My schedule these days makes it hard to get to many places, even though they are not very far away. Jim Thorpe is one of those places. Jim Thorpe always brings back a sense of nostalgia to my younger performing days. It's essentially a tourist trap, but it also maintains some old world charm. There seems to be a different coffeeshop there every few years. It's never been exactly booming, but it seems to sustain itself with a respectable amount of tourism traffic. The streets were made for horses, not cars, so parking - especially on the weekend - is hideous, so we chose to go there early on a Monday to beat the traffic.

When we planned our trip, we discovered that Jim Thorpe fit nicely into our plan to go to the Martin guitar factory, who offers tours on Mondays. Aside from better parking, Monday was also a good day to visit the Emporium of Curious Goods, an occult/antique shop run by Barrett Ravenhurst, a former stage magician of some fame. I hadn't seen Barrett in years, and when I did visit the shop in the past his schedule never seemed to match up with mine, mostly because he's been working on a 21-room Victorian house.

The shop itself is like something out of a movie. Lot's of dark corners of interesting objects from all over the world and from various spiritual traditions. If you had a rich aunt, this is what her attic would look like. Antique lamps add a glow that is unique to the shop, and statues populate the space as if gathered from various parts of history and fantasy for a costume party. It was, and probably still is, the only shop of its kind in miles.

After a brief tour of some of the less memorable shops, we met Barrett at the Emporium and hung out there for at least an hour. He showed us some pictures of the amazing work he has done on his Victorian. We also learned, sadly, that Barrett may sell his house and his shop and move to Nova Scotia, prompted largely by the state of affairs in American politics these days. An unavoidable, though light, discussion of politics ensued, much focused around Barrett's concern over the Christian Right (which I share, but seem to approach differently). Probably the most interesting thing he said, in relation to the shop, was how he really doesn't believe in anything anymore - he just sells the stuff. This was somehow comforting, and surprising since I didn't ever know how deep Barrett's beliefs went.

The shop grew more crowded as time went on. There isn't much space to maneuver, so we made our purchase (some artwork for the studio) and went on our way.

Our directions to Nazareth were decent, but the trip proved to be a bit longer than we had anticipated, so we go to the Martin factory just as the last tour was starting. We were rushing around just to get in the place, so I didn't get any pictures of the outside, though we noticed some construction. We learned later that they are building a new visitor center.

The tour lasted for almost 90 minutes, and covered each aspect of their general production, including some special processes for their composite instruments. I didn't take pictures of everything, but here's a few pictures...

Honestly, I just never found a Martin that I liked. So why would Jeremy (who plays a Taylor) be seen at the Martin factory? It just seemed like a sort of pilgrimage that one goes on, even if you don't play their instruments. Since I had been reading about guitar construction for many years, it was time to see some of it first hand, and I'm glad I did. Each company had their own methods (some of Taylor's differ greatly) but the overall process is similar and worth seeing up close if you play guitar as much as I do.

I am just weary of guitar store salespeople who are polarized to one company (usually Martin when it comes to acoustics). It simply shows their ignorance of the fact that Taylor, Santa Cruz and others are high-quality makers. Guitars of the same make and model will vary just as much as players do, and buying a guitar is full of variables. Martin has a ton of name recognition, so I think it's worth giving other makers a chance.

The backpacker guitar pictured above was nice, but the neck was very thick, and it wasn't comfortable to play sitting down. I really liked the Martin Alternative X HPL/Aluminum Top Guitar that was in the gift shop and available for playing. I was skeptical about the composite material that it is made from, but it really felt like a good solid guitar. In fact, the materials would be a big plug for taking this guitar camping of into extreme environments.

If I have any criticism of the tour, it is that there weren't enough instruments to play at the end.