rhoads56

Please change your name, so you aren't confused with a similar brand also from Australia. 

On 1/8/2017 at 10:42 AM, Shay said:

Just after reading the first two paragraphs of this response, I knew who the author was without even seeing the closing signature. And I had no idea He frequented this forum. I'm greatful for your input Perry, because I have followed you closely for a while now. I listen to you on the Luthierist podcast with Sully and I've heard all the great advice you've given for new people just getting into the business. I've also seen pictures of the car you drive so I know your doing something right. Ha -Ha I've heard the stories that both you and Sully have shared about your early days in business and how much it took to finally turn the corner and start seeing some success. So thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule and sharing that advice..  -Peace, Shawn K.

Its certainly a difficult business to "make it" in. Of course, levels of success are what we determine them to be. Five years ago I'd achieved everything I had ever dreamed of, and more. Now? Im of the opinion I was just mucking around, and Im not even half way where I want to be.

To some, Im an inspiration (or frustration!). To Fender? "Who's that clown with those funny frets?"  

My original goal was to "work in a hardware store, to support three days a week building guitars". I never in my wildest imagination thought I'd have five staff. Now I wonder "How many people will be working for me in two years, and at what point will it become less fun?"

 

Ive chatted about this stuff on the luthierist podcast. 

If your quality isnt there, you can fool people for a while, but eventually you come unstuck.

If you dont have something different, no one will care.

Forget about trying to emulate someone else, you dont know how they got there or why. Example: a company recently tried to emulate our sales process, with similar products, and cheaper pricing. We sold approx $200k worth of guitars in a week. They have yet to see a single sale.

You need to learn how to market your wares. (and going to open mic nights is not marketing)

You need to know who your customers are (and I dont mean "guitarists").

You need to offer quality that is sort after.

I know two luthiers with 3+ year waiting lists. One has 6 orders on the books, the other, 5. We've had as many as 90 on the books at one point (now 35?).

Most people go full time around the point of having 12 orders. They then find either:
1. Thats not enough to sustain them, and they take on part time work
2. 12 overwhelms them, and they go back to work.

The biggest mistake some people make, is jumping into full time building. 

You need to understand cashflow. We now plan 6 months forward.

You need to know your costs. Every single item needs to be accounted for.

You need to be efficient. Efficient enough with tools that you either KNOW you can do a job perfectly, or you dont even think about it before doing it perfectly. IF you are still "oh shit, I must get this right" then you need to practice more. If you are "shit, i dont even know what happened there, but the neck joint is sloppy, damn tools!" then you are really really not ready.

Success rarely happens over night. It will most likely be much slower than you imagine. It took a long time for us to be profitable (we did reinvest everything though for years). Most full time luthiers barely make minimum wage. It is possible to have more than that... we've had our first million dollar year (turnover, not profit), but I dont know anyone that pushes as hard as I do. I havent had less than a 70 hour week for the last four years.

Please dont assume that because Im not here posting meaningless updates every week, that stuff isnt happening.

When the kits are ready, you'll know all about it.

23 hours ago, demonx said:

I was "ghost building" neckthru blanks for a Melbourne guy for years,

It amazes me how many "luthiers" actually dont do ANYTHING.

We employed a guy who had a fantastic reputation. Basically he would be "another Perry". He wasnt local, so we relied on skype for interviews. Wasn't until he started that we realised he was a 'bit rusty and needed a bit of time to settle in'. With all my commitments at the time, a month passes pretty easily. That's more than enough time to settle in, right?

Nope. We got so frustrated, that I made him sit down an write a list of jobs he could do without supervision. Demeaning? Yep, I was at my wits end. He actually asked one of my guys with help him compile that list:

1. solder jack wires to jack
2. Install jack if hole is in body
3. check jack works
4. put strings on
5. tune strings
6...



It was only at this point he revealed that he used Fast Guitars in Canada for ALL but one build, and that one build was done in a class over six months....

Yeah this will happen, especially now that my little group of luthier followers have all announced they will release kits too (seriously, does anyone not come up with their own ideas anymore?).

We will do 6+7 kits to start.
Blanks with routs + bodies ready to paint.

If we sell enough, then 8's will be added, plus headless, plus new shapes.

$500-600 AUD range all in. 

Hopefully we can have a kit where you choose hardware, pickups, etc all inclusive. 

4 hours ago, curtisa said:

Some more brain ideas:

• One area where builders may want to put their own mark on their kit is to upgrade the pickups. Consider limiting the pickup routes to accommodate off-the-shelf units rather than custom slanted, for which the choices are much more limited. Also consider whether you want to do the pickup routes square to the body or angled to match the angle of the multiscale frets/bridge.

We have a full range or 6, 7 and 8 string slanted multiscale specific pickups coming soon

• Will the control cavity be large enough to install a 9V battery if the builder wants to install actives?

Ultimately, we wont offer slanted actives, but there would be space for a 9v if a preamp was required.

• Left-handed kits too?

So far my experience has been that lefties are very vocal about wanting guitars, and very laid back about ordering. Lefties have a 50% higher order cancellation rate, and a 50% higher chance of changing their ordered. Its amazing the stats you can start generating once orders increase. We came out guns blazing on the GTR range, including lefties. Unfortunately, the profits from righties have been enough to support the order volumes required for lefties, but honestly the volumes being sold are not worth it. We've continued anyway, despite my accountant's protests. Lefties, if possible, would be well after the regular right hand models have been proven to sell.

• I assume the kit is not going to be a reboot of a Strat or Les Paul as a multiscale incarnation, so the arrangement of the headstock no longer needs to follow those "traditional" shapes. Consider the pros and cons of offering a pre-drilled paddle headstock vs a plain paddle - If pre-drilled, what configuration will it be offered in (3x3, 6 inline, 6 inline reverse, 4x2, 2x4) Will you also include the tuners?

