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Boutique brand build time

#22
Most likely they don't take that long to build them... they just take a long time to get around to building yours. If they can build 1 bass a week, but have 50 people in the queue ahead of you then you wait a year. (of course its not that simple as they wouldn't be building on bass at a time, and some processes do take a longer time).

For a small independent builder the economics of scaling up production may not work, or may simply not be in their best interests. If it's the owner plus a couple of assistants in a small industrial unit, then taking on an extra person increases labour costs by a third, and may mean moving to new (more expensive premises). Of course now you need to increase orders (once those back orders are cleared), so now you need a marketing budget... and someone to run that... Why even consider taking the risk if you have a nice business with a years worth of back orders making you a good living... There a million companies that were succsessful small businesses that decided they wanted to be medium size businesses and end up going bust.

Back orderes mean the owner gets to sleep at night knowing he'll be in business in 12 months time!
 
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#25
Another question might be:

Why do companies that mass produce instruments in factories outside the US with lower labor costs, dedicated mass production facilities, reduced expenditures allocated to waste management and compromised safety persist in setting prices equivalent to those used by competent craftsmen working within our borders in smaller, independent shops?

Thr answer is obvious: Branding logo stickers cost more that the actual value of the item and we must do what we can to keep the wealthy from falling into the morass and poverty of the upper middle class.
 
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#26
IanStephenson said:
Most likely they don't take that long to build them... they just take a long time to get around to building yours. If they can build 1 bass a week, but have 50 people in the queue ahead of you then you wait a year.
Click to expand...
Having throughput of one bass per week does not mean a bass can be made in a week. It means that many basses are at different stages of production each day.
 
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#32
IanStephenson said:
Most likely they don't take that long to build them... they just take a long time to get around to building yours. If they can build 1 bass a week, but have 50 people in the queue ahead of you then you wait a year. (of course its not that simple as they wouldn't be building on bass at a time, and some processes do take a longer time).

For a small independent builder the economics of scaling up production may not work, or may simply not be in their best interests. If it's the owner plus a couple of assistants in a small industrial unit, then taking on an extra person increases labour costs by a third, and may mean moving to new (more expensive premises). Of course now you need to increase orders (once those back orders are cleared), so now you need a marketing budget... and someone to run that... Why even consider taking the risk if you have a nice business with a years worth of back orders making you a good living... There a million companies that were succsessful small businesses that decided they wanted to be medium size businesses and end up going bust.

Back orderes mean the owner gets to sleep at night knowing he'll be in business in 12 months time!
Click to expand...
A lot of it is getting around to the actual building. But the ordering of parts (they aren't always in stock) getting the body and neck cut, quality controlled, and then the sanding, and then the finishing, decals, etc.... it takes a long time to coordinate this before actually building and setting up the bass itself. And they are probably simultaneously brining many many instruments to this point at the same time. It's more involved than you think if you've never been in the middle of it.
 
#34
Esteban Garcia said:
Why does something that is in demand, and is hand-made by a well-known artisan take longer to get than a mass-produced, machine made thing? 🤔

We may never know. It's one of life's great mysteries.
Click to expand...
EG, it's no mystery

A small business has a backlog of who knows many orders that are most likely one-offs that are expected to be perfect when you can count the number of exceptionally skilled employees on one or two hands, these aren't serial production items.

OK, hire more people. How long does it take to train them in very special skills, especially where in that small, specialized environment you need to do many of the tasks, there's no depth on the bench.

As anything, it's time and materials: The time it takes to be perfect built by a small staff, and exceptional woods, finish, hardware and electronics.

Mystery solved. And the last time I checked, Fender or Gibson Custom Shop build-to-order aren't exactly setting speed records either.
 
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