- The Harmony of Art & Technology

When the notes fit together just right, you are making music. When the parts fit together just right, you are manufacturing music.
Art and technology blended harmoniously in a collaboration between legendary music manufacturer C.F. Martin & Co. and manufacturing technology giants Mazak and Renishaw—resulting in an improved guitar fabrication process. Together, the companies created an innovative approach that blends the craftsmanship of instrument making with the precision of manufacturing and developed a new technology to automate and enhance an age-old process for building world-class guitars. Together, their project highlights the harmony of art and technology.
The Players
When Lou Goffredo, the Engineering Services Manager at Martin Guitar, went to IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show, he was seeking a solution to a long-standing challenge—the manual freizing process. A time consuming and labor-intensive endeavor, manual freizing involves cutting a channel around the perimeter of a guitar body to install decorative elements.
Martin Guitar is dedicated to constantly improving the quality of both their instruments and processes. With the full support of third-generation executive chairman Chris Martin, Lou set out to find automation solutions.
At IMTS, Goffredo met Bill Curtis, the applications engineering manager at Mazak, and Dan Skulan, the general manager of industrial metrology at Renishaw. They immediately connected.
Along with collaboration comes strong partnership, all three managers are quick to point out that; the success they achieved wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing work of the talented people on each of their teams. In February 2025, Martin manufactured their 3 millionth guitar using this new automated freizing process.