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http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?doc_id=102063&au top=1&pgvar=tours&tour=C.F.%20Martin%20and%20Co.%20I nc.&wv=1-Intro&vname=Introduction

Hi all,

Above is a link to a Martin Factory tour, hosted by Chris Martin, that's playing at MusiciansFriend.  I enjoyed watching this.  It's over an hour long through all of the parts.

 

 

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Stuart Brunker

Thanks for the link, Stuart! Very cool.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

I took a tour there when I was 15 with my friends aunt. We live in Philly which is not that far. He played guitar too. So she took us. I thought it was amazing to see them do what they do. I have been thinking of going again. Mike

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

Good video, thanks for posting that.  I used to take the tour as often as I could back in the early 70's, actually, I'd often skip the tour and sit in Mike Longworth's office and talk guitars.  He never seemed to mind taking time to go over details and tell stories.  It was even better than the tour.  At the time, Chris' grandfather was still invovled in the company and would stroll through the area from time to time.  I'd try to get to the repair department as much as possible and he'd walk through and look at what was there.  Some incredible stuff came through, I remember looking at an OM-45 and commenting on it, his only reply was, "yes, that was one of our fancy models during that time", like it was just another guitar.  I suppose, in a way, it was.  Great fun.  Still it fun, just a more corporate atmosphere.

Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

    The Martin plant is one that every player and builder should get to see
at one time or another. It has increased in size by about 80,000 square
feet since the 70's so a tour today would be a hole different experience
for anyone who took one back then.

   Also, in the paste few years, they built a new museum on the front end
of the shop that is a replica of the old factory around the corner on North
Street.

   It is a beautiful and much more fitting tribute to the maginitude of what
is being done there in Nazareth, PA then the small room that used to
house less than a dozen instruments with historical significance and
another half dozen for people to pull down and play.

   This is a nice video tour, though. My 16 year old son and I popped in
for the tour the day they were video taping the intro segment of this
video and the museum was closed for the afternoon so we just hung out
in the hall where the guitars are available for play and passed them back
and forth for about an hour before we headed around the corner for luch
at Sicily....which by the way, is a must for everyone who comes into ton
for the tour, too.

   Don't be surprised if you bump into one the Andretti boys of open
wheel racing fame while having your lunch there.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

Thanks for posting the link Stuart. I watched the entire video and really
enjoyed it. What a great company!

Ron Mack

I enjoyed watching these videos. I liked this quote from the interview
with Chris.

[QUOTE]There are structural issues that we've lived with for years that we
need to deal with.   Being in business as long as we have and offering a
lifetime gaurantee to the original owner means you're going to see
problems. If you see them routinely, shame on you if you don't say,
ewe've got to try to fix this problem without effecting the tone.
[/QUOTE]

Kevin, I had a chance to fly back east for business a while back and took the new tour and saw the museum, you are right, it's a great experience.  They've done a good job (actually, all the work of Dick Boak) on that museum and it shows off what they have much nicer than the old, small museum they had in the 70's.  All I remember from that museum was the Octa-Chorda....

My other passion is racing, I'm director or race operations at Laguna Seca and have met most of the Andretti clan over many years of seeing them at the track.  We did eat at Sicily but had the place to ourselves. 

Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."