Acoustic Guitar Construction

I would like to begin building a good, hand made, all solid wood guitar that I could sell for less than a kilobuck and still have decent money-per-hour left over for my trouble. So I'm asking for suggestions about how to proceed.

1. Body style - this is especially important because offering "models" (plural) greatly complicates production start up time and expense. Models (plural) might come later or it might come not at all.
2. Top, sides, back, neck, fingerboard woods.
3. Finish.
4. Tuners.
5. Embellishments: rosette? bindings? position markers?
6. Brace pattern.
7. Neck construction and joint with body.
8. Adjustment rod or other neck reinforcement.
9. Bridge.
10. Use of pre-shaped parts.
11. Production methods.
12. Other.

The idea is to offer a "Model-T" that sounds very good and is easy to play. Fancy, not!

Ken - is the D-18 your biggest seller?

Actually -- the Rosewood OM standard and cutaway, than D28, not many request for the D18 but I am going to offer a soupped up Genuine Mahogany model sort of pre-warish and I am sure that will sell very well. J200's are right up there. But the market is diverse, we sell a lot of J185's, L00's "00" surprisingly the "000" 12th fret is not as popular it once was.

Thanks - for those of looking to sell a few instruments, it's good to know where the emphases should lie.

This link lays out the case that the Washburn D10S is the best selling acoustic guitar in the world.
http://theguitarbuzz.com/guitars/the-be ... the-world/

I've played great Larrivees and Breedloves for under $1000 with a HS case. Both solid wood. I find it very discouraging to try and compete with that; it's also one of the reasons that Ken stressed to me, early on, that finding one's 'niche' is so important.

John, it will be fascinating to see what you decide and why.
FWIW, I would be happy to build KMG kits - I think they are priced very well, and with practice they go together quickly, and if a fella can master the setup/finish - you can make some money selling them.

Don't forget that those budget guitars are almost exclusively built with cheap chinese labor and mass production technology. If you can produce a solid wood hand constructed guitar for $1000 and make some money on it I bet they will sell readily. When you figure it out share with us all.

Well, it's not always the case. The Breedlove I owned was $800, and it neither felt nor played like a cheap guitar. It was SE Asia rosewood and some kind of spruce, lots of attention to detail, a very nice case and it sounded very good. I think Ken has mentioned how good the Larrivees are for the money.

Now I do agree with you that a handmade, custom instrument made here on good old USA soil, for under $1K, should and will sell. But the competition is brutal, we have to be realistic.

I think it is Somogyi who wrote something like "100 reasons to buy a custom made guitar". If someone has that article I'd love to read it again - and it would be a good sales tool for John or any of us who would like to make a few more bucks.

I have no doubt that John's instruments are going to be great.

Good discussion --- so I'll muddy the water a little. I believe there is a good market for the $1000 guitar. My caveat would be -- not necessarily for a stripped down model. Appearance is a big deal just last issue of Acoustic guitar magazine Dana Bourgeois wrote that few of his customers even mention the sound qualities that are expected from a completed commission -- trim, look of the wood grain are paramount.

I see the mention of the Chinese manufacturing, time to realize that many of those factories really do have there acts together, the best have or had Japanese management and engineering teams, the same kind and mentality that kicked the a** of the American auto industry. Road King, Blue Ridge, Eastman and several others have "formula" guitars that certainly hold up in comparison the American makers.

So as I see it -- the small shop that plans to sell a regular flow of $1000 guitars needs to provide a clear incentive -- I don't believe "hand made", "solid wood" these days is enough.

I will also add that about 50% of our customers (kits, and tool and fixture buyers) from the very start of the journey have aspirations to sell their finished goods.

All that said -- what if I started a topic dedicated to the manufacturing and selling strategies related to the guitar maker's shop?