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Joined:
August 2007
Posts: 61
Location: Illinois, U.S.A. | On Saturday, I went on a quest for a tremolo arm spring for my older Fender Stratocaster. While surfing music e-stores, I visited Musician's Friend and ran across a "media" area in their menuing. Curious, I clicked on it and discovered it included a video tour of the C.F. Martin factory in Pennsylvania . It turned out to be the BEST video tour I've yet to see of any makers' facilities. When you have an hour or so to spare, try to watch it. It is testimony to the craftsmanship that goes into any fine instrument still in this increasingly automated and out-sourced manufacturing world.
My second guitar ever owned was an early 1970's Martin D-35. It was wonderful in sound and appearance. Unfortunately, I had to sell it to make ends meet early in my working careers. When I decided to start playing music again, my search was initially for another Martin. Then I got "distracted" by makers like Ovation, Fender, and Takamine who also share their own styles of fine craftsmanship. My next Martin will turn out to be MUCH more expensive, as a result! |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | VERY COOL! I watched the intro, will watch the rest when I get a chance. I had the pleasure to visit the Martin factry last spring and it was very impressive. I actually recognized a few faces in that video. Btw, the video makes Nazereth look about 10x bigger of a town than it really is!
I think probably seeing ANY guitar factory is a very cool experience. Martin is certainly no exception. The thing that was cool about it was that you got to see some aspects that were being done exactly the same way they were 175 years ago. Other aspects were completely modern and computerized.
It's an interesting contrast to Ovation. You would expect, given the guitars in question, that Ovation is all chrome, glass and high tech. While Martin is old fashioned hand woodworking. It was actually quite the opposite. Ovations are extensively hand made and a lot of manual craftsmanship. Martins are a lot more high tech made than I expected, laser cutters and robot buffers, etc.
There is a video of the Takamine factory tour on my website that is also pretty good.
Dave |
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Joined:
June 2006
Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Thanks for the link! Very interesting! |
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Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Very Nice tiednbound..now, you did post the Ovation site over at the Martin site,Right ?!!.... :)
Vic |
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O/T: Martin Factory Tour Video
