The Wood-Buying Tour to Europe and the USA.
There are many reasons as to why guitars cost what they cost .
Firstly there are 2 major points to consider: Factory-made or Handmade.
Factory-made… as in Taylor, Martin, Gibson, with guitars at $500 and up, and others in Japan, Korea, China, and the USA where one sees guitars starting at $50 up.
Then we have Handmade… As in Santa Cruz Guitars or Larrevee where 15 to 20 qualified workers make guitars, mostly by hand using handtools and CNC machines.
At the top of the pile in my judgement are the Luthiers who work alone or with the help of one or two assistants.
Kevin Ryan, Jeff Trugott, myself (Marc Maingard), Roy MacAlistair, and others.
At MAINGARD GUITARS we are more expensive firstly because I use better-selected, and more expensive materials, I work slower, make fewer guitars, and spend more time with the client tailoring a guitar to his or her specific needs. I take more time over each process, and produce an instrument which is a cut above the mass-produced and factory-made guitars. An enormous amount of time is spent in selecting wood, tuning and toning tops, braces and backs.
Further to this, I travel overseas and hand-select each and every piece of wood that goes on my guitars, to suit a particular client's needs in terms of sound production and beauty, and that all adds up to a far superior guitar than most, with a playability and sound to match.
When I began to make guitars in the middle 70’s, wood of top quality was plentiful and easily obtainable. I was fortunate in that I was able to travel, and buy, and set aside many backs, sides and tops of Spruce and Cedar. Over the years the top quality timber I am used to working with, and in fact, demand, has become harder and harder to obtain.
As I began to rely on wood suppliers, I found that I would send 90% of the supposedly "Master Grade" tops back.
(Now through the years I have been fortunate in buying up beautiful beams of Brazilian Rosewood and Cocobolo, but that’s another story...)
I spent a month researching who was supplying Tops to the wood dealers worldwide and who the best were.
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