JODY “WONKA” DANKBURG: I’m Jody Dankburg, and we’re at U.S. Music Corp in Mundalein, Illinois.

This area right here is where they’re manufacturing all the speaker cabinets. So, we own Randall Amplifiers and bass, even David Eden Bass Cabinets. Break time. So, right here we got a bunch of Randall stuff here, we’re building some Eden stuff over here, and here’s something cool. I think I showed you guys this at the NAMM show though, the flame Kirk Hammett. Well, this is actually what it looks like before it gets to that. So, it’s actually, just like the guitar, it’s a piece of flame maple, bookmatched like that, come through a little -- through the stain here and before it goes to paint. So, it’s the same process with the guitar but a lot bigger.

These ones have finger jointing. This is the way Kirk wanted his cabinet constructed. It’s usually done with a rabbet joint. That cabinet happened to be a solid flame maple, which is very pricey. I believe we use 13-ply birch. It depends on the level of the cabinet. We have different price points and all of that stuff. So, it depends on, you know, if it was made overseas. If it was made here, we use the top-quality wood. If it’s done from overseas, it’s a little cheaper.

So, as you could see, when all the stuff comes through here now, the cabinets are going to go down this little line here and the guitars go that way. So, let’s take a side track from the guitars and check out where the cabinets are made.

Right here, we’re at the cabinet assembly line, and what you got here is, the gals over here, what they do is they do all the Tolex and the carpeting, all done by hand, andd it all has to be done perfectly. You know, we saw that the stuff is pretty expensive. Like I said, it’s like a toy factory but it’s expensive toys and it’s got to be done perfect. She does an excellent job and is very good.

That’s not chili, that’s glue.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Yikes.

JODY “WONKA” DANKBURG: Yeah. And then over here, you could see where we stock all our speakers. Mostly we carry Celestion, a very famous brand of speakers from the United Kingdom. We stock vintage 30s, we stock G75s. They make a custom speaker, 100-watt speaker for us, and, you know, it’s the best.

We use Eminence for Eden, and also the George Lynch signature stuff actually has his own signature Eminence speaker, the Super V, which is an Eminence product that we use. Both Celestion and Eminence are great companies though. They are only two in the world so they do it the best. [LAUGHING]

When you come down here and you could see the assembly line, you could see the stuff coming together after it gets the Tolex so the carpeting comes down here. It gets the hardware, the corners, the wheels, the feet. Again, you get the grilles, we’ll attach speakons and what-not, everything kind of comes together. Grilles are slapped in. It looks like you got a bunch of Randall amps ready to get loaded right here.

Here is our Kirk Hammett. Again, they’re getting pretty good at this now.

GRETCHEN HASSE: [CHUCKLES]

BRITTON WETHERALD: They’re looking really good.

JODY “WONKA” DANKBURG: They’re looking really nice, huh?

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah.

JODY “WONKA” DANKBURG: Now, when we first started out, it was a little difficult. It didn’t look so hot.

GRETCHEN HASSE: [INDISCERNIBLE]

JODY “WONKA” DANKBURG: Yeah. They’re getting really good at this. It was kind of an interesting thing. It’s that we kind of decided this is what we’re going to do but we never did it before. Yeah. It’s beautiful isn’t it?

GRETCHEN HASSE: Yes.

JODY “WONKA” DANKBURG: I’m afraid to touch it. And then all the stuff, as it comes down here, there’s a guy who sits here and he tests every amp that comes through, and so it could be considered a dream job almost but, you know, [PH] Jose here with his -- Let’s see what he’s got here. He’s got a regular imported Parker. It just goes through every head whether it’s guitar head, you know, or solid state or whether it’s tube or whatever. This happens to be a Kirk Hammett module -- modular system. It goes through and makes sure it works, and then, you know, they get in the box and they get sent away to the happy customer.