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Comments
Plenty of AI mistakes in both pics!
Because there's a difference between "made it from bits of wood and components by one person who's good at every stage", and "assembled a body and neck that other people made".
<rolls eyes>
Making a neck takes a lot more time than buying one, and one might think that that makes it more expensive.
I could afford an £8,500 guitar but my head says it is bonkers and I prefer this sort of route and one day if I can get some space for tools/machines I'd like to build my own from scratch.
Each to their own 'n' all that!
With regard to the now frequently overused term, masterbuilt, as I've been scratchbuilding intricate scale models out of wood, metal, plastic, clay etc, for decades, as well as faffing around with guitars, so its over-use fails to impress me. I tend to regard the term as particularly laughable when referring to someone at either Fender or Gibson etc who is screwing/gluing some CNC-cut bits together, maybe doing a bit of soldering and asking someone on the phone: 'what colour do you want the thing?'
If it was Antonio Stradivari, hand carving the bits for a Sabionari guitar from in the 1670s, then yup, absolutely, that is master-built, but putting four screws through a backplate to fasten a CNC-cut body to a CNC-cut neck on a Telecaster is no more master-building something than someone putting together a flat-pack cupboard from Ikea.
There are of course some genuinely skilled custom guitar makers out there, but many of those 'masters' at Fender and Gibson are not crafting stuff, they're assembling parts.
Yeah right! Just some talentless bloke with a screwdriver... blah, blah, blah.
True story in relation to that: I once went to train someone on Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop at a very posh handbag shop in a swanky part of London. Prior to that they'd just been doing rough illustrations (and I mean very basic, as in looked like a twelve-year-old had drawn them) on layout paper with magic markers, then sending those to China, where the drawings were interpreted and turned into a proper cutting pattern, the handbags were then knocked up (probably for less than a tenner a pop), then sent as completed items back to the UK for sale in that shop for exhorbitant prices in the thousands.
But if it was tasteful, how could anybody tell how expensive it was?
However, a couple of thoughts to throw some petrol on the bonfire.
With the ‘bought in’ body and neck, someone, somewhere has had to either press ‘go’ on the CNC machine, or pin router. The end builder has to pay for these parts in the same way they pay for hardware. This all ultimately adds to the cost.
For a second, imagine that your builder has the greatest expertise in turning pre-cut bodies and necks into the perfect guitar. They also realise that the length of time it takes them to do the initial woodwork isn’t cost effective to ultimately give them the blank canvas they can get from a reputable woodworking partner. Also for this example, the bodies and necks they buy are built to their exacting specs and bought on the proviso they can return the ones that they don’t feel are within their tolerances for either weight, grain, resonance, etc.
This builder can do the woodwork to the same standards, but chooses to put their time into what they consider the more important part of the build.
Ultimately the question then comes down to does a body blank built by Mr or Mrs X carry more value than a body blank built by Mr or Mrs Y.
It may also be that a level of consistency can not be achieved by the sole builder in line with their woodworking partner. They also may incur higher costs for each body as some blanks may need rejecting and become fuel for their log burner.
I’m running and hiding already.
Timber selection
Design
Machining (hand, pin router, CNC, whatever)
Finishing
Winding pickups
Wiring
Fretting
Setting up
Apart from WezV, that is.
We don't expect builders to make their own tuners or bridges. Most don't make their own pickups - and that's fine. And anyone who was good at all of those would surely charge a lot more than £8500.
They will cut multiple bodies on a CNC machine at at time. The small guy is probably routing them from a template.
They will buy wood in bulk and cut out the middle man.
They will buy other components in bulk. E.g. they will probably order pots form CTS 20,000 at a time and get a much better price than the small guy can get from somewhere like RS.
They manufacture their own pickups, so they cut out the profit that the pickup winder makes.
Those elements of large scale mass production still apply to their Custom Shop guitars. The prices of all the Custom Shop guitars are too high for what goes into them.
Until we vote with our wallets though, and buy other brands, they will keep gouging us.