Martin factory tour

jellyroll

Yesterday, finding myself with a spare day and not too far from Nazareth PA, I drove to Martin HQ and took a tour.

The tour is free and no booking is required. I turned up at 10.55 am and joined a 15 person tour at 11.00am.
It was well organised. Tour members are given a headset to better hear the tour guide (in our case, an employee of 11 years). The tour lasts 1 hour. You see pretty much what you see on the Youtube Vids. It's heartening to see skilled workers do many tasks. There are machines - laser cutters etc - but certainly plenty of human involvement. It's a long way from robots on a conveyor belt. 

The tour actually felt a little rushed. We were somewhat hearded through the place quite quickly. I would have liked to just potter about and watch the workers for much longer. In fairness, this is a genuine working factory, set up to build guitars, not to entertain the public. Photos are allowed, but no flash or video.

Afterwards, I sat in the "picking' room" just messing with the selection of guitars hanging there. Got talking to a fabulous guitarist - a pro musician. This, to me, was actually the highlight of the day.

If you are nearby it's certainly worth a pit stop. My journey was 80 minutes and therefore worthwhile. I'll upload some pics when I get them developed....

stickyfiddle

I would so love to do this. Our upcoming trip doesn't go that way and Gibson have stopped offering tours

jellyroll

Sticky, is that Montana? Long way from Penn. I imagine its a beautiful part of the country tho'.

Jalapeno

I agree it's a great day out, really enjoyed my tour - and it is less the 2hrs drive from central New York ! (On a good day )

stickyfiddle

jellyroll said:

Sticky, is that Montana? Long way from Penn. I imagine its a beautiful part of the country tho'.

No, Nashville. I think Montana still does tours. 

We checked with the CS guys but apparently their public liability insurance doesn’t cover it (which is presumably code for Henry didn’t see enough people buying a R9 in the gift shop so he stopped paying the premiums..”)

Guitar_Slinger

I've been on tours of Jack Daniel's distillery and Gibson's semi-factory in Memphis (followed by Graceland natch) but would love to visit the Martin factory. Glad to hear the detour was worth it.