Today we headed out early to Nazareth, Pennsylvania to visit the Martin Guitar Company. Ginny had booked us a behind the scenes tour so we had to be there on time. The tour was extremely interesting. Out tour guide was Ben, the former plant manager who guides tours on a volunteer basis. We were very fortunate to have him because he knows everything. The whole process of making a guitar is very complicated. There are 150 pieces and 300 operations involved. They have quite a few CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) machines that make parts for the guitars. You can even buy a guitar that is completely hand made (for a price!). There is also an immense amount of handwork involved. Interesting to me was that the glue they use is good old Titebond.

The most interesting part of the tour is the subject of today's photo. Martin has a huge inventory of all sorts of woods that can be used to manufacture guitars. Some are quite common, like spruce. Others not so much so like mahogany and walnut. One of the rarest and most expensive is Brazilian Rosewood. It is on the endangered species list and trade of it is highly restricted. Martin has a small stock of it which was acquired legally before the ban was put in place. The gentleman in the picture is going through Brazilian Rosewood blanks and selecting them for guitar backs and sides. He matches them up and sends them down to manufacturing. The company decided to make a short run of about 25 instruments from Brazilian Rosewood. The pile you see on this man's desk is worth a million dollars. The finished instruments will sell starting at $100,000. Not sure that I will get one.