How many man hours does it take to build a guitar

[Malcolm Kindnes]

Originally Posted by Yrksman

I’m good friends with a significant number of luthiers. Almost all of them build one at a time.

For many reasons it’s impossible to say how many hours a guitar takes. Let’s just say it’s a lot and the hourly rate isn’t great even at the higher priced end. Not an industry to join if you aim to be rich and/or have a generous pension.

Well, I'm friends with several luthiers who build in batches, so there. 🤷

Seriously, I suppose it depends on your production schedule, I guess you are referring to very high end luthiers who are making individual instruments to specific requirements, whereas I am thinking of small scale builders who are making a range of "standard" models. These are much more efficiently made in small batches.

[Fathand]

My last guitar, an 0-18, took just over 10 weeks. That included making the mold and template, re-bending burnt and broken sides and stripping a failed varathane diamond hard finish and refinishing with Tru Oil. I had cut the sides and back set at a previous time but that only adds an hour. I do use pre-made kerfed linings because they are so cheap. I buy strings, tuners, binding and purfling.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194462...77720296629122

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by takamineGD93

I been thinking about if we who visits this site shouldn't all start building guitars with our special interest for details no one else care about.

I think I'l start with trying to build and change a neck.

That's always been my modus operandi.

[printer2]

As said, depends on how much you use premade parts. I pretty much make everything from raw wood other than cut the top, back and sides. I have done those also but I had to drop out of building for a while and now I probably have more of them than I will be using until I hang up my apron. I still cut all my brace wood, linings, bindings, rosettes, dimension the stuff. I would say 100 hours does sound reasonable without doing any special finishing. Finishing can add more time. How about the fastest time to build a guitar? I think it was three weeks. It was an experimental build and I did not do a rosette (I regret not to) and I used CA glue and a wipe on poly.

[Sage Runner]

Takes me long time. lot of hours to complete a Guitar. I never counted hours, but anywhere from 4-6 months. My tooling is basic old school, same tools I have used since 1988. I hand cut the pearl and Abalone from raw shell for inlays. Do my own Nitro finish. Try to never Rush it. I thought about tooling up with today’s luthier shop set up, but it would cost about 10-15 grand . I only have about 7-8 sets of very old tone woods in my stash that I have had since mid 80s and build just for pleasure anyway . I Think I will stick with an occasional Restoration and build one here and there when I get the Itch.

[runamuck]

There's no one answer. From all I've read it can range from 30 hours up to 200 or so. In his most productive years James Olson built over 60 and many of those guitars had a lot more inlay and such than you are describing.

[Yrksman]

Originally Posted by koolimy

I remember watching a youtube video on this forum interviewing a luthier named Mr. Thompson (?). This quote of his stuck with me: "If you want to make a small fortune making guitars, start out with a big fortune!"

T J Thompson - he’s right at the top of the tree

[Yrksman]

Originally Posted by Malcolm Kindnes

Well, I'm friends with several luthiers who build in batches, so there. 🤷

Seriously, I suppose it depends on your production schedule, I guess you are referring to very high end luthiers who are making individual instruments to specific requirements, whereas I am thinking of small scale builders who are making a range of "standard" models. These are much more efficiently made in small batches.

Yes that’s right. And there are comments above about what Bob Taylor says, a factory being a different matter entirely where they have all the modern computer controlled machines and drying cabinets.

So our conclusion to the original question is ‘it depends”.

[Zigeuner]

Back in the late 1970's when I had more energy than I now have, I built some 9 guitars and a few more necks. I actually logged all of the actual working time and came up with approximately 120 hours.

That was not consecutive but represented actual time. There were periods of weeks where no work was performed due to drying time and finishing time, etc.

This seems to agree with what others say above, i.e. 100-120 hours. That's a very reasonable estimate for actual working time.

[Alan Carruth]

Bob Taylor said once in a talk that I heard that some of the Oriental factories can put out a guitar-like-object with 1-1/2 man-hours of labor. OTOH, I spent over 100 hours making the inlay pieces for a guitar once. So there's a range. I tell my incoming students to try to minimize fancy work. There's enough challenge on the first few in just making something that's clean and works well, and neat and simple tends to look better than complex and messed up.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Seems like I've posted in threads with this question before, but apparently it wasn't this one.

In my first 10 years I tried to get my hour count down, and remember that I was able to complete a guitar in under 60 hours. Not anymore. As my tolerance for flaws has diminished my hour count has risen. It now averages me about 150 hours to complete a guitar. I do my own oil varnish finish, a hard won skill set that I believe to be essential to the quality of my guitars. That alone is between 20 and 25 hours per guitar. I can do nitro cellulose, and it is about a fifth the time, but it is not my ideal. It's been over 20 years since I last made that unfortunate compromise.

[H165]

I also suspect that most modern builders got the notion, that could could build a better guitar than they could afford to actually purchase, is how they got their start?

It's certainly part of how I got interested.

I also tend to put a bunch of wacky inlay in the guitars I build, so the hours go up.

I'm building a rather plain one right now - I'd guess 150 hours.

[redir]

I can have a guitar assembled in about 30 hours and then another 130 hours to finish it. God I hate finishing.

I too used to try and get my hour count down. I don't command a high price so every hour counts in terms of my dollar per hour salary and then of course overhead. The customer buys all the materials as part of the bill of sale up front.

So try and finish a guitar in 80 hours. over a 3 month period and yes seriously much of that is French Polish finishing. Realistically it typically takes longer. And that is for a simple one as you mentioned. I am building some Style 45 OM's now that I expect will take many more hours.