• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Building locally

#21
Great idea as a fellow NY'er I applaud your initiative and I've contemplated the concept many times.
But so far I haven't pulled the whole thing off locally. I've used local Maple and Black Walnut for body's, necks and tops.

Thanks for the heads up on the NY pickups and fretwire, I didn't realize those options, way cool.
I can give a pass on the pots and caps and such, to me it's the wood that's most important. Oh yeah plenty of NY string choices at least.

FYI Hipshot is located close to Ithaca NY, actually a tiny town called Interlaken, very close to Trumansburg the home of the Rongovian Embassy. Hipshot is a cool place to visit and they were great to deal with especially considering how small scale my building is.

Dirk
 
  • Like
Reactions: T_Bone_TL
#23
ctmullins said:
Here in Mississippi, I’d have to figure out how to make instruments out of fried seafood, fishing bait, cotton, oak and pine trees, MAGA hats, and diabetes. :meh:
Click to expand...
I hear you have mud, too. Perhaps you could hand-craft ceramic capacitors in a kiln fired with MAGA hats and pine. And braid nice vintage-style cotton insulation for the wiring harness, while eating fried seafood.

Does mining (well, breaking and entering, but that sounds illegal, while mining sounds legit) at the abandoned Peavey factory count as local?
 
  • Like
Reactions: ctmullins
#24
From a business perspective, I think it would be a terrible idea. Why would you limit yourself to appealing to bass players in only New York or whatever state you're in? Maybe as a special run, that might have some appeal even out of state. Or maybe don't try to make it 100% in state. Start with the electronics, then add wood from that state and allow everything else to be from wherever. Wood and electronics are the hear and soul of an instrument anyways. Let's face it, everyone out sources. Is Hipshot 100% made in New York when they get the stock from say, Ohio? (I don't know where they get their stock, but they don't turn ore into slabs in house.) So, my