Martin Guitar museum

C.F. Martin & Company has been building guitars in the small Pennsylvanian town of Nazareth since 1838, when founder Christian Frederick Martin Sr. relocated his business from New York. Nearly two centuries later, it's still family-owned, still making guitars by hand in Nazareth, and still considered by many musicians to be the gold standard of acoustic instruments. The guitars that came out of this factory have appeared on some of the most important recordings in American music history.

The Martin Guitar Museum, located at the company's Sycamore Street headquarters, is free to visit and houses a remarkable collection spanning from early 1800s instruments to one-of-a-kind custom pieces. Alongside the museum is a factory tour that takes visitors through the entire handcrafted production process — one of the few working instrument factories in the world that still welcomes the public in this way. Among the instruments on display are guitars that belonged to Gene Autry, Eric Clapton, and various other luminaries.

The museum is open Monday through Friday, 9am to 4:30pm. The original factory building on North Street in Nazareth — separate from the current facility — was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. For acoustic guitar enthusiasts, Nazareth is a genuine pilgrimage destination, and the museum delivers on the promise.