headed out to meet Joel Zingone, our guide
for the factory tour. True to Martin’s ‘raise from
within’ culture, Joel is a long-time employee
who has worked in several key roles over the
years. His insights made for an outstanding
tour as we traversed the factory floor.
First of all, Martin offers guitars in all shapes and
sizes at price points from entry level to high-end
professional. Noting how much hand crafting
we saw on the factory floor, you begin to realize
how much labor is actually required to the
nearly insatiable hunger for these instruments
worldwide. Currently, the Martin staff is right
around 400 employees.
One of the first things I noticed was how happy
the employees are. They were genuinely friendly,
greeting us at every turn with smiles that were
never forced. While these factory tours must
be a little distracting, everyone made time to
answer my questions and never made me feel
like an outsider.
I
was
equally
impressed
by
how
they
intermingle the use of good old hand craftsman accident that Martin guitars consistently sound allowed to talk about it yet, but let’s just say I
and technology into their production process. the way they do. was smitten these artisans’ work!
a sheathed razor blade to scrape the binding I have always appreciated nice inlay work on It was also fun to see how they approach doing
to the prescribed thickness. While at another guitars but the Martin custom shop station was the fingerboards and frets. It was insightful to
station they were using lasers to cut the tone truly remarkable. We saw a few pieces of fine see how they shape the guitar necks for the
wood guitar tops with, well, laser precision! art that will end up being the part of a guitar different models and the see the racks of solid
Precision being the operative word, it’s no that will debut at 2019 NAMM Show. I am not spruce guitar tops!
56 August 2018
At one station we saw a woman skillfully using
WorshipMusician.com