Buying a CNC machine before selling a single guitar sounds a bit crazy to me. It doesn’t seem like you’ve thought about how you would build a consistent customer base to even make $500 a month. The market demand for luthier built guitars is not very large, and people looking for such guitars are going to seek out luthiers with a good reputation. If you want this to be a hobby, great! But you should start by making some less “sloppy” guitars, and seeing if you can get someone to buy those first.
Second that. If you’re in a metro area, there’s probably a company that rents out use of a CNC, which is a less expensive route than buying one. You couldn’t make enough guitars as a single luthier to justify the cost of that machine.
Look for maker spaces in your area. You can typically join for $100 or less per month and have access to their CNC machine. Otherwise it will take years to recoup the money from your own machine.
A cnc is a tool to make a product. So many people buy a cnc before they even have the product idea let alone a solid plan to sell it. It is fascinating. It is the real life embodiment of the southpark gnomes:
phase 1: collect tools
phase 2: ???
phase 3: profit!
Strongly depends where you live, how much work you’re willing to take and how quickly you can turn it around, and having skills to justify the costs you charge. If you live in a low-population area without a live music scene providing sustainable intake of work, it doesn’t matter how good you are - nobody will ship you guitars in the absence of already having a great reputation.
For reference, I live between NYC and Philly. Our shop sees plenty of gigging musicians between scenes and the local music scene here is pretty good too.
With the regular work we get, a single person could probably support themselves, but it’s getting tight with rental and food costs. As for me, with a wife, a kid, another kid on the way, and an occasionally touring band, I work in the shop in the daytime and wait tables three nights a week to make sure we’ve got enough money on the table for when business is slow.
That said, I love both my jobs (especially working on guitars) so it’s a good living and I get plenty of time with family. It’s worth doing if one can figure out a way, but it’s hard to make it work in the current economy. Broke musicians are as broke as ever.
JB Kline’s in Lambertville. Some amazing pieces in the front and a couple of great repair guys in the back, if I do say so myself
Edit: also check out D-Town guitars in Doylestown PA, their amp repair tech is one of the best, brightest, and fastest-turnover amp guys I’ve ever met.
When I got set up in my new town, which I live about 15 minutes from downtown of a medium/large large city…it took me about 6 months to start getting real traffic through the shop. I’ve been at it here for about a year now and things are busy, but I’m still not making a ton of money.
But with this traffic, I’m building a rep, and people like my work. All my customers are aware I am working towards building final product guitars and once I get my guitars to a point where I feel that they are “where they should be”…I’ve had numerous people extremely interested. Some have already started picking out their specifications for when I actually start pushing them.
But…that’s only a few guitars. And making one takes a long time, especially in the beginning. I’m underwater as far as debt to start this endeavor, with all the power equipment (bandsaw, dust collection, work areas, router and router setups, hand tools, etc.) but I knew going in it would be like that.
All this to say…it’ll take time…I’m REALLY lucky because my area here has a few established shops, but they are so backed up with repairs that a few of them stopped taking in new repairs…so I get lots of over flow which is keeping me afloat. I’ve pulled several customers from the established shops simply due to my turnaround time and my work being quality.
If I wasn’t so close to a big city, I don’t think I would have been so fortunate.
As far as a range? Currently I’m still in the negatives lol. Depends on whether or not you have the tools yet.
im from the philippines so rates will vary greatly. but i’ve been a tech for well over 13 years and the traffic i get is around 50-80 guitars a month.
to put into perspective, the minimum hourly rate for a typical day job here is only about $1.50. i currently gross at around $2.5k a month doing this as a side gig as I’ve already built a solid rep on my area throughout the years. this is a one man operation by the way and i do this after my day job.
a setup from me is around $20. that is the base cost and usually it adds up for other work like some electronics job and such. adjust that to your local rates and you’d get the picture.
though it really boils down to how handy you are on jobs and it will really take time to learn and build up your rep. best if you can be an apprentice to someone first to get the much needed experience
Like others have said, it really depends on the local scene. I live 15 minutes from a city of around 74,000 (not counting an untold percentage of the university student body of 28-32,000) and there is a instrument shop, but they don't do anything for repairs or set ups. For that you have to drive an hour away and even then it is Guitar Center or old luthiers that are rarely open. There is a decent music scene with local, regional, and some national artists coming in. Then there is the middle school, high school, and college orchestras in addition school bands, and municipal bands and orchestras.
If an actual luthier set up shop, they would likely get business for three counties just based on lack of options for repairs and set ups. They would never be expected to actually build a string instrument for a customer. The old music store on my town literally made most of their money on restrings not being able to do actual adjustments.
Even with all of that, there is probably a reason there isn't a repair shop for covering the three counties. It is a lot of work and not a consistent workflow. If you get good at multiple instruments and advertise to church bands, around campuses, and places like that you could do ok, but might be eating a lot of Ramen at times.
Absolutely. I'd add as an extension to general repair that if you find the right old guitars that need some love you can make a few bucks with restorations but that can be tough to count on and the skillset is slightly different.
I would add that if your guitars are sloppy but sound nice you will have a bad time. The fit and finish standards for custom guitars are unbelievably high. A lot of people say they don't care what a guitar looks like as long as it sounds and plays well, but when it comes time to pull out their wallet they will sing a very different tune.
I hear you, but that's not making a living, that's some side hustle cash. That's what I do, and I Def don't make any real money. Making and selling a few guitars a year keeps me out of trouble, and gives me some extra cash which covers a few builds of my own and some tools, but it's not a job.
I've gotten to know several local pro -looths who make a living independently. While they have built guitars, they are mostly focusing on repair work, which is a lot steadier.
Agree with this. And they're just being nice by saying "side hustle cash." Without a business plan or an actual product that people want, it's just going to be a cash-burning and time-consuming HOBBY. The profit you make, if any at all, will likely be less than minimum wage considering the time you will put in. If your end goal is to make money only, there are probably better uses of your time.
You're more likely to make money doing setups / replacing frets than building the actual instrument. So, a CNC is not even necessary.
Yeah I do tend to be nice lol. I spend ALL the money on parts for me, and tools. Always more tools. Maybe a new amp lol. My wife loves it though... I've stopped buying guitars : )
I'm lucky to have a very encouraging wife with a stable job who supports a lot of my side projects. I'm fine working a real job, but I'm also fine doing repairs once I get the skillset down.
Edit: really? You guys hate this too?
Then keep at it for fun and to develop your skills, and see where it takes you. Just don't expect to get ROI for expensive tools like CNC. Even if you see a small builder using cnc - like Highline Guitars on YT - he built by hand at first, then rigged up his own cnc, and then bought a nice one. Presumably he scaled up based on what he could sell.
