About a year ago we took the tour of the Martin factory in Nazareth, PA. They have about 700 employees there and everything except the fancy inlay work found on models like the D-45 is done there. They turn out a little over 200 instruments a day.

Everything is done by hand. There is virtually no automation. Each person does a single step with extreme care and to a specification. It is amazing to see all these people doing hand work like sanding parts and very carefully fitting them together.

After the tour we told the guide that before the tour we thought Martin guitars were expensive. Now we think they're cheap.

This description should be compared to the Taylor factory which, we are told, is one hundred percent automated.

Bev and Jerry