Goal(s) Met – Visit the Martin Museum / Obtain Dream Guitar

December 2, 2024 By Tony 0

When I saw the Nirvana unplugged set on MTV I fell in love with the Martin D-18 guitar. The sounds coming out of it were mesmerizing and the tone was so pure in how it blended with Kurt’s voice. I swore that one day I would own a D-18. At the time I could definitely not afford a Martin so I kept hacking away at my Yamaha guitar. I bought a few guitars over the 30 years since that unplugged show – including one of Martin’s DX line – a made in Mexico laminate wood line that was nice but just didn’t reach the levels that true D-18 could. I enjoyed playing these and even put an electric guitar into the mix but I still remembered my vow to one day own that guitar. Not the one that Kurt played obviously – that went for six million dollars at auction which is a bit out of my budget!

Sometime during that 30 years I learned that there’s a Martin museum and factory tour that’s only about two hours away. I kept telling myself I should go up there, see how guitars are made and maybe play some of the high end guitars in the pickin’ room for a bit to scratch that itch but the years ticked by and I never found time to go and I kept playing the guitars I had but secretly wishing they were a Martin D-18 (shh.. don’t tell them)

So for the 50for50 goal I decided I was going to go to the museum, play those guitars and then go get that Martin I’ve wanted for 30 years as a 50th birthday gift for myself.

I took the long drive to Nazareth PA and rolled up to the museum and was surprised at how modern and high tech it was. While I was waiting in the lobby I grabbed a Martin OM off the wall (they were available for play) and strummed a few tunes. There it was.. that Martin sound. The day was starting off good!

The tour was great – they had a tour guide walk us through the factory floor speaking to the history of the Martin family and the care they take to hand make all their guitars. It was really cool to see how all the individual parts are fabricated and then how they are all put together by hundreds of craftspeople. It was interesting to see how they did leverage a bit of technology (robot buffers/polishers) to perform functions that didn’t really require a specific skill set.

Once the tour was over I went to the museum to see all the artifacts on display -especially the one millionth and two millionth showpiece guitars. Simply gorgeous inlays and artwork. Once I was done learning about the history of Martin I popped into the Pickin’ room to strum out some tunes and test drive some of the guitars they had in the room. The D28 was really nice but I preferred the mid tones of the D-18 to match my voice better.

Inspired by the tour I arranged to buy and pickup a D18 from my local Music store – I took it home and proceeded to, as John C Mellancamp says, play it ’til my fingers bled. I love that guitar and I don’t play anything else now. I’m learning a few Nirvana unplugged songs just as a tribute to what started my love of this guitar.

Here’s my new baby (don’t worry kids I still love you more.. but it’s close!)