Official Luthiers Forum!

Ed,
I guess my being an amateur builder (and more of a customer), may I offer a counterpoint? I agree that figured woods are problematic, but for other woods of value let's consider a few things -
a) luthier pays a premium for this wood. Sitka Spruce of very high quality can be $50. An Adirondack Spruce top of very high quality can be $200 and up. Risk of getting the right thing is 4x the cost of sitka. That's going to cost us as the buyer. Furthermore the luthier has 4x $$$ tied up in that top, often for many years (we do want our luthiers building for well seasoned stock that has been in their shop for years). Luthiers don't make a ton of money. I don't know any that have lines of credit with their bank, as a business. So tying up funds (which are short in supply) is expensive for a luthier.
b) Run of the mill EIR is as simple as pick up the phone and order up however many sets you desire. Specialty woods are purchased as one-offs, often require hunting the stuff down, knowing the right people, et cetera.
c) Consider good quality Brazilian Rosewood (not what's on eBay) ... often a $1500 or even $2000 upcharge by a luthier. Good stuff starts at $750 and up on the open market. Consider that it is prone to cracking (means downstream luthier warranty repair at his cost) ... you can see where the price goes up as a percentage of base. It's also known to split during construction.
d) While I don't offer this as justification, but merely as market observation, every product in the world I can think of has upcharge for the premium models - that is, the product has a greater percentage of profit as it goes premium. Cars, watches, golf clubs, ad nauseum. A BMW 3 series has nowhere near the % profit margin for BMW as their 7 series, for example. The moment we ask for double tops, special rosettes, top woods, back woods, hemispherical frets, cutaways, et cetera, the price tends to go up.

One final comment I'd make, as a non-luthier. Many of the luthiers I know have many, many years of experience invested in their craft, at least $20-30k in facilities (location/equipment/tools) and often an equal amount of $$$ tied up in wood. This is to make 12-15 guitars per year, on average. Instruments sell for, say $4k on average. That's $60k gross and how much of that is cost? The net may hit $30-40k depending on what's going on. I know plumbers that make more money than that in 4 months. Upcharge on speciality items is one of the few ways that luthiers can increase their paltry earnings and still build instruments by hand, one by one, for their clients.

Just some alternative thoughts ...


Filippo

I think this is a fair counter balance for customers, they can save the upcharge money, but they have to be willing to share in the risk.