Official Luthiers Forum!

Do you guys build spec guitars, or do you only build to order?
How close to an order would you build a spec guitar?
How do you sell your spec guitars?
Has it worked out well for you?
Do they sell for the same, more, or less than a custom?
Whenever someone posts a guitar I have built on another forum, I often have someone ask if I that one is available or if I have another like it for sale. I've been thinking I might start building an extra one similar, but not exact whenever I build one. It sure would save time on setups.
I just have to figure out how to market it.
Having nice demos is good too.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve,

I have started trying to build up an inventory of a few guitars, not so much for spec guitars, but more for demos. It seems that someone is always coming over wanting to play one of my guitars and the only ones I have are the experimental guitars that I didnt go to alot of effort on. It helps to have somehting that is "show ready" for people to demo. Of course, they can be sold at shows or as a part of a demo. My plans are to have at least one of each model available.

Not sure if this answers your question or not, but it is a good idea to have some on hand.

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Reguards,

Ken H

I am shifting gears when it comes to this very thing in my business. I now build only to order simply because I have several years worth of orders standing at any given time and can't justify directing any of my time to spec guitars.

My goal in the future is to get to a place where I'm building only six or so commissioned guitars a year and the balance of my time will be spent building spec instruments that I'm able to express myself on a little more and implement different ideas and design points. This will allow me to get off of the well beaten path of regular designs and models and into sme new territory that I haven't been able to explore simply because time hasn't allowed it. This will all take place when my backlog is cut to less than 12 months, though.


The spec guitars will be sold online or through private channels elsewhere. I've never had a guitar that was available immediately last more than a day or two once its availability was made known on the forums.

With some recent experiences with commissioning customers, I've been inspired to be much more selective about who I deal with and build for. Players are very careful about which builder they choose for their next commission and builders should be just as careful about who they choose to serve by building their next guitar. Having a huge disposable income and a check in hand to pay with should never be the sole determining factors when a builder is deciding to take on a commission.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

I'm pretty surprised that no one builds any spec guitars. I thought many would say that they did this all the time.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I hope to get to the point where I build mostly "spec guitars". I'm kind of tired of the amount of hand holding required for custom work, and I hate being under the deposits. I want to get to the point where I build what I want to build, and my potential clients can either buy what I choose to make or go elsewhere.

I now do have several regular clients who ask me what I'd like to build for them next. This is half way on the way to how I want to work. I know the clients' tastes and I don't go against that, but I have the freedom to really do my best work and get kind of experimental. This is how my first tilt neck guitar commission came about. It was loosely based on a previous instrument, but I got to make the call on the neck adjustment, and it worked out fantastically well.

The problem with custom, highly detailed work that is very specific to a customer is that they often have unrealistic expectations, and I can wind up spending hours and hours pouring over minute aesthetic details that I'd rather put into building. An exception to this is when I get clients who want instruments that either do not or barely exist in the world. Just got out a convertable acoustic-electric mandocello/lauta. Working on a seven string tenor bass/baritone guitar. Just got a commission for a medium scale fretted six string bass. Working on a jumbo acoustic flattop tilt neck mando-cello. This stuff is fun, and I'm not being asked to make a better D-28 than their '37 'bone...or whatever. You get into that zone, and half of it is psychology, anyway...

.....What Rick said......that's about it.

Too many times, we have people commission guitars and then say that they want this feature from this builder and that feature from the other builder as they email and send photos of guitars built by other builder all over the country. I've had to finally just say,
"Whoa...Why don't you just contacted all fo those guys and get something from them and then come back to me when you want what
I offer?".

One guy complained that I wasn't offering a bevel design yet so I suggested that he contact Kevin Ryan for a commission. He said,"I'm not spending that kind if money on a guitar and I informed him that the bevel is going to put my guitar right in the ballpark of a Ryan anyway." He has no idea of how much work it takes to achieve a cool detail like Kevin's bevel design or anything similar. He dropped the bevel idea for the time being and has decided that he doesn't really want it as badly as he did when he thought it would be close to free.


