Surfing Martin's Forum and found some info. about their first Gathering held May this year!.. Heard that they have had great success...... I am sure theres things we can learn from their great experiences.

Their Gathering Page:
http://www.nrjag.org/umgf.htm

Their Gathering Forum:
http://pub125.ezboard.com/ftheunofficialmartinguitarforumfrm34

Anyone here joined the Martin Forum Gathering as well?? Please share with us your experience!

Can't wait for ours to happen.. The First Collings Guitar Gathering ever!!

[This message was edited by Ed on October 26, 2002 at 09:08 PM.]

I did make the trip in August for the 1st Annual UMGF Gathering. Took my Bryan Kimsey modified HD28 with me along with a couple of friends (one of which had a brand new D18GE).

The Gathering was a lot of fun. We picked out a motel in Bethlehem for the forum members to stay for the event so that we could mingle and play each others Martins. There were about 70 people in attendance for the Gathering and many played and mingled in the lounge of the Bethlehem Comfort Inn on Sunday and Monday nights. Some of the members were excellent guitarists. Some were excellent singers as well. Most of the stuff was singer/songwriter type stuff leaning towards fingerstyle. Not many flatpickers.

The tour was great! Martin set up a private tour that included additional sections of the factory not normally on the tour (and I can vouch because I made the same tour in '01). After the tours they gave us a goody bag that included two sets of strings, refrigerator magnet, calendar, soundhole cutout, notepad, and pencil. The calendar was signed by CFM IV.

Then the fun really started... CFM IV gave us a personal tour of the woodshop and warehouse. He showed us his stash of premium tonewoods (Brazilian, Adirondack, Koa) and discussed how each wood is graded. This was interesting because it was a section of only about 10 ft. wide and about 15 ft high.

CFM IV brought in lunch for everybody and we ate all over the facility. Some people ate outside on the picnic tables that employees normally use on nice days. Some at around the lobby area. But we worked our way into the conference room and ate with CFM IV. It was interesting to hear him talking about finding out that his wife was pregnant the day before and about his parents being divorced and his mother raising him in the city (New York).

After lunch he told us to get our guitars out and loosen the strings and he would sign them in the soundhole. Of course everyone wanted to take him up on his offer. It took quite a while but he signed every single person's guitar. It was a slow process too but it looked like one he had done many times in the past.

Overall, it was a great event. Martin went out of their way to make sure that everyone had a great time. CFM IV spent an entire day entertaining some of his most loyal fans.

BTW, he made some nice comments about Collings and mentioned that people like BC are the reason they started marketing their Golden Era models.


Andy Whatley
Columbus, GA