Budgeting

[Oddkid]

Out of curiosity, were I to plan a build of my own, how much should I budget for?

Lets assume that I build the neck and body. I'd prefer to build neck through. Obviously I'd need the longer laminates. How much would that likely cost? What about fretboards?

What about body wood?

I'm only looking for ballpark figures at the minute.

 

[icos211]

I got all the wood for my neckthrough's neck for $80, body for 23(shipping was 25 ) and top for 50(15 shipping)

60 for tuners, 110 for pickup, then about 120 for all the rest of the hardware.

So, without counting tools and such, I'm about 500 into this build, and I would say that is probably a good estimate to have. However, budget a few hundred more just in case. You never know.

 

[FIXXXER]

it surely depends on the wood type, how it's cut and the overall quality of the wood,
which can be figure in top woods or "level of dehydration".
same goes for hardware. spending 500 bucks is managable if you're ready for compromise.

 

[Berserker]

There are so many variables, you need to do some research for yourself. Being from the UK, wood will be bloody expensive depending what you want. Hardware can vary massively. You don't mention what tools you have either, so that could bump up the cost.

£400 - £500 for materials is probably realistic but could be a lot more.It's definitely cheaper to buy a guitar, so don't be thinking it works out cheaper!

 

[demonx]

The more exotic the timbers and the higher quality the parts the price just goes up and up.

I can tell you now I buy WHOLESALE and I could not build a guitar for $500 like people are saying unless I used really crappy timber and really low budget hardware.

By the time I freight everything to Australia I'm well over a grand in wholesale cost and then add several months labor. Just the pickups alone that I use retail around AU$430!

Add on top all the specialized tools needed - sure you can skimp on some stuff and make do with others, but I've got six figures without a decimal place invested in tools in my workshop bought over several years. Whatever your budget for the guitar, allow more for tools.

 

[Oddkid]

Ok good advice everyone! I like to get in a good bit of research before I jump into anything so at the minute this is just ideas and nothing more. £400-£500 for materials is cool, I imagined as much seeming pick up upgrades in the past have cost upwards of £200. I've seen blanks online for £50-£110 and neck laminates for £15 each, five of those would be £75 just for the neck. Thinking about it, I bet I'm looking at closer to £800.

 

[foreright]

My experience has been £600-800 for anything with niceish woods and decent hardware. Factoring in costs of sandpaper (which btw is surprisingly costly!), wear on router bits etc. and it always costs more than you might think That is of course without factoring in the cost of your time also...

 

[DredFul]

I got most of my woods from a local wood supplier. About 90€ got me enough maple and walnut for neckthrough and a bolt on and I still have enough for one bolt on/setneck. Also enough alder for my V. Bubinga top for my tele was 80€ bought from a luthier. Just to give you a perspective about prices on exotic woods compared to something from a local dealer One thing to keep in mind is that something cheaper from local supplier probably wont be top notch in quality. My walnut neck has some knots on it. Personally I like the look but if you want something with a super straight grain be sure to prepare your wallet

 

[sehnomatic]

You're looking at $500-$900CAD/USD for good specs and wood depending on...

-Where you live (shipping, taxes, availability), Wood and hardware availability isn't the best in canada, but it's not the worst
-Deal sitting and compromises: Sometimes you just have to spend time waiting for that sale, or that coupon, or choose different wood/hardware entirely. I've saved about $70 on my ongoing build by choosing to work with aluminum over brass, stainless steel frets over evo gold, and just waiting on stuff on ebay to pop up.
-Used hardware. This is what keeps my build relatively low. Used pickups on craigslist/kijiji can save some serious money.

-Make you own stuff. Jigs, jigs, jigs, modified tools, and homemade hardware. This is the #1 factor I take in account. I've saved potentially hundreds from making stuff for myself and others.
String thru ferrules from stewmac? $6-9 for just 6? 3 of these can be made from one $9 piece of aluminum or brass

Before buying certain tools like tang nippers, end cutters, etc. Look for alternatives or make your own:
Buying one of these instead of the stewmac hotrod saves you money as you can use a typical 1/4" router bit instead of the odd size bit that stewmac sells.
End cutters. You can buy end cutters from any hardware store and grind them flush if you can.
Tang nippers are convenience tools, if you're willing to spend the extra minutes using your end cutters and filing the tangs, that saves you money.
This is the EXACT same tool as the stewmac tang nipper, the only difference is that stewmac puts a slot where the fret sits, doing it yourself on these will save you $20

Most luthier tools are modified fine woodworking or metal working tools. In the end RESEARCH saves you the most money.

 

[Oddkid]

Wow I've been away from this thread a while. Thanks for the advice everyone. If I do go ahead with this, there would be no time frame so I could order stuff as a i went. That would make it less obviously costly I guess haha. I think tooling would be the main thing to consider, though I don't doubt I could borrow tools off friends at certain points. To be honest, there are two reasons behind this. The first, is unless you order custom, you can never get exactly what you want. The other is I like building stuff, the feeling of accomplishing something when you're done is well worth the journey.

 

[pondman]

Its really hard to get nice timbers in the UK and the stuff on ebay is just crazy money. I travel about looking for stuff and if I do find anything I buy a decent amount to make it worthwhile. If you have a thicknesser or drum sander you can save lots of money buying roughsawn and salvage timber.
Good second hand pickups and parts are easy to get.
The only problem is once you get hooked...

 

[JuliusJahn]

Its really hard to get nice timbers in the UK and the stuff on ebay is just crazy money. I travel about looking for stuff and if I do find anything I buy a decent amount to make it worthwhile. If you have a thicknesser or drum sander you can save lots of money buying roughsawn and salvage timber.
Good second hand pickups and parts are easy to get.
The only problem is once you get hooked...

I'll disagree. I just saw a sweet maple burl top go for 15$, I can't even do plain maple for that price. Look for the deals, and smaller lumber mills.


OP, as a Candian I pay ~500 on hardware (+shipping) and 60$ on wood, and the pickups are whatever you pay. Of course, I also spent over 4k on tools at this point and got a bandsaw, sander, drill press, and dremel for free.

 

[foreright]

You're wrong. Buying anything considered "exotic" in the uk costs a fortune compared to what you guys in the states and Canada pay. You do not get maple burl or anything like that here for £10 mores the pity.

I usually end up buying guitar tops from the US as it's far cheaper even with the huge shipping costs and you get a much better choice of high quality timber.