April 19, 2005

Audacious Luthiery

How long does it take to start a guitar company? This is a question I have pondered several times in my life. In my last months of High School I wrote to several luthiers in Australia and made contact with wood suppliers. I even put a side a small collection of tonewoods. However, nothing came of it and I never felt able to set aside the time or space to persue this. It always seemed that the craft of luthiery would require years of study and practice before a viable product was available.

Well how wrong I was. It seems UK “luthier” Morgan Guitars has launched a company and product range after making less than half a dozen instruments. I can’t comment on the quality, having never seen or played these guitars. But, given that the first guitar made is onsale for ¬£1400, one cannot but be in awe of the audacity involved here. Apparently a new model, for which no prototypes have yet been made, is being offered for the staggering price of ¬£2300.

[tags] Guitar, Luthiery [/tags]

Tagged Music Technology

Toni 19 years ago

I’m posting from home in the hope that these comments will remain – comments from work don’t appear to get posted.

I’d guess the number of guitars made depends on the experience and ability one has woodworking. Obviously a novice woodworker would have to make a number before they were up to snuff. However if the man was already a skilled carpenter/joiner then there’s no magic in assembling a solid guitar using already established skills. Whoever this guy is, he’s obviously got the appropriate specialist tools for the job, so I can see no reason not to think his instruments won’t be decent. And ¬£1400 for the equivalent of a custom shop Tele seems quite tolerable IF it’s at that quality level.

Or maybe he’s a slow worker, and is trying to jump on the quality bandwaggon. I reckon to earn a decent wage it would be necessary to make and sell at least 1 instrument a week at those prices.

f 19 years ago

Behind the scenes I have been having some problems with comment SPAM, so some comments are taking a while to get approved and so on. My apologies.

As far as the guitars go, I tend to agree that a good woodworker with the right theory could “jumpstart” the process. However, from the website it seems a few tools I would expect of a luthier are missing (such as a thicknesser, for example).

For all I know the instruments may be very good indeed. It just amazes me someone would price so high with no track record.

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