Just like in Memphis, the guitars in the Nashville Custom Shop all start with the wood. Glorious, highly figured slabs of maple here. They have literally tons of beautiful wood blanks lining the shelves, waiting to be turned into Custom Shop works of art.
Well, hello there gorgeous. This bookmatched Koa is going to become a CS-356, part of a limited Koa run that will be coming to The Music Zoo. We love Koa and can’t wait to see this thing when it’s built.
This 100 year old machine is used to carve all the tops and backs for every archtop guitar made at the Custom Shop. It has been with Gibson since the original Kalamazoo factory. Once powered by steam, it has been converted to run off juice since coming to Nashville. It was like being in the presence of a legend, imagining all the guitars that have been carved here, and the music they have gone on to make. Wes Montgomery’s actual L-5 CES was carved on this table, and so are the reissues. Amazing.
Not all ES-335 semi-hollow guitars are made in Memphis. Here are some Custom Shop 335s with their newly attached necks, clamped into a drying rack.
The Nashville Custom Shop is a beehive of activity with builders working shoulder-to-shoulder on various aspects of sanding, fretwork, and all the little details. The amount of handwork that happens here is astounding. Everywhere we looked, people were working with their hands.
Guitars like the SG get that famous Cherry Red finish, which starts with this red stain. That boombox is probably worth a lot now. Custom color.
This massive conveyor belt system moves the guitars through the paint station, where the colors are sprayed. After they hang to dry, they will go for clear coat and buffing.
Here are The Music Zoo’s Mark (left) and Dan (right) trying their hand at spraying a burst pattern. We were told to open the spray gun for one continuous spray; starts and stops would cause runs. Spraying an even burst is a lot harder then it looks. Don’t worry – none of our special burst jobs will be making it into a case near you. These are souvenir tops only.
Believe it or not, this is one of the most difficult jobs in the entire factory: scraping the paint off the guitar to reveal the binding underneath. One wrong move and the finish is ruined. We were told it takes about 4-5 years of practice before builders can scrape a real guitar. Some builders use a piece of metal (handmade from old saw blades) but most use a piece of glass that would typically be used as a microscope slide. We’d seen guitar builders shape wood with a microscope slide in the past, and so it was very interesting to see that technique here as well. All that’s left after this step is the installation of the hardware and electronics, and then strings and setup.
While the Nashville Custom Shop doesn’t offer tours to the public, anyone can go and tour the lovely factory in Memphis, and we’d highly recommend it. It was educational and reminds us what goes into making some of our favorite guitars. We’d like to thank Gibson for the hospitality!
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Gibson’s suck – Japanese Charvels’and Ibanezs’ are the best !
Wow!!! Very impressive……
So glad you had a opportunity to tour the Gibson shop.
Even more glad that you are part of the Gibson Family!
Rock on,
d
There is no question that the Nashville and Memphis Gibsons are some of if not the finest electric guitars on the planet. The quality control is much better in the last 10-15 years and is obviously much better than in the 70s and 80s when their reputation was somewhat damaged. The sad part of the story is that the prices are truly inflated beyond all reason. I respect the craftsmanship that goes into these fine instruments, but the “boutique” nature of the finest quality Gibsons which will only be in the hands of wealthy musicians or worse in the hands of wealthy people who are more collectors than players is extremely off-putting to me.
This is great!