Here is an overview of my Fender Factory Tour at the Fender Visitor Centre at Corona, California October 2014 which I was lucky enough to WIN with many thanks to

Straight off the bat I'd like to extend my gratitude for this opportunity of a lifetime to Fender Australia and Kosmic Sound, particularly John Goldsmith at Kosmic who organised everything for me and was an absolute pleasure to deal with all the way through and last but not least David Brown Manager of the Fender Visitor Centre in Corona California, who took a dream come true to a whole other level.

Now to the trip...

Well, we kicked off with our Cathay Pacific flights and a couple of days stopover in Hong Kong. On arrival in LA we picked up our hire car and headed for our accommodation at the "Doubletree by Hilton" in Commerce right near the Citadel Factory Outlets and close to the freeway for easy access to Corona for the visit the following day.

Finally, the big day had come, we made our way on a pleasant drive up to the Fender Visitor Centre in Corona (Orange County) the next morning and arrived just after 9am. We signed in at the front desk and advised that I was the competition winner from Perth, Australia.

We were asked to wait in the lobby, the lobby being an avenue of stars of the Fender brand with photo displays, vintage and replica guitars of the likes of SRV, Rory Gallagher (two of my favs), and of course Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Ritchie Blackmore and many more. After a short time, we were greeted by David Brown the manager of the Fender Visitor Centre.

We expected to be at Fender for an hour and a half or so... Not so, from this point on the visit went up a notch, David brought us back to his office for coffee where he gave me some more details on what a fantastic day (all day) he had planned for us including the tour, a behind the scenes tour of the custom shop, $200 worth of merch from the Visitor Centre Shop to bring home, a chance to meet some of the master builders, a couple of hours to play a room full of Fender guitars through a selection of Fender amps plus a great deal on any guitars I wanted to bring home with me and on top of all this he bought us lunch!! I could not believe it and he was such a great guy who is so passionate about Fender guitars and amps, what a day this was turning out to be!

We finished the tour with a tour of the custom shop where we checked out special orders, custom paint jobs and more, David showed us a few of the individual design requests and introduced us to the comical bunch who worked in the Fender Custom Shop.

In fact one thing I was really impressed with is that everyone I saw seemed to really enjoy working at Fender, lots of banter was exchanged with David on his way around and there are quite a lot of multiple family members working there.

About 20% of the staff at the factory are guitar players and David was keen to increase this.

At the end of this tour, more giveaways, we all got a pack of custom shop pics and stickers.

Special paint order

This gentleman sorts all the timber stock BY HAND according to weight, grain, texture into groups for the guitar or bass body that it is destined to become.

Note The steel engraving (left), the five pickups (2nd from left) and the Aztec Design stone inlay of the Tele on the right

This is only around 50% of the visitor centre and merch store

The Tour Itself;

We joined up with about 6 other visitors, some from the USA and a couple of people from the UK to take the visitor centre tour conducted by David, complete with headphones and safety glasses, safety first!

I was the only one allowed to take video footage due to my newly attained special "competition winner from Australia" status! The tour was great, we went throughout the complete component manufacture, assembly, sanding (by hand and hand power tools), finishing/paint/lacquer and finally the testing area which was cool... Hearing scales, chords, dives, metal riffs and more coming from around the room at once.

The crazy crew in the Custom Shop

Master Builder Jason Smith working on a new Paisley design for a special order.

Special paint order

Once the assembly and sanding is complete, the guitars go down to the paint and finish shop where an exacting process of multiple paint coats are completed, tested, sanded and re-done if not up to standard, then they are cured in curing rooms, before the final outer coats are applied in either lacquer, polyurethane or a third coating (the type escapes me) dependant on customer request or the type of guitar, then they are cured .... For two weeks!

On a mobile racking system right up in the roof of the factory above the workers, it has to be seen to be appreciated. Each type of finish coast has it's own unique effect on the sound, tone and durability of finish of the guitar, different coatings to suit different player's needs. There's a whole science around these top finish coats in which David was, of course, well versed.

Then they are tested in the room of ethereal guitar soup (in a cool way) as described earlier :)

So at the end of the line there are hundreds of "freshies" (as David called them) Fenders from right across the guitar and bass line racked up and ready to go, either to store or personal order shipment or into the hands of a lucky customer who calls in and picks a "freshie" direct from the shop floor.

A Room Full of Fender Guitars and Amps (I was like a kid in a candy store);

After the tour we got to hang out at the Fender Visitor Centre Store whilst David took another group on a tour, I was told to help myself to a play of any guitar I wanted there, if there was anything I wanted I could have staff discount on top of the already heavily marked down prices.

