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Totally agree expectation is the name of the game. You do someone a favour and give someone your services or goods for cheap and they just treat you like a whore. You price yourself out of the market and people think you are some miracle maker godsend and sing your praises, but expect miracles. Although in both cases the quality of work you do is the same. In our world people only respect one thing. Money. Although most people these days usually expect miracles whilst treating you like a whore.
Regarding guitars though, one piece of mahogany for a body = rejecting a lot of other pieces of mahogany, one decent flame maple bookmatched cap = $'s and so it goes on. If you want quality, you are effectively paying for five or six or more possible guitars and tewenty times materials all down the line as the stringent rejections from body woods to finishes cost $'s. I think the Taylor guitars post put it well and that is the way I see it anyway.
I always look at it like, what would it cost me to make something + a healthy profit margin. Once you've brought home your timber and chucked all the shaky stuff out, bought the hardware, bid on a nice maple cap etc etc. it soon adds up, then there is the profit margin. Take a Les Paul down your luthiers or add up the time it takes you to make one yourself ad Gibby's will seem like a bargain.
Remember also that the dollar and £ are on the verge of becoming worthless, other currencies have climbed against them and add your taxes and ethical sourcing by law, it all adds up.
I was considering getting a chinese copy, but then I thought, it's wrong for two reasons, the chinese factory owners are letting their staff spray isocyanates without any PPE equipment and they probably don't even have dust extractors plus the pressure on staff to work all hours. But then I thought about it and the companies that log the wood for the big guitar companies proabbly don't have PPE for heir staff either and they probably work all hours and come to think of it, I, and everyone I know works all hours.
Break down the price differences - $300 vs $2000...well veneer back and front and copmposite body of dubious wood instead of one piece mahogany with a maple cap, there are loads of dollars right there. Attention to detail, paint. Two piece scarf neck joint as opposed to one piece....etc etc. and the hardware and pups do not even compare. I think if Gibby's were actually made in China, under licence say for the chinese market, they would retail for $1200.
But hey, look on the bright side, in ten years, when we are all carting home wheelbarrows of $'s or £'s from a 16 hour days pay down at the gibson factory workhouse, making guitars for the chinese market, the chinese will be sitting back at their computers thinking to themselves what cheap crap they are being flooded with and pointing to all the imperfections.
I feel sorry for these chinese factory workers, they must feel like I do when I get called in to fix someone's half completed or delapidated DIY project to their exacting DIY standards. You just never get a quality job done like that and just feel like you are wasting your skills on these people.
Regarding guitars though, one piece of mahogany for a body = rejecting a lot of other pieces of mahogany, one decent flame maple bookmatched cap = $'s and so it goes on. If you want quality, you are effectively paying for five or six or more possible guitars and tewenty times materials all down the line as the stringent rejections from body woods to finishes cost $'s. I think the Taylor guitars post put it well and that is the way I see it anyway.
I always look at it like, what would it cost me to make something + a healthy profit margin. Once you've brought home your timber and chucked all the shaky stuff out, bought the hardware, bid on a nice maple cap etc etc. it soon adds up, then there is the profit margin. Take a Les Paul down your luthiers or add up the time it takes you to make one yourself ad Gibby's will seem like a bargain.
Remember also that the dollar and £ are on the verge of becoming worthless, other currencies have climbed against them and add your taxes and ethical sourcing by law, it all adds up.
I was considering getting a chinese copy, but then I thought, it's wrong for two reasons, the chinese factory owners are letting their staff spray isocyanates without any PPE equipment and they probably don't even have dust extractors plus the pressure on staff to work all hours. But then I thought about it and the companies that log the wood for the big guitar companies proabbly don't have PPE for heir staff either and they probably work all hours and come to think of it, I, and everyone I know works all hours.
Break down the price differences - $300 vs $2000...well veneer back and front and copmposite body of dubious wood instead of one piece mahogany with a maple cap, there are loads of dollars right there. Attention to detail, paint. Two piece scarf neck joint as opposed to one piece....etc etc. and the hardware and pups do not even compare. I think if Gibby's were actually made in China, under licence say for the chinese market, they would retail for $1200.
But hey, look on the bright side, in ten years, when we are all carting home wheelbarrows of $'s or £'s from a 16 hour days pay down at the gibson factory workhouse, making guitars for the chinese market, the chinese will be sitting back at their computers thinking to themselves what cheap crap they are being flooded with and pointing to all the imperfections.
I feel sorry for these chinese factory workers, they must feel like I do when I get called in to fix someone's half completed or delapidated DIY project to their exacting DIY standards. You just never get a quality job done like that and just feel like you are wasting your skills on these people.
I HATE BEING LEFT HANDED! 
I rock out to Baby metal because Wilkinsi said I can't listen to Rick Astley anymore.
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