Members Etienne Rambert Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 My impressions: 1. The Gibson facility is huge. And it is in a prime Memphis real estate area. It is much larger than the factory itself. If it is sold - it could easily become the largest shopping mall in the Beal Street area. It appears to be a relatively new building complex. 2. The Memphis factory is turning out only 60 guitars per day. (Think about that.) 3. I saw maybe 50 workers turning out those 60 guitars daily. 4. There is ONE -- only one paint guy. He's been around a long time. So everyES guitar really has a slightly different paint job. Impossible to get exactly thesame paint coating if you only have one worker doing it. 5. That one guy also paints over the bindings on the guitars. 6. There are two or three workers who then painstakingly remove the paint coats from the bindings by hand. 7. The tour was floor-level with the workers, not high up looking down. We were maybe 3 to 5 meters from the actual work area. 8. 2 PLEK machines (and a lot of other machines) in that factory. One old presser or stamper came from Kalamazoo and is still in heavy use. 9. No ES Les Pauls are being made in 2018. 10. I didn't know Gibson owned TASCAM & Line 6. But their gear was on salein the retail shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 Cool stuff! I thought Yamaha owns Line 6. Learn something new every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 Actually Yamaha does own Line 6 unless Gibson just bought them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sammyreynolds01 Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 Yeah I thought Yamaha owns Line 6. I guess they haven't sold the factory yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mikeo Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 I have a couple of ES guitars made in Memphis. They did a super job on them. My other Gibson came from Nashville, and I have 2 acoustics made in the Bozeman Plant, as well as a Flatiron mandolin. The other mandolin was made in Nashville. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 That's cool info about how they operate though - having 2 Plek machines is a surprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted February 25, 2018 Members Share Posted February 25, 2018 Cool. I'd like to take the Gibson or Martin tour (acoustic guy) some day. 60 guitars a day at 5 days a week at 52 weeks a year at $1000 average per guitar is $15,600,000 retail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted February 26, 2018 Author Members Share Posted February 26, 2018 Dunno. I just saw a new Line 6 amp w/a price-tag in the show-room at Gibson Memphis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted February 26, 2018 Author Members Share Posted February 26, 2018 Our guide told us they project average retail for $3k - $3500. That sounds high. But it's not a lot higher than Sweetwater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted February 26, 2018 Members Share Posted February 26, 2018 Thanks. I picked a nice round number and guesstimated with it. I figured it was best to guess low. An average of $3205.13 makes a cool $50 million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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