[SteveFord]

It's funny how I lived 20 miles away from the place for decades and never went but now it's road trip time.  I figure that we'd better do it while the wife and I are still above ground.

As I'm trying to jump start myself awake with coffee (and running scales on my Martin) I decided that this fall we'll take a motorcycle trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway and tour the Gibson factory down in Tennessee. 

It should be fun! 

[Bob2]

Please post some pictures (if they allow you to take them) and tell us about the tour.

[BobRex]

I know the feeling.  I still live within 20 miles of the factory, I knew one of the vice presidents (FWIR, international sales, since retired), and I've talked to Chris Martin.  But I never took the tour.

[SteveFord]

Take the tour, it's really great. 
It'll take some time to post photos as there's 152 to sort through. 

[doorman]

As a Martin owner, a tour of the factory would be high on my list if in the area.
The video tours online are good, but no substitute for being there !

[SteveFord]

Sorry to be so slow with this one.
This first batch of photos is from the factory museum which is just incredible.  These represent only a very small percentage of what they actually have on display.
Guitar junkies can spend an entire day in the museum and not see everything.

[SteveFord]

But then you would miss the factory tour.  One thing I should mention is that the wood is cut with lasers, no band saws.  Our tour guide was very proud to mention that as the factory continually automated none of the employees were let go.  Instead, they could move to other departments if they wished.  A number of the workers mentioned how much they liked working there.





















Each workstation does their own quality control before it moves on to the next step, there's a final quality control check and then they put them in the case for 4 days for the glues to finish curing.  After that, they're given one final check over and then they're released for sale.

[SteveFord]

Finally, here's what a brand new, $100,000 guitar looks like.
I asked the tour guide if she had hers at home already...





Finally, the tour itself takes about 45 minutes to an hour and you see it go from a couple of planks of wood coming out of a plane to the finished product.  Tours are done Monday - Friday, one around 11 AM and then one in the afternoon.
There's also a paid tour which is a behind the scenes tour - I haven't taken that one so I'm not sure what that entails.
There's also two areas where you can demo the guitars - the low buck line out in the reception area and then the high end instruments in a room behind the gift shop.
It's a fun time so if you're ever near Nazareth, PA I'd recommend going.

[SteveFord]

The only downside to the high end room is the riff raff that they allow in. 
It's rather unseemly.

[2bigears]

   so cool when you like the place you work at ,,,, that says a lot ..
          100 grand guitar ????   wowwwwww....

[dflee]

Thanks Steve. Great pics (even the riff raff seem upper class when sittin behind a good piece of wood).
Give me your thought on the smells. Love the different smells of wood especially in a wood shop.
One of the first things I do when checking out an older instrument is smell the sound hole. It will tell
ya a lot about how the baby has been treated.

Don

[jtwrace]

One of the first things I do when checking out an older instrument is smell the sound hole. It will tell
ya a lot about how the baby has been treated.

Don

Makes sense.  My dogs do the same thing when he/she meets a new friend.

[dflee]

Maybe you could learn something from your kids.
Like the sound hole isn't just what ya sit on and
sometimes the whole instrument smells.

[doorman]

Thanks for the pics. To be in the same family for 180 years, while employing several generations of the same families in many cases is rare indeed. To do it while  continuing to turn out high quality instruments is remarkable !

[pumpkinman]

The only downside to the high end room is the riff raff that they allow in. 
It's rather unseemly.

Boy that is one shady looking dude. 

[SteveFord]

Here comes trouble...

As for the smell, Lynda and I were both coming down with the creeping crud so I couldn't smell anything. 
If you look at the museum photos, the 5th one (after the leather wrapped Elvis guitar) has a Martin that Leo Fender got ahold of and punched some holes in it for his electronics experiments.
The Bo Diddly looking one was current president Chris Martin's first attempt at building a guitar.  I'm told he had a bit of help from the guys on the floor to make sure it turned out okay.
The final picture in the shop area shows a guitar in the PLEK machine which levels the frets and cuts the slots in the nuts. 
A funny one was that there are only two guys who are authorized to paint the shaded tops; they seemed rather above it all.
These photos only represent a small fraction of what there is to see. 

As I said, the whole thing was just so much fun; there's so much history in the place and seeing it go from a hunk of wood to a finished instrument was really cool.  It's a busy place.
The J40 in the high end room seems to be calling me. 

Next tour will be Gibson down in Tennessee during a motorcycle trip this Fall. 
That should be fun, too.

[Bob2]

Great pictures Steve!
Looks like it was a fun trip.
Thanks very much for posting the pics!