This site may earn a commission from merchant links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
I did almost go with this design, and I’m glad I didn’t. It was originally drawn up for someone else.
View attachment 72968
I will protest at the guitars being categorized as completely non-functional. They are fine. Do they justify the price? That’s debatable, and I am saying this as a customer who DOES like his guitar.
Reminds me of this instrument:I did almost go with this design, and I’m glad I didn’t. It was originally drawn up for someone else.
View attachment 72968
I actually like how this one looks. But this person really didn't understand the ergonomic aspects behind the Oni fanfrets. I mean, there's multiple places you can read up on what the thought process behind those were, and it had very little to do with aesthetics.At least it will sound a lot better than having a middle and neck pickup.
![]()
you're under arrestI did almost go with this design, and I’m glad I didn’t. It was originally drawn up for someone else.
View attachment 72968
I spent $2000 on this
Therein-lies the issue, IMO. Not jumping on the train that all guitars should be inaccessibly expensive, and there are ton of cheap guitars that play 100% perfectly with little to no flaws, but $2000 for how outside of the box the features/materials are on these is unsustainably cheap Which is probably why they can only employ three people and why the QC is shoddy. It's hard to QC something and repair/toss a guitar when you're working in those kinds of profit margins. Doubly when almost every build is custom.
I like your point. Basically that the number of unusual to off the wall features combined with predominantly hand-made manufacturing makes it so that there is no room for error or to correct a mistake so results in a “you get what you get” due to it being so cheap.
On top of whatever ego/attitude the builder has.
More or less. Woodworkers have an infinite number of workarounds to cover-up mistakes (solid or stain to cover filler from dings, binding to hide gaps in glued surfaces, etc), aluminum and carbon fiber hide NOTHING and are infinitely harder to work, along with their own mountain of idiosyncrasies (like epoxy layup for the cf, slotting a hard surface like aluminum for frets with small bits prone to breaking). The margin for error is razor thin, if not non-existent.
As an entrepreneur, if someone pitched me on joining this company I'd say you have to raise your price at least another $1000 or compromise on your features to deliver. You can't fuck up an aluminum fretboard with banana frets and 'fix it', it's gotta go in the trash and you're out the materials, decent wear on your machines and a lot of time.
I can totally see having a stinky attitude if you're likely paying yourself starvation wages because you're building stuff with outrageous specs for the price. I don't mean any of that as a defense of the company or the builder, if anything it's the opposite, but I get where all of this is coming from.
Etherial would be much better served raising the price, lowering the target numbers and tooling/focusing on features they can definitely deliver on.
I disagree on this point.
If you take away the bizarre and absurd features on these guitars and force Ethereal to focus on "core competency" (ie: putting out a proper solid instrument first and foremost) you're left with a company that has a bad reputation for poor build standards and QC, that no longer offers any of the unique features that attracted his customer base in the first place.
Sales would dry up all together and the company would fold.
The only way forward for this company would be to drastically increase prices ( I'm talking about the $10K per instrument range) and properly deliver on the quirky features that he offers on top of a flawless instrument.
Due to the aforementioned poor reputation for quality and QC I would not expect any customers to be willing to shell out $10K for an ethereal guitar. for that reason I believe this company is already sunk... it's just a matter of time before his capital runs out and builds start stalling and the builder disappears/files for bankruptcy.
His builds are 100% not my cup of tea but it's a shame as they were certainly unique design and construction wise... and I think the industry needs a little more of that....
I'll take a simpler better build guitar over a barely functional art piece but as an observer, I think an Etherial with some flaws that need to be overcome moves the needle a lot more than a $3000 immaculate telecaster copy with a faux roadworn finish.
Perhaps for the same reason that, generally, cars have four wheels and go, for the most part, where you want them to; to the vast detriment of visionary marques who craft one-off masterpieces with 2 wheels on the opposing corners, a steam driven piston on one of the remaining corners and leave the last corner unoccupied, with a chassis made out of granite and a special camelid-wool-lined bucket seat that perfectly tessellates the human arse.Ahhhhhhhhh THANK YOU!!!!
WHY IS THAT GARBAGE SOOO FREAKING POPULAR!?!?!?!?!?!?! AHHHHH IT LITTERALLY KILLS ME!