♪♪♪ Jorge Meraz: Folks, today we are at the iconic Fender guitar factory in Ensenada where rock and roll and dreams are crafted into reality, and it's coming to you now.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jorge: We are in Ensenada on a lovely overcast day.

I love gloomy days as much as sunny ones.

Anyway, what you are seeing right now, that's not a food place or a margarita club.

It's not a terrace restaurant, but rather it is the welcoming area for the Fender guitar factory.

♪ Jeremy spoke in class today.

♪♪ Jorge: Folks, I'm at Fender.

Sorry for the buffoonery.

But I'm actually at the Fender guitar factory, and this apparently is the guitar that is used by one of the band members of Pearl Jam.

That's why I was embarrassing myself with a little "Jeremy" right now.

So, we're here, folks.

It's actually in Baja.

Can you believe that?

Baja has the Fender factory, and the man in charge of operations right here making sure that all quality assurances are passed and that these guitars make it to market so people can rock out is the guy right next to me right here.

Nice to meet you, my friend.

Angel Espinosa: Nice to meet you.

It's a pleasure to have you here.

Jorge: What's your name?

Angel: Angel Espinosa.

Jorge: Angel, very nice to meet you, my name is Jorge.

Angel: It's a pleasure.

Jorge: So, Angel, I hear that you are the captain of operations here at this factory for Fender guitars.

Talk to me about that.

Angel: I'm responsible to guide and lead the Fender Ensenada factory operation since--almost 9 years ago that I joined the company, and has been a very fun and enjoyable experience and journey through these 9 years.

Jorge: Oh, man, there's nothing like someone who enjoys his work; and you seem to be that, to enjoy it.

Let me ask you something.

Do you like it because you're someone who's positive and just likes their work, or do you also enjoy guitars?

What's your-- Angel: I think that it's both.

I really love music, especially the rock.

So, when I had the opportunity to come here and help Fender to become the best manufacturing site around the world, the best in class--I think that I had the skill sets and competences to support that, and I really love the kind of product that we make.

I had a lot of experience working for different companies where you can build all commodity products, but this one has a lot of proud--there is a lot of love when you make this [inaudible].

It's a handcrafted product that people love what they do across the whole supply chain.

Jorge: Right, it's not just an appliance.

Angel: It's not just--it's not a computer.

It's not a phone.

It's an instrument.

It's--we in Fender believe that the artists as angels and we build--our work is to build the wings to fly.

Jorge: It's just really endearing to hear that.

Here, your function is more manufacturing and the fact that you still bring that vision of like, "Hey, we're giving these people, you know, the ability to soar and for their creativity to just, like, unleash."

It has to affect the job the way you approach the job though, right?

For sure, for sure.

Angel: One of the largest difference among any other place in Ensenada factory is how our people is proud to convert a piece of lumber into a finished product like this one.

There are four strategic management pillars on this operation.

Largest--or the first concern is to keep our people safe.

Secondly, we drive this company through quality, and quality for us it mean the things right to the first time.

The third one is obviously to deliver to our customer what they are asking for, and to quality and cost-effective.

That's the four key drivers of how this operation works.

Jorge: And you're making sure that those are hit?

Angel: All the time.

Everybody's aboard, engaged, and committed to make the things happen following those four key pillars of the operation.

Jorge: Well, we're really interested in seeing these four pillars in action.

Would you give us a tour of your facility?

Angel: Absolutely.

Jorge: Folks, don't go anywhere.

"Crossing the South" coming your way.

We're going to take a tour of the Fender guitar factory right now.

Jorge: So Fender is no small brand.

This is an iconic company that creates an iconic product which has end users that range from amateurs to international superstars.

Rock anthems, legendary ballads, and cultural movements are all accomplished with Fender guitars.

Angel: Do you know the Fender story?

Jorge: I do not, Angel.

Angel: Okay, let me share a little bit about that, okay?

Fender's story began almost 77 years ago, 1946, with a small workshop in Fullerton, California and radio repairman Mr. Leo Fender, who was a brilliant mind, convert in transition from a radio repair into a guitar.

Jorge: So what did he repair before?

Angel: Amps and stuff like that, okay?

He started thinking on what he can do differently, and he came with this telecaster and stratocarter models of guitars.

He did a great job.

