That was fkn depressing. I'm glad I never sat down and ran the numbers quite like that. Not arguing with your logic, but I think there's more complexity involved. First off, you're never gonna be able to compete with ginormous multi-national, billion-dollar companies and their efficiencies of scale so you have to separate and distinguish yourself from that run of the mill production guitar idea. You know what all the most profitable companies sell? Image. Lifestyle. Aesthetic. People buy Apple computers not because they are the best computers (they aren't) but because of what it says about who they are. Not only do they buy MacBooks, iPhones & iPads, they pay ridiculously inflated prices for them and would be suspicious if the prices were normal. They are convinced they're buying something special. So what you have is more of a marketing & sales problem than anything. Especially if you've only sold 3 guitars in 15 years. You gotta figure out what your value-add is, and communicate that in a way that makes it appealing. No matter what that might be. Maybe you make surf guitars. Maybe everything is handmade, maybe the customer can specify every part... whatever it is... to encourage people to say 'yes! take my money now. and next week!' Beyond that, there are ways for you to decrease your costs and increase your production from what you've stated. No-one ever said it was gonna be easy. And your skills and interests are most likely along the lines of luthier work and not the all-encompassing multi-facets aspects of the whole marketing/sales, establishing business relationships, managing production processes, managing financials, customer service, etc. that is involved in running a profitable company of any size. So, no matter how you slice it, expect it to be a challenging endeavor that pushes you to learn more, be more efficient, and put in work in many aspects which are not what inspired you to want to build guitars. I say this as someone who lost their full-time job almost 3 years ago, not remotely financially prepared, suffered some health issues, lost my mom to dementia & other health issues, etc and has somehow managed to support myself in that time solely by building & selling guitars and buying old instruments and musical gear, repairing, restoring, modding, them and selling them primarily on Reverb as well as eBay. It has not been easy AT ALL, but i'm gaining confidence in my ability to do this 'for reals'. Every bill & expense I have has increased in that time and it's almost like a game-show sometimes how it feels to scrape together the funds for every bill, mortgage payment and sourcing parts to have something to sell. It is not ideal, but I've managed this long. I'm not gonna give up now! If I can do it. You can do it. It's a matter of midset. For me the drive has been that I have no other alternative than make this work, really. Anyways. more power to you brother. I wish you only the best. And if I can somehow help you, message me and I'll do whatever I can. Later!
Seems like being a very small operation and building only one instrument at a time is not the way to go? If you could somehow scale up to say, making ten instruments at the same time maybe that would be the way? That would take a large investment in materials and shop equipment. Hmmm. No easy answers I guess.
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I have increased my antidepressant dose after this video. Doctor told me that I have to double the dosage for every %20 volume up.
Hey brother I think that was a very good video I hope you're doing better now I'm kind of like you but I'm a little on the lucky side the town I'm in has a big music scene
I find my strats and teles cost about 400$-500$ in materials. I build everything minus the the metal hardware. My calculation is about 1800$-2000$ per guitar. If people say "gosh that's expensive", I say "Yeah you're right". They can go kick rocks.
That's why repairs could keep you alive until you gain a reputation as a builder ( if you do?)....Set-up's, re-frets, neck sets, electronics,.... on and on,.....Good Luck.
Hey what about using ur skills to repair and setup guitars would the numbers work out in your favor a little more. Like charging 40-60 bucks a setup. A setup at your skill level shouldn’t take long and on top of that have you tried advertising on as many free platforms as possible like OfferUp, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace. Etsy maybe. Also what about adding a little story about each guitar to make it a little bit more unique. Also it gets the potential buyer more invested in the build. Think of this if I give u random character Ralph that I created for a show and killed him in the first couple mins of a movie ur not going to give a Phuk but if instead I told u alittle bit of Ralph’s life and how he came to be where he is now. By the end of the show if I killed him ur going to feel for that character and maybe even care about the characters well being. What I’m saying is the story of your guitars has a lot more value than u might think.
