Strat-Tastic!

Wow!  What a great tour. This morning Larry and I drove out to Corona for the Fender Guitar factory tour. The tour lasts about 90 minutes. Before the tour, you can hang out in the Visitor's Center, which is worth a visit all on it's own. The history of the company, along with vintage photos, advertisements, short films and guitars you can actually play are there.

Fender Visitor's Center

Fender JazzMaster

Fender Stratocaster

The tour took us through the whole factory, including the metal shop, woodworking, painting and custom shop. It was really awesome. Even folks that don't play guitar will get a kick out of this tour. 

Sanding Station

So much of the work is still done by hand.  I wanted to buy about 4 guitars on my way out. I restrained myself.

Beautiful Pastel Guitars!

You're not allowed to take movies inside the factory, but of course I did. This was in the Custom Shop where they finish the super-expensive, made-to-order guitars! A tech guy was testing out a guitar with some very fancy finger-picking and fret work. I wish we could have heard what he was playing. Very cool.

As we were leaving, we saw this car in the employee parking lot.