Fender through the years has grown in such manner that has become one of the largest icon of the guitars players around the world, and you can see at any stage people have--the artists--icon artists playing Fender guitars; from beginners to noticed artists like Jimi Hendrix, like Kurt Cobain, to the new ones like H.E.R.

Jorge: Yes, all types of artists put their trust in these guitars; and now we're going to go into the belly of this operation and see all the cogs, all the nuance, all the details from the raw materials to the finished product.

Fender guitars aren't just instruments.

They're legends that have shaped music across generations.

Let's dive into the heart of this operation.

Angel: The guitar is built in two blocks, bodies and necks; and then we assemble them together to build the guitar.

The whole building from beginning to the end there is the neck operation.

Jorge: Okay.

This building is all neck?

Angel: This building is all neck.

Jorge: Is that the raw material?

Angel: That's the raw material.

Jorge: Is that brought from the states or is that Mexico--from Mexico?

Angel: This come from every part of the world.

Some of them-- Jorge: Wood comes from all over?

Angel: Yeah, all over, Most of them come from the US.

This is the beginning of the process for the necks operation.

It start with a piece of wood that we call blank and then we put in glue on top of that fretboard, which is going to become the digitalization of the guitar.

Jorge: This part, right?

That is so cool.

Angel: After we have that piece of wood asse--glued together we have to give it the shape, and the shape of the neck is made through a CNC machine.

A CNC is a machine that drill and cut the shape of the neck.

Those are the CNC machines for the necks.

You can see the piece of wood, how the machine is giving the shape of the neck.

It is a high-precision machine that does exactly the same but--the same shape every single time that we put a piece of wood inside.

Jorge: Every single time.

Wow, that's amazing.

Where are these machines from?

Angel: From the U.S., they are called enhanced machines.

We have like--maybe like 30 machines in house.

Jorge: You probably have many engineers as well, right?

Right?

Angel: Yeah, we have a team of engineers that are fully dedicated to sustain the operation but also to develop continuous improvement and also to develop new processes that make them more efficient in factory.

Jorge: What kind of engineer studies to be able to work here?

Angel: We have industrial engineers.

We have mechanical engineers.

We have what we call mechatronics engineers that knows mechanic and electronic eng-- Jorge: Oh wow, mechatronics.

Is a good percentage of them from Baja, the engineers?

Angel: Oh yeah, the--Baja has plenty of universities with the level of high-quality degrees where the people comes out of the bachelor degree they are ready to join companies, but we also had to develop other experience on them to be leads.

Jorge: For sure, for sure but they're ready to plug and play?

Angel: They are ready to plug and play.

Angel: This factory began in 1987.

Jorge: This one?

Angel: This one in Ensenada with a company engineer, Mr. Bashar.

They start off the operation with a small team packaging the strings, but then as Fender realized that the market was demanding more guitars they think on the possibility to start making guitars in Mexico as well almost 35 years, 36 years ago.

Actually, last year we celebrated our 35th anniversary with Bronco, the Mexican gruparo group.

Jorge: [speaking foreign language] Angel: So we did that celebration last year.

Everything that we build in Ensenada is considered a maquila concept, which implied that we had to export everything back to the U.S. Jorge: You're putting things together.

Angel: We put all the things--raw material together from wood to others.

Part of the guitars we assemble in Ensenada, we convert into finished wood product, and we send them back to the US and then to the--our distribution center, they send everywhere around the world to be sold.

Angel: This is another building that we call Acoustasonic building.

It's Building 10.

Jorge: Acoustasonics?

Angel: Yeah, it's a different type of product that we make in Fender.

Jorge: Oh, these--are these acoustic guitars?

Angel: It is a guitar that has the body of an electrical guitar but had a cavity for the sound.

Jorge: If it's unplugged, it sounds like an acoustic guitar?

Angel: Absolutely.

Can get you both sounds.

Jorge: Okay, so the shape is like an electrical guitar-- Angel: But you can inside the cavity sound for the acoustic sound.

Jorge: Oh, wow.

But you can also plug it?

Angel: You can plug it, and it will give you the electronic of playing as an electric guitar or you can switch and play like a acoustic guitar.

Jorge: Oh, that is so cool.

I'm now learning basically that even the electric guitars, you know, are made out of wood because you see the kind of like that lacquered finish, that plasticky finish.

I thought it was into the material.

So they're wood, too?

Angel: They're piece of wood.

Let me show you that.

