Fender Factory Tour...1959

[photoguy]

 

[mrbungel]

Actually, it's from 1957, maple necks, no rosewood yet.
Looky here and read the entire thread, great stuff:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/255984-fender-factory-1959-a.html

 

[dougk]

how friggin awesome is that.

But man that guy at the bandsaw... watched that thumb get awfully close when resawing off the headstock face! LOL

 

[BarkingTree]

Thats really cool. Sleepy little factory lots of hand operations.
Ladys did all the winding..
The Body shaper machine very cool, Lapsteels
Guys with there shirts off and the Factory doors open to the afternoon sun.
Liked that. I think I saw a rosewood layer on top of a block of maple..?

 

[skhan007]

Oh man, what an awesome piece of history!!

 

[Rockinrob86]

prototype jazzmaster 16 seconds in

 

[Foley]

how friggin awesome is that.

But man that guy at the bandsaw... watched that thumb get awfully close when resawing off the headstock face! LOL

That old guy at the band saw was definitely a machine!

Awesome Video!

 

[msr13]

That was great. Thanks for posting it.

 

[donnievaz]

If they only knew that those guitars would be worth over $20K today. I wonder how many of them bought one or two at an employee discount and held on to it for life.

 

[radialaced]

That is so cool! I like how quickly the cut the bodies and necks with a band saw, and how fast they sand the contours in to the strat bodies. And how about that spray booth with no masks? And the guy at the end doing the QC on finished strats with no shirt on?

Ahh, if only my Delorean could reach 88 miles per hour.

 

[Teleplayer]

I guess those would be considered "Team Built".... Those guitars couldn't have been that good because there were no Ultra-Master-Craftsman-Luthiers in the plant, like there are today.

Pffft.....

 

[JDJ]

That was really cool to watch. Thanks!

 

[skintknuckle]

Very cool. Thanks for posting this here.

 

[Mojoblue]

Way cool!
Is that Abigail Ybarra at 5.57?

 

[Kmaz]

The older gentleman at the band saw looked like George Fullerton's dad. Was that George who was jamming with another fellow near the end?

I've not seen this and think it's really cool that we have it. Thanks for posting!

 

[R13D]

Soooo cool!!

 

[IPLAYLOUD]

The guy on the right at the end, I believe, is Freddie Tavares.
Yes, George Fullerton's father cut many of the bodies.

If you really look closely at old Fenders, you never see a "perfect" paint job (even today).
There was so much debris floating around! Those fans kept particle and all kinds of junk moving through the air.
There was no paint room...it was done in the corner! No masks or gloves on many of the workers. It was people working to build things to sell.
Pretty amazing when you really look at it.

 

[mrbungel]

Thats really cool. Sleepy little factory lots of hand operations.
Ladys did all the winding..
The Body shaper machine very cool, Lapsteels
Guys with there shirts off and the Factory doors open to the afternoon sun.
Liked that. I think I saw a rosewood layer on top of a block of maple..?

Richard Smith, foremost Fender historian and author, confirmed that the film was shot in 1957. That could be rosewood, Fender made a Strat with a solid rosewood neck around 1957, Norm Harris owns, or owned that Strat.
It's a well documented guitar.

BTW, Richard Smith is not a guitar dealer, check out his book "Fender, the Sound Heard Round the World".
Best Fender history book ever written.

 

[mrbungel]

..."numerical control" by Manual.

Yeah,
CNC..............NOT!

 

[Mojoblue]

The guy on the right at the end, I believe, is Freddie Tavares.

It definitely looks like him. So cool...