Martin Guitars Factory Tour | Guitar Interactive | Feature
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 бер 2023
- For nearly 190 years, C.F. Martin & Company has been continuously producing acoustic instruments that for many are considered to be the finest in the world. Maintaining such a high standard over such a long period of time is no easy feat, so what's their secret? Guitar Interactive Magazine travels to Nazareth, Pennsylvania to take a look behind the curtain of America's oldest guitar brand with our in-depth factory & museum tour.
Founded in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin, the Martin Guitar Company has, through the years, managed to survive with each succeeding generation from C. F. Martin, Sr.'s Stauffer influenced creations of the 1830s, all the way to recent developments introduced by C. F. Martin IV. Continuous operation under family management is an achievement bordering on the remarkable, reflecting six generations of dedication to the guitarmaker's craft. In or out of the music industry, C. F. Martin certainly has few rivals when it comes to staying power.
Although very much the American brand, Christian Frederick Martin, Sr. was actually born in Germany. His family made furniture cabinets for a living, and that was likely to have been his future. However, at the age of 15, he left Germany and travelled to Vienna, Austria to apprentice with Johann Stauffer, a renowned guitar maker. He mastered his trade quickly and returned to Germany to set up shop.
Upon his return, Martin was met with some considerable resistance. Not from his family, but from the Violin Makers Guild. Martin was not the only cabinet maker who was showing an aptitude for making stringed instruments, and violin makers feared it would hurt their business. Eventually, Martin left for the United States, setting up shop at 196 Hudson Street on the Lower West Side of New York City. Over the years that followed, the Martin Guitar Company evolved from a one-man operation into a thriving entity that employed over a dozen craftsmen. In 1859, a plant was constructed on the corner of Main and North Street in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Having undergone numerous expansions, that original North Street building is still used today as a warehouse and shipping location for strings and accessories, as well as the site of a retail supply house for instrument making and repair known as Guitarmaker's Connection.
Christian Frederick Martin IV was born on July 8, 1955. He then attended UCLA, majoring in Economics. In his free time, he helped in the guitar repair shop of Westwood Music in West Los Angeles, and this also gave him a valuable insight into the retail end of the music business.
When Chris was small, he helped box strings, 6 to a box. In 1972 and 1973 he became more active in the business, helping in the office and attending the NAMM Trade Show in Chicago. He also worked in the machine room, cutting out guitar neck blanks on the bandsaw.
During the summer of 1973, Chris spent his time learning every operation and assisting with the construction of a D-28S guitar. This and his apprenticeship in the shop was an invaluable experience when he took his place in the family business.
Chris joined the Martin Guitar Company full time after his graduation from Boston University in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the School of Management. Chris worked in many departments, learning how the business functioned from the bottom up. In 1985 he was appointed Vice President of Marketing, and he took an active role in the day-to-day challenge of running a traditional business in a modern world. After the death of his grandfather, C. F. Martin III, on June 15, 1986, C. F. Martin IV was appointed Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, indicating his responsibility for leading Martin into the next century.
Under Chris' management, the Sycamore Street facility was expanded, the successful Backpacker travel guitar was introduced, and the limited edition guitar program was expanded to include signature models of significant artists like Gene Autry, Eric Clapton, and Marty Stuart as well as unique collaborations like the 1996 "MTV Unplugged" MTV-1 guitar.
Perhaps the boldest new direction that Chris has taken to date was the development and introduction of the patented "X Series" guitars, which thoroughly re-examined the way guitars are designed and constructed. Through the use of innovative processes combined with computer-aided manufacturing, the "X Series" models offer an affordable acoustic guitar without compromise of tone or craftsmanship.
As the Martin Guitar Company pushes towards its bicentenary, it's clear that it's still thriving, and without compromise. Christian Frederick Martin, Sr. would be proud.
