Eastman mandolin factory (video)

[Joey Anchors]

Not sure if this has been posted before but I just found this clip on UTube.

https://youtu.be/T4HxyRo9kiQ


This is one reason I love my MD404!

[Roger Moss]

I may not be a judge of such, but that looked like craftsmanship to me. Are there any videos of Rogue workers slapping together cheapo mandolins for comparison?

[Mike Arakelian]

Interesting and fun to watch. The workers are adept with their sharp chisels. I wonder when and how they take their measurements or whether they’re just carving by sight. I had a chance to visit China about five years ago and visited a couple of factories where workers were working with things like silk and jade. They were certainly very skilled. Thanks for posting.

[MikeEdgerton]

Over the years we've had a few videos from Eastman. Most of the links appearto be broken but this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IssLVC0CFDg) one is still out there.

[Jeff Mando]

Great video! Who needs sandpaper and saws when you know how to work a chisel! Very cool! :cool:

[MikeEdgerton]

Interesting and fun to watch. The workers are adept with their sharp chisels. I wonder when and how they take their measurements or whether they’re just carving by sight. I had a chance to visit China about five years ago and visited a couple of factories where workers were working with things like silk and jade. They were certainly very skilled. Thanks for posting.

Several years ago I stood in the Gibson Showcase at Opryland Mall watching a guy carve an F-5 neck from a sold blank with a Dremel. He was checking things as he went but I get the feeling a whole lot of that was done by sight. I'm sure they have pretty strict standards at Eastman. That's a big shop. The mandolins are only a small part of their business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7sNfZ6fsbk

[vanguard]

Man, watching that fella carve out that scroll was deeply satisfying. Nothing cooler than a sharp chisel in adept hands.

[OneChordTrick]

I may not be a judge of such, but that looked like craftsmanship to me. Are there any videos of Rogue workers slapping together cheapo mandolins for comparison?

Albeit guitar based there’s a thread on another forum I frequent that shows the Yamaha guitar production line and the making of an Eastman guitar.

I know that it’s a step up in quality but I’d imagine the Rogue production has closer to Yamaha’s than it is to Eastman’s.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I've posted my thoughts on here before on 'why should we' be surprised at the skill of Chinese workers. In a similar manner to the Japanese,they've had many,many hundreds of years to practice their skills. Their works of art,dating back centuries, is off the planet awesome !. https://www.ancient.eu/Chinese_Art/

Manchester UK art gallery, has in it,some ancient Chinese jade carvings,the intricacies of which are mind blowing. It's pretty much the same with their skill at carving wood. Try your hand at something like this,carved almost 400 years ago.

It's not so much our ignorance of what the Chinese / Japanese are capable of,but rather that because of their own past isolationalism,they were ''off the radar'' for 100's of years. These days we're simply re-realising how clever these people really are,
Ivan;)
172205

[BoxCarJoe]

A few years ago I rented an Eastman cello. I couldn't afford to buy.
It was the best instrument I ever played.
I still dream about that tone.