Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
Akustikwood Lives!
I wrote to Akustikwood several times over the past months trying to find out if they are still selling to the US and what their latest prices are. I just received this:
Dear Mr.Deutsch, Sorry for delay, we forgot to reply your e-mail. Our prices are being updated. I will send you our price list in a few days. Thank you, Saygılarımla / Best Regards Akif TASATAN
That's hilarious, if gave that reply to a client they'd bite my head off. I gotta move to Europe where I can say stuff like that and no one bats an eye.
Please pass the price list to me when you get it. And remind me what it was I was supposed to send to you???? My time got weird the last few months because started teaching part time and I a making electric guitar commissions out the aSS, I forgot to do a bunch of stuff.
Haha, that's amazing. I sent several emails last year and got no response. I am also a big fan of their woods, not just the Cypress but Spruce and Maple as well. I haven't tried any of their Rosewood yet. Now if Turkey would only allow PayPal so I don't have to do a bank transfer where they look at me like I'm funding terrorists or something.
The price list looks good. Cypress went up about $10-12, Spruce went up 73 cents and Maple went DOWN $7 And shipping included is insane.
Now if Turkey would only allow PayPal so I don't have to do a bank transfer where they look at me like I'm funding terrorists or something.
I know. It's always a hassle with my bank. Last time I had to make three trips there because they kept finding more forms for me to sign. I wonder if it's Turkey or the US that won't allow Paypal there.
Hmm, so a guitar, made of premium A quality wood, is round about 2-$300? The rest we players have to pay for is sanding and glueing you charge $2000-$9000 depending on what your last name is?????
About paypal it's all about what the terrorists are charging these days.
No just kidding, I have students in other countries that have to do work arounds to pay my invoices (for skype lessons) but it usually works out just fine, but truth is there are countries PayPal has yet to add to their list, something like 29 countries, and the reasons are business deal issues only. Most or all of these countries are in negotiations and will one day be offered I am pretty sure by what I read.
Hmm, so a guitar, made of premium A quality wood, is round about 2-$300? The rest we players have to pay for is sanding and glueing you charge $2000-$9000 depending on what your last name is?????
I have a deal where you do the sanding and gluing, and you buy the wood and tools. You pretty much call the shots. Then for $1800.00 I send you the label and the rosette sticker and BOOM you have a luthier made guitar.
Hmm, so a guitar, made of premium A quality wood, is round about 2-$300? The rest we players have to pay for is sanding and glueing you charge $2000-$9000 depending on what your last name is?????
Maybe less if you can negotiate a bulk buy. The rest also helps fund our forum hours.
I have never spent less than 500 - 600 Euros in woods and tuners and I never got to spend less than 1 month and a half ( maybe 120 hours of work) to make a flamenco guitar. I realised quite soon that I (for one) coudn't make a good living with it.
I have never spent less than 500 - 600 Euros in woods and tuners and I never got to spend less than 1 month and a half ( maybe 120 hours of work) to make a flamenco guitar.
You must be buying very expensive tuners. Wood prices are climbing rapidly but those of us who have been doing this for awhile usually buy when the price is right. A few years ago I had a chance to buy East Indian RW sets for $40 and fortunately had the cash on hand to load up. We're still using them. Same with ebony fingerboards, we bought a big stack for $10 each and we buy Spanish cedar in big planks rather than individual neck blanks (way cheaper). Akustikwood has very good prices on Cypress and it's excellent and we buy top quality spruce from Canadian suppliers for prices similar or less than Akustikwood. When these fingerboards are used up we're switching to synthetic ones which are expensive but very stable and ready to use without years of aging.
350 to 400 euro average in wood and 150 to 200 euro average in tuners. I could spend 200 euro in wood and 60 euros in tuners, but the final result wouldn't obviously be the same.
Yeah that is expensive wood for a guitar. I don't know about everyone else but wood dealers over here can do bulk deals and also trade discount. I think wood for a top end classical is probably at about £200 these days.