Jim Kirby -> RE: DIY machine heads, tips? (Feb. 15 2013 16:36:21)
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ORIGINAL: keith i would imagine it would be tough to start from scratch and get the necessary parts, equipment and foothold into the market. the latter i think would be the toughest part given how many suppliers of tuners are out there. one can spend a lot of money to make one or two sets. the key is being able to recoup costs by selling a lot of sets and this becomes the significant problem; how does one push aside established companies especially in the range of affordable tuners? it is this situation that may keep established tuner makers quiet on sourcing supplies. i would send e-mails to established tuner makers and see if one or two will supply information. who knows, maybe one or two will share information. J. Graf had the opinion that there was no competition in the high end market, in the sense of people being in each other's way. He, Rodgers, anyone else can sell them faster than they can make them and could often be charging a lot more for them. Where you don't want to be is competing with Gotoh, Sloane, etc. Graf's base price is up around $600/set, and he says he doesn't sell any of those - the orders are for ones in the $1200-1400 range. You probably can't make any money competing in the $100-$300 range - that's a place for larger scale manufacturing. Graf says the thing that sets his base price is he insists on being paid more per hour than his plumber. (Of course, there is also the issue that his gears and stuff are expensive to start with, and are all the same on every set.)
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