To find out more about C.F. Martin & Co and their visitors centre, head to: martinguitar.com
I started my guitar days on my fathers 1945 Martin D-18. After a summer in the mid ‘50s playing a Kay Guitar, I arrived home and played my fathers Martin and could not believe the sound! From that day on I was hooked on Martin guitars. I am now 81 years old and now have 10 Martin guitars that date from late a 1870 Martin 0-28, to a 2001 Martin D-45 made in 2001. My guitars cover almost every decade. I gave my fathers D-18 to my sisters son, Bruce about 20 years ago when I moved to South Korea. I still play daily and also play in a Live Cafe here in Daejeon. I also play mandolin and banjo. Martin is an important part of my life, and I love each guitar. I plan to visit the Martin factory next month.
Wow that was a beautiful personal history of your Martin journey. Thank you for sharing and may you have many more decades of Martin history.
Fascinated by your story and your collection. What sort of precautions and care did you have for the collection all these years. What temperature and humidity did you have to maintain? Which area of the country do you live?
That is incredible - did you visit Martin?
Gotta ooo15m coming in TMRW. Couldn't be more excited
hi bert was a pleasure working with you all those years,this is how a tour vidoe should be,great to see some of my old friends there
the Martin People have the archive to open a world class museum of the Guitar... i know i would visit
Jock doing a guitar tour vlog- love it! From Glasgow
This guy sounds exactly like Mike Meyers playing a Scottish Guy on SNL 😂(I guess Mike's accent was more authentic than I thought). Also, excellent video. Love the questions and depth. Best tour on UA-cam
I spent several hours in the "Picking Parlor" where, I understand, there's one of each model produced in the factory. I played every guitar model they had... not a bad one to be found. I was also impressed with the guitars in the workers break areas.
Absolutely fantastic and exiting - I really enjoyed the tour. Thanks for bringing this to everyones home.
Our pleasure!
One of the best factory tours I have seen… thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow! I've seen many Martin factory tours on UA-cam but this is easily the best one I've ever seen. Great questions and awesome access to areas I haven't seen before. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
So cool. LOVED all the history! Thank you!
The interviewer was excellent. Many times watching this I would ask myself a question and then he would ask the very question the next moment. Great video!
Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for watching
Thank you for taking us with you .
Glad you enjoyed
Thanks so much for sharing this love it ordered my custom d45 apparently only another 11 months to go can’t wait thanks again
That D200 was insanely cool. If I won the lottery I'd definitely have to order one. Just picked up a Custom Shop HD28 and I'm blown away by it.
A great tour. I just reviewed the Premier Guitars tour a few days back, but this beats it by a mile with intelligent questioning from Jonathan. Impossible to top the long series tour with DIck Boak, but this is far and away the best single episode Martin tour I have seen.
the premier guitar guitar vod was a total joke,i worked there for a very long time,this one from GIM is total class act
That was pretty good.
Brilliant feature guys
🙏
nice
I found it somewhat disappointing to find out that Martin is using CNC machines. I had believed their guitars were all hand made but watching this I see there is a huge amount of human work done so I guess the CNC part of it isn't a big deal at all. I have a D-28 Modern Deluxe I purchased 3 years ago and it's a beautiful guitar so I imagine it was partially made by the CNC machines but I have to say I love my Martin and it is absolutely beautiful.
How in the heck do they keep the humidity levels-especially in winter? How do they not get mold in the walls? When relative humidity inside is at 45%, and the temperature outside gets below 40, condensation builds up in the walls leading to mold. How do they keep those climate specs in Pennsylvania?!!
45% is NOT humid!!! You will NOT drown in condensation!!
I love Martin Guitars.
For acoustics, I’ll only play Martins.
No other acoustic guitar will come close to the quality and sound.
But: Screw FSC!!!
I want guitars made out of the finest woods that can be obtained....
The point of FSC is to ensure sustainable guitar manufacturing with supply of the best Timbers for luthiers available in the future. I mean all high level guitars use the finest wood available. Wood is a finite resource unless you plan for sustainable harvesting and forestry replanting.
All Martin children have to have the initials FC.
I think this might be a stupid question: do the inlays on the guitar back and indeed the front dose that does not affect the sound and tone, i.e., not a great sound sound so how do they justify the price
No, the inlays are exterior ornamentation...
I did the tour, it was great. Except the tour guide had no idea what book matching was. She totally messed up the tour.
SuperD at 50:55 ?
