Don Williams wrote:
That makes a lot of sense. I don't want to produce them in China, if for no other reason too many of our jobs here have gone there in recent years. That choice may kill the whole thing before it starts though. I know a lot of novelty ukes are selling for over $1000 and sometimes even double that, but those doing that are well established and have their processes down cold. My other issue is where does one find wood at costs that make sense for trying to keep the costs down? Where does one find decent Koa these days?!!! There's not much out there anymore (rumor has it that a large factory on the West coast is buying most of it up) so that's one wood that's become very expensive, and it's traditional for ukes. Even Black Acacia aka Tasmanian Blackwood is getting crazy expensive. There's a lot of details to be worked out. Meanwhile, I do have plans to do a batch of 4 or 5, and we'll see what happens with that. I'll need to take a very hard look at costs involved through the whole process of the batch, and see where these things should be priced.
Thanks for all the advice folks...
Simple. Don't try to obtain Koa at prices that mean you spend days upon days hunting the stuff down. Just use readily obtainable woods such as figured Maple (Walnut, Cherry) and learn to do tinted colour coats. The fancy Koa can be offered at a price premium that is commensurate with it's true cost. Ultimately, if you want to stay in business the customer has to pay and Koa isn't cheap. Not much point in scavenging around for cheap wood, it usually takes a lot more of your time time than it's worth.
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