“Handcrafted” vs. “Handmade”
 

What is the difference in the terms “Handmade” & “ Handcfafted” when referring to how a particular manufacturers guitars are made. I am a bit confused, because I recently heard a member here refer to Eastman acoustic guitars as being “Handcrafted”, when I’m pretty sure they are machine-made for the very most part...to keep prices lower, I suspect. But, that term would suggest they are not.

I have always thought of guitars like Bourgeois, Collings or Thompson being “Handmade”, with virtually no machinery used to build their instruments, and therefore they are made in far lower numbers than even those made by Martin, Gibson or Taylor...which I would consider more “Handcrafted” than “Handmade”.

Will someone smarter than I give a shot at this?

I don’t think there’s a standard associated with either of those words, so I think the usage of either could be subject to a wide variety of interpretations. Of course, no guitar I’m aware of is made with no human touch. Even guitars with CNC parts are still assembled by hand. So it’s semantics really. Any guitar maker in the world could use the term “handcrafted” or “handmade” without being totally wrong.

I think it’s probably more sensible to think of things in terms of mass production instruments vs those made one by one. In the case of the former, guitars are built to average specs with a combination of machines and humans. In the case of the latter, it’s mostly a person with jigs and hand tools/power tools. Instruments are individualized. And there are boutique companies that are somewhere in between.

Marketing.

When examining a certain luthier's work, a pal of mine described the guitar as, "more homemade than handmade". I think we can all understand what he was getting it.

As for "handmade" vs. "handcrafted", I agree: Both = marketing.
In reality, I doubt there's anything substantial that distinguishes between them.

Cheers,
Steve

As for the use of (CNC) machines, I suspect that most everybody is using something along those lines these days. I have two guitars that each were made in one-man shops, and both use machinery of one kind or another. Neither shop makes more than 10 or 12 guitars per year though.

So what does "hand made" really mean? Does a guitar built by one person, rather than 2 or more, constitute "hand made" even though machines were used? Is there a dividing line of some kind where we consider "mass produced" to be over a certain number and those shops that turn out fewer than that number are considered to be "hand made"?

I don't have any answers to these questions, but I suspect the poster who said "marketing", might be closer to the truth about this stuff. :)

Tony

I agree, the definition's personal.

Like off-the-rack, boutique, and luthier reference standard - marketing & your personal absorption rate influence definition.

Tomato...tomaaato.....

I would think almost all well known makers use machines to varying degrees these days. They are much more consitent than humans could ever be at repetitive tasks.

Still I watched a recent martin factory tour video and was pleasantly suprised by the amount of handwork going on, but the video may have been a few years old and things change so quickly.

As has already been said both terms are more about marketing than anything else.

The difference is about $5,000... :wink:

It's not possible to make a guitar with one's bare hands.
You need tools and machines.
Even a simple electric saw is a machine.

I pretty much ignore all manufacturer's use of these terms because there is no agreement on meaning.

Yeah this.

Like "Select spruce top" (which means the one next in the pile)

If a neck is shaped on a CNC machine with what does the operator press the button with ? ... his toes?

But it WAS selected, Andy. Carefully and lovingly.

Neither term, handmade or handcrafted, have any real meaning anymore: they mean whatever anyone wants them to mean.

The obvious intention is to invoke sentiments that something was made the way things used to be made and that the way they used to be made was of a high quality. As anyone who has attended a Christmas craft sale with works by less skilled amateurs knows, being "handmade" is not a guarantee of quality of design or workmanship.

As others have pointed out, very, very few things are made anymore without the aid of some sort of machinery or automation.

What might be a more relevant is the distinction drawn by David Pye (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pye_(furniture)), the workmanship of risk versus the workmanship of certainty.

https://www.coursehero.com/file/1404...nship-of-risk/

I agree that at this point in time these terms come down to how a luthier advertises what might set them apart. I remember back in 2003 when I first met Kathy Wingert, her tag line was something like “One of a kind, one at a time.” I liked what that evoked - a singular focus on a guitar that was made expressly for a specific customer taking into consideration their needs and wants. Of course, as Charles points out, that doesn’t tell you the quality of the work.
It was after playing a number of her guitars and learning about her reputation that ultimately sealed the deal.

Handcrafted, handmade, bespoke, homemade - all up for interpretation.

Best,
Jayne

That's it. Typically the spoo suggests that it's done by unskilled labourers who do simple repetitive tasks and then pass it on to the next monkey. Actual luthier built guitar brands don't need to use these terms.

Absolutely, these words mean very little in reality.

Bingo. They're just buzzwords. They wouldn't be able to churn them out in significant numbers if they were whittling out bridges and necks. Odds are the human element is more in putting the machined pieces together.