I will show you where do we begin with the piece of wood that we call a spread and then we become--we make this spread into a shape of those bodies and that we do the mills operation to be prepared to apply the paint over the wood.

What we have here is the warehouse with humidity and temperature control, yeah, because the wood can bend or move, expand or contract with temperature and humidity.

Jorge: So this room the temperature is controlled all the time?

Angel: The temperature is controlled all the time.

Actually, the whole factory.

Jorge: So all these measures are to avoid the wood from warping, from expanding, from contracting, from just being deformed where you can't use it?

The whole building is controlled for that.

Angel: Humidity and temperature as well.

So you can see this is what we call the spread.

It's a piece of wood that we put together, we glue together, and we store it here to give the stability to accommodate to the right humidity level before starting the process of converting into a guitar.

Jorge: The high-precision calibration needed to make something like a guitar is surprising.

I honestly didn't know that this type of tooling went to making a guitar, but it's not all machines.

We'll see in a little bit how much of the process needs actual human craftsmanship.

Angel: We take the piece of wood that we call a spread and we put it into the CNC machines to make the body shape.

Jorge: Is this a body or is this a-- Angel: This is a part of the body, and then we put on top of that a plate of wood to create the cavity sound.

Jorge: Oh, okay, this is the cavity.

Oh, okay.

So yeah, it'll be a surface plate.

What would you call it?

Angel: A sprout.

Jorge: Sprout, okay, and this is for like-- Angel: For the secretary electronic and electrical stuff.

That's a sealer for noise control on the cavities of the pickups of the guitar.

You know, we put a pickup that create the sound, and we have to isolate the pickup versus the wood to avoid electrical field that can create noise within the guitar.

Jorge: I got you.

He's being careful not to paint the top of it, right?

Angel: Just the cavity.

This is the area that--where we make the body shapes with the CNC machines, and then we bring the bodies here to mills and take up all the imperfection of the wood and make it as smooth and-- Jorge: The sanding is here.

Angel: It's a sanding process.

It's a manual sanding.

You can see they are doing that, okay?

Jorge: That guy wasn't mailing it in.

He was going all out.

Angel: The whole idea is the mills operation, which is the sanding to give the guitar the right quality of the finish of the wood before applying the paint process.

Jorge: So silky smooth.

Jorge: After the guitar bodies are sanded to silky smooth perfection, they have to go through the artisanal process that turns them into the flashy rock and glam painted instruments we all know.

From raw materials to the meticulous craftsmanship, every detail here speaks volumes about the passion behind these guitars.

Jorge: This is it.

That's going to be mine right here.

Angel: This is a room where we stay the product for a certain period of time to dry once that is painted, okay?

Jorge: This cherry color looks cool, too.

It's cherry.

Why am I remembering a cherry song?

I think Prince.

Didn't Prince sing a cherry song?

I feel like maybe the--oh, I'm thinking maybe the red Corvette.

Little red Corvette.

I don't know, I'm just thinking of a cherry song.

Angel: Once that we finish the process of painting the guitar and we put a top coat in the top of the color, we dry the bodies for a certain period of time to make the gui--the bodies stay at the right harness to be ready for the next operation, which is the buff and polish.

So-- Jorge: But these already look polished.

Angel: They are almost finished, but it's still not glossy enough.

Jorge: It needs another buffing?

Angel: Oh, yeah.

This is immediately after the paint process.

It still need to go to the buff-and-polish process to get the glossing finishing.

Jorge: Okay, got you.

I mean, they look pretty nice still, but you're right.

Like--it's almost like when you paint a car, the paint job is not enough.

You still have to buff it a bunch of times, right?

It's so hard to believe this is wood, right?

It just feels different, you know.

Like the process is so thorough that I--for so many years I thought these were like fiberglass or composite, some sort of other material.

So when you see a rocker just go like... it's wood.

Angel: It's a weird sensation where the artists do that, you know.

Jorge: 'Cause you go, "Yes, he's going to need a new one.

He's going to need a new one."

Smash.

So here's like--kind of like a quality control here?

Angel: It's quality control where we just review in a visual manner and make sure that the body meet all the expectation for the paint.

Jorge: So all these racks are ready to be inspected?

Someone visually, who is trained to look for imperfections, will go through all these?

Okay.

Angel: And as I mentioned before, the next process or step is to do the buff and polish to gloss in the surface such manner that you will see shining guitar.