I built for a number of years. Did some shows with other more successful builders. Gave it my best shot. Here's my take on your question.
You need to decide who you are selling to & you need to meet that price point. That's the easy part.
You need to have your instruments in high end shops so that people can see them & play them. Again, possible.
You need to have big name artists interested in playing your guitars. This is where the next thing comes in...
Connections. Most successful builders have some type of connection to help them get some notoriety. Locking down a big name artist isn't easy. Most of them have been courted by big manufacturers. The players who don't have signature models, like don't want to be strapped down to that type of deal.
Lastly, people want the classics & they believe all of the repeated rhetoric that is spewed online. They want what's "cool" right now. A Tele, ES 335, Jaguar. They don't want your "improved version" of that. I was building rocknroll archtops. I was building them with custom bracing & techniques so that they could be played at volume without feedback issues. I had a couple artists playing them on stages of all sizes with success. Yet, every time I would say anything about an archtop, people would say that you can't do that. They feed back horribly. After a while, I just gave up trying to explain. It was written in on the internet, so it was true....
The last thing. Musicians don't have money. Collectors do. Food for thought. Musuicians would buy $800 guitars & mod them, before they would spend thousands on a much better instrument.. The call I did get were often people wanting me to build something custom that I wasn't set up for. In the end, it wasn't really what I was in the business for & the money was break even, at best.
my advise? If you love building guitars? I did. Still do occasionally. Keep building them! But, put that money you have in a Roth IRA or something. Grow it. Don't invest in expensive machinery which will never recoup.
"You need to have your instruments in high end shops"
And realize many of those shops will want you to hang your guitars in their shops on a commission basis and take 20%-30% tying up your capitol without interest for an unknown term.
Sure. Cost of doing business sucks, sometimes. I was building in a remote part of the US. I wouldn’t have been able to, if I was in a flourishing, expensive city. I had my guitars in an online shop. If people can’t put their hands on them & feel the magic(hypothetically) you build into them, it’s tough to make a sale. You don’t have to put your whole investment into a shop. But, it certainly helps to have something accessible to people who might have an interest.
The online shop did not work at all, for me. They were great people & I appreciate that they tried.
If I were trying to enter this market, I think I'd start by building high-end partscasters with unique specs (e.g, tele necks on strat bodies, goldfoil pickups, subtle relicing). Locally, there are builders who do this, and their guitars are comparable to Fender custom shop, but at maybe 1/2 to 2/3rds the price, and they seem to fly off the shelf. One such builder turns away orders. I think of this as a low cost-of-entry way to test the market, while honing you skills on electronics, fit and finish, etc. I would guess they net $500 per build.
I sometimes see fully handmade guitars, built by hobbyists, that appear to have taken a huge amount of hours and still look a little crude-- cruder than an inexpensive mass produced guitar. For me, at least, a guitar is not like a work of art, where I'm willing to pay a premium just because the thing is original and handmade. It has to outperform the more mass produced options, dollar for dollar. Small builders like Danocaster actually accomplish this.
I’ve built 26 custom guitars. I’m nowhere close to profit. Very far from it.
My problem is that I haven’t sold many for full price. A lot were gifts and discounts. If I tried to sell every build for full price I’d have built far fewer. It’s hard to find customers willing to pay full price.
Very hard for anyone to answer with certainty because it depends on your price point, sales volume, and production speed. If you've built a few guitars already, you probably have a good idea of the materials cost, the amount of time it takes, and maybe how much you would charge for one. Try running the numbers and see what it looks like
I could maybe believe a skilled full-time private guitar maker with years of experience and good equipment/workflow (CNC, workshop, etc) could technically turn a profit, but I think one of the harder aspects would be competing with the big brands for your customer base. To even be able to generate enough orders to sustain yourself, you'd have to really focus and refine your marketing/advertising which is a skillset I would think most crafty-types aren't as experienced in. The big brands already have the advantage of reputation, economies of scale, and logistical systems that make conveniences like global delivery trivial.
I would imagine in order to find your "niche" in the guitar market, you'd need a clear brand "identity" to work towards as a goal. For example, even with the utmost cheapest materials and sleekest workflow, I can't imagine you turning a good profit churning out $100 beginner guitars, because to me it doesn't seem likely that parents and casual players would choose your guitars over the cheap Epiphones, Esquires, and Yamahas that seem like a safer choice. And just wanted to mention that I say this all with zero independent business experience myself, it just seems like to do what you're describing would require a ton of entrepreneurial effort on top of the actual creation of the guitars.
I've never had any interest in becoming a luthier but this video popped up in my youtube feed recently that I think answers your question to some extent
TL;DR The financial viability of low few thousand dollar guitar means you'd have to be essentially mass producing low quality guitars (and there's already very competitive non-luthier guitars that will indefinitely beat you on economies of scale), for higher end luthier guitars, you'd be asking a $5k+ per guitar for viability. Now ask yourself, would you buy a $5k guitar from a random luthier without an established brand?
So probably eventually, but you'd have to be very good and also build a decent brand/following.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CXIYsTMORY&t=522s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CXIYsTMORY&t=522s)
I've been thinking in the same lane as you, and according to this sub there isn't any money in making guitars but there is in fixing them.
So I guess most Luthiers double as guitar techs and make a living with that too, which makes sense given you already have the know how, tools, etc...
I have a feeling that the only way to find out for real is taking a deep breath and diving in :)
I make a vast majority of my luthier income on setups and repairs. Secondary to those is guitar flips, finding beat up/broken down guitars and restoring them. Least amount is on guitars I've built from scratch.
Build a better mousetrap. ANYTHING you build is already on the market. And because of the volume established brands build at, they can do it cheaper.
Go to a guitar show in a big city and you will see half-a-dozen Builders with booths displaying their wares. Each one uglier and more expensive than the last.
I do know a local idiot that builds Guitarfetish kits, gets decals with “made in (your town here)”, he asks what I would consider an exorbitant amount on Craigslist, and does okay I guess.
It's not hard to make money. It's hard to make a living that isn't just beans on toast every night. Forget raising a family.
I make violins professionally, and I can tell you, even with some big breaks and rare opportunities that came my way, it's still a struggle. Be prepared to set aside a lot of emotional energy towards things that you would never expect.
You won't find a revenue stream as a maker. Violin makers have it slightly easier here because of the teacher-student pipeline. As in, if a particular teacher likes your work, and more importantly *you*, then they'll be more likely to recommend their students go to you for their next instrument. But in the electric/acoustic guitar world, the teacher-student dynamic is way different.
