Today, most of Fender’s production comes from two main factories: Corona in California and Ensenada in Mexico. This second production center, located about a hundred kilometers from the U.S. border, is responsible for the Standard, Special Edition, Deluxe, Classic, and Road Worn series, as well as the majority of the legendary brand’s tube amps. We went on site to witness the birth of some of these dream machines.
From the moment you arrive, the factory is impressive. A long driveway is lined with large buildings housing the assembly lines, decorated with massive posters of guitars made on site. Beneath them are words that sum up the local philosophy: Pasion, Persona, Comunicacion, Excelencia, Liderazgo, Inovacion, Respeto (passion, humanity, communication, excellence, leadership, innovation, respect). And these aren’t just words. People are truly at the center of the process, far from the sweatshop clichés one might imagine. Each employee can rotate between two or three different roles to avoid the mind-numbing repetition of Modern Times. Every workday ends with collective muscle relaxation exercises, and the factory regularly organizes team-building events like barbecues or soccer tournaments. To top it off, the beach is only 100 meters away—not a bad way to end the day. Of course, it’s still a factory: noisy, with air filled with dust and wood shavings.
Tubes and Soldering
Our visit begins with the amp department. Since its opening in 1989, the Ensenada factory has been reorganized for more efficient production. For amps, this means cabinets and final assembly are on the ground floor, while electronics are handled upstairs. In the same drive for rationalization, complete pickguards (with pickups and pots) are also made on this floor—the true kingdom of soldering! A Panasonic machine places all the components on the PCB (except for a few rare parts that must be placed by hand), then another machine applies a layer of solder to complete the job. Human intervention is still needed to clean excess solder and flag faulty boards. Once tubes are installed, the PCBs are checked with an oscilloscope. The tubes themselves are, of course, pre-tested to avoid microphonics, and come from Czechoslovakia, China, or Russia depending on suppliers.
Eddie’s Corner
Once completed and tested, the circuit board is placed into a cabinet prepared on the ground floor. The cabinets are cut, glued, and hand-sanded before being covered in tweed or tolex (they move along a conveyor belt from one station to the next). Once the amp is finished, it is tested at high volume in a soundproof booth (an employee runs guitar recordings through it while adjusting the knobs), then it gets its manual, cover, and possible footswitch before being boxed up—ready to ship to your favorite store. This is how all amps in the Hot Rod series (including the Blues Junior and Deluxe), Supersonic, and Vintage Reissue (65 Princeton, 65 Deluxe, etc.) are assembled, along with limited FSR editions. The cabinets for amps whose electronics are built in the U.S. (such as the Clapton series or the Bandmaster 57) also come from Ensenada, since no amp cabinets are made in Corona. Finally, EVH amps (the brand created by Eddie Van Halen) are also made here, but on a smaller, dedicated assembly line reserved for the factory’s most skilled employees.
Necks in the Making
This separation also applies to guitars, as Mexican-made Charvel, Jackson, and EVH models are built in a smaller workshop—especially those requiring specific skills, like the EVH Wolfgang with its binding. Necks and bodies are prepared in separate areas of the factory. Necks are cut, drilled (for the truss rod and tuners), fitted, and then sanded into their final shape. Rosewood fingerboards are glued onto maple necks and pressed for 20 minutes. Frets are hand-installed, pressed into the wood, and then the necks are placed in a drying machine to prevent fret sprout after shipping. The inlay marker holes are drilled one by one with a drill press—an example of a task one might expect to be automated but is still done by hand.
Body Work
Bodies are cut, rough-sanded with a belt sander, and then hand-finished. A section of the workshop is dedicated to sanding Lacquer Finish series, due to their delicate varnish. Once the finish is applied, a UV machine dries the coat (the wood itself has already been dried in a large oven before assembly). Some new finishes (like the red skull graphic on the Charvel Warren DeMartini Blood and Skull) are made possible by a new printer that applies designs directly to the body. Others (like the snake-skin finish on the Charvel Warren DeMartini Snake) are entirely hand-painted with airbrushes—each finish is unique and takes nearly an hour of work.
The Final Assembly
The two parts—neck and body—finally meet at the end of the production line, where the guitars are fitted with their electronics. Each one is tested, adjusted, and fine-tuned before being boxed up for shipping (if they’re heading to Woodbrass, for example!). Overall, we were struck by the sheer number of operations still done by hand at Ensenada, in a factory that strongly recalls vintage photos of Fender’s first plant in Fullerton. Could today’s Mexican Fenders be the vintage instruments of tomorrow? Either way, the amps and guitars coming out of Ensenada every day are made with the same care as ever.