Thanks as usual Rick,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

I make a few spec guitars and want to do more to try and nurture key dealer relalationships.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Hehehe...that must be true for 1 out of every 2 guys who walk in the door.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

I'm sure that like Kevin and Rick, we can all relate to customers asking for some real time consuming special features. I don't even want to try to add up the time I spent on a recent build for one of these special features.
Certainly all show guitars are spec guitars. Do you guys that do shows sell these guitars pretty easily and for a good price?

Brock,
I'm starting to think that nurturing key dealer relationships is a real good idea. Custom builds can be a real time sink, not just in the build, but developing all the details for some of these customers up front can take forever.
I'm getting to where I just say no, but some of their ideas are pretty intriguing.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Hi guys It is a little past midnight here in Chengdu China. This is the first time I have been able to sign on to the company’s network. I don’t know how long it will stay available.

Anyway I build what was called A student model, now Standard series. It lacks all the fine esthetic feature of custom builds like mitered side purfling bound fretboard and offers only a few selected common woods. The option on this series is very limited. I do not build them up in advance but I can build on in pretty short order.

The intent is to provide a well built guitar at an affordable price point. And this works for me. However the funny thing is, it has turned out to be just as much of a enticement poly as a specific product line. Better than 80 percent of clients that inquire about the Standard series end up commissioning a Custom series. This was not an intentional marketing ploy but it has turned out that way.

Most inquiries start out with the client saying I not interested in a custom guitar and the Standard series sound perfect, but before the ink is dry on the commission agreement they upgrade to a custom series more often than not.

You know, and this is not directed at anyone specifically, how the builder presents their value-add plays a key role in the nature and number of "special requests" for customization that you will receive. This holds true generally speaking no matter what you are producing and pedaling.

For example, if during the interview process you tend to throw a lot of ideas out to the prospective client you are also clearly positioning yourself to that prospective client as a builder who offers a high degree of customization. How often are the "sell up" features of your commission guitars the result of something that you brought up to the client?

If your web site, for example, lists and prices a host of custom features don't be surprised if someone wants to take you up on your offerings.

OTOH if you present your guitars or products with fewer decisions required you always have the option of introducing a greater degree of customization if your prospective client is on the fence.

My point is that if you make the focus of your presentation to a prospective client the high degree customization that you offer the kind of clients that result may in fact commission guitars with a high degree of customization.

Various builders have different spins on the sweet spot of the market that they are most comfortable operating in. And clearly there is nothing wrong with encouraging a high degree of customization if that is what you enjoy producing.

Sales of any product is very much a "be careful what you ask for" business.

It isn't the time sink of custom work as much as it is:

1. Building the guitars *I* want to build
2. Having a place to put guitars if commissions fail to make the final payment
3. Having my guitars in the orbit of custom builders who have more of a household name. (this is perhaps the biggest reason I want to build more dealer relationships). Birds of a feather kind of thing.

And, I also think that there is some implied quality if a dealer with a good reputation showcases your work.

I see this more of a marketing excercise than a sales effort.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I pretty much go with Rick, Kevin and think Brock here.

In the two shops I have worked at, one being much larger than the other, they both had "spec" guitars. One was 95% "spec" going to dealers. The other more toward the custom builds, but still lot of "spec" guitars and doing more.

The thing about "spec" builds are you can do their own design and if what the public wants sell lots of them. If a certain spec isn't going to work and be marketable it is found out pretty quick and they do another. I have seen the custom end of things and man it can be very cool, but also very frustrating. The spec end with dealers is income and that is what lets the other get done also. Some want to do only custom guitars and that is cool. But many of the pro's want to get as many out there as they can and make money doing it. After all however one goes, if a pro it is a money thing as that is how they take care of family and everything else.

The shows are great for the spec guitars also. Many of the dealers are not interested in making your brand for you. They want to see how much your going to do and if your going to hang in there and make your name/brand, and be there in the long run before they invest in you.

I personally would rather have some "spec" guitars in the market and get known and then do the custom one off stuff as I could. Again, the income thing. I am not talking as a pro here relative to me, but working in pro shops. I don't know where I fit, but want the pro label in time and working my you know off to get there right now.