(jazz music)
- Alright, so we're gonna be building this 62 Jazzmaster.
We'll go take a look at the neck blanks a little bit.
(lawnmower drowns out speaker)
- Team built is a guitar that isn't built
by one particular person.
So it's built by the whole team of us
and each person has a specialty that they do.
- A lot of the guys have been here for a long, long time
and the best of the best really is what I can say.
- These people, they love the fact
that they work in the custom shop.
They take a lot of pride in that.
- It's one of those things where it's,
you're getting someone's soul putting into it.
(jazz music)
(jazz guitar playing)
- [Manuel Medina] So when you order a guitar,
you get two options.
You can go on master-built
or you can go with team-built.
This Jazzmaster here, it's a team-built guitar.
(jazz riff playing)
Everything starts with the traveler.
(jazz riff playing)
My name is Manuel Medina.
I am the lead in the Custom Shop Mill.
I've been here at the center for 15 years.
Alright, so like I said,
we're gonna be sorting out for the lightest piece.
We found one here that's gonna be around nine.
So if you see on the traveler,
we're looking at 62 Jazzmaster.
It tells you what kind of the body wood, right?
It's gonna be a two piece Alder.
And then it says right here, "Sort".
And it says, "Yes sort".
The traveler is basically the DNA
for the guitar.
It tells you exactly how that guitar is gonna be built.
It can be a 56,
it can be 52.
Wherever like model that is,
where do we need to start
and how it needs to be finished then final.
Alright, so once you've sorted it out,
we're gonna start the milling process.
It's gonna go down to the CMC.
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Once you've selected the spread,
you go to the CNC.
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The controls are out here, all the pickup.
You know, routes are done.
And then from there,
it goes on to drilling the cavities for all the cables
and then from then on,
it goes up to sanding.
(rock guitar riff playing)
- (speaks in foreign language)
(jazz guitar riff playing)
(speaks in foreign language)
(jazz guitar riff playing)
- [Manuel Medina] As far as next,
we do neck lane selection.
Again, we look at the traveler.
Traveler specifies exactly what kind of material.
- [Bon Thorn] Alright, so we're looking for a 3A.
Bird's-eye really most of the times is flats on.
Based on how the Bird's eye's grow
and they almost like limbs of the tree trying to grow out.
If this is the trunk it's from the center,
the branch is trying to grow out.
So when you cut it flats on,
you're cutting through there's the eye right there.
Now this is very close to the center of the tree.
Lots of little eyes. You can see how they're slightly.
This is the small side. That's the larger side,
because sure enough,
there's just the growth rings going this way.
So the center of the tree is here. So as they grow out,
they expand and get larger towards the outside diameter
of the tree. So there are tiny here,
a little bit larger there.
Oh wow, terrific.
The diameter is just,
just a bit larger,
look at how it has this quilt effect going on
to a little bit of dropout on this side.
And this is where Manny would be really
to take extra care on laying it out.
The orientation of the neck on this blank.
He'd have the headstock here.
And then the neck would be on this side of it.
Cause it's slightly off center relative to the headstock.
So he would optimize the amount of figure per blank.
- Right, especially on the player side. Right.
- Yup.
- We want all that on the player side. So this, well,
you'll see, once we lay down on the (indistinct),
you'll see how we orient that to,
like you said,
put that, maximize that on the player side.
- Yeah.
- If we're sorting through for figured wood whether it be
bird's-eye and be flame, whatever it is, you know,
when you have to select it sort for it, different qualities,
different grades from then on,
you know, we mill it out on the joiner.
We go through the planer getting ready for the CNC process.
(jazz riff playing)
- (speaks in foreign language)
- The way you set it up is like,
it's bird's-eye for seven on this one.
You want the bird's-eye to be on the player side.
And if you would got the flame,
you want that flame to be on the player side.
So the guy on the CNC has to really pay attention to that.
So it's a little bit, you gotta know,
you gotta know your stuff.
Once we have the neck blink ready,
we brought out the channel for the tress rock.
Johnny does the fingerboard,
and glue the fingerboard on.
After that and goes down to the CNC
where we do the perimeter,
basically the front of the guitar,
the head cap, face dots,
whether it be a tele, Strat, Jazzmaster.
- I'm Fernando Macias,
I'm a CNC operator for the next side custom shop.
And I've been here for going on 11 years.
I like what we built here.
It's not just a calming random thing, like a door,
it's a guitar, you know?
So it's music.
- [Manuel Medina] We called the hardware.
You know, we do the adjusting nut.
We do the face dots and markers,
all that stuff in the front.
And then we go on to back shaving.
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We do a rough cut on a pin router
where we do the rough cut on the back
and then a rough sanding on one of our Deadheads.
It's all done by hand.
- (speaks in foreign language)
(jazz riff playing)
- From then on, we started doing the fingerboard.
We'll swing it to a nine and a half,
whatever radius the traveler is asking for
(rock guitar riff playing)
and we'll (indistinct) up the board to perfect level
and a radius on the fingerboard right before Fred install.
(lighthearted guitar music)
Once we do Fred install,
you started the sanding process
where we do the final back shape.
At this point, that next shape has to be perfect
to what the order is asking for
and then from then on, it goes to a final sanding.
- (speaks in foreign language)
- [Manuel Medina] After that, it gets inspected
and gets wrecked up and goes to Paint.
(lighthearted guitar music)
- My name is Jay Nelson,
and I am the color painter over in the custom shop.
First of all, I love it because you're taking something
that you're just changing the way it looks
and paint is the first thing people see
when they get their guitar, right.
They opened the case and sure it's a tele or a strata,
whatever it is. But the first thing they see is the color.
And then they'll start to look at the pickups
and all the other stuff, but the colors are the first thing.
So I liked that. I like the wow factor that comes with it.
Did I, did I do a good job?
Well, you know, I closed my eyes for most of it.
No,
there's a pattern to it.
You know, with all these bodies,
I usually start here upside down.
I start right there
and I don't know why it's just a habit I have.
And I go around and I paint the sides
and that's what I did on this one.
And I painted upside down.
I paint the edges first,
and then I flip it and paint the side and the top edge.
And then I do the front and the back.
And it's a pretty straightforward paint job. You know,
all you really gotta worry about is contamination.
Making sure you get coverage everywhere and, then no,
you know, heavier runs or anything.
So it was an easy color to spray.
(lighthearted guitar music)
- (speaks in foreign language)
- My name is Javier Cuba.
I'm the operations supervisor for the custom shop
for the areas of sub assembly,
buff and Polish and final assembly.
Mr. Tony Aguilar has been with the team for 20 years.
So he's been doing Fred dress and buffing of next
for 20 years.
So that's 20 years of experience,
being poured into everyone of next
(lawnmower drowns out speaker) teach them
like that's just in your hands. You can do it in a sleep.
Laura Moreno. She's our main builder.
Laura has been here.
I want to say close to 30 years.
So she's been in the custom shop from the beginning,
her knowledge of guitar building
and all our models has been the case.
(lawnmower drowns out speaker) to say, like,
the thing that I'm most proud of is the team
they're badasses, they're the best
working with them has made me better too, you know,
so that's the thing I'm most proud of is just being
the dream team, the dream factory
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(jazz music)