Martin Guitar Tour

Last week I went on a tour of the Martin Guitar factory in PA. I don't own a Martin, I own a Gurian which in my opinion is comparable in the price range ($1500- $2000) but the factory that made my guitar burned down in the early 1980s so there goes that tour. I've never been to a guitar shop like this before, it was a wonderful experience. They take you around and show you all of the steps involved in making a guitar. The normal process is roughly 60 weeks from start to finish although they can fast track it to about 10 weeks. They make about 300 guitars a day too and the average price is about $3000. One thing that was very cool is that while you wait for the tour to start, they have a bunch of guitars that you can play. Many of them are in the $7000-$8000 range. Those were real nice. They also have a pickin parlor that they keep locked where they have even nicer guitars. I was able to get in there too. The factory is about 1 1/2 hours from my house, there is no charge for the tour and they also have a museum there that has a bunch of vintage guitars plus some of the special edition ones they made. All in all it was a fun time.