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Boutique brand build time

#6
AaronOnBass said:
Why do boutique bass brands, like Ken Smith, MTD, F-Bass and Fodera, take so long to build a bass
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Because the more individual customization, hand-finishing and quality control goes into producing an item, the more time it needs.

What you don't know is how long it takes to manufacture a Fender or Ibanez, start-to-finish, because you don't pre-order one, you just pick up one that had been already built.

Is there a reason why you flagged your own account as "commercial"? That's only necessary if you are in a business involved in bass in some way, other than as a musician.
 
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#8
It's also important to note that it doesn't take as long to build a bass as it takes for you to get a bass built after you order it. They typically aren't waiting around for people to place an order and many other instruments are in a queue ahead of you. Fewer employees can also lead to longer waits. And the market bears long lead times for custom instruments.

I spent my career building custom items for people. The biggest contributing factor for long lead times, for me, was always how long I had to wait to start actually building.
 
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#12
AaronOnBass said:
Why do boutique bass brands, like Ken Smith, MTD, F-Bass and Fodera, take so long to build a bass
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To make a long story short, for the small, high-end builders, it's an artisan craft, small business, not a Fender or Gibson who can call a temp agency or employment service, walk a reasonably reliable person to one stop on a 50 to 100-step assembly line process and reasonably expect they can perform one small, single task to move the line along.

In a lot of those cases, their yearly production is less than a day or a week at the large companies.

As Basvarken points out, a lot of time is in finishing. When I had my custom Alembic built (one year buy-to-delivery), I wanted a green tint. Alembic typically runs anywhere from 15-20 coats of clear, which is shot, of course, one layer at a time. That has to dry. Then they wet-sand and repeat, over and over, and 5 or 6 coats in, they shoot the tint over the preceding clear coats so as to never stain the wood itself (so if you later want it a different color, it's WAY easier to refin), Figure 3-4 days for each shot (and working it in all the other pieces in finish at the time), and that's 60 days or more right there, and BTW, it has to be PERFECT to their eyes. And, this is a family business with a staff of less than a dozen.

That doesn't happen on an assembly line.
 
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#15
UntitledProject said:
It's also important to note that it doesn't take as long to build a bass as it takes for you to get a bass built after you order it. They typically aren't waiting around for people to place an order and many other instruments are in a queue ahead of you. Fewer employees can also lead to longer waits. And the market bears long lead times for custom instruments.

I spent my career building custom items for people. The biggest contributing factor for long lead times, for me, was always how long I had to wait to start actually building.
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I agree.

The line of orders ahead of you is a huge factor in wait times. Small shop with few employees can only get so much done in a day. A custom bass also gets more time and attention during the build.

My current Lakland was finished within 6 weeks from order. Way ahead of the 12 - 18 month wait time. It jumped the line. LOL.
 

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