The Martin Guitar Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania is world-renowned for making some of the finest guitars ever made. However, the economic downturn in the U.S. has cast a shadow over the company, which has been making guitars for 176 years.
Nazareth is an old industrial town located in central Pennsylvania. For many years its economy was supported by two companies.
But one of them, Bethlehem Steel, filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Today, the Martin Guitar Company is the only major employer in town. Dick Boak designs guitars and also helps customers choose the guitar that is best suited to them.
Dick Boak designs guitars. This guitar is $275,000 and there were only 91 made"I love music, I would listen to music under my pillow with my transistor radio … especially when the Beatles played on Ed Sullivan," he recalls, "I really wanted to learn guitar.... My father was a wood worker and we had a nice wood shop with tools in the basement of our house. He always encouraged us to do wood working. "
When he grew up, Boak found his dream job, one that combines his love of music with his love of woodworking. He has been designing guitars at Martin for more than 30 years.
"Genuine mahogany or Brazilian rose wood," Boak says, "this wood is considered the finest tone wood."
Constructing - or building -- one Martin guitar requires more than 200 steps, and the cost is pretty high. The least-expensive models are more than $1,000, while more expensive models can surpass $10,000. And limited-edition collectors' grade guitars can cost hundreds of thousands dollars, and more.
"This guitar is $275,000...there were only 91 of these made, so they were very highly sought after by professional musicians," he said.
But even a legendary brand like Martin is not immune to poor economic conditions, and the company has had to start limiting the hours its employees work. Boak says if conditions don't improve soon, the jobs of many of the company's 600 employees will be in jeopardy.
Guitars made at the Martin factory priced more than $10,000But if conditions are bad at Martin, independent guitar makers are having it even rougher. Dale Unger learned his craft working at the Martin factory, and today he is a well-known independent luthier -- maker of stringed instruments. Some of his guitars have sold for more than $10,000.
"The real pleasure of doing it is hearing your guitar being played by some of the great guitar players also," Unger said. But over the past year orders have shrunk dramatically and Unger has had to pick up part time work to supplement his income.
These two young workers at the Martin factory have in their hands guitars priced at more than $10,000. The song they are playing is a 1968 rock song called "The Weight." They say that the title of the song reflects the heavy feeling among many of the workers in the factory, the feeling they may soon be out of a job.