Correct. If we predrill, we are limitng their choices of shape, BUT, we are also making it a tiny bit easier to achieve a good outcome. 

• What about including documentation with the kit? Maybe not a full blown set of assembly instructions like in an Airfix kit, but certainly something more akin to assembly tips. Stuff like how to check alignment between neck and body, recommended minimum tools required to put the kit together, wiring diagrams etc

Having run building courses for years, we've got a pretty good handle on instructions

 

We are currently about to start developing a range of kits for the DIY community, based around our Multiscale designs.

These will be manufactured in Indonesia, rather than the usual Chinese kits, to allow for a high quality level. This will of course mean they are a little more $$$ too.

We plan on 6 and 7 string versions, but there are some things we arent sure about.

Most kits come as a premade body, and you basically finish it yourself with oil or lacquer, then assemble. Usually a headstock is either precut, or its the paddle arrangement so you can design your own.

We'd like to consider either having a precut body, OR simply a body blank with all relevant routs completed (eg: pickups, controls, neck joint, plus bridge location). This will allow end users to cut their own body, but still avoid the more difficult parts like routing.

So, you'd be free to design and cut your own body shape, plus your own headstock, but still have a completed neck shaft, frets, control and pickup routs, neck joint, etc.

Of course, all kits will include hardware and pickups too, with upgrades available. 

Thoughts?

Fantastic idea. Signed up for $10 a month to help out. PG was a wonderful resource for me when I was starting out.

Second time ive heard this in as many weeks.

I DID have some that went more purple with UV, and brown when freshly sanded.

But it would generally be the opposite way around.

Vacuum is great for veneers or drop tops. Ive not been 110% successful with gluing thicker carved tops. We use a venturi type bag.

I think PG needed a good long break from me, and I from it .

PS, Congrats on your World-Wide domination Perry, most awesome to watch your growing success from this corner of the world.

I've been on The Gear Page forums the whole time, I became a dirty low-down pedal-ho and got totally engrossed in building several custom boards, tuning my rig to be wet-dry-wet capable, rebuilt one of my cabs from 1-15 to 2-12, built a few new cabs...I'm always doing something, just not always building guitars.

Ive hardly dominated the world. Only 10%

I went down the 'lets build pedals and amps and everything' route. In the end I just got distracted.

whoa! Kinda disappeared on us for a few years huh?

Ive posted photos on my page about 12 months ago of a couple gibsons that cupped 8-12mm WITHOUT removing the lacquer.

How can you trust a company's specs for building, when the 2015 Les Paul lineup lists the dimensions of the bobbins (under covers) but not the output of the pickups? Or the WEIGHT of the strap buttons?

Imagine if you built and sold a guitar like that. Play it safe and stick to the low contents.

But if you build that guitar, and sealed it with lacquer, it would not have the ability to move. Strip back a gibson, fender, etc, and check what they use as "standard. You'll be surprised.

Last year I did a repair to a guitar for a bloke that thought he'd try strip back and refurb his treasured ax.

When he stripped the extremely thick paint off, the timber started falling apart on him after it sat around for a while in between his spurts of motivation.

When it came to me there were massive crater splits all over it as the grain started opening up and splitting. It had been sealed in Japan in 1981, obviously a little bit still not dry enough and then stripped a couple years ago in Australia in the middle of our drought!

I filled it all with epoxy, did some other repairs and then sprayed it all with no warranty and he understood what had happened and what it was up against. To my knowledge it's still all good and hasn't moved since being sealed.

Yep. Ive had to refinish only the fronts, or backs of numerous guitars. I learnt pretty quickly not to leave them overnight, or they will cup

Imagine if you built and sold a guitar like that. Play it safe and stick to the low contents.

But if you build that guitar, and sealed it with lacquer, it would not have the ability to move. Strip back a gibson, fender, etc, and check what they use as "standard. You'll be surprised.

The "1 year for each inch" rule is the standard to dry timber suitable for furniture grade, which is 12% moisture content (generally).

However, the local conditions also play a part in determining if this moisture content is suitable. So, for Texas, which is dry, the moisture content would be lower than let's say, Indonesia (which can be as hot, but higher humidity).

Whatever you're putting it on, I want to see it when you're done. I would love to use some snakewood, but I would like to have a positive bank account balance afterwards, too. Those two seem nearly exclusive

Just charge more.

I sense a cease and desist letter in the near future...

Start with the easy stuff. Forget about doing full guitars. Build up to that level over time. Even just doing inlays will do your head in. Clearances, speeds, tooling, how to hold the pieces, etc etc etc.

Just do what I do... tell them what they have to order

So did you blacklist him from further orders?

fair enough. The real cost starts when you start using it. Its a might head****. And standing around watching it make stuff when you're SUPPOSED to be doing something else

No ball screws?

A Holden Ute would be pretty sweet too!

Chris

Something like my sh1tbox "workute" ?

It's funny seeing you overseas guys talking about Aussie cars when us Aussies are busy drewling over American cars. I wish we had Aussie delivered Corvettes instead of them import and convert jobs and then costing something like $250,000 for a brand new ZR6 Corvette.

Wanna run... moite?

Had a Magnuson S/C and new engine fitted to the work truck (Monaro) in Feb. $24k, OMG! 120kmph, and it will STILL spin the wheels. Panty shitting stuff.

$3000 for a new clutch since then

Just need to work out how to make it tax deductable

I'd love a Corvette too. Hired one in Vegas a few years ago. But, Ferrari... come to me my exotic little Italian... and make sweet sweet love to my wallet.