Forgetting the nomenclature (handmade or handcrafted), I think about artisans who respond to the properties of wood when selecting sets, thicknessing tops, backs, sides or bracing the guitar vs. those that build to target dimensions based on “average” wood properties.

Hand = Hand
Made = Crafted

Therefore using math, handmade = handcrafted.

To my mind, the difference is that crafted infers an expression of quality. Crafting requires special skill and care. Being “made” does not. It is simply making something. In the case of guitar building it smells like promotional hype.

It reminds me of going to a grocery store and seeing the word "homemade" on food neatly packaged in cellophane. I think it must mean that a human's hand touched it somewhere in the manufacturing process.

To me, "hand made" implies a bit more personal care than "hand crafted", but neither has much meaning, being defined however the maker wants. If they use the word "entirely" before the rest, I'd have more confidence that human hands had a greater share of the work that went into it.

Eastman was brought up in the OP.
His supposition about Eastman is errroneous unless there has been a recent change.
From what I am able to gather in conversations with several folks very close to the company, Eastman is still doing more work with hands and rudimentary hand tools than any other "production" guitar builder. One of these folks is Ted at L.A. Guitars.
You can believe that or not but for folks to make statements to the contrary is nothing more than speculation based on nothing.
I'm not convinced Eastman uses any automated equipment at all. The last I knew they were still making the necks by hand, not CNC machines as was suggested, using basic hand tools. Eastman is still hand-spraying the finishes on the bodies.
If anyone can offer anything contrary to this, I'm willing to listen, but not unless you can at least provide some form of documentation... even if its just a conversation you had with an Eastman person.

Sort of like "real mother of pearl"? Not many advertise "fake mother of pearl". Something is either what it is claimed or it is not: claiming something to be something it is not is often the purpose of marketing.

If something is "handmade", it is "handmade": "entirely handmade" is superfluous. No one advertises "partially handmade". Nearly nothing in today's world is "entirely handmade", that is, made without the assistance of some machinery along the way.

I spent a few weeks learning to make furniture without any power tools or sandpaper: we used only handsaws, planes and chisels. However, we didn't fell our own trees with axes or handsaws and split our own wood with a froe: it was cut by chainsaw, likely, milled into lumber on a machine and transported to us using a machine prior to our touching it. The furniture we made was designed on a computer using CAD software. The finish we applied, linseed oil, was made using machines. Where does one draw the line in the "supply chain" to claim something was "handmade"?

Eastman, from the previous post, uses spray equipment - a compressor or turbine to deliver compressed air - rather than brushes or rags. Is that "handmade" since it uses a machine to deliver the finish to the surface of the work? Yes, a human directs the machine (sprayed finish). Is that enough to say it is "handmade"? A human directs a bulldozer: is work done with a bulldozer "handmade"? The term means whatever you want it to mean, applied however you want to apply it, the purpose of which is to invoke some Old World mystique of "quality".

For discussion sake, suppose Eastman guitars were 100% made by machine. If the instrument was exactly the same quality, would it matter if it was made with only 50% machinery-assisted? How about 25%? How about 10%? If the instrument is "the same" quality, regardless of how it was made, does it matter how it was made? (The discussion of human labour/livelihood being replaced/displaced by machines, as a social issue, is a different, longer discussion.)

Exactly, Charles. It's all semantics meant to create a psychological impression to the consumer. That's marketing.

Here's an example to deepen the debate: for years Larrivee has said that their guitars are "hand fitted" but many have said that they are "boutique quality on a budget." There are videos on the Youtubes about how they use CNC to carve their necks but when it comes time to put the neck on the body the human element comes into play and hand tools are used to adjust the fit.

I wouldn't be surprised that a similar process is followed by Eastman.

Homemade

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V3KGrxmic6k/maxresdefault.jpg





Handcrafted
http://michelettiguitars.com/Croz_Top_L.jpg


:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

home made is something you eat and handcrafted is something you dont or shouldnt if you are normal.

How many new, out-of-the-box Larrivee guitars need a neck reset? How many new, out-of-the-box Martin guitars need a neck reset? (This is a quality of manufacturing issue: it has nothing to do with who's guitars you like better.)

"Quality" is achieved by knowing when to use a machine and when to do something by hand. That is, some things machines do better; some things are better done by hand/handtools. Knowing which is which and applying that knowledge to one's manufacturing is key.

“Handcrafted” vs. “Handmade”
 

I think the real answer to the OPs question has already been stated a number of times here.
While in some industries, a specific term equates to a specific attribute or characteristic, I think the distinction between these two lacks that sort of "hard" definition.
IMHO, Handcrafted vs. Handmade is pretty much all marketing and perspective ...

case in point ...

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-2FT5fcS-L.jpg

I was about to make the same reply.