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I'm headed to Memphis Sat-Tue for work and thought I'd squeeze in the tour is at all possible. Anyone been on it? Worth it? It looks like they just make the hollow body electrics there from what i can gather.

I want on the tour a few years ago and it was very cool. They do only make the hollow body arch tops. The next time I am in Memphis, I'll go on it again.

One thing that I thought was very cool was the spray booth area. The oddest thing I think I saw was the binding scraping room. They have about 25 people in there sitting with guitars scraping the finish off of binding with razor blades. It was like watching Flamingos at the zoo. When they stop working they raise their arms in the air. The guide said this is so they don't unintentionally touch the guitar with the blade. Most are wearing headphones. No one was talking and the guide said that was to keep distractions down. This looked like the perfect job if you are not a people person.

There was a lot of cool stuff to see (like the reject pile). I wasn't as into the building as I am now so for alot of it I don't think I was understanding what I was looking at. For the life of me I can't remember seeing how they did the plates. Although they were making necks, so that may not have been going on when I was there.

Any way it was a great time and I would defiantly pencil it in while you are there. Oh and have some ribs too. You'll probably have to leave the factory to get the ribs, but the best ribs I have ever had were on that trip. What would be cool is if you could bring some ribs with you on the tour. Now that would be living.

John

I've been 3 times (taking friends since we moved here) and it's been great every time...it goes a little fast and it scares me to see the workers turning and looking away to pose for pictures while running a 335 body around a flush-cutting shaper bit! And I think the "reject pile" is now a locked dumpster inside the building... It's for sure worth a trip and then go to Blues City Cafe over on the corner for ribs...

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Well worth it. The stuff they throw away may make you ill.

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Chris

I highly recommend a visit to the Rock'n'Soul museum while you're there - excellent historical exhibits put together by the Smithsonian people. And the Interstate BBQ is pretty cool. And if you go to Schwab's you can get some of those voodoo oils that are guaranteed to improve the tone of your guitars.

When I went through the factory, the workers had already gone home, but it was pretty interesting anyway.
Walter

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Walter Lay
"It's taken me so long, but now that I know
I can see. All that I do or say, is all I ever will be"
- Billy Joe Shaver

I believe those top and back plates are made with a Radio Frequency glue press type of process. You basically stack your veneer layers in the press and it presses them down over appropriately shaped forms. The glue in between the layers is activated using a Radio Frequency emitter that is integrated into the equipment....this causes the glue to take a set within a minute or so for an application like this..maybe 5 minutes at the outside. The glue still takes a day or so to really truly "cure" but you can bandsaw parts that have come right off the equipment.

For what it's worth, this type of technology (which is pretty old) is not really of too much use on acoustic guitars. You do sacrifice some integrity of the glue joint by cooking the glue this quickly. Joints made like this will typically snap right on the glue line, even after curing. You can get away with doing an RF process on a veneer layup without any problem due to the large surface areas...

I've played with this equipment before...one really cool trick is to draw pencil lines on the wood. Get the gun a bit too close...and you will get a nice woodburning of a lightning bolt....

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