#1
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question for the luthiers of agf
I was thinking about starting to build my own guitars. Besides the initial equipment, how much does an acoustic usually cost to build? Including wood, tuners, finish inlays etc.
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#2
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It depends alot on the quality of materials you want to use. You could probably scrounge around and build a cigarbox guitar for about $10. For the typical all solid wood guitar with decent quality rosewood and tuners,not buying too many premade parts, and a decent set of Grovers, $200 might get you there. If you want to use extravagant materials and tuners, you could spend $2000+.
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#3
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#4
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Time = money. I bought a Walnut tree and had it quartersawn. 60-70% of the wood is not usable for a guitar for various reasons. Still, after 3 years I will resaw, then wait a few more years.
If I sell the 2 best sets I will double my initial investment. I'll still have many board sets, neck wood, binding..... Some glue and 20k in tools I just happen to have lying around and other than strings and tuners its like free! |
#5
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You can spend as much as you want to. Some builders say it costs $1000 for materials but Ive built mine for way less.
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#6
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Highly variable. If you dig through the boards at the lumberyard to find a good one, and slice it up yourself, you can get things a lot cheaper... but you get a huge pile of the same thing, so if you like a lot of variety in woods, then you're better off buying from places like LMI. I like variety and I don't like power tools, so it's much easier for me to buy pre-cut blanks.
Here would be an average breakdown for a sitka/mahogany guitar $30 soundboard $50 back/sides $20 neck $30 binding/purfling $10 fingerboard $5 bridge $5 headplate $10 bracewood $2 head&tail blocks (lumberyard mahogany, headblock is laminated) $20 kerfed linings $15 truss rod $30 tuners $10 bridge pins $7 for nut&saddle $5 fretwire $20 inlay materials So all in all, about $270, plus probably $20 shipping. The wood for back/sides is probably the easiest way to eat up more money. Adirondack soundboards are pretty pricey nowadays too. Adding abalone purfling can get expensive quick. Linings are probably one of the easiest ways to save money. For the top, you can cut a pile of little triangles by hand and glue them on individually, to save most of the $10 for the top linings. You can bend strips of wood for the back linings, like traditional classical guitars have. Or cut the kerfs yourself if you have a bandsaw. Necks can be laminated out of 2 or 3 pieces of lumberyard wood, to cut out a lot of the price there. Bindings are probably the highest price per board foot of anything But you need a bandsaw or tablesaw and a drum sander if you're going to try making them yourself. Tuners and bridge pins can be had for cheaper if you use plastic pins and the economy tuners from StewMac. Inlay materials can be free if you use wood scraps instead of shell. Brace wood can be cheaper if you find some good spruce boards at the lumberyard, and use some of that headblock/tailblock mahogany board for the back braces |
#7
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other than the tools it can be done for very little.
where possible I reclaim wood either from old furniture or from the dumpster at a commercial furniture factory I know. I HAVE made an acoustic for the cost of a top, tuners, trussrod, frets, nut saddle & pins. og yeah, and a splash of glue and varnish. realisticly? $70 thats using basic but functional tuners and bone parts from the far east viaebay
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#8
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Assuming economy is your objective, I think that often the best approach is to buy second class wood. If done carefully there is no decrease in the quality of the instrument, possibly an improvement, and there can be savings up to 50% just stepping down to the lower level. Historical instruments by the likes of Torres often had rather manky wood in them by modern standards. I would never build an instrument in sub-par materials, I just believe that seconds are often firsts. Slightly OT, famous woodworker Sam Maloof, bought second grade walnut, because he believed the first quality stuff was a lot more expensive and visually un-interesting. I also buy in lots that allow me to take advantage of the breaks that occur at 5 parts or more, though I realize that is going to be expensive for a first experiment.
While I have an 090 chainsaw mill, and cut lots of wood for projects, I don't live in an area where other than red spruce, there are credible tonewoods. One could go through a million BFT of maple before finding anything up to snuff. A guy I know who runs one of the LV stores in Toronto, built a beautiful guitar out of their short stock. They sell lots of fancy wood in short sections, that do not seem sufficent for assembling a guitar, but he did a beautiful job. One has to be creative. However, I have seen people make a career out of this kind of thing using woods nobody wants to buy out of some kind of forced economy. It requires a lot of tools and storage to accumulate your own wood, and will probably prove cheaper overall to just buy from suppliers. Periodically i get the urge to move for the benefit of the family, etc... then I remember the 30 stationary power tools, and the 3000 bft of wood I am saddled with... That said, wood is wood. If you have something local, and take the time to dry it, it will be real wood. They don't spread pixie dust on it before selling it from the factory. I guess this is well know these days, but my family has a story about when my great uncle told my dad he knew where there was a perfect piece of wood for that rocking chair arm, and then disappeared into the woods... That was quite a story for while, but these days it wouldn't garner any comment at all. |