How can they afford to sell at this price?

[imunwell2]

This is quite an elaborate inlay. I wonder how they can afford to sell at this price. Anyone seen one of these up close? I was wondering the quality of this inlay. At the price it sits now, $127.00, the inlay material cost more than that.

Beats me! No way I could ever compete with prices like that.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3716144512&rd=1

[LGM Guitars]

If you look at it closely that whole eagle looks to be only 5 pieces of material. All of which is very thin abalam veneer, it's not very expensive, can be cut with an xacto knife (in fact it's nearly impossible to cut with an inlay saw) and it probably isn't inlayed at all, it's probably overlayed and built up to level with clear.

All the line detail is either engraved, or in this case probably just drawn on. Jay Turser guitars are also incredibly cheap low quality guitars from the orient where inlay work is done for next to nothing. As an inlay artist you'll drive yourself crazy looking at prices on "pre-inlayed" items on ebay that come from taiwan, vietnam etc. When you see the work up close it is pretty poorly done, and what looks like many many pieces usually ends up being one large piece with engraving done on it.

As for the material cost, I have a 9" x 6" sheet of abalam veneer and a 9" x 6" sheet of MOP veneer that the combined cost was only $40, but it's only .010" thick and that includes the black backer sheet they glue the shell too, so it's pretty useless for inlay work.

[imunwell2]

If you look at it closely that whole eagle looks to be only 5 pieces of material. All of which is very thin abalam veneer, it's not very expensive, can be cut with an xacto knife (in fact it's nearly impossible to cut with an inlay saw) and it probably isn't inlayed at all, it's probably overlayed and built up to level with clear.

All the line detail is either engraved, or in this case probably just drawn on. Jay Turser guitars are also incredibly cheap low quality guitars from the orient where inlay work is done for next to nothing. As an inlay artist you'll drive yourself crazy looking at prices on "pre-inlayed" items on ebay that come from taiwan, vietnam etc. When you see the work up close it is pretty poorly done, and what looks like many many pieces usually ends up being one large piece with engraving done on it.

As for the material cost, I have a 9" x 6" sheet of abalam veneer and a 9" x 6" sheet of MOP veneer that the combined cost was only $40, but it's only .010" thick and that includes the black backer sheet they glue the shell too, so it's pretty useless for inlay work.

Thanks for the info, makes me feel a little better. I can see if it is verneer how they can sell it for that since you can cut it with a knife. I thought there was some magical machine out there that good old "hand made" couldn't compete with. I checked out your web page. How do you cut inlays efficiently? How do you cut the wood? I done everything by hand, the pearl, the abalone, and wood all by hand. Quite time consuming. There were so many points and islands in my design, I cut the wood with an Xacto knife and a modified dental tool that was like a miniture scraper.. razer sharp. Another reason was that a dremel base would not work well on the contour of the guitar.

Thanks for any help!

[decalshopmike]

Interesting bit of info for you - the 'blank' guitar without the inlay work on, but complete with all hardware, lacquered and finished probably costs Jay Turser around $40 with the quantity discounts they get !

I've had price lists from some of these far eastern no name manufacturers, and they can do most superstrat type guitars with quilted or flamed maple veneer tops for under $80, and that was for only buying a small quantity from them - lets you know what sort of quality these guitars are.

I often get accoustics from these factories in for repair as the necks always warp after about a year, or the tops pull up around the bridge - in most cases I just tell the owner to throw it away and get another one as the repair will cost more than the guitar is worth.

[imunwell2]

Interesting bit of info for you - the 'blank' guitar without the inlay work on, but complete with all hardware, lacquered and finished probably costs Jay Turser around $40 with the quantity discounts they get !

I've had price lists from some of these far eastern no name manufacturers, and they can do most superstrat type guitars with quilted or flamed maple veneer tops for under $80, and that was for only buying a small quantity from them - lets you know what sort of quality these guitars are.

I often get accoustics from these factories in for repair as the necks always warp after about a year, or the tops pull up around the bridge - in most cases I just tell the owner to throw it away and get another one as the repair will cost more than the guitar is worth.

Hey, thanks for that bit of info. Making me feel better already. Maybe I can do a little of this on the side.