The creation of a pricetag is not something galleries make a big deal about. An artist wants a certain amount of money for their art, and the gallery marks that art up accordingly to make a profit. In the art world, there is a much wider tolerance for many price points and an eye that looks for the uniqueness and inherent value of art as art. If you fall in love with a piece of art, you’ll likely buy it if you can, knowing you’ll never find another like it, that it has a unique quality that almost makes it a live entity, and that you’re supporting a fellow human being who made it.
In the US, at least, there is nobody dictating what you can and can’t sell something for. We exist in a so-called “free market economy”. Given that, why undersell yourself? I have gone through this struggle myself over the years. Now, having more of a sense of value for my work, I realize it’s not a formula, it’s art - there’s something intangible to it that’s not simply the adding up of numbers to create worth for your piece.
You’re in charge of the personal values and effort that you bring to a situation, the rest is not necessarily under your control. In other words, you make the product, you pick the price, and you go find who will pay what you are asking. You stay firm in your values and don’t bend them because someone wants to find fault in your art, wants to complain about their own lot in life, or wants a handout. This is, of course, easier said than done. It just takes practice and a willingness to believe in yourself.
It’s also practical. The IRS is your silent partner, who takes about 30% of your profits (depending on your tax bracket) as a self-employed, independent contractor. What are your profits? That’s what you make after you do the practical math on what it took financially to make the instrument: materials, labor, advertising, utilities, and so on. Say you decide that you’re only going to charge $700 for a custom guitar. Right off the bat, you must consider that 30% needs to be put aside for income tax. That’s $210. Now you’re making $490. Subtract material costs. Now maybe you’re making $150. Now consider how long it took you to make the instrument. Maybe it took you 20 hours to complete the build. So, now you’re making $7.50 an hour. This is considering you did everything and didn’t farm out the paint job or neck build to someone else you have to pay. Now, we all love what we do, but can you make any headway on that hourly wage? Can you even progress your business making so little? Being busy with business when you are essentially paying to work is drastically different than being profitable. Would you pay an employer to work for them?
For another example, let’s say you charge $2000 for an instrument and you splurge on expensive materials. You spend $1000 on wood, pickups, hardware, etc. So, off the bat it’s $600 to the IRS (off your $2000 pricetag). Now you’re making $400 on the guitar, after material costs. Say it also took you 20 hours to make that guitar. Now you’re making $20 per hour. Now, that’s not too bad. But say you could cut your time in half, then you’re making $40 per hour. Cutting your time in half may be best accomplished by scouring YouTube for tips and tricks in making and finishing an instrument (the cheapest route), or investing in your luthiery future by paying another luthier to assist you be more efficient. You can also consider spending less on materials (a subject for another blog).
The above examples are actually very practical breakdowns of pricetags and the reality of living in the modern world. What about the art part? How much do you think you’re worth? It’s not simple math about how long you’ve been doing it or how many you’ve made so you can charge more. By saying this, I don’t mean experience isn’t important, but it doesn’t make you more important, or worth more. Someone just starting is welcome to charge whatever they’d like and some very happy buyer will love that guitar until the day they die. Self-worth is held by the seller, and the worth of the art is in the eye of the beholder or buyer. No one dictates those rules.
I’ve heard some builders say that they’re retired, essentially they have enough money, so they do this for fun and are happy giving away guitars, essentially. That’s certainly up to them. However, it brings up the idea of how the consumer looks at worth based on prices. Let’s say an electric guitar ranges from $200 to $20,000. How can a consumer, many of which grew up solely in the Guitar Center culture, even begin to comprehend that vast difference in prices? This brings up another blog for the future about how guitars “magically” appear on the walls of Guitar Center. Building guitars costs money and they take time to make. Custom built instruments by a luthier are distinctly different than big brand name guitars built by machines overseas to increase the big company’s profit margin. We as luthiers have to consider this when pricing our instruments. Are we going to charge $200 for a guitar that essentially cost us $400 to make when a big company can charge $200 for a guitar it took $50 to make?
How are we each, as builders, contributing to consumer’s understanding of guitars as art, and something worth more than what they might be used to? In this consumerist driven culture where cheaper is more easily obtainable and leads to more instant gratification, how can we convince people to delay their gratification and save up for something they never knew they wanted, or existed?
How can we help musicians and studios understand the value of recording tools made specifically to suit their needs? Very often musicians have a wall of guitars that they play, but it’s often just a collection of big name stand-bys that are almost all the same. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that, but where do truly unique handmade custom guitars play a role? How do we shift the culture? Musicians and their choices greatly influence the overall guitar culture and the consumer’s choices as well.
The High Desert Luthiery Invitational is all about supporting luthiers as artists and in valuing the art they create. At this in-person event, luthiers are able to get their work into people’s hands so they can experience the art they’ll happily buy into.
