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Post by dnic on Jul 13, 2019 15:58:27 GMT -6
I plan to build and sell, probably on Reverb, some guitar bodies. I'm thinking raw or finished, maybe fabric topped. Probably going to be clear pine or maybe poplar. From your own research what would be fair pricing?
Appreciate any input you folks might have.
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Post by antares on Jul 14, 2019 1:01:04 GMT -6
I thought about this Dane. A fair price is quite difficult to pin down so I understand your query. Price point is dependent upon target market. You are a craftsman so you won't just be box shifting. My first concern would be that you would be unleashing quality items onto an unregulated hoard of hammer merchants. Anything not quite right and some at least will likely be coming back to you and at a distance you won't be best placed to assess what's going on. What you are doing right now means you retain control over the finished product. A company like Warmoth can place the onus on the consumer by virtue of its reputation. I know I'm just being an Eeyore and folks like me don't keep the world turning around, but I can't discount the possibilities. So you didn't get a straight answer from me. I guess take a look at Warmoth or American Guitar Products- items that are close in description and try to "compete" with them?
e&oe...
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Post by dnic on Jul 14, 2019 15:20:28 GMT -6
Thank you Steve. I agree with you point to point. I've wondered if competing with Warmoth or All Parts is even my goal as they have high production factories and wood sourcing price breaks that I as a 5 to 10 batch builder could not possibly compete with. Another consideration is me not necessarily wanting to make exact copies of Fender neck for instance. It won't take much for me to Eeyore me right out of trying.
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Post by antares on Jul 17, 2019 8:22:42 GMT -6
I'm very aware that you deliberately omitted anything specific to make any objective reply possible Dane. It seems clear to me that you need a U.S.P.?
To get anywhere with this, you need to market your product, and with all the time you spend altruistically giving us the benefit of your knowledge and experience via the Tube (and no doubt elsewhere?) that is the direction you ought to be following instead. Apply your time for your own benefit for a while my friend.
Body shapes are not copyright protected so far as I'm aware? Only headstock patterns. Facepage and Reverb should be your prime targets. eBay and Amazon could be an also-ran but not ignored. As Oscar wrote: "There is only one thing worse than being talked about..."
There are myriad folks selling stereotypical routed solid body Leo-types-I'm sure most are Asian re-sellers, and so in my limited opinion that should not be your arena. Semi / hollow bodies are not so ubiquitous. More work involved, but a smaller and more focussed clientelle with a commensurate higher price point? Given your undeniable success with the skull project, such laminations would be a fine area to explore, although such compound laminations may present additional hurdles? This would give you that elusive USP. I fancy this is what you really want to hear? You would be largely free of competition. In addition, you would (I strongly suspect) be attracting a preferable customer base? You know- those with the requisite skills?
The question hanging in the air is what designs to go for? I'm not sure how wide ranging the market for skulls is outside of The Big Easy. This is a more difficult question than the one you posed in the OP.
Whaddaya think Bro'?
e&oe...
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Jul 18, 2019 15:41:53 GMT -6
Dane -- I've started and deleted a number of responses to this thread. I've decided that "less is possibly more" with my verbiage.
1. I would start with figuring out what your time is worth.
2. Do you risk turning a cool hobby and pastime into a crushing workload to fill orders?
3. Are you willing to give away a good number of bodies to get the social media buzz going to get some orders coming in?
4. Sometimes there is a perception that low price is a reflection of low quality.
Case in point - my pickup winding "empire"...haha. I just got to the point I was making a lot of pickup and it was not fun because I thought I had to compete with Duncan and Dimarzio. All of my spare time was sitting behind the winder. I have shifted the strategy to making far fewer but more specialize pickups, and the players seem to be happier. I sure am, too. Also, I had a number of young guys say that they thought I should charge more for my pickups: who would've thought that?
I've seen your work -- you may focus in on doing higher-end custom work, and I think you should shy away from getting involved in the price war on eBay. In my case, the dudes making $35 single coil pickups - with free shipping -- sure makes it tough to break-in....if I wanted to. You might even consider making custom-shaped and finished bodies for customers, something Warmoth doesn't do.
More to follow.
John
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Post by chezvoz on Jul 18, 2019 16:34:30 GMT -6
As far as what to charge, I was seeing MJT sell aged bodies on ebay for about $300. So there is a market for specialized stuff.
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Post by dnic on Jul 18, 2019 17:23:46 GMT -6
Appreciate the responses folks. Steve suggests that I may have been purposely vague but honestly I just kind of through this out cause I figured you guys would be helpful. Really I'm not bright enough to be vague in any helpful way. John, I was kind of worried that if I got to busy my fun hobby would become a drudgery. But now being fairly close to retirement, about three years, I'm thinking I could stand some more guitar related work load and pick up a little extra cash. It's gonna be though getting by on what will be coming in. You all have suggested that competing with Ebay or Warmoth is probably not the way to go and I have to agree. So I will probably try to design something of my own and see what happens. Haven't really had much sucess with complete guitars but as a no name I get it. I sell one here or there but until Mr. Mega Star plays one of mine it's not gonna take off.
