Official Luthiers Forum!

Not that my opinion matters much on the subject but if it were me I would stay on the lower number she gave you as she is a friend. It sounds fair, it's a win for both of you. That's my 2 cents. All the best.

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久保
美智え

It's John, nice to meet ya. When I tried to do this seriously I was making 10-12 a year but it was the repairs that kept me afloat. I built guitars to sell but they were priced according to my skill level and I thought of it more as I am learning this craft and once I finally get it and get the reputation then I start raising prices. I would make a few bucks on the guitars I sold but not much at all really. Once I lost 4 out of the 5 music stores for doing repairs I was done. I do everything now by word of mouth. I always have a steady flow of repairs coming in at least 5 - 10 hours a week sometimes a lot more and I usually get to sell one maybe two guitars a year. This is perfect for me at this stage of the game.

Good luck!

That is good math. I totally agree with those who said use inexpensive wood till you get a few more under the belt. On most of the spec guitars I've done the most expensive component has been the tuners. In this big world I don't know if I'll ever see name recognition but I do know the more I build the nicer they get.

A reality check Michiyuki. Thank you!

IMO in the past, Taylor has always been more consistent in quality/tone. Although, I think they have raised the bar and they all seem more consistent nowadays. But, I don't get out much!

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Pat

I think you'll get a proper base price figured out soon enough, Danny, and with some more exposure, you won't have too much time to build many spec guitars!
But I don't get the kitchen building being relegated to the #3 position, though.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

[/quote]
I totally agree with those who said use inexpensive wood till you get a few more under the belt. On most of the spec guitars I've done the most expensive component has been the tuners. In this big world I don't know if I'll ever see name recognition but I do know the more I build the nicer they get.[/quote]

Very sensible.

Now one chap has already linked to a post of mine from TLB, but I'd like to bring it up again, did you read it? It's based on my observation of several fellers who have tried and failed to make a go of it without thinking things through. They were ok makers, and had loads of "passion."

Now the article is a bit grim, but after the intro, it does get into just how you can put yourself as an unknown maker) into a strong position to make a living and sell your work. The next part describes a scenario I've seen more than once of how you can put your self in a very weak position. It also goes into the pricing issue you're faced with to some degree.

In the end, your guitar is worth what someone will pay. That's it.

http://www.theluthierblog.com/articles/ ... a-luthier/

Have a read through. I hope it helps.

Nigel
http://www.theluthierblog.com/articles/

Yea, it's true. Customers would more likely commission you something if you did a good job at repair for a long time. I'm pretty sure my first customer only came to me because someone told him I was good at repairing. If you ONLY BUILD to start, you WILL starve!! You'd have to price yourself at the level of high range GSO (Cort, Eastman, etc.) and they will win every time. Furthermore by pricing yourself too low you will gain a reputation for being a budget maker, and you'll only attract those who either don't have much to spend, or those who are tight fisted. There's also a rate of diminishing return when it comes to lower price, as a product of the same quality gets priced lower and lower, its perceived quality is actually lowered as well! Take Bubinga for example. Nobody wants a guitar made of Bubinga because it's a cheap wood, so people think it's bad for guitarmaking. But what if all the suppliers of bubinga decided to collude and raise the price of bubinga by 1000%? You can bet more and more will want Bubinga on their guitars because it's suddenly the holy grail of tonewood. Kinda like BRW or Koa.

So start off by doing repairs, if you don't know how you probably aren't good at building either.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Those makers with no name recognition pricing their work at $6000 are dreamers (maybe to friends or relatives) -- look at the prices for this guy's work -- I am sure we all know of him

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Guitars/Ho ... sions.html

Under $2000 will at least get you a few sold. There are likely 10's of thousand others at the vey same level trying to do the very same thing.

I know I know. Such an honourable profession. If my #1 wasn't such a great job, #2 would be #1 and #3 might not exist. Get it.

I totally agree with those who said use inexpensive wood till you get a few more under the belt. On most of the spec guitars I've done the most expensive component has been the tuners. In this big world I don't know if I'll ever see name recognition but I do know the more I build the nicer they get.[/quote]

Very sensible.

Now one chap has already linked to a post of mine from TLB, but I'd like to bring it up again, did you read it? It's based on my observation of several fellers who have tried and failed to make a go of it without thinking things through. They were ok makers, and had loads of "passion."

Now the article is a bit grim, but after the intro, it does get into just how you can put yourself as an unknown maker) into a strong position to make a living and sell your work. The next part describes a scenario I've seen more than once of how you can put your self in a very weak position. It also goes into the pricing issue you're faced with to some degree.

In the end, your guitar is worth what someone will pay. That's it.

http://www.theluthierblog.com/articles/ ... a-luthier/


Have a read through. I hope it helps.

Nigel
http://www.theluthierblog.com/articles/[/quote]

Thanks Nigel. The other side of the many builders coin is the opportunity to expose oneself, um..... one's guitars with the help of the WWW. The last guitar I sold went to St. Louis Missouri. One of my friends had one go to a studio in NYC. That's a long way from my part of the world. Try doing that 10 years ago.

I have to find the time to go through your blog. Very cool. Good on ya.

Tai, look at that belly. Does it look like I'm starving. Seriously buddy, I have the best day job on the planet.

I agree. I'm happy for now to build for much less. I'm not in this for the money. This is stillpretty fun. The close friends and relitives get them mostly for free or close to. You have to practice on someone.

That is surprisingly low pricing. I'm sure he could command a bigger $. Thanks

I currently live in a society where people buy things because of brand, not quality (like Gucci/Prada/Chanel/etc.) and owning said brand is a mark of success, they could care less what your quality is. In Taiwan the only thing that counts is brand and name. People who have name (celebrities) have made low quality guitars in Taiwan (contracted to factories in Vietnam, China, etc. and their hands have NOT touched the instrument at all), their guitars sold like hot cakes. Quality is irrelevant here and therefore for someone like me who tries to offer quality but have no brand name, it's hard going. If all I did was build and not offer repair or setup work, I would have been 3 years behind on bills.

Even repair is hard going here but I'm holding it together (guitars costing less than $100 dollars represents about 99.9% of the guitar market in Taiwan, rest is taken by GSO makers like Cort and Eastman, and the .001% went to Martin/Taylor/Gibson). When I said there's NO music shops selling high end guitars in Taiwan, I mean it. Someone I know couldn't even sell a Santa Cruz in Taiwan, instead he had to sell it to someone in the US because no one in Taiwan heard of Santa Cruz so they wouldn't buy it at any price.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I just sold a guitar to a friend for $1000.00. My first hand bent scratch build with lots of mistakes that only I could see but a lovely sounding little 'A' sized guitar. He picked it up and had to have it. He would have paid more but I'm thrilled to get the $1000 and he's thrilled to have it. No regrets. Don't know what I'll sell my next one for.

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Thank You and Best To All

Spec builds you can sell to friends at a vastly reduced price but I would never take a commission for less than $2500 base price.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com