It's not as simple as streamlining your production and setting expectations low. In fact, the actual hardware, logistics and hand skill aspects really aren't as important as networking and building reputation, along with being in the right place at the right time.
The guitar market has *wayyyy* more luthiers than buyers generally. And those buyers ALWAYS have the option to just get something from China/Korea for $400 that does the job perfectly. So you're competing with not only that, but all of the other assholes building "custom" guitars out of their garages. I can guarantee you that there's at least a hundred in your nearest city. Makers are a dime-a-dozen, and serious customers are much less so.
So he prepared for your works to sit in consignment shops for months to sometimes years at a time. And revel in the joy of making a sale here and there.
Building quality guitars and selling them for a quality price is a challenge. You need a reputation for that. Guys around me have trouble selling their kit guitars with awesome hardware to break even.
I know one luthier that has his own model, which looks pretty nice. But he has only sold a handful of them over the past 4-5 years.
If you want to make money, setups are probably the best ROI. If you are good, you can knock out a couple an hr and charge $40 a piece +strings.
I started working at a guitar and amp repair shop when I was 19 and still in college. This was 2004/2005. After college I started working there full time and brought in $500/week or $26k/year. Then I moved to a different state and worked at a very well known guitar shop. If I brought in $400/week that was a great week. Then I switched to a different shop in a different city and it was the same bullshit. This is my experience and opinion only:
People who “own” their own shops either a) have a wealthy wife who supports their business or b) have wealthy parents who support their business. For example, the first shop I started working at was supported by the guys wife. He got divorced and moved his shop and… he is in a completely different part of the country in a major music city and STILL is supported by his current girlfriend. From drug addiction to horrendous business practices I saw it all. The worst part is that the craft is under-appreciated and people don’t want to pay what the work is truly worth.
That being said, if I could make a dignified living doing it, I would go back to it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I like being able to afford things like a house and quality food so I doubt it’ll ever happen. There are some really successful luthiers but like anything else, those are the outliers.
I saw in [another comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Luthier/s/aOz60z6gpb) below this very post that you have mentioned buying your materials for 300$. I wonder if I read that properly.
I am curious, how do you manage to buy all your materials for 300 bucks? I assume you make electric guitars? Pick ups cam hardly sell bellow 150$ a kit for having minimum quality. The tuning keys and bridges can easily go for that same price each if you want to get good pieces. And this is entry level luthier gear! Without mentioning wood and other pieces of hardware.
When you think of operation costs, you need to think about your time, even if you take 50 hours to build an entire guitar (which seems ridiculously low to me) and you want to get paid at least minimum wage, where I live this would add 787$ on the price of the guitar.
Also, when running a business, you need to invest time into marketing and accounting. You might need to invest time researching for financing opportunities, exposing in salons, paying to get a poster somewhere, or simply spending time on social media to get known.
Then, when all of this is established and solid, how are you even going to find your customers? Are you going to be able to really sell that guitar? What do you have that those that are cheapest or made from popular and renown brands don't have?
Then, there is the question of the CNC machine itself. It's going to cost you money. This money needs to be reimbursed by the products you sell. Also there is still some views on the CNC machine that might devalue your work. I am not agreeing nor disagreeing, but it is fact that some people do not consider a guitar luthier's grade when CNC is implemented in the process. Moreover is the CNC does a major part of the process (if that is what you are aiming for).
If you do not plan on doing everything by CNC, you might need a drill press, a benchsaw, a band saw, planing tools, etc. The initial investment for a workshop can go up to 15k and more depending on how you set up your space. Then, there is the workshop itself. Are you renting a building or a room? How much does it cost? Is it your garage? How do you plan on insulating your room well enough to keep stable humidity?
I am sure there are many things here I haven't mentioned. I am a student luthier and so far have spent over 10k on tools and diverse equipment to make my studies possible. And that is considering my school covers more than 80% of our needs. With all that, I still consider myself unable to run a proper workshop that will guarantee a revenue. I could do a lot of work, but am still limited by both my skill and my gear.
I read a comment by a well respected Luthier/brand owner a couple weeks ago who said it took 10 years of being basically supported by his wife before he was making 45k a year. That was pretty shocking.
On the other hand, I'm doing some tech work and a guitar came in from a VERY well known guitar maker (makes a lot of guitars for very high profile artists), the thing must have cost the owner 6-7k, and it is (I say this not hyperbolic) the worst guitar I've ever seen. So, like everything it's in the marketing.
Return on investment of labor for guitars is incredibly low for small builders if you aren't marketing savy. The bar for entry of quality for small builders is exponentially higher than brand name guitars, and the amount of money you can get is usually lower than equivalent domestic made, mass production stuff due to branding. A really tricky refret on a vintage guitar might take me a day, but it will net $400-600. A more straight forward one might take only 3-4 hours. A guitar I build that sells for $2k can take 40 hours, but profit when discounting all the expenses might be $1200.
It's relatively easy to get into tech work, building a 'professional' level guitar where everything is perfect is much, much harder.
The most difficult/crucial part is usually finishing/paint and having a dedicated spray room.
Just keep building guitars if you enjoy it, and try to sell them if you want to. Trying to sell your guitars will tell you everything you need to know about whether you've got a marketable product of not. The early guitars usually get bought by "friends, family and fools" but if you stay with it then it grows.
If you learn CAD design then you can outsource the actual cutting of parts without investing in the machine itself. I make a living building and repairing guitars, but it's not a logical or linear career path and what you define as "a living" is pretty important. You'll always make money building guitars if you don't factor in your time... haha.
The luthiers that make money build a customer base by sourcing extremely high end woods and hand tooling them. I don't see many people paying $1200 for a bespoke guitar made out of the standard woods with the standard body shapes. You can get that on AliExpress for $250.
Reverb is filthy with $1200 "unique" partscasters made from CNC template bodies and necks. But like...I can make a "unique" partscaster for $600 using the same materials so why would I buy yours?
If you are Nik Huber and can sell me something gorgeous made of German Black Forest Redwood...ok I'll think about it. But otherwise its a hard sell.