So, I set to work :) I played a telecaster resonator (unplugged), great tone, big sound and lovely to play... In fact I would have to say the same about the all the guitars I played, there was a couple of Telecasters with double humbucking emg's which sounded great, a Jaguar with metallic blue body and matching headstock paint with a rosewood fretboard... Sweet as to play and a whole bunch of others including a Fender Select Thinline Tele that I fell for.

It was so cool to just be able to spend time playing all these beautiful guitars with hardly anyone else in the room.

The whole Fender Visitor Centre was huge and contained so many guitars plus a small "design your own" area.

There was also in an Aztec design Telecaster in a glass case that had Aztec design stonework all over the top of the body and headstock, David was telling us that as the master builder who built that guitar had become so famous for his design work that now the guitar was now worth around US$24 000.

On his return David shouted us lunch and we had a great chat. After lunch it was off to the factory again where we got to wander through the curing rooms and check out some of the cool designs people had custom ordered.

Some custom orders in the "Design Your Own Fender" room

Behind the Scenes at the Fender Custom Shop;

After lunch David took us to the Fender Custom Shop where we got to meet the team individually and closely check out some of the guitars being worked on.

Meeting the Master Builders;

We then went through to the master builder's booths and met three, Jason Smith, who was currently working on a paisley design matching headstock and body, it was cool to just chat about his path to becoming a master builder and the freedom in design that he gets. Jason had worked in almost every section of the Fender factory from the ground up.

Then we met Scott, who was working on a metal bodied Strat, "Do you wanna have a play?" Asked Scott.... "Oh yeah!" and what a beast it was, amazing to have a metal bodied guitar in my hands that sounded sooo great and played deliciously... Then I had a jam... With the guy on an air hose at the other end of the shop, after David called out to him "Blues in A!" that lead to a session of question/answer riffs and licks... Man that guy was good on the air hose!... No kidding, it was really funny :)

Finally we met Yuri, he agreed to show us his work and discuss it but no photos and we were sworn to secrecy on one project he was working on, which I will respect. The workmanship of this man was absolutely incredible I kid you not, meticulous to the finest degree. He had a photo in the corner of his booth of his humble beginnings as a luthier in a tiny (and I don't use the word lightly) basement under his parent's home in Russia. A quietly spoken man with a gentle soul who quietly goes about his work with a minimum of fuss and other worldly creativity.

When he releases the project he is working on you will be amazed!

We thanked Yuri for his time and then David showed us one last booth, it was empty, it had been his booth before he took on his roll as manager of the Fender Visitor Centre, David himself built instruments for the Custom Shop Marketing Director! Working next to and with the Master Builders, how cool was that?

Here I am having a go on the metal bodied Strat under development

The Master Builder's Booths

Behind the Scenes at the Gretch Workshop;

The last section we got to take a look at was the Gretch builders section. Upstairs above the Fender Custom Shop. The guys had all gone home for the day so it was eerily quiet up there. There was some beautiful workmanship on some very expensive guitars here. David often goes to the upstairs wood shop for work-related special projects, what a great place to work hey?

At the end of the day we picked out a heap of merch including t-shirts, a Fender sign for my music room, custom shop picks in a designer case and an aluminium slide (which I have already put to good use!). This was an unexpected bonus for which I am very grateful.

Did I end up buying a guitar? I sure did!! More than one, at those prices I would have been mad not to pick up some amazing mementos of an amazing experience!!

And if you find yourself in LA sometime soon...do yourself a favour and take a ride out to the Fender Visitor Centre in Corona for a morning factory tour, you'll love it!

You never know, you might pick up a new guitar whilst you are there :)

EPILOGUE;

Whilst rebuilding this web page I happened to find out that with the advent of COVID that the Fender Visitor Centre in Corona California has now ceased operating tours.

This is a great pity as lovers of guitars and in particular Fender guitars made their way to Corona from all around the world.

I am grateful and feel blessed to have experienced this and to have been able to capture the story of my visit. I have spent many hours rebuilding this website after several hosting issues with my previous host, however, I feel that it’s important to be able to keep this story alive for those who are not able to attend tours now. At least people can have a glimpse into the workings of a Fender guitar factory in the USA.

By the way, during my visit I bought a 2012 Thinline Tele with gold hardware and a 1965 Re-issue Jaguar, they kindly shipped both guitars back to Australia for me so that I could continue my USA holiday.

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit to this page.

Lucky Leigh