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I've had people ask me that question and I always tell them if you are all set up and do a pretty basic guitar then about a week or two. That's just to put it together. But I don't think 40 -50 hours is a problem for someone who does it alot at all. The last Metal body Tricone I did took me 40 hours to put the body together and ready for the platers. And I think if you guys are building more then one at a time you probaby could cut your time down because there's less setup time involved. If you can have several routers set up for cutting your binding channels think how much time that alone would save you. I'm pretty sure you pros have that going on. I'll get there some day.

I can build my little ladder braced roots guitar in about 25-30 hours including finish. It takes me about 30 minutes to do the whole headstock and about an hour to carve the neck, another 45 minutes to cut the dovetail and fit it to the box. Of course these times do not include glue drying and such, just workin on the guitar. For finishing, I'm spraying water based satin finish so just some pore filling, level sanding and spraying but no wet sanding or buffing at the end, the last coat is the finish. I wish everybody liked non shiny guitars!!!

When I visited George Lowden in his workshop he said he averaged one guitar per staff member a week. (12 at the time)

so that's 35-42 hours (inc finish) per guitar.

I find that most of my "build" time is waiting for glue to dry, which is why I usually have two or three builds going on at a time.

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I wouldn't think you would consider waiting for glue to dry or finish to cure as build time. That's when you move onto something else right? I usually have a beer and think about what I might want to do. But it takes me along time to build one now but I'm in no hurry.

Thanks a lot guys, everyones replies were very helpful. I'm going to timeless instrument in the fall and I was just wondering how feasible for me to eventually build guitars as a full time proffession. It would obviously take time and practice but I'm hoping to be there someday. I would also be a bar gigging (at least) musician at the same time so I hopfully wouldn't be completely in the poor house.

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John you acoustic dvd's were good. Any plans for an electric dvd?