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Of particular interest here is the chambering process – this is a sort of controversial subject in the world of Gibson Guitars due to the company previously having made adjustments to their original boring pattern to achieve a lightweight body.
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The Gibson Showcase tour in Nashville includes a visit to the rough factory, which is where all of the raw wood is ripped down, book-matched, rough-cut, glued, and sanded. The Gibson USA factory in Nashville takes care of the solid-body builds (Les Paul, SG, Explorer, Firebird, etc).Įach offer a tour that’ll allow you to see their luthiers at work while giving you an interesting history lesson and some insight into their processes. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to which factory does what – it’s pretty simple: the Gibson Memphis factory is where their hollow and semi-hollow bodied models are made (ES-XXX, Lucille, anything with a Bigsby). When I say “the Gibson Guitar Factory”, I’m actually referring to two separate factories – both in Tennessee. In reality, the construction and assembly line is a group of extremely knowledgeable and passionate people working hard to keep up with the demand – the Gibson Guitar Factory Tour gives you a chance to see how they manage to consistently create quality instruments with a human touch.
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