I have purchased my 3rd Martin. The only advice is to enjoy their wonderful guitars. Just don't waste your money on Mexican Martin's. Only buy Martin's from the USA.
what exactly is HPL, there's nowhere that explains that. i assumed it's sweepings mixed with glue under pressure....
I typed in Martin HPL on google and had the answer in 1 second. High pressure laminate:
Martin's High Pressure Laminate is created with wood fiber and natural resins to provide a strong, stable, and affordable structure that is very good at reflecting and amplifying soundwaves produced by a guitar soundboard. Martins made with HPL back and sides have a distinct, pretty ring, and plenty of bass response. Those made with solid wood tops have more tonal variation and individual character that improves with age, as well as increased volume. Those made with an HPL top do not project as loudly and have as simpler, yet pleasing tone.
Environmentally friendly, HPL is impervious to fluctuations in weather and humidity. Martins made with it are often beautiful to look upon, as they are adorned with photographic reproductions of primo tonewood from Martin's world-famous stash, which would cost additional thousands of dollars if you wanted to have an upscale guitar made from the actual wood.
Ever tried using Google?
Yet they still can't make a guitar with binding that stays on.
Great video, I was quite surprised and somewhat disgusted to see Ed Sheeran's photo on the wall, he's so awful I was hoping Martin would distance itself from this no talent hack.
If Martin had a problem with Ed Sheeran, they wouldn't have made his signature guitars.
Who did not file my hd28 fret ends? 2021 You are a bad person. My guitar sounds great, but sucks, Help
Your guitar may have sprung frets because the fret board and the rest of the guitar has dried out too much? If it was like that when you got it then it needs to go back to the dealer. If its happened since then it's a pretty easy fix by a decent tech, and you need to keep the guitar well humidified in it's case. There are good products on the market.
Stop complaining and take the guitar to the dealer, Martin stands behind their guitars and will fix it. Geesh.
And if you’re not in the States, you have to ship it back yourself and wait a year for repairs
I’d love to see the Mexican factory so I can see why my x series is such a piece of crap.
My father wanted a Martin guitar all of his playing life... A few years before he passed he was able to save enough to purchase one. When he passed in '08 the guitar was given to me as an inheritance. I could tell that my Dad never even played it - because it was unplayable; we guitarists have all in our playing lives inevitably picked up, came across, guitars that we would just refer to as garbage. This instrument was garbage. It wasn't a 1920s D-28 or whatever the most desirable C.W. Martin would be - but he spent six or eight hundred U.S. dollars on an instrument which was unplayable when it arrived in the case. The nut was cut so high and unevenly... It was just a horrifying effort to even attempt to play it. I know Martin is a respected guitar company; but not by me.
Why would your father have to wait so long to get his Martin, why didn't you buy him one before he got older? If the guitar was unplayable Martin would have taken it back and fixed the problem or given him a working guitar. Your dislike of Martin is illogical and unjustified, he never gave Martin a chance to rectify the problem so your making a negative comment about Martin is without merit.
You sound very bitter. Martin do not produce rubbish and if it was unplayable then there was a reason and it could have been addressed. We, in the rest of the world, do not get the Lifetime Warranty and we have to spend a lot more money to get them. I have bought four in my lifetime and never had the slightest problem with any of them. I also know plenty of players both professional and private who own Martins and they haven't had a problem either.
Your experience is unusual to say the least and it begs the question as to whether you're just grinding a personal axe in bitterness. So did you return the guitar to whoever sold it to him?
Your Dad bought the guitar because he liked it. He certainly could have found something else. I have passed over lots of Martin guitars that didn't play well at all. Have you taken it to a luthier?
Over rated.
did martin ever fix the binding problem on their high end guitars , for people that don't know the martin secret , their bindings come loose or just fall off over time ,to date C F MARTIN CO has not fixed this problem , i was blow away when the binding on my 2015 d 41 fell off not once but twice. took it to the so called martin repair guy and he did more damage to the guitar ,treated a 5000.00 dollar guitar like it was a 200.00 guitar , Thanks C F MARTIN CO,
Outrageous!! This is still an ongoing problem and it’s putting me off buying a D18