As far as "legal" body shapes go, well now that Gibson has warned us all that they mean business I'm a little nervous. I'm kidding! I know I have a lot of prototyping and jig building before this could really go anywhere and with as little time as I have right now to devote to this it's going to be a long process. But it's all fun so I'm ok with the process.
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Jul 18, 2019 17:24:18 GMT -6
As far as what to charge, I was seeing MJT sell aged bodies on ebay for about $300. So there is a market for specialized stuff. True -- and those MJT bodies are pretty cool. I've worked on several of them, and they look like a lot of work went in to them. John
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Post by EB on Oct 6, 2019 10:33:40 GMT -6
Dane, here is how I figure out what to charge for things.
I take the cost of the wood. My cost, then I double that, then I add 40% on top of that. On some woods I would add another 10% on that. Because some woods are harder to work with. ( I do this on all the guitars. Even if I cut 2 guitars from the same wood) Say if a slab of wood cost me 40 dollars and I could get two bodies out of that. I double my cost of the wood on each body. That is on the bodies if they are simple to do bodies with no carve top or F holes and so on.
I do the same thing with necks. Before long I get to were I came up with a price I could live with. I never tired to sell my stuff according to what other people were selling their stuff for.
I used this same formula in a lot of things I have done throughout the years. You can always add more if need be. But this always helped me to get to the point of making a little on what I was doing. As far as time? Well, you know as well as I do, a lot of time you can't always charge for the time it takes up to make something. At least now the whole time.
Like I said my method of figuring out what to charge gives you a starting point. I see a lot of guitar bodies being sold on eBay that people custom make. The pricing is all over the place. I would make some then post them on a web site that you like and test the waters. See what happens. EB
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Post by dnic on Oct 7, 2019 7:34:36 GMT -6
Thanks Eddie, appreciate the response. I did post two bodies on Reverb for now to see what happens.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2019 12:46:20 GMT -6
Thanks Eddie, appreciate the response. I did post two bodies on Reverb for now to see what happens. Yes I did see them on Reverb. Nice looking Start!
EB
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on May 18, 2020 9:49:01 GMT -6
Dane - It might be time to revisit this in light of the changes in the global supply chain due to the pandemic.
John
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Post by dnic on May 21, 2020 7:25:23 GMT -6
Dane - It might be time to revisit this in light of the changes in the global supply chain due to the pandemic. John I've had two bodies up on Reverb for a while with no real action. One nibble from a guy that wanted me to match Asian ebay pricing. Plus I've been working on one and changed it from the original offering so I pulled it off the site.
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2020 9:14:06 GMT -6
One nibble from a guy that wanted me to match Asian ebay pricing...
Funny how people think that we can match pricing with big company's. Not going to happen unless we can buy wood in large amounts like a company that buy woods in huge amounts. Plus most of them body's are being cut on CNCs. Being produced in huge amounts to sell world wide. I bought one of them plane wood body's once a long time ago. It had so many flaws in it that I had to end up making a relic out of it. I did sell that guitar. LOL!
But my point is, unless we can mass produce guitar body's and necks we can never sell our goods at a price to compete against big manufactures. If we did we would loos money. Would not even brake even in most cases.
If there is one thing I learned in guitar building is... Don't cheapen the product. Stick to your guns, and not sell things for less because someone thinks you should. To many people out there are getting their prices on guitar stuff. It take a lot of time to get there.
When I was in AZ, I stayed with my prices. I was not cheap nor was I over the top expensive. But I still had those that would tell me that I was to expensive. I would turn them away. I wound up with more work than I could handle. When I was at my peak I haired a guy to come in and help me out. I trained him in what to do. Plus I helped him build 2 guitars that he was wanting to build.
I see some builder now are getting into the kit guitar stuff. Some of them kits are going for well over the $400.00 mark. Some of them are doing pretty well at it. But they also have the sources to build more then one at a time.
I guess it really depends on how much work you are will to do. I was going to make T body's and sell them on line. But after I thought about it. I thought I would have have to make a bunch in advance, Then post them little a time. Then box them up for shipping and so and so on... I got tired of thinking of it. LOL! So, I did sell 2 of 4 I made, wound up building the other 2 and sold one and traded the other one. For me I was happy building custom guitars and working on guitars. I really got into working on them. I made a lot more money working on guitars than building them.
I know I am rambling on... But we all have to find out what works for us. Don't give up Dane. I have enjoyed your videos on You Tube! Keep up the good work!
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Post by dnic on May 31, 2020 14:03:51 GMT -6
Not giving up Eddie. I have also made more money repairing guitars than I have building new ones. I just like to keep busy so I can more or less hobby build and get a fair price for things I'll be happy.
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