As a luthier, seeking out a music store to sell your instruments seems like a no-brainer: the music store sells instruments and has a customer base. They also have the foot traffic of the regulars and one-time visitors looking for that next something to fulfill their needs. The music store is a place a person can audition their next “best friend” in-person, kill some time during a break, shoot the shit with other gear heads, and see what the latest and greatest brands are doing to stay relevant in a market saturated with similar products and highly opinionated clientele. Oftentimes, the reason for a trip to the music store is to pine over that piece of gear that is just out of reach. In summation, the music store is ideal in that it is a magnet for people who want to be involved in the world of music in some way. So, they’re attracting a client base who would be interested in what a luthier makes.
Traditionally, the way a majority of music stores operate is to buy from a supplier that represents many commonly-seen brands at wholesale prices. The store is then stocked with product that was purchased for about half of what it’s being sold for, though mark-up varies. Big box music stores have a greater advantage in their buying power, increasing their profit margin. My experience with local music stores has been that they want to pay wholesale prices for my work. I have asked them to do a consignment where it’s a win-win situation: when the instrument is sold, I get paid what I’m asking, and they make a reasonable percentage on top of that, depending on what they choose to sell it for. I’ve come away from these interactions with the impression that the music store wants to make as much money as possible, so they devalue my instrument’s worth and low-ball me. It’s also possible that they may not know how to sell a high-priced instrument that’s not a name-brand. Unfortunately, having a music store carry my instruments had ended up being a hard “no” for me, because I’m not willing to undersell myself. Speaking from experience, the music stores in my area don’t support or understand the idea of handmade, boutique (and therefore “high-priced”) instruments.
Unable to progress with local music stores, I visited some galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico (a well-known hotbed for artists). In all honesty, guitars are art. They didn’t know what to do with the idea of stringed instruments as art and didn’t want to take a chance. They weren’t rude, they just seemed perplexed. They asked me “why don’t you open your own store?” Right… Years prior, I had a chance to work with a gallery in Carmel by the Sea in California, where a gallery owner took a chance on me and the instrument sold almost immediately. Earlier that day, a few doors down at a high end music store, I was turned down. The store manager said they had to work on selling what they had already filled the store with (the wholesale items they’d bought and marked up) and had no room for consignments - aside from the commission they would make on it.
If the music stores want to undersell our talents as luthiers and the gallery owners don’t know what to do with us as artists, what do we do? Online sales are an ongoing project that requires developing a know-like-trust factor with strangers who find you on the internet. It requires optimizing algorithms and advertising. It’s the long-game. And people can’t play the instrument in-person.
The High Desert Luthier Invitational is meant to provide a biannual opportunity to make your guitar-making business known, interact with potential customers, and potentially sell some instruments - all at no cost to you, the vendor. This, in my mind, is true support of luthiers as artists. It’s a step in the paradigm shift to see luthiers as real people, artists, who make instruments that people have the privilege to own and enjoy.