Jorge: So even before that you--to get there it has to pass this quality assurance.

Fantastic.

Jorge: So what is this area?

Angel: This is the area of buff and polish.

There are several cells where we do the same operation and the people give to the body the finishing of glossing that the customer require.

Jorge: So is this the last stage?

Angel: This is the last stage before assembling the guitar.

Jorge: Oh, wow.

Okay.

Angel: This is the most difficult operation because it's very demanding on the physical strength of the people.

Jorge: Really?

So that's why, I think, he keep using his body as-- Angel: Using his body to press, you see.

Jorge: I guess the guys working this station, they don't need to go to the gym.

This is--their core--working their core.

[speaking foreign language], and I see people working and it almost seem a little bit--it seems a little bit more monotonous.

It makes a difference what product you're assembling, it almost seems like, right?

Because I see people here and it's just a different vibe.

It's a different spirit.

You know, it's like-- Angel: It's in a different environment, yeah.

Jorge: It's different than if you're just putting, like, an electronic, but you're polishing this guitar.

Even the body language, it seems different.

Angel: You can see the passion of the people and the things they do, you know.

Jorge: Yeah.

I was reading somewhere that even a lot of offshoring manufacturing is coming to Mexico because it has such a large population of young people.

And not only that but that the maquiladora hand--you know, the labor is very highly skilled.

Like the manufacturing workforce in Mexico is considered of high caliber.

Angel: In my personal opinion, that's what really makes the difference.

Yeah, the skills, the competences, the abilities of our people to make this product is just gorgeous, the best in the world.

I don't think nobody else compete with the quality of the product that we do in Ensenada.

Absolutely.

I'm totally convinced, and that's the difference of a product.

And our people not only put their skills and abilities in the product, they put their soul because they're so proud to contribute for those guitars that the people play and enjoy really.

That's the key.

Jorge: Well, it all starts at the head.

I know you give a lot of praise to your team and that's very good, and you should do that, but it also--if the person at the head has that philosophy, it trickles down all the way down.

Angel: We love what we do, and we give people the seven sources of love: affection, support, comprehension, inspiration, pleasure, knowledge, and reward and recognition.

If we are able to give our people all those seven sources the people will be happy to work with us, and they are engaged and they are totally commit on what they do; doing the things right at the first time to give a high-quality product to the market and the players.

Remember that for us the artists as angels, and we give them the wings to fly.

Jorge: That's the person in charge of the production factory for Fender guitars, folks.

You know the labor of love that's going into them.

I think that's what you want, right?

I think that's what you want.

Wow, is this a finished product?

Angel: This is a finished product already finished totally, and this is the area where we do the final assembly of the guitar and we put together the whole process.

Jorge: If you take a look at the workers in charge of quality control for each finished unit, you can tell that they feel invested in this product.

They feel like they're part of the artistic journey.

They know they will have enabled an artist's passion by providing him with a quality product.

Some here have the task of fine-tuning the guitars.

Isn't that crazy?

They're actually playing and looking at all the details, perhaps empathetic with the end user.

It's really something to see.

It's definitely not the same as someone, you know, assembling a toaster.

This isn't just a factory; it's a sanctuary where music is born, a testament to the artistry and dedication of the people who make it happen.

Angel: He must play the guitar to make sure that the guitar works as should be from the song perspective.

Jorge: How do you apply for that job?

"I'm here to apply for--" Angel: We ask--there are people who love music and play, and they comes here and ask for--"Do you had a job for me?"

And I said, "Yes, we had a tune-testing position where you can work."

So he really enjoyed doing that and then--the whole day.

Jorge: Does he do anything other than do the tuning?

Angel: He do the fine-tuning of the guitar.

He tune up all the strings and sounds and playability of the guitar.

Jorge: Once he plays them, once they're tuned, you box them?

Angel: Yeah, and ready to ship to our distribution center in the US.

Jorge: Look at this, folks.

So whenever you see this box at your music store, you can hear that, this is where it was put together.

That is amazing.

Good job, my friend.

Good job, Angel.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jorge: So after seeing the precision and care that goes into each guitar, it's clear why Fender remains an icon of quality and innovation through this fine-tuned operation.

And we leave now wondering what else we'll learn the next time we get to cross south.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male announcer: Like to know more about the places you've just seen?

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