$5,999.99 Back & Side Set

Totally agree!

Pete Howlett said:

These prices are not real. I sorry if I upset the blingsters here but even for a guitar that price is absurd.

Click to expand...

Pete Howlett said:

These prices are not real. I sorry if I upset the blingsters here but even for a guitar that price is absurd.

Click to expand...

Well yeah, but it's kinda like buying a Lexus car innit? You're really paying $30k for the Toyota underneath and an extra $60K for the Lexus sticker on the back. Here you're paying $500 for the actual wood and $5500 for "The Tree"

I just built my last but 2 ukes from some fiddleback/curly mahogany that I will never see again - it just doesn't make it to the UK and there are no 'residual' stocks languishing in a barn somewhere. I am trying to secure 27 bd/ft of rare Brazilian for $424. If I get it, by the time it is in the workshop it will have cost me $25 a bd/ft before processing. That is a barely affordable price but one I am prepared to pay for perfect quarter sawn one piece necks. To offset the spiralling costs of raw materials my price went up 25% this year! They will probably do the same in the Fall as the UK gets into a trade war with the US and Trump finally kills off any hope I have doing repeat business with the many clients I have in the US.

One thing we do know for certain: all these very fancy woods don't sound one dot better than their plain versions. If anything they are weaker and probably a touch more prone to cracking in comparison to good old quarter sawn, grain straight up and down stuff. People are drawn to the fancy stuff though.
I wouldn't like to take the responsibility of working wood at that cost (actually I'd flat refuse!). Imagine if one of the sides cracked or cupped badly. I've had that with birds eye maple. Out of 4 sets that I'd bought two cupped so badly they were unusable. I tried a number of things to save them but it was effectively £100 thrown in the bin - oh and the time.

That brings up a question, where can one find a reliable way to get wood that sounds better than others? I saw past messages where the color of the wood or other aspects were focused on by luthiers.. these high end pieces are purely rated on aesthetics..

There's no logic behind the going prices of exotic woods and instruments. The price is set simply by what people are willing to pay.

I bought a new strat in 1964 with case for $350. Traded it several years later for an acoustic Guild. That strat today is worth $10k - $15k. It's still the same cheap guitar!