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I have figured my time and cost to build and quite frankly if I sell one , I still feel like Ive given it away lol...

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I have to pay people to take my instruments off my hands. . .

I'm very much a hobby builder and need to get much better before I need to worry about selling anything. I am often asked how much I charge for an instrument. That's a question I can't answer. I work very slowly and the value of my end results is not nearly as high as most of you guys here. If I was paid what one of mine is worth, subtracted the cost of materials and consumables then divided by the time it took me to finish it I the $/hour rate would be so low that it would make me feel ill. I prefer, instead to just give them away. I know that is not really relevant to the question; I'm just weighing in from the other end of the spectrum.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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Frankly, many of us that have been building for years and years still feel that way. There are only a couple of mandolin builders and a few guitar builders that are getting their worth for the time they put into the instrument. Most of us are selling instruments way too cheap. We are dang lucky if we make ten bucks an hour...when we are selling.

And then there is the subject or "really" true costs which is something that makes it pretty easy to fool oneself.... When I studied my true costs including time, opportunity costs, and the concept of a fully loaded person (not in the Glenlivet sense) and expected productivity vs. costs I found myself working for under $1 an hour building.... What's the minimum wage now....

At least in my case I decided that I needed to get a grip on why I build and that is for the fun of it and the passion that I have for cool guitars and focus on that all the way to the homeless shelter....

Also in my case when ever I received a tool from someone who may have been the inventor or designer of the tool I asked them to Sharpitize the sucker with a note to me and a signature. If you are getting my drift here what I am trying to say is that a huge part of the Lutherie attraction for me are some, not all.... of the people associated with the trade including forum members and folks who may not be professional builders.

I'm a people person except when I'm not... and as such some of my best memories include Luthier gatherings, giving a guitar to someone, etc.

So why do we do this and even give away work at times? For me the reasons are as individual as I am and I suspect that the same holds true for everyone else too.

Up here on our little island community most of my repair/restoration work is for locals and the great majority of the labor "costs" are on the barter system, and Karmac Bank deposit system.

I've been payed in; local raised lamb [yum], good scotch, baked goods, massage sessions, espresso cards, traded labor [firewood stacking], firewood……

My builds, so far are for myself and my own entertainment.

I still have a full-time+ job and the shop is my personal mental health program.

I am going to retire in a couple of years but by then I suspect I will probably have already repaired/restored all of the; grandpa's banjos, Irish harps given as an anniversary present 20 years ago, dead brothers tenor guitars, LGO's previously repaired with construction adhesive and 5/8" plywood….. on the island…. we'll see.

Well guess I'll chime in here. I've made 3 mandolins and one Uke. Building another Uke now and have a tenor guitar ready to get started. I give them away. Hopefully I try to find a kid who'll take an interest. There's usually one or two of them around and underfoot.


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