McShred
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- Messages
- 2,900
One guitar a week? That seems high for Michael. I ordered one, a fantastic instrument, and waited a little over 3 years. If he's really churning out 52 guitars a year, he must have one hell of a backlog.I’m a 42 year old carpenter. My first paid work was for Mike Stevens in my home town of Alpine TX when I was 16. Some people know of Mike but most don’t. He was the luthier who started the Fender Custom Shop. His guitars start at $8K. He is not rich even though he meticulously completes one guitar a week. 8K x 52 weeks = $336K right? Nope. He has significant overhead. He does well but not even close to as well as you’d think. As a carpenter I take in 1/3 of that and upkeep and taxes take 1/2 of what I take in. I’ve considered making instruments too. I’m positive that if I tooled up for it I would make a fine instrument, whatever that may be. But man the sales standpoint would be a full time job for sure. I think a person could do well making two guitars a week @ 4K/week X 52 = $208K. 1/2 at the least would go to overhead especially upon startup leaving $104K which would be a sweet living. But you have to sell 2 guitars a week. And make them.
The reason Michael can charge what he does, is his pedigree. The mans skills & contribution to guitar are without question. Anyone else building guitars one at a time with a 3 year backlog would have trouble getting any orders at all.