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Thread: building instruments professionally

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Taipei, Taiwan
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    537
    The first thing I thought of is going to music shops to take on repair work, however there are very few shops with any sort of repair services (as some of my customers can attest to), and none of them are the least bit interested. Taiwan is a very disposable society in that almost everything they buy is disposable. I do wonder should I work very cheaply, like a refret would be done for 30 dollars, a setup be done for free, etc.?

  2. Quote Originally Posted by Tai Fu View Post
    The first thing I thought of is going to music shops to take on repair work, however there are very few shops with any sort of repair services (as some of my customers can attest to), and none of them are the least bit interested. Taiwan is a very disposable society in that almost everything they buy is disposable. I do wonder should I work very cheaply, like a refret would be done for 30 dollars, a setup be done for free, etc.?
    I think the biggest struggle for me lately is pricing my work. I mean I'm not in it for the money really, but offering things too cheap really makes life hard for those that are doing this for a living. The amount of hours put into building any handmade custom instrument makes the cost very high. I hate to feed the notion that custom guitars can be built for cheap because they can't, at least that I've experienced they can't be built cheap.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Taipei, Taiwan
    Posts
    537
    not to mention when you offer your work too cheaply it builds the reputation that you're cheap, and as a result people would see your work as less than adequate. However I often wonder if I priced myself out of the market, because I'm sure there are others in my city who's doing refrets for 30 dollars and setups for free.

  4. Guitar building for profit

    I've been told I was a huge success right from the start.

    * I made excellent wages

    * My first guitar sounded fantastic


    BTW... excellent wages translates to $7.00/hr. That's
    $4,000 - $5,000/ year below the poverty level. And so
    I kept the job I hated for another eleven years, and I
    used that guitar to sing the blues for that eleven years.


    Guitars are like bicycles... a passion, not necessarily a profit.

    I'm now faster and better. My shop is huge, and well insulated. My tooling
    will also allow me to save time and money. I think it may be possible for me
    to break the $25,000 wage barrier. That's only a fourth of what I made on
    the much hated job, and as was mentioned before, musicians are broke. If
    (and that's a big "if") your guitars are spectacular they will beg you to take
    payments, and work-off much of the cost by working on your car, painting
    your house, etc..

    My neighbor down the street is a well respected luthier who sells his violins
    and cellos in Japan and other places around the world, and he actually does
    quite well. That's because his wife is a nurse. Before they married he lived
    in a weed field with rocks and junk scattered about in a run down single wide
    trailer (that piece of junk wouldn't ever qualify as a "modular", mobile living
    structure", or a "pre-manufactured home"). He was passionate, enjoyed his
    work, and probably dreamed of food. Don't want to burst your bubble, but
    you will need a marketing edge, and streamlined assembly.

    All facts aside, I do hope you pursue your dream, and find it a success.

    -Max

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Taipei, Taiwan
    Posts
    537
    If I could make 7 bucks an hour, or be even under the 20,000 dollar barrier, then I would be happy. In Taiwan I could barely break the 10,000 dollar barrier working regular jobs... average wage seems to be about 20,000 dollars a year so if I could make that doing luthiery, I'm already making average wage and it's not too bad. Thing is, other jobs in Taiwan suck more, long hours, low pay, and the higher ups have absolutely no mercy. Tax is also very low in Taiwan, at least until you start making 120,000 a year (and you're absolutely loaded if you do) so you get to keep most of the money... However I haven't managed to get even a single commission...

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
    Posts
    12,402
    There are so many morons running music stores. This guy brought me an expensive custom made guitar with a little bow in the neck. He had had the truss rod tightened at a music store "as much as the person DARED to tighten it". He wanted me to take the neck off the guitar and fix it.

    I looked at the guitar for a while,and couldn't figure out why a quality made guitar like this one would have neck trouble. Finally,I took the truss rod cover off and tried the truss rod nut with a socket wrench. The nut was ABSOLUTELY LOOSE!!! I tightened the nut,the neck easily straightened. I didn't even charge the guy. I still can't figure out how stupid the music shop repair person was!!!

  7. #22
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    Mar 2013
    Location
    Taipei, Taiwan
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    537
    Yea... many customers who comes to me for a setup says the same thing. The music shop does it for a lot less though. Either the instrument buzzes like crazy or has way too high of an action, or intonation trouble. Most Taiwanese however still gets the music shop to do it because they can't seem to figure out that a setup is a lot more than a string change...

  8. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by george wilson View Post
    There are so many morons running music stores. This guy brought me an expensive custom made guitar with a little bow in the neck. He had had the truss rod tightened at a music store "as much as the person DARED to tighten it". He wanted me to take the neck off the guitar and fix it.

    I looked at the guitar for a while,and couldn't figure out why a quality made guitar like this one would have neck trouble. Finally,I took the truss rod cover off and tried the truss rod nut with a socket wrench. The nut was ABSOLUTELY LOOSE!!! I tightened the nut,the neck easily straightened. I didn't even charge the guy. I still can't figure out how stupid the music shop repair person was!!!
    Somewhere out there is a guitar with a properly adjusted truss rod and a strap button screw tightened as much as one might dare tighten it.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
    Posts
    12,402
    Crash!!! #$%&&$#*!!! Blang!!

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