Martin Factory Tour

[lowrider]

You didn't happen to see anyone in the Custom Shop working a J-17, did you? I'm 3 months into the minimum 6-month wait and the suspense is killing me!

[pszy22]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

Cool! I couldn't imagine taking my wife and kids. How did they enjoy the tour?

Speaking for my wife, I think she enjoyed seeing the process and craftsmanship that goes into building something functional. It is interesting to see high tech machines being used next to a station with a person using only basic hand tools.

The guitars themselves are a thing of inherent beauty, the guitars could very well be a fine piece of furniture or jewelry. Several of the workers stopped what they were doing to explain what they were doing. Our tour was very personal and interactive.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

My wife enjoys the tours. One of the guys was re-fretting a pre-serial number guitar from the late 19th century and spent a good 10 minutes talking to us and answering questions. Good stuff!

[Guitars+gems]

Great way to show your grandsons that there are career paths available to them outside the traditional ones mentioned at school.

[ChrisE]

I took my wife and daughters on the tour a couple of years ago, before I owned any Martins.

To my amazement, my wife said "You should take a picture and send it to your brother and tell him you're here picking out your new guitar."

I didn't get one that day but I think that it opened the door to me getting a new D-18 a couple of years later.

[dhodgeh]

We've signed up for the factory tour after our visit to the 50th Anniversary Woodstock Celebration at Bethel Woods.

Don't know when I'll ever be that close to the Martin factory again, and should be a great way to cap off that trip. Really looking forward to it.

D

[Pineapple Pete]

I almost forgot a very cool story about the time when I took the Martin factory tour.

There was an older gentleman working on a vintage d-45. I noticed that the name plate on his workbench said Musselwhite. I asked him if he was related to Charlie Musselwhite, the legendary blues harmonica player. He said yes, Charlie was a cousin. That was cool thing number one.

I complimented the gentleman on the beautiful vintage guitar he was working on at his bench. He said to me, " this guitar belongs to Marty Stuart. It was given to him by Lester Flatt. This is the guitar that Lester played most often while he was with Bill Monroe."

I got to be within an arm's length of the guitar that was used to record Foggy Mountain Breakdown, among other legendary Bluegrass tracks. It was extra cool that the guitar was currently owned by another phenomenal musician. Even cooler that it was being worked on by a relative of yet another legendary musician.