That was fkn depressing. I'm glad I never sat down and ran the numbers quite like that. Not arguing with your logic, but I think there's more complexity involved. First off, you're never gonna be able to compete with ginormous multi-national, billion-dollar companies and their efficiencies of scale so you have to separate and distinguish yourself from that run of the mill production guitar idea. You know what all the most profitable companies sell? Image. Lifestyle. Aesthetic. People buy Apple computers not because they are the best computers (they aren't) but because of what it says about who they are. Not only do they buy MacBooks, iPhones & iPads, they pay ridiculously inflated prices for them and would be suspicious if the prices were normal. They are convinced they're buying something special. So what you have is more of a marketing & sales problem than anything. Especially if you've only sold 3 guitars in 15 years. You gotta figure out what your value-add is, and communicate that in a way that makes it appealing. No matter what that might be. Maybe you make surf guitars. Maybe everything is handmade, maybe the customer can specify every part... whatever it is... to encourage people to say 'yes! take my money now. and next week!' Beyond that, there are ways for you to decrease your costs and increase your production from what you've stated. No-one ever said it was gonna be easy. And your skills and interests are most likely along the lines of luthier work and not the all-encompassing multi-facets aspects of the whole marketing/sales, establishing business relationships, managing production processes, managing financials, customer service, etc. that is involved in running a profitable company of any size. So, no matter how you slice it, expect it to be a challenging endeavor that pushes you to learn more, be more efficient, and put in work in many aspects which are not what inspired you to want to build guitars. I say this as someone who lost their full-time job almost 3 years ago, not remotely financially prepared, suffered some health issues, lost my mom to dementia & other health issues, etc and has somehow managed to support myself in that time solely by building & selling guitars and buying old instruments and musical gear, repairing, restoring, modding, them and selling them primarily on Reverb as well as eBay. It has not been easy AT ALL, but i'm gaining confidence in my ability to do this 'for reals'. Every bill & expense I have has increased in that time and it's almost like a game-show sometimes how it feels to scrape together the funds for every bill, mortgage payment and sourcing parts to have something to sell. It is not ideal, but I've managed this long. I'm not gonna give up now! If I can do it. You can do it. It's a matter of midset. For me the drive has been that I have no other alternative than make this work, really. Anyways. more power to you brother. I wish you only the best. And if I can somehow help you, message me and I'll do whatever I can. Later!
Thanks for the video
Seems like being a very small operation and building only one instrument at a time is not the way to go? If you could somehow scale up to say, making ten instruments at the same time maybe that would be the way? That would take a large investment in materials and shop equipment. Hmmm. No easy answers I guess.
I have increased my antidepressant dose after this video. Doctor told me that I have to double the dosage for every %20 volume up.
Hey brother I think that was a very good video I hope you're doing better now I'm kind of like you but I'm a little on the lucky side the town I'm in has a big music scene
I find my strats and teles cost about 400$-500$ in materials. I build everything minus the the metal hardware. My calculation is about 1800$-2000$ per guitar. If people say "gosh that's expensive", I say "Yeah you're right". They can go kick rocks.
That's why repairs could keep you alive until you gain a reputation as a builder ( if you do?)....Set-up's, re-frets, neck sets, electronics,.... on and on,.....Good Luck.
How what's up good video ...I have a question ?
Now, a lot more. Some guy wanted me to make a guitar for him for 300. I just don't do that. No profit these days.
Hey what about using ur skills to repair and setup guitars would the numbers work out in your favor a little more. Like charging 40-60 bucks a setup. A setup at your skill level shouldn’t take long and on top of that have you tried advertising on as many free platforms as possible like OfferUp, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace. Etsy maybe. Also what about adding a little story about each guitar to make it a little bit more unique. Also it gets the potential buyer more invested in the build. Think of this if I give u random character Ralph that I created for a show and killed him in the first couple mins of a movie ur not going to give a Phuk but if instead I told u alittle bit of Ralph’s life and how he came to be where he is now. By the end of the show if I killed him ur going to feel for that character and maybe even care about the characters well being. What I’m saying is the story of your guitars has a lot more value than u might think.
I moved to mexico and I found a wooden guitar that my uncle made I wanted to know if it's playable or if there's money in it
Your guitar wasn’t special. That’s why I didn’t sell
Good point