whitestrat
Well-known member
I'm feeling a bit emo today about EBMM guitars. I spent a long time yesterday playing my white silo spec (having retired it for a while to play with my Les Pauls) and had to have it's jack replaced to a switchcraft jack. The old jack was giving way, and was not as tight as it should have been. I'm not using the Silent Circuit anyways (technically, the guitar is a HHH config, though I can get some pretty convincing single coil tones from it), so the switch craft was fine for me. The guitar was 10 years old. Something is bound to fail sooner or later. I'm surprised it wasn't sooner. I think the superswitch will go next... Hahaha!!! (damn... where am I going to find me a replacement???)
While the jack was being replaced in the shop, I went to play a few other guitar brands around. You name it. Fenders, Gretschs, Gibsons, Ibanezes, ESPs, LTDs, Samicks, Aria Pros, PRSi, Suhrs blah blah blah...
And I noticed something. There was a slight inconsistency/variation amongest most of these brands. Some of them, like PRSi and Suhr, had fantastic QC, and consistency. The rest, were like a crapshoot. You got some great ones, and some not so great ones. And I began to wonder why. Everyone claims it's QC. I don't think that's all it is.
Honestly, being involved in a food production process now has made me more aware of the problems/issues in a production chain. The final QC at the end only helps as much as they can. To ensure a high yield at the end, the entire chain must be valid, and well developed. And for the QC to do it's job well, the production at every stage must be finely tuned, and carefully maintained.
So while we know EBMM has great QC, and that they have a good CS team, I would like to take this chance to thank the men and women of the EBMM production chain. Right from the purchaser of raw materials (which is another QC check at that point itself) to the people who cut the wood to the fretters and the nut slotters to the electronics installers to those who do the finishing and finally those who do the final assembly. (did I miss anyone?) There's so much variables in there to make up a good or bad guitar, it's amazing that we don't see it when we play our guitars because of how well made they are. Whoever is the production manager in EBMM is a magician, for being able to keep everything together, and consistently churning out a great product.
I saw a video of Gibson's production line, and imagine it to be somewhat similar to EBMMs in the sense of the labour intensive exercise it must be to produce a guitar. We can think of CnC machines doing most of the cutting etc etc, but the final sanding and finer work on the wood details must be done by hand. Especially a multi-beveled design like the EBMMs.
You guys know that headstock? That little hook at the end of the headstock? That inner curve? That can only be done by hand. No machine can smoothen out an internal curve that way. Betcha many didn't know that huh?
So, while we can think of EBMM as a machine that churns out these amazing guitars, we cannot forget the many men and women wearing those safety goggles and safety boots in the production line. They are a big component of what gives us that amazing feel and tone we take foregranted...
I say again:
THANK YOU!
While the jack was being replaced in the shop, I went to play a few other guitar brands around. You name it. Fenders, Gretschs, Gibsons, Ibanezes, ESPs, LTDs, Samicks, Aria Pros, PRSi, Suhrs blah blah blah...
And I noticed something. There was a slight inconsistency/variation amongest most of these brands. Some of them, like PRSi and Suhr, had fantastic QC, and consistency. The rest, were like a crapshoot. You got some great ones, and some not so great ones. And I began to wonder why. Everyone claims it's QC. I don't think that's all it is.
Honestly, being involved in a food production process now has made me more aware of the problems/issues in a production chain. The final QC at the end only helps as much as they can. To ensure a high yield at the end, the entire chain must be valid, and well developed. And for the QC to do it's job well, the production at every stage must be finely tuned, and carefully maintained.
So while we know EBMM has great QC, and that they have a good CS team, I would like to take this chance to thank the men and women of the EBMM production chain. Right from the purchaser of raw materials (which is another QC check at that point itself) to the people who cut the wood to the fretters and the nut slotters to the electronics installers to those who do the finishing and finally those who do the final assembly. (did I miss anyone?) There's so much variables in there to make up a good or bad guitar, it's amazing that we don't see it when we play our guitars because of how well made they are. Whoever is the production manager in EBMM is a magician, for being able to keep everything together, and consistently churning out a great product.
I saw a video of Gibson's production line, and imagine it to be somewhat similar to EBMMs in the sense of the labour intensive exercise it must be to produce a guitar. We can think of CnC machines doing most of the cutting etc etc, but the final sanding and finer work on the wood details must be done by hand. Especially a multi-beveled design like the EBMMs.
You guys know that headstock? That little hook at the end of the headstock? That inner curve? That can only be done by hand. No machine can smoothen out an internal curve that way. Betcha many didn't know that huh?
So, while we can think of EBMM as a machine that churns out these amazing guitars, we cannot forget the many men and women wearing those safety goggles and safety boots in the production line. They are a big component of what gives us that amazing feel and tone we take foregranted...
I say again:
THANK YOU!
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