Martin old factor/new factory discussion

[ccaissie]

I wanted to know about the transition and found a thread from 2013. In that thread, I found the statment:
"The last guitar made at the old factory was 196228, on June 25, 1968."

I wonder if that's a typo, because the factory changed in 1964. I trust the serial number cutoff, I have serial # 199494, a D-18.

One argument in favor of quality differences is that the old factory was pretty crowded, and there was a huge back-log of orders.

Maybe the new factory gave workers a new breath of inspiration.
Maybe some thought the world shouldn't change.

My luthier friend, the official Martin Warranty repairman in Farmington, Maine said, "1964..that's a good year".

He also said the dreadnoughts were not his favorite guitars, as he handed me an old 00-21NY he had just reset the neck on.

[Wade Hampton]

Honestly, I've never heard about the move from one factory building to the other discussed as any sort of indication of quality when it comes to Martin guitars. I've seen plenty of discussions about major corporate changes affecting overall quality when it comes to other brands of guitars, most famously when Fender was taken over by CBS in 1964, and when Norlin bought Gibson and proceeded to drive the quality of Gibson acoustic guitars straight into the ground. But not with Martins.

I don't know, maybe I've just missed that particular topic of discussion when it comes to Martin. I think I'd at least be aware of it, if nothing else, but it's never come up whenever I've been around.

Maybe I simply need to be around the REAL Martin aficionados - clearly I haven't been deep-diving deeply enough!


Wade Hampton Miller

[DenverSteve]

Originally Posted by ccaissie

...He also said the dreadnoughts were not his favorite guitars, as he handed me an old 00-21NY he had just reset the neck on.

Everyone gets an opinion. They're among my favorites. And actually, pre 1964 are the most sought-after Martins around.

[ccaissie]

The discussion in 2013 agrees with you...no real difference ...the discussion over hide glue vs. modern glue doesn't go anywhere...only am mention that the new factory eliminated some crowding and bottlenecks in production.

The discussion got into the tendency to look for differences so that one could claim "mine's better blah blah."

[hermithollow]

I took a tour of the "new" factory when Chris Martin was a college student giving factory tours during the summer break. Back then they were still using a lot of the same methods they had always used - they still had a guy with a draw knife roughing out necks and many other things were still done by hand. Pre-CNC.
It was going corporate, but still run by the same family who cared about what they put their name on (and probably still do).