The tour guide on this day, a careworn but cheerful woman named Steph Tashner, who started here “11 years ago in the stringing department,” took the group of eight, mostly guitar geeks, on a sort of fast-forwarded version of the making of a Martin. The tour started with discussions and descriptions of types of wood — the tops are usually made with spruce, the sides and backs with mahogany and rosewood — and ended with a look at a few finished instruments.
In between, the faithful watched Martin employees soak wood so it could be bent into the sides of guitars; use clothespins to glue the interior linings; smooth frets; and stain bodies.
The employees number 560, ranging in appearance from old hippies with graying ponytails to women who would have fit right into a factory scene from “Norma Rae.” The once little company, which produced 368 guitars in 1898, now covers 200,000 square feet.
Covering the walls are pictures of some of its best-known customers, including Dylan, Young, Stephen Stills and Robbie Robertson. The 60s just might have been less groovy without Martin guitars.
