pictures from my tour of gibson montana
 

are here: http://s618.photobucket.com/user/elj...?sort=3&page=1

i had a fine time touring the gibson factory with a fine gentleman, don ruffato, as my guide.

the pictures are in chronological order; i did no editing, just added descriptions of sorts.

the place is energized but not hectic. the tour gave me new appreciation for scaled-up guitar building.

i hope you enjoy my (very) amateur photography!

Interesting process, eh? Glad to see you got the tour ! Not easy. Don is a wonderful guy, great spokesperson for Gibson Montana.

looks great. might be a wake up lesson for the Gibson haters here on how a handmade guitar is made

How many guitars do they make per year in the Montana plant?

Thanks for posting the photos! I'll bet the tour was fun.

Very cool to see where my guitar was made.

Great job with the photos! Thanks for posting!

Thanks for posting the photos! I'll bet the tour was fun.

Very cool to see where my guitar was made.

Hey, thanks for posting that picture slide show. I've spoken on the phone with both Don and Jeri on several occasions, but had no idea what either of them look like:



I have to say that this picture of guitar bodies dangling upside down at such a great height gave me a quick flash of the heebie-jeebies!


Of course, they're not going to drop them, but still.....

Anyway, thanks again for taking the photos.


Wade Hampton Miller

don told me 88 per day is the current level. one shift per day, weekends off. they schedule production day by day for a 3-month period, revising the schedule quarterly as needed to reflect current market demand.

they have to mix up the models in production because they have only one each of certain machines that are dedicated to specific models (body sizes). that is, they cannot "run parallel" to concentrate on any one model.

also, don told me that almost all the machinery is/was built right in the factory by the on-site team of machinists and die makers. it is an impressive operation!

Excellent pictures, glad you enjoyed the tour!

Great to see. I'm surprised at how small of an operation the acoustic dept. is.

Awesome pics...thanks for taking the time to post this. I just recently bought my first Gibson acoustic and it's an amazing guitar. It's neat to see where it was crafted. Makes me want another one or two!

Enjoyed the pics! Thanks for posting.

Awesome pics...thanks for taking the time to post this. I just recently bought my first Gibson acoustic and it's an amazing guitar. It's neat to see where it was crafted. Makes me want another one or two!

Wow, great photos! It's not at all what I was expecting -- much smaller operation than I thought.

Very cool, thanks for posting!