MF AV Team Trip Blog

November 13-16, 2007 – Bill and I ventured down to Anaheim. We weren’t there for Disneyland, we weren’t there for NAMM (that’s in January). We were there to visit SKB Cases, the finest molded case company there is! The innovation behind this company and the technology that goes into ensuring the finest quality is amazing! So amazing, even the military uses these cases on a regular basis!

We filmed the processes involved and instead of the wood smells and aromas we were used to with the several guitar factories we have visited this year, we had the aroma of plastic… nice hot plastic. The nice thing is the place was we vented, so it really wasn’t bad at all.

I encourage you to look through these pictures! The factory tour will be coming soon on the Musician’s Friend and Harmony Central websites!

October 22-25, Bill and I ventured back out to wonderful Tennessee to visit the 4th factory of our Gibson factory tours, in Memphis. The day we arrived it was moderately warm, and overcast, and we were right around the corner from famous Beale Street. As usual, when we travel most of the day, we were quite hungry and proceeded to eat our first barbecue meal. This was by far, not the last, either!

Gibson Custom Memphis was a spacious factory compared to the others we had seen. It was inside of a beautiful building in the heart of downtown. The same facility also had several ballrooms and meeting rooms, much like a small convention center, where they had many performances throughout the year. And of course, at the top corner of the block, was a Gibson Showcase restaurant/lounge where other great bands have played. This was a beautiful facility!

The second day rolled around and we walked outside to realize it was no longer warm, in fact, it was quite chilly, and it rained during the rest of our visit. Nonetheless, the hospitality was great, the city was wonderful, we didn’t get a chance to visit Graceland, but we drove by Sun Studios. Enjoy the pictures of the tour!

September 25th and 26th Bill and I were in Bozeman, Montana, which, by the way now ranks at the top of our list of the most beautiful places we have visited yet! The weather was favorable, and allowed us to enjoy the wonderful scenery of surrounding mountains.

Of course, we weren’t there for the scenery. This was factory 3 of 4 of the Gibson factories we are working on. This particular one, was the wonderful factory of Gibson Acoustic guitars! We had the pleasure of being guided through the factory by the well known master luthier, Ren Ferguson.

This factory is a well organized and well ran operation that takes great pride in the extensive hands-on work, while still embracing opportunity to use modern technology to help maintain certain consistencies.

Enjoy the photos and stay tuned for the videos.

Tuesday the 18th Bill and I drove up Northeast from here to a beautiful area in Central Oregon, called Bend. Just outside of town is a small area called Tumalo, where Breedlove Guitars is located.

Our trip started early. In order to get up there by 9am, with just over a 3-hr drive, the day was like any other trip. The wonderful change with this was we drove. Instead of hopping on an airplane where you are not quite sure who you are going to be sitting next to, whether you will be comfortable or not, we drove. The vehicle we had told us the temperature outside. We knew it was going to be chilly, but as we were driving over the passes we saw the temperature hit the low 30′s!

The day warmed up nicely as we made it to Bend in good time, had a coffee, then drove out to the factory. This was a wonderful visit! The factory had a great warmth of people who really had a passion to be there.

Our guide for the video, Jayson Bowerman, a 12-year employee of Breedlove, confidently walked us through every process, even doing many of them himself.

Check out the pre-tour tour pictures below! Stay tuned for the factory video coming soon.

On August 27th we began a long two week journey which started with a 2-night trip to Sabian Cymbals in Eastern Canada. After an adventure of flying there and arriving in Fredericton, NB in a 18′ish passenger plane, we arrived in our hotel. The next morning we realized how beautiful the landscape was where we were! We drove almost an hour out to the Sabian Factory in Meductic, NB. The drive was beautiful!

The property in which Sabian stood was on the edge of a beautiful river, the Saint John River. The weather was definitely favorable!

We went through the factory with still and one video camera, and another time with full 2-camera set up.

This fascinating process of watching cymbals being made was a great change for Bill and I. Since we have been doing guitars up to know, it’s nice to see metal in action!

After we finished our work day we had a chance to relax and enjoy some social time with the folks who helped get us there, including Bob Zildjian and his wonderful wife, Willie! Such a hospitable group of people! After the long travels it was nice to just b taken care of and well liked.

Enjoy the slides!

Our main reason for the trip to Nashville, TN was to visit the Gibson USA and Custom Factories. This was a great experience! It was a bit of a drool factor to see the hundreds of SG’s and Les Paul’s, V’s, and the new Reverse V’s, just to mention a few.

In this slide show there are 291 images from these 2 factories! Enjoy them!

We will be putting together individual videos for each factory, then after we cover the Gibson Bozeman and Memphis factories we will be looking at a definitive project to show the family of plants.