Martin & Co.

If you play guitar and you've never owned a Martin, you don't really play a guitar. Martin & Co. has been a family owned and operated business since day 1. Day 1 being the 1820s when C.F. Martin learned to be a luthier in Venice. See this timeline for a quick overview of how Martin guitars came to be.

When I was shooting back east in the summer of '08, I passed by a sign on the two-lane highway that said Martin & Co. was just up the road in Nazareth, PA, I knew I had to stop by. It was kind of hard to find but after a couple of false moves on my iPhone GPS, I finally tracked the place down...

The company logo alone is enough to get my juices flowing to hear someone playing a Martin guitar.

Each of these windows has a lighted candle in it.

And I just noticed when I enlarged this window that each has a different picture filling the panes. Unfortunately, they were closed the day I stopped by so I didn't get to see inside.

J.D. Souther playing Doolin Dalton...on his Martin...



Beautiful.