***The next article appeared within the February 2019 difficulty of Guitar Participant***
On a go to to the manufacturing facility in Markneukirchen, Germany, the place Framus electrical guitars and Warwick basses are made, you will be positive you’ll be taught what’s behind the creation of those high quality devices and get a first-hand have a look at a few of the firm’s extraordinary customized finishes being made.
What you may not anticipate is how a lot the topic of wooden comes up. In fact wooden is essential to the sound and look of guitars and basses, and you’ll rightfully anticipate the luthiers at Framus and Warwick to pay specific consideration to those particulars.
However, significantly, these guys are obsessed.
They’ve received greater than 45 various kinds of the stuff, not counting all of the totally different grades readily available. There’s bubinga, rosewood, ebony, wenge, camphor, flame maple and numerous others. We’re even proven mahogany that’s distinctively marked from having been used as a countertop within the manufacturing of parmesan cheese.
Though a few of the wooden we see is uncooked, its high quality exhibits by way of. Tapping a random chunk of maple yields a excessive, hole drum sound that hints on the acoustic properties it should in the future impart to a Framus guitar.
Now a part of Warwick GmbH, the Framus model is famous, having been based in 1946 by Fred Wilfer, the daddy of proprietor Hans-Peter Wilfer. It was, in its time, the most important musical instrument maker in Europe. Inside years of its founding, the corporate’s guitars have been within the arms of younger musicians like John Lennon, Invoice Wyman and Elvis Presley.
After going bankrupt in 1974, Framus got here again with a brand new lineup in 1995 and, beneath Hans-Peter’s steering, started ushering in improvements like its Invisible Fret Know-how, which leaves two millimeters of wooden at both finish of every fret to extend stability and stop twisting, in addition to a bolt-on neck system that creates a stable bond between physique and neck, and diamond-clear ultra-thin lacquer finishes.
But it surely all begins with the wooden, and that wooden is handled with care.
After the preliminary pure drying stage, it’s moved right into a humidity- and temperature-controlled warehouse to finish an air-drying course of that may last as long as seven years. From that time onward, each room it passes by way of within the manufacturing course of is a strictly managed surroundings.
Wooden not meant for the customized store guitars is completed in a drying kiln. Marcus Spangler, the pinnacle of Warwick’s customized store and the person accountable for all Framus and Warwick manufacturing, explains that the ambiance within the kiln is initially stored humid and slowly made drier.
“This lets the wooden dry throughout,” Spangler says. Beginning with utterly arid circumstances would harm it, as a result of the surface would dry quicker than the center.
The dried wooden is then sorted in line with how a lot moisture stays in it. Items with comparable humidity ranges will finally be utilized in the identical guitar, in order that any future growth or contraction occurs evenly to stop damaging the instrument.
After the wooden is dried, one of many first jobs is to assemble the right grains to make a powerful bolt-on neck. The middle of the neck has a grain that runs up and down its size. It’s supported on both aspect by woods with grains that run diagonally, in order that the pure properties of the devices’ supplies work along with its man-made construction to make it as sturdy as attainable.
Because it occurs, a lot of the early course of of creating a Framus or Warwick instrument is automated. Necks and our bodies seem nearly magically from the clouds of sawdust thrown up by the manufacturing facility’s CNC machining instruments.
Although a few of these jobs may very well be completed extra simply by hand, the corporate values the precision it affords, from the way in which the our bodies are formed to accommodate the bolt-on necks to how the perimeters of the our bodies are pre-shaped to suit the soundboard, negating the necessity for to make use of clamps in meeting.
As soon as an instrument is put collectively, it’s hand completed in the identical workshop used for customized store work.
Having seen a batch of devices assembled, we’re handled to the sight of Warwick’s distinctive lacquering course of. The corporate’s lacquer is far thinner than it was prior to now, but it surely’s additionally hardier. To exhibit the purpose, Spangler pours pure acetone onto a not too long ago lacquered bass physique. Two minutes later, it exhibits no signal of harm.
The brand new lacquer leads to a greater look too, because it’s dried by UV fairly than a chemical course of. This eliminates small bubbles and leads to a end that’s completely clear. Most significantly, although, that lacquer permits the pure tone of Framus guitars and Warwick basses to ring out.
Prime-shelf lacquers aren’t the top of Warwick’s ending choices after all. Would you like a guitar totally clad in chrome steel? They will try this for you.
Or possibly you’re like Devin Townsend and wish an axe with an onboard smoke machine and laser present.
No downside.
“When you can think about it, we will do it,” Spangler says. “And if what you need shouldn’t be attainable…we will try this too!”
“You’ll be able to change almost all the things,” he affords in an interview following the tour. “Not the headstock or physique form, however all the things else will be adjusted to your wants.”
Given his sturdy emphasis on sky-is-the-limit guitar design, what’s Spangler’s proudest guitar creation? “I like the Idolmaker,” he says. “In my eyes it’s the finest mixture of classic and fashionable design.”
However after all he’s additionally pleased with the wooden, and Warwick’s moral sourcing of supplies.
“We’re recognized for utilizing very unique woods, and these woods come primarily from Africa,” he says. “We’ve been working along with corporations primarily based in Europe for years. They’ve strain on them as a result of they’re watched by the WWF [World Wildlife Fund for Nature]. For instance, in the event that they went into the forest and did harm, they’d instantly have newspapers reporting that.
“However we even have conversations with suppliers, and so they inform us what’s actually taking place. Europe can also be a really small marketplace for this product. Extra essential is China. Forests run by our suppliers there are handled like these right here in Europe. You go right into a woodland, clear it up, guarantee that vegetation are rising, and also you solely minimize out as a lot as you replant or is regrowing. It’s actually not such as you go and minimize all the things down. We don’t purchase wooden from areas the place that occurs.”
It’s additionally essential to Spangler that his group will get the credit score they deserve.
“Now we have Katja, who selects the woods, and does it a lot better than I can,” he says. “She additionally takes care of the customized store devices as they undergo manufacturing. Then we have now Thomas, the pre-production supervisor who organizes all the things. When a machine is damaged he’s there to restore it. Now we have Christopher, who’s the CNC and CAT programmer, and we have now Stefan and Libor, who’re leveling frets and doing customized store tweaks on the devices, particularly the necks. Michael makes issues which you can’t do with the CNC – for instance particular inlays. Sebastian is our sprayer, after which after all we have now the meeting guys, Marcel and Mani. They’ve been doing their jobs for years.”
The corporate’s angle is feasible because of this small and devoted group.
“Though all people thinks we’re a giant firm with 1,000 workers and so forth,” Spangler says, “on the finish of the day, our manufacturing right here in Germany is a course of involving 15 folks in the mean time. It’s not huge. All of our workers are pleased with what they’re doing and so they do it with ardour. I feel it’s very excessive finish.”
That type of dedication comes at a value after all, which may generally be an issue for the Framus and Warwick manufacturers.
“Individuals ask, ‘Why does this instrument price $6,000?’” Spangler says. “However then you definately see the numerous small adjustments and particulars, just like the invisible frets that no different producer is doing as a result of they make no sense on a mass-production instrument. Or the work we do with CNC, which may very well be completed quicker by hand, however not so exactly.”
We’ve discovered quite a bit on our tour, however one burning query stays: Will that parmesan-scented chunk of wooden ever discover its approach into an instrument?
“Sure!” Spangler confirms with a smile. “We’re making one for a buyer in Japan.”
Go to Warwick (opens in new tab) for extra info.
