Official Luthiers Forum!

It seems to me that most answers given were more in terms of how to price if you are just starting actually present your work to the general buying public while at an early stage in your building experience. I took the question to be more of what if a friend or acquaintance asked to buy a first or second build or to build one for them with just one or two builds under your belt. To me these are two vastly different scenarios.

My point is that at the point in time defined by the original question, charging for your skill is presumptuous at best. But if the friend or acquaintance is willing to finance the build then Ok and take the experience gained during this second or third build as your payment.

I gave away 5 or 6 then built 4 or 5 at material and consumable cost only. No I did not make any money for those builds, but I built four or five guitars for free. The experience I gained was invaluable. And I would have built that many more and paid for material and consumables my self anyway so it worked out fine. I built for free. To me it was well worth it.

I think your right on the money there Ken. When asked how long I've been building I always tell them how many I've built. I only build one or two a year, so in years I'm ahead of you but in builds I'm way behind you. By the way my wife says I go to the basement and play with my wood and 6 to 9 months later I bring up a new guitar

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Here's my recipe...
I point out all flaws before the sale, so no question of my integrity can ever be raised. That is to me a point of honor.
I make sure all potential commission clients are aware of my build level (intermediate) and that they need to be able to accept some small cosmetic flaws, which is thankfully happening less and less. As for playability I've done over 30 000 setups (yes really that many) so that has never been an issue.
Anything I build on spec for consignment I price according to how it turns out, and make sure the dealer knows exactly why I priced it that way.
It's my opinion that as your build quality increases, it will justify a hand in hand price increase.
Personally I would be ashamed of myself if I tried to slide a flaw past the consumer, not to mention the dent my reputation would recieve when someone else points out the flaw after the fact, which will inevitably happen.
My experience has shown that all my clients have appreciated the straight forwardness and been willing to overlook small finish flaws, gaps in bindings etc. that occur as you're learning in favor of getting a great deal on a beautiful handmade guitar. Usually the response is "that's a flaw? Psshawww.."
For the curious, I've made 40 guitars outside my dayjob (making guitars). Four ugly horrendous shamebringing actually you can't do that with a chisel learning experience tragedy things that I gave away to people that cherish their ugly ducklings, about ten that I've sold as seconds, priced between 650 and 1000, and the rest fairly sweet rides priced between 1200 and 1850.
Cheers...

I agree experience, quality of the finished product, and your "niche" will decide what you charge and what people will pay (which will be a juggling act at first, possibly ). Consider a few things before you start putting instruments "out there" that I really didn't think about at first:

1. Based on my 12 years of experience in numerous repairs, refrets, setup, violin repair both high-end and for schools, I didn't realize there seems to be vastly more need for repair than need for a new axe. Consequently, consider the possibility some of your instruments down the road may require repairs such as neck resets, loose braces, whatever. Most handbuilder's warranties are limited lifetime to original owner so you/I are responsible to fix those. Kinda scary sometimes to think about. Fortunately, thus far I have not had to deal with this but am fully prepared should the need arise.

2. One good guitar in the hands of the right person can set your business "ablaze" and one bad or mediocre guitar in the hands of the wrong person can end it all very quickly. Don't sell unless they're very, very good. Look at all the high-end guitars you can as a measuring tool. Many of the guys on here are building some serious stuff.

3. Don't worry about selling a few cheap if necessary. I actually practically gave a few away to some pretty darn fine players and it really helped me out in a big way as far as getting my name out to those in my "niche" market. Ironically, one sold his back to me at the same price he paid because it was too loud for his taste ....so I promptly listed it for what at the time (one year later) was current market value for that model and sold it in less than a week. It was like a big Christmas bonus...yoooohooo!!!!

To sum it all up I would say $1200-$1500 is a good starting place. Good luck and enjoy it. Don't get too concerned with pricing yet. It will take care of itself eventually...and remember a good rule a friend of mine gave me: "take a year's worth of orders (or year's worth of guitars sold) and increase your price 10% and do that everytime you build a year's worth". That's exactly what I have done and so far it has worked well for me.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"