The True Story about Edwards Guitars (Apparently)

Found an interesting post on the true nature of Edwards Guitars from ESP Japan. An MLP member named gibiphone posted this information on the http://www.mylespaul.com/ forum. The main thread can be viewed here: http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/other-les-pauls/43888-edwards-guitars-whole-story-more.html

--The first runs of Edwards guitars were entirely made in Japan

--Nowadays the initial phase of the manufacture of an Edwards guitar (woodworking through painting) is done in an ESP factory just inside the Chinese border in the Northeast province of Heilongjiang.

-- I believe that the Edwards LP series is made from genuine mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) grown in plantations in Indonesia. That’s why the guitars are so light and lively. The wood is neither Sapele (entandrophragma cylindricum) or African Mahogany (khaya anthotheca).

--ESP employees from Japan oversee and QC the production
line.

--The finish and electronics, hardware and plastics, as well as
the setup are done in Japan, now at the new ESP factory near Tokyo

-- This is not new. It has been like this for a few years, though exactly how many I could not pin down.

ESP established a joint venture in Northeast China in early 1992, named the Heilongjiang ESP Electronic Audio Co., Ltd. (黑龙江ESP电子音响有限公司 Heilongjiang E.S.P Electronic Hi-Fi Co Ltd. Jiguan District, Jixi City, Heilongjiang, China 158100. Processing Electric Guitar. Phone: 86-453-2358268). ESP ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

ESP made this move at that time due to China’s opening of the Northeast Asia Economic Subregion--in short this was an agreement among China, Russia, Japan and Korea to ease restrictions and tariffs on the import and export of finished and particularly unfinished goods among one another. This cooperation among the countries was renewed and expanded
in 2003.

In the case of ESP, this provided the availability of cheap, trained, literate workers, and cheap factory workspace. Obviously, for China it meant jobs in a region that was shedding thousands of heavy industry and mining jobs. So the deal was done and ESP established a factory in Jixi, Heilongjiang to do the woodworking and painting of guitars.

Raw materials are ocean-shipped by ESP to Vladivostok, Russia where the materials are shipped by train about 200 km to the Suifenhe Sino-Russian Trade Zone. There they enter China at the Suifenhe port of entry and move an additional 120+ km to the ESP factory at Jixi. After the semi-finished guitars leave the factory, it is possible to reach Japan and the ROK directly by means of overland and marine transport from Suifenhe customs office via Vladivostok or Nakhodka, Russia.

According to the ESP representatives:
-- Mahogany, Alder and Ash are used in EDWARDS. (This of course refers to more than the LP series)

-- Neither Sapele nor African Mahogany are used in Edwards.

-- The Mahogany that is used in the E-LP series is native to Southeast Asia.

The ESP factory is located at No. 20, Xishan Rd., Jixi, Heilongjiang, China and employees about 100 people.

According to responses from ESP, the preliminary work on both Edwards and ESP guitars are done at this factory, from woodworking through painting. ESP claims that high degree of craftsmanship is maintained on the Edwards line because they are built totally within ESP facilities—in China, ESP has its own (high quality) factory, its own staff trained by ESP and production is done under the ESP monitoring. None of the work
is contracted to other factories.

“((ESP))木工〜塗装まではESP中国工場（黒龍江省）、組み込み〜セッティングは日本のESP新東 京工場にて行っております。”

“EDWARDSは木工〜塗装までを中国、組み込み〜セッティングを日本で行っています。”

The finish process and installation of all the electronics, plastics and hardware is still done in Japan at the ESP Japan Factory in Saitama, Tokyo. This new factory was opened in June 2008. (2008年6月: 埼玉に新東京工場を新設) This factory is in the greater Tokyo area, about 20-30 km north of central Tokyo. ESP also has factories in Sado and Kiso for export mainly, but these now do not work on the Edwards line

In ESP’s defense, the company has a tradition of choosing not to build giant facilities with CNC machines and undertrained staff. ESP traditionally has multiple work shops and custom shop facilities around Japan, enabling the company to spread the high volume of orders across multiple shops, without having to compromise their higher quality custom instruments. It looks as if the Jixi factory has been folded into this mix.

Now for the 64 dollar question—why did ESP choose to build the Edwards brand in Northeast China? Well, there’s the break on tariffs, the availability of cheap factory space and a skilled literate workforce, but wages have got to be the primary driver. Wages for Chinese factory workers are less than for Korean and much less than for Japanese, BUT wages for workers in China’s Northeast even lag behind those for workers in the factory cities along the coast (Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and even Qingdao). For a number of reasons, I believe that a wage equal to about $1 per hour would be a good fudge-figure to get a feel for what it costs ESP per Chinese employee of the Heilongjiang ESP Electronic Audio Co., Ltd.

This story was pretty much an eye opener for me about the Edwards Brand. Makes me want to go out and buy an Edwards now!