Quote:
Originally Posted by merlin666
I am not sure why Eastman comes up in this thread. They use the label handcrafted for their marketing yes, but in the videos they show the unskilled labourers performing simple tasks and passing it on to the next person. If they just do what any robot could do as well, then there's no advantage to that just because the labour is much cheaper than a robot. It's still "mass production" if they produce many of the same items. I think in other threads the estimated number was at least 200,000 units per year a couple of years ago, which by now is probably much higher as they are getting quite common even in smaller stores. My tiny local shop just started stocking them and they had to take at least six units to get started.
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That number you used is far more than the number of guitars Eastman produces in a year. It's been told to me the number is around 50-60 per day. That info comes directly from Ted at L.A. Guitars who is one of their better dealers and has been dealing with Eastman for almost as long as they have been building guitars. He is also very close with the Eastman folks at the L.A. Headquarters and Custom Shop. BTW, that's about 25 years.
What you see in the video is accurate but not everything you see those folks doing is everything that is going on. There are highly skilled folks hand carving necks and doing finish work totally by hand.
The point is, it's still being done by hand, not a robot.
To me that's the definition of hand-crafted, hand-made or whatever ... human beings making things their hands or with tools in their hands. YMMV.