Wessex Tubas Manufacturing Process - Video!

[Jonathantuba]

[highpitch]

Nicely done. Showing the human aspect brings home what really goes into making good brass; hard work & talent.

Dennis

[DaveBj]

Big like.

These workers are not seventy-five-cents-per-hour peasants.

[ghmerrill]

Big like.

These workers are not seventy-five-cents-per-hour peasants.

And we know that ... how?

My point is that from a brief video with background music, no narration, no text, and no actual description, what we have is a voiceless video. But if you like that, here's an even longer and more detailed one that's been around for several years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4mSNSd014g. I'm pretty sure that some of the things you see in both would not pass muster in a US factory (OSHA and all that). I particularly like the thin hospital-like face masks rather than actual respirators on the Chinese workers, but wonder what the point is. You may as well follow the Germans and not bother at all -- although I notice that the German lacquer sprayer is wearing a serious respirator with what appears to be its own air supply while the Chinese sprayer seems to be wearing nothing at all, although oddly we don't see anything more than the back of his head.

This is a marketing flick -- not an insight into anything specific about the production process or quality. I'm pretty sure those Chinese workers aren't getting paid as much as the Germans are and probably don't have other benefits of their employment as well. And I'd probably guess that they're getting more that $0.75/hour. But that would be just a guess. I really have NO objective basis for estimating that. I'd be interested to know (say in terms of dollar equivalents) what they are paid (and the Germans too) -- but only as a matter of idle curiousity since the history of the world includes low-paid (or no-paid) workers producing pretty good stuff if they're given the right "incentives", and base pay is only one part of the whole compensation package. Besides, what really matters is the cost to the consumer, eh?

[highpitch]

From our favorite curmudgeon...

DG

[ghmerrill]

From our favorite curmudgeon...

DG

Hey! I'm the one on record with three Chinese-made instruments that I actually use!! What are YOU doing to support the Chinese economy and way of life?

[highpitch]

I buy a lot of their power tubes worth more than bunches of horns.

DG

[ametropia]

Interesting montage! I actually had very little idea how brass instruments are made (I just enjoy the finished product ) so this is very interesting to me, would have liked to see more of a "from start to finish on one single instrument" kind of thing.

These workers are not seventy-five-cents-per-hour peasants.

Clearly for the marketing purposes, they would put the $0.75/hour peasants in the back With the time machine they came in on, because you gotta keep that time machine under wraps.