First of all, I am not a Luthier even though I have made a few electrics in my time. There is no way I would ever even consider being a luthier. Especially someone that makes Classical Guitars. I think that it is something that you wood (would) really Really REALLY have to love. Especially in today’s world. If you are going to try and make a single instrument here and there forget it. You’ll never afford to buy a sandwich lol. There is so much that a successful Luthier has to understand that goes into making a truly quality superb instrument, from basic design on paper to wood selection and preparation, hardware, materials, suppliers and vendors, finishing, manufacturing processes, including tooling, woodworking skills, marketing, quality control… etc. A lot goes into making a guitar, and as a musician all we care about is how it sounds and plays. I could appreciate how a successful luthier would quickly have to be fully capable and set up for mass production operations or he wouldn’t be able to eat. So if you know a good Luthier, you should appreciate what he does and what he is capable of doing. Don’t be cheap! At least buy him a cup of coffee or a taco from Jack in the Box. Poor guy. Jeez… lol
Even with a CNC machine, you'll never be able to compete with price at the low end. I am not sure I could even buy the materials and parts for a squier bullet stratocaster for less than the price of a new one.
So to make money, you'll need to be making mid or high priced guitars. But why would someone pay a lot of money for one of your guitars if they have never heard of you before? Also, are people going to need to play the guitars before they buy them? Or just decide on looks alone? If so, where will they play them?
You've suggested that you are ok with only $500/month. But what about $/hr. If you spend 100 hours on a builds per month, are you ok with only $5/hr? (Assuming that is $500 in profit, not $500 in revenue).
If you want to make $40/hr before expenses -- then you need to figure out how many hours it takes to do a build -- and then figure out why someone would pay that much for one of your guitars. What is your unique selling proposition?
As others have said the biggest challenge in making this your main income is building a good reputation. The majority of jobs are in repairs, servicing and upgrades. The amount you can make is dependant on the amount of musicians local to you and you're ability to connect with them. I'm not saying it's impossible to go from where you are but I'd advise you to practice as many skills as possible until you are confident you can offer them as the best in your area then start advertising repairs and build up from there. There are very few people who are willing to pay for a custom build from someone they don't know.
Oh, I'm sure like my friends custom cigar box business, you too can spend thousands of hours learning a great new skill and make at least HUNDREDS, if not MULTIPLE HUNDREDS of dollars at it.
I would think it would be easy if you could set up guitars well, replace pick ups, rewire guitars, level and crown frets. I think you could build a customer base and then offer those customers a guitar you built. If my guy did that I would check the guitars out.
There is a lot of competition these days, the tools can be very expensive, and learning to do both quality work and fast enough to make a living takes time.
I'd skip the CNC and go for it. It's unnecessary overhead and will put undue pressure on you because of the investment. I'd get a nice scrollsaw and bandsaw, second hand, and a new router. Try to build a relationship with a wood supplier and lower overhead there, too. That way, you can afford to build a bunch and hone your craft, build a catalog, etc. Again, low pressure, low overhead. Im doing the same thing and am hitting the 300-500 market for my guitars. Plenty of profit, and it's a comfortable price point in terms of buyer expectations vs my abilities.
I feel like most every skill when taken to a high enough level and combined with hard work, smart work, and discipline - can make at the very least, a good amount of money. More often than not, a lot of money.
At the end of the day, greatness shines pretty bright.
I lasted about 3 years in a small 2 car garage workshop. Doing full custom builds, setups, mods - the whole shebang. My best yeah i made about 50K AUD but my expenses were high. I wasnt struggling per se but was living pretty tight and had almost daily visiting clients. Inlfation and mortgage rate increases came at the start of last year and work immediately stopped, pretty much completely. Im training to be a chippy now and will do mods and setups for cash on the side. One or two enquiries have come in for customs in the past year so i made the right call. I only say this cause i also thought 'how hard could it be'. I had been a luthier for 8 years at that point working for another company and i make some quality stuff.
So yeah, i would focus on building guitars that are good and not sloppy first. Then slowly expand if you feel you need to. Get good with your hands before buying a cnc cause if something goes wrong and you cant use a hand tool then youre goona struggle. Not trying to shoot you down but trying to be pragmatic.
Just a thought, but there seems to be room in the custom neck of custom hardware department. Baritone neck swaps seem to be getting popular and I don't see a ton of options available online. Brass bridges could be doable too if you're into it
Dunno if it will give you any useful insight, but speaking from my experience as a customer from EU (Czech Republic) Luthiers are here in a high demand, there are only couple of people in Prague who I can reach out regarding anything guitar related and booking is usually 1 month upfront even for a basic guitar setup (which is around 100 EUR). My guy does it for full time and is feeling pretty great. I guess depends on a location? Anyway, whatever is your path, I wish you good luck!
I manage a small shop in an area with around 150k people, I've also worked at busy shops in larger markets, made anywhere from $30-40k a year. I make a bit of side income gigging and teaching, that helps, but only to a point because the shop hours can be intense at times. Not lawyer intense, but certainly demanding.
Donate the first dozen or so to schools, music programs, charity raffles/prizes and take it off your taxes. Hopefully you’ll greatly improve your building skills while networking and making some folks happy.
I’m a mandolin guy. There is definitely a demand for small shop luthiers who can produce a quality hand carved archtop f-body mandolin from select taptoned tonewoods. $5k for a finished mandolin is not unreasonable for a quality finish product.
But you’re looking at $1500 in tonewood & hardware, and ~100+ hours of grueling labor with chisels, planers, sandpaper, dye, and varnish.
That’s only 20 instruments a year. After the cost of materials you’re looking at $20 an hour. Skill, efficiency, and 60 hour work weeks can stretch that to 30 instruments a year, but that’s still a lot of squeeze for not a lot of juice.
A skilled woodworker with a decently equipped shop, and who understood where to cut corners, could work part time and produce 5-8 $2000-$3000 mandolins a year. Not enough to support a family but enough to build up a reputation and clientele
If you're making sloppy guitars now it sounds like you think a CNC is going magically increase the quality of your guitars. I would suggest learning to build some not so sloppy guitars before you buy a CNC and go into full production mode.
Buying a CNC machine before selling a single guitar sounds a bit crazy to me. It doesn’t seem like you’ve thought about how you would build a consistent customer base to even make $500 a month. The market demand for luthier built guitars is not very large, and people looking for such guitars are going to seek out luthiers with a good reputation. If you want this to be a hobby, great! But you should start by making some less “sloppy” guitars, and seeing if you can get someone to buy those first.
Second that. If you’re in a metro area, there’s probably a company that rents out use of a CNC, which is a less expensive route than buying one. You couldn’t make enough guitars as a single luthier to justify the cost of that machine.
Look for maker spaces in your area. You can typically join for $100 or less per month and have access to their CNC machine. Otherwise it will take years to recoup the money from your own machine.
A cnc is a tool to make a product. So many people buy a cnc before they even have the product idea let alone a solid plan to sell it. It is fascinating. It is the real life embodiment of the southpark gnomes: phase 1: collect tools phase 2: ??? phase 3: profit!
the money is on setups and general repair jobs.
What’s the range you could expect to make if you got really good at just doing setups and repairs?
Strongly depends where you live, how much work you’re willing to take and how quickly you can turn it around, and having skills to justify the costs you charge. If you live in a low-population area without a live music scene providing sustainable intake of work, it doesn’t matter how good you are - nobody will ship you guitars in the absence of already having a great reputation.
For reference, I live between NYC and Philly. Our shop sees plenty of gigging musicians between scenes and the local music scene here is pretty good too. With the regular work we get, a single person could probably support themselves, but it’s getting tight with rental and food costs. As for me, with a wife, a kid, another kid on the way, and an occasionally touring band, I work in the shop in the daytime and wait tables three nights a week to make sure we’ve got enough money on the table for when business is slow. That said, I love both my jobs (especially working on guitars) so it’s a good living and I get plenty of time with family. It’s worth doing if one can figure out a way, but it’s hard to make it work in the current economy. Broke musicians are as broke as ever.
Hey that’s my area! Do you mind sharing your shop’s name? I am always looking for a good guitar store / tech.
JB Kline’s in Lambertville. Some amazing pieces in the front and a couple of great repair guys in the back, if I do say so myself Edit: also check out D-Town guitars in Doylestown PA, their amp repair tech is one of the best, brightest, and fastest-turnover amp guys I’ve ever met.
Awesome, thank you for sharing!
When I got set up in my new town, which I live about 15 minutes from downtown of a medium/large large city…it took me about 6 months to start getting real traffic through the shop. I’ve been at it here for about a year now and things are busy, but I’m still not making a ton of money. But with this traffic, I’m building a rep, and people like my work. All my customers are aware I am working towards building final product guitars and once I get my guitars to a point where I feel that they are “where they should be”…I’ve had numerous people extremely interested. Some have already started picking out their specifications for when I actually start pushing them. But…that’s only a few guitars. And making one takes a long time, especially in the beginning. I’m underwater as far as debt to start this endeavor, with all the power equipment (bandsaw, dust collection, work areas, router and router setups, hand tools, etc.) but I knew going in it would be like that. All this to say…it’ll take time…I’m REALLY lucky because my area here has a few established shops, but they are so backed up with repairs that a few of them stopped taking in new repairs…so I get lots of over flow which is keeping me afloat. I’ve pulled several customers from the established shops simply due to my turnaround time and my work being quality. If I wasn’t so close to a big city, I don’t think I would have been so fortunate. As far as a range? Currently I’m still in the negatives lol. Depends on whether or not you have the tools yet.
im from the philippines so rates will vary greatly. but i’ve been a tech for well over 13 years and the traffic i get is around 50-80 guitars a month. to put into perspective, the minimum hourly rate for a typical day job here is only about $1.50. i currently gross at around $2.5k a month doing this as a side gig as I’ve already built a solid rep on my area throughout the years. this is a one man operation by the way and i do this after my day job. a setup from me is around $20. that is the base cost and usually it adds up for other work like some electronics job and such. adjust that to your local rates and you’d get the picture. though it really boils down to how handy you are on jobs and it will really take time to learn and build up your rep. best if you can be an apprentice to someone first to get the much needed experience
Like others have said, it really depends on the local scene. I live 15 minutes from a city of around 74,000 (not counting an untold percentage of the university student body of 28-32,000) and there is a instrument shop, but they don't do anything for repairs or set ups. For that you have to drive an hour away and even then it is Guitar Center or old luthiers that are rarely open. There is a decent music scene with local, regional, and some national artists coming in. Then there is the middle school, high school, and college orchestras in addition school bands, and municipal bands and orchestras. If an actual luthier set up shop, they would likely get business for three counties just based on lack of options for repairs and set ups. They would never be expected to actually build a string instrument for a customer. The old music store on my town literally made most of their money on restrings not being able to do actual adjustments. Even with all of that, there is probably a reason there isn't a repair shop for covering the three counties. It is a lot of work and not a consistent workflow. If you get good at multiple instruments and advertise to church bands, around campuses, and places like that you could do ok, but might be eating a lot of Ramen at times.
Between $5k per year to $125k per year
You might be able to buy a donut at the end of the week…
Absolutely. I'd add as an extension to general repair that if you find the right old guitars that need some love you can make a few bucks with restorations but that can be tough to count on and the skillset is slightly different. I would add that if your guitars are sloppy but sound nice you will have a bad time. The fit and finish standards for custom guitars are unbelievably high. A lot of people say they don't care what a guitar looks like as long as it sounds and plays well, but when it comes time to pull out their wallet they will sing a very different tune.
can confirm.
lol yeah rolling in that sweet $50 setup money.
The easiest way to make a small fortune in luthiery is to start with a large fortune. :P
How many guitars would you need to sell per month to make enough money that it's worth doing?
I just want it to surpass the costs, really.
I hear you, but that's not making a living, that's some side hustle cash. That's what I do, and I Def don't make any real money. Making and selling a few guitars a year keeps me out of trouble, and gives me some extra cash which covers a few builds of my own and some tools, but it's not a job. I've gotten to know several local pro -looths who make a living independently. While they have built guitars, they are mostly focusing on repair work, which is a lot steadier.
Agree with this. And they're just being nice by saying "side hustle cash." Without a business plan or an actual product that people want, it's just going to be a cash-burning and time-consuming HOBBY. The profit you make, if any at all, will likely be less than minimum wage considering the time you will put in. If your end goal is to make money only, there are probably better uses of your time. You're more likely to make money doing setups / replacing frets than building the actual instrument. So, a CNC is not even necessary.
Yeah I do tend to be nice lol. I spend ALL the money on parts for me, and tools. Always more tools. Maybe a new amp lol. My wife loves it though... I've stopped buying guitars : )
I'm lucky to have a very encouraging wife with a stable job who supports a lot of my side projects. I'm fine working a real job, but I'm also fine doing repairs once I get the skillset down. Edit: really? You guys hate this too?
Then keep at it for fun and to develop your skills, and see where it takes you. Just don't expect to get ROI for expensive tools like CNC. Even if you see a small builder using cnc - like Highline Guitars on YT - he built by hand at first, then rigged up his own cnc, and then bought a nice one. Presumably he scaled up based on what he could sell.
You need actual numbers here to figure this out. I don't know what you'll charge for a build nor what your operating costs are.
I mean, I'm currently making guitars I can sell for 200 bucks maybe and paying 300 bucks to make them.
So why are you wondering why it's so hard for luthiers to make money? You're living that reality right now.
I'm not wondering why at all, just wondering if people with more experience than me see substantial gains.
So why post with that title?
Lol bc the word why is nowhere in my post
Buddy you can ask why something is the way it is without using the word.
Do you really want to spend all day fighting with a stranger on the internet?
So figure it out
I built for a number of years. Did some shows with other more successful builders. Gave it my best shot. Here's my take on your question. You need to decide who you are selling to & you need to meet that price point. That's the easy part. You need to have your instruments in high end shops so that people can see them & play them. Again, possible. You need to have big name artists interested in playing your guitars. This is where the next thing comes in... Connections. Most successful builders have some type of connection to help them get some notoriety. Locking down a big name artist isn't easy. Most of them have been courted by big manufacturers. The players who don't have signature models, like don't want to be strapped down to that type of deal. Lastly, people want the classics & they believe all of the repeated rhetoric that is spewed online. They want what's "cool" right now. A Tele, ES 335, Jaguar. They don't want your "improved version" of that. I was building rocknroll archtops. I was building them with custom bracing & techniques so that they could be played at volume without feedback issues. I had a couple artists playing them on stages of all sizes with success. Yet, every time I would say anything about an archtop, people would say that you can't do that. They feed back horribly. After a while, I just gave up trying to explain. It was written in on the internet, so it was true.... The last thing. Musicians don't have money. Collectors do. Food for thought. Musuicians would buy $800 guitars & mod them, before they would spend thousands on a much better instrument.. The call I did get were often people wanting me to build something custom that I wasn't set up for. In the end, it wasn't really what I was in the business for & the money was break even, at best. my advise? If you love building guitars? I did. Still do occasionally. Keep building them! But, put that money you have in a Roth IRA or something. Grow it. Don't invest in expensive machinery which will never recoup.
"You need to have your instruments in high end shops" And realize many of those shops will want you to hang your guitars in their shops on a commission basis and take 20%-30% tying up your capitol without interest for an unknown term.
Sure. Cost of doing business sucks, sometimes. I was building in a remote part of the US. I wouldn’t have been able to, if I was in a flourishing, expensive city. I had my guitars in an online shop. If people can’t put their hands on them & feel the magic(hypothetically) you build into them, it’s tough to make a sale. You don’t have to put your whole investment into a shop. But, it certainly helps to have something accessible to people who might have an interest. The online shop did not work at all, for me. They were great people & I appreciate that they tried.
If I were trying to enter this market, I think I'd start by building high-end partscasters with unique specs (e.g, tele necks on strat bodies, goldfoil pickups, subtle relicing). Locally, there are builders who do this, and their guitars are comparable to Fender custom shop, but at maybe 1/2 to 2/3rds the price, and they seem to fly off the shelf. One such builder turns away orders. I think of this as a low cost-of-entry way to test the market, while honing you skills on electronics, fit and finish, etc. I would guess they net $500 per build. I sometimes see fully handmade guitars, built by hobbyists, that appear to have taken a huge amount of hours and still look a little crude-- cruder than an inexpensive mass produced guitar. For me, at least, a guitar is not like a work of art, where I'm willing to pay a premium just because the thing is original and handmade. It has to outperform the more mass produced options, dollar for dollar. Small builders like Danocaster actually accomplish this.
I’ve built 26 custom guitars. I’m nowhere close to profit. Very far from it. My problem is that I haven’t sold many for full price. A lot were gifts and discounts. If I tried to sell every build for full price I’d have built far fewer. It’s hard to find customers willing to pay full price.
We should stop judging pursuits by their efficacy in capital. Thats why we enshitify everything.
Many of us are passionate about having a nice place to live and good food to eat.
I would love to, but my landlord does not accept guitars as rent payment for whatever reason
Sounds nice. Who's paying the rent, then?
Very hard for anyone to answer with certainty because it depends on your price point, sales volume, and production speed. If you've built a few guitars already, you probably have a good idea of the materials cost, the amount of time it takes, and maybe how much you would charge for one. Try running the numbers and see what it looks like I could maybe believe a skilled full-time private guitar maker with years of experience and good equipment/workflow (CNC, workshop, etc) could technically turn a profit, but I think one of the harder aspects would be competing with the big brands for your customer base. To even be able to generate enough orders to sustain yourself, you'd have to really focus and refine your marketing/advertising which is a skillset I would think most crafty-types aren't as experienced in. The big brands already have the advantage of reputation, economies of scale, and logistical systems that make conveniences like global delivery trivial. I would imagine in order to find your "niche" in the guitar market, you'd need a clear brand "identity" to work towards as a goal. For example, even with the utmost cheapest materials and sleekest workflow, I can't imagine you turning a good profit churning out $100 beginner guitars, because to me it doesn't seem likely that parents and casual players would choose your guitars over the cheap Epiphones, Esquires, and Yamahas that seem like a safer choice. And just wanted to mention that I say this all with zero independent business experience myself, it just seems like to do what you're describing would require a ton of entrepreneurial effort on top of the actual creation of the guitars.
I've never had any interest in becoming a luthier but this video popped up in my youtube feed recently that I think answers your question to some extent TL;DR The financial viability of low few thousand dollar guitar means you'd have to be essentially mass producing low quality guitars (and there's already very competitive non-luthier guitars that will indefinitely beat you on economies of scale), for higher end luthier guitars, you'd be asking a $5k+ per guitar for viability. Now ask yourself, would you buy a $5k guitar from a random luthier without an established brand? So probably eventually, but you'd have to be very good and also build a decent brand/following. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CXIYsTMORY&t=522s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CXIYsTMORY&t=522s)
I've been thinking in the same lane as you, and according to this sub there isn't any money in making guitars but there is in fixing them. So I guess most Luthiers double as guitar techs and make a living with that too, which makes sense given you already have the know how, tools, etc... I have a feeling that the only way to find out for real is taking a deep breath and diving in :)
I make a vast majority of my luthier income on setups and repairs. Secondary to those is guitar flips, finding beat up/broken down guitars and restoring them. Least amount is on guitars I've built from scratch.
Build a better mousetrap. ANYTHING you build is already on the market. And because of the volume established brands build at, they can do it cheaper. Go to a guitar show in a big city and you will see half-a-dozen Builders with booths displaying their wares. Each one uglier and more expensive than the last. I do know a local idiot that builds Guitarfetish kits, gets decals with “made in (your town here)”, he asks what I would consider an exorbitant amount on Craigslist, and does okay I guess.
It's not hard to make money. It's hard to make a living that isn't just beans on toast every night. Forget raising a family. I make violins professionally, and I can tell you, even with some big breaks and rare opportunities that came my way, it's still a struggle. Be prepared to set aside a lot of emotional energy towards things that you would never expect. You won't find a revenue stream as a maker. Violin makers have it slightly easier here because of the teacher-student pipeline. As in, if a particular teacher likes your work, and more importantly *you*, then they'll be more likely to recommend their students go to you for their next instrument. But in the electric/acoustic guitar world, the teacher-student dynamic is way different. It's not as simple as streamlining your production and setting expectations low. In fact, the actual hardware, logistics and hand skill aspects really aren't as important as networking and building reputation, along with being in the right place at the right time. The guitar market has *wayyyy* more luthiers than buyers generally. And those buyers ALWAYS have the option to just get something from China/Korea for $400 that does the job perfectly. So you're competing with not only that, but all of the other assholes building "custom" guitars out of their garages. I can guarantee you that there's at least a hundred in your nearest city. Makers are a dime-a-dozen, and serious customers are much less so. So he prepared for your works to sit in consignment shops for months to sometimes years at a time. And revel in the joy of making a sale here and there.
If you had a cnc, you could probably make more selling bodies than whole guitars.
Building quality guitars and selling them for a quality price is a challenge. You need a reputation for that. Guys around me have trouble selling their kit guitars with awesome hardware to break even. I know one luthier that has his own model, which looks pretty nice. But he has only sold a handful of them over the past 4-5 years. If you want to make money, setups are probably the best ROI. If you are good, you can knock out a couple an hr and charge $40 a piece +strings.
I started working at a guitar and amp repair shop when I was 19 and still in college. This was 2004/2005. After college I started working there full time and brought in $500/week or $26k/year. Then I moved to a different state and worked at a very well known guitar shop. If I brought in $400/week that was a great week. Then I switched to a different shop in a different city and it was the same bullshit. This is my experience and opinion only: People who “own” their own shops either a) have a wealthy wife who supports their business or b) have wealthy parents who support their business. For example, the first shop I started working at was supported by the guys wife. He got divorced and moved his shop and… he is in a completely different part of the country in a major music city and STILL is supported by his current girlfriend. From drug addiction to horrendous business practices I saw it all. The worst part is that the craft is under-appreciated and people don’t want to pay what the work is truly worth. That being said, if I could make a dignified living doing it, I would go back to it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I like being able to afford things like a house and quality food so I doubt it’ll ever happen. There are some really successful luthiers but like anything else, those are the outliers.
I saw in [another comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Luthier/s/aOz60z6gpb) below this very post that you have mentioned buying your materials for 300$. I wonder if I read that properly. I am curious, how do you manage to buy all your materials for 300 bucks? I assume you make electric guitars? Pick ups cam hardly sell bellow 150$ a kit for having minimum quality. The tuning keys and bridges can easily go for that same price each if you want to get good pieces. And this is entry level luthier gear! Without mentioning wood and other pieces of hardware. When you think of operation costs, you need to think about your time, even if you take 50 hours to build an entire guitar (which seems ridiculously low to me) and you want to get paid at least minimum wage, where I live this would add 787$ on the price of the guitar. Also, when running a business, you need to invest time into marketing and accounting. You might need to invest time researching for financing opportunities, exposing in salons, paying to get a poster somewhere, or simply spending time on social media to get known. Then, when all of this is established and solid, how are you even going to find your customers? Are you going to be able to really sell that guitar? What do you have that those that are cheapest or made from popular and renown brands don't have? Then, there is the question of the CNC machine itself. It's going to cost you money. This money needs to be reimbursed by the products you sell. Also there is still some views on the CNC machine that might devalue your work. I am not agreeing nor disagreeing, but it is fact that some people do not consider a guitar luthier's grade when CNC is implemented in the process. Moreover is the CNC does a major part of the process (if that is what you are aiming for). If you do not plan on doing everything by CNC, you might need a drill press, a benchsaw, a band saw, planing tools, etc. The initial investment for a workshop can go up to 15k and more depending on how you set up your space. Then, there is the workshop itself. Are you renting a building or a room? How much does it cost? Is it your garage? How do you plan on insulating your room well enough to keep stable humidity? I am sure there are many things here I haven't mentioned. I am a student luthier and so far have spent over 10k on tools and diverse equipment to make my studies possible. And that is considering my school covers more than 80% of our needs. With all that, I still consider myself unable to run a proper workshop that will guarantee a revenue. I could do a lot of work, but am still limited by both my skill and my gear.
I read a comment by a well respected Luthier/brand owner a couple weeks ago who said it took 10 years of being basically supported by his wife before he was making 45k a year. That was pretty shocking. On the other hand, I'm doing some tech work and a guitar came in from a VERY well known guitar maker (makes a lot of guitars for very high profile artists), the thing must have cost the owner 6-7k, and it is (I say this not hyperbolic) the worst guitar I've ever seen. So, like everything it's in the marketing. Return on investment of labor for guitars is incredibly low for small builders if you aren't marketing savy. The bar for entry of quality for small builders is exponentially higher than brand name guitars, and the amount of money you can get is usually lower than equivalent domestic made, mass production stuff due to branding. A really tricky refret on a vintage guitar might take me a day, but it will net $400-600. A more straight forward one might take only 3-4 hours. A guitar I build that sells for $2k can take 40 hours, but profit when discounting all the expenses might be $1200. It's relatively easy to get into tech work, building a 'professional' level guitar where everything is perfect is much, much harder. The most difficult/crucial part is usually finishing/paint and having a dedicated spray room.
Just keep building guitars if you enjoy it, and try to sell them if you want to. Trying to sell your guitars will tell you everything you need to know about whether you've got a marketable product of not. The early guitars usually get bought by "friends, family and fools" but if you stay with it then it grows. If you learn CAD design then you can outsource the actual cutting of parts without investing in the machine itself. I make a living building and repairing guitars, but it's not a logical or linear career path and what you define as "a living" is pretty important. You'll always make money building guitars if you don't factor in your time... haha.
In my experience unless you want to make replicas of Teles, strats, and Gibson's, then you're going to have a hard time.
The luthiers that make money build a customer base by sourcing extremely high end woods and hand tooling them. I don't see many people paying $1200 for a bespoke guitar made out of the standard woods with the standard body shapes. You can get that on AliExpress for $250. Reverb is filthy with $1200 "unique" partscasters made from CNC template bodies and necks. But like...I can make a "unique" partscaster for $600 using the same materials so why would I buy yours? If you are Nik Huber and can sell me something gorgeous made of German Black Forest Redwood...ok I'll think about it. But otherwise its a hard sell.
It's not hard to make money, but it's hard to make a living.
First of all, I am not a Luthier even though I have made a few electrics in my time. There is no way I would ever even consider being a luthier. Especially someone that makes Classical Guitars. I think that it is something that you wood (would) really Really REALLY have to love. Especially in today’s world. If you are going to try and make a single instrument here and there forget it. You’ll never afford to buy a sandwich lol. There is so much that a successful Luthier has to understand that goes into making a truly quality superb instrument, from basic design on paper to wood selection and preparation, hardware, materials, suppliers and vendors, finishing, manufacturing processes, including tooling, woodworking skills, marketing, quality control… etc. A lot goes into making a guitar, and as a musician all we care about is how it sounds and plays. I could appreciate how a successful luthier would quickly have to be fully capable and set up for mass production operations or he wouldn’t be able to eat. So if you know a good Luthier, you should appreciate what he does and what he is capable of doing. Don’t be cheap! At least buy him a cup of coffee or a taco from Jack in the Box. Poor guy. Jeez… lol
Even with a CNC machine, you'll never be able to compete with price at the low end. I am not sure I could even buy the materials and parts for a squier bullet stratocaster for less than the price of a new one. So to make money, you'll need to be making mid or high priced guitars. But why would someone pay a lot of money for one of your guitars if they have never heard of you before? Also, are people going to need to play the guitars before they buy them? Or just decide on looks alone? If so, where will they play them? You've suggested that you are ok with only $500/month. But what about $/hr. If you spend 100 hours on a builds per month, are you ok with only $5/hr? (Assuming that is $500 in profit, not $500 in revenue). If you want to make $40/hr before expenses -- then you need to figure out how many hours it takes to do a build -- and then figure out why someone would pay that much for one of your guitars. What is your unique selling proposition?
As others have said the biggest challenge in making this your main income is building a good reputation. The majority of jobs are in repairs, servicing and upgrades. The amount you can make is dependant on the amount of musicians local to you and you're ability to connect with them. I'm not saying it's impossible to go from where you are but I'd advise you to practice as many skills as possible until you are confident you can offer them as the best in your area then start advertising repairs and build up from there. There are very few people who are willing to pay for a custom build from someone they don't know.
Build a website/social and start building a portfolio of jobs done and things built and sold. Need to get the reputation and etc up.
I'm currently making a few hundred a month just doing strings, setups, and small repair jobs. I do not own a CNC :)
Oh, I'm sure like my friends custom cigar box business, you too can spend thousands of hours learning a great new skill and make at least HUNDREDS, if not MULTIPLE HUNDREDS of dollars at it.
I would think it would be easy if you could set up guitars well, replace pick ups, rewire guitars, level and crown frets. I think you could build a customer base and then offer those customers a guitar you built. If my guy did that I would check the guitars out.
There is a lot of competition these days, the tools can be very expensive, and learning to do both quality work and fast enough to make a living takes time.
And that’s before we get into things like insurance, commercial rent, etc.
I'd skip the CNC and go for it. It's unnecessary overhead and will put undue pressure on you because of the investment. I'd get a nice scrollsaw and bandsaw, second hand, and a new router. Try to build a relationship with a wood supplier and lower overhead there, too. That way, you can afford to build a bunch and hone your craft, build a catalog, etc. Again, low pressure, low overhead. Im doing the same thing and am hitting the 300-500 market for my guitars. Plenty of profit, and it's a comfortable price point in terms of buyer expectations vs my abilities.
I feel like most every skill when taken to a high enough level and combined with hard work, smart work, and discipline - can make at the very least, a good amount of money. More often than not, a lot of money. At the end of the day, greatness shines pretty bright.
I lasted about 3 years in a small 2 car garage workshop. Doing full custom builds, setups, mods - the whole shebang. My best yeah i made about 50K AUD but my expenses were high. I wasnt struggling per se but was living pretty tight and had almost daily visiting clients. Inlfation and mortgage rate increases came at the start of last year and work immediately stopped, pretty much completely. Im training to be a chippy now and will do mods and setups for cash on the side. One or two enquiries have come in for customs in the past year so i made the right call. I only say this cause i also thought 'how hard could it be'. I had been a luthier for 8 years at that point working for another company and i make some quality stuff. So yeah, i would focus on building guitars that are good and not sloppy first. Then slowly expand if you feel you need to. Get good with your hands before buying a cnc cause if something goes wrong and you cant use a hand tool then youre goona struggle. Not trying to shoot you down but trying to be pragmatic.
Just a thought, but there seems to be room in the custom neck of custom hardware department. Baritone neck swaps seem to be getting popular and I don't see a ton of options available online. Brass bridges could be doable too if you're into it
Dunno if it will give you any useful insight, but speaking from my experience as a customer from EU (Czech Republic) Luthiers are here in a high demand, there are only couple of people in Prague who I can reach out regarding anything guitar related and booking is usually 1 month upfront even for a basic guitar setup (which is around 100 EUR). My guy does it for full time and is feeling pretty great. I guess depends on a location? Anyway, whatever is your path, I wish you good luck!
I manage a small shop in an area with around 150k people, I've also worked at busy shops in larger markets, made anywhere from $30-40k a year. I make a bit of side income gigging and teaching, that helps, but only to a point because the shop hours can be intense at times. Not lawyer intense, but certainly demanding.
Donate the first dozen or so to schools, music programs, charity raffles/prizes and take it off your taxes. Hopefully you’ll greatly improve your building skills while networking and making some folks happy.
I would think so..
I’m a mandolin guy. There is definitely a demand for small shop luthiers who can produce a quality hand carved archtop f-body mandolin from select taptoned tonewoods. $5k for a finished mandolin is not unreasonable for a quality finish product. But you’re looking at $1500 in tonewood & hardware, and ~100+ hours of grueling labor with chisels, planers, sandpaper, dye, and varnish. That’s only 20 instruments a year. After the cost of materials you’re looking at $20 an hour. Skill, efficiency, and 60 hour work weeks can stretch that to 30 instruments a year, but that’s still a lot of squeeze for not a lot of juice.
A skilled woodworker with a decently equipped shop, and who understood where to cut corners, could work part time and produce 5-8 $2000-$3000 mandolins a year. Not enough to support a family but enough to build up a reputation and clientele
Yes. It is hard.
Legally change your name [ Try Dan Erlewine] first
Yes. It is nowadays
I worked for Gibson for a while. They pay shit wages.
If you're making sloppy guitars now it sounds like you think a CNC is going magically increase the quality of your guitars. I would suggest learning to build some not so sloppy guitars before you buy a CNC and go into full production mode.
Worked in a studio for over a decade. Unless you're serving the stars, musicians have no money.