirators when spraying lacquers? Makes my skin itch and my lungs hurt just watching that...

[LCHIEN]

Stunning. I never would have thought so many things in an American business could possibly be so lax... Dress code? What dress code? Who needs shirts, or even silly things like respirators when spraying lacquers? Makes my skin itch and my lungs hurt just watching that...

talk about dress code, did you see the swiss bank that has a 44-page dress code for employees? Down to the color of their underwear (who's inspecting?)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...e/7385317.html

Dave, I think the sprays were under a exhaust hood - excess sprays are sucked up into the hood and filtered (often a water spray) so a respirator is not needed.

[Pappy]

Click on "The Story Of The Guitar - 'First Fender Sratocaster In The UK". Some absolutely amazing footage culminating with Hendrix and the guitar he set ablaze.

[LarryG]

Tom, do you know whether it is the buildings in this film that currently house the G&L factory? I think they may be the ones.

Side-Side Note: I have an old Music Man amp on which the first two digits of the serial number are zeroes. A number of times I've been asked if I'd sell it but I always say I plan to be buried with it.

Art, nine or 10 years ago I bought, for $195, a used Mexican-made Standard Stratocaster as a back-up to my American Standard. I foolishly let it go and have always regretted it ... it played and sounded better than my AmStd. And Jim, in the early 1970s I briefly owned a 1959 hardtail Strat. I sold it around 1972 to help finance the purchase of a Gibson 335. At the time the Strat was just a beat-up, 13-year-old guitar -- who knew???

[Tom Slick]

I don't know what the CBS buyout and G&L starting history is. I know Ernie Ball bought everything from the Music Man factory. Some of it is still used but most is not.

Here's a 2010 guitar factory tour. Part of Leo Fender and Ernie Ball's Legacy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_oXBvr8AhU

I know most of the people in the video. I used to maintain all of the machinery you see and it's fun to see stuff in the background that I built for storage.

[sweensdv]

That was pretty cool. The part I liked best though was the very first comment listed about the video. Not many of us will ever be able to experience what that person did.

[Tom Slick]

These G&L videos seem to answer some questions. It contradicts what I was told but the info I had was not form a credible source.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU7_y...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo-CgvSZx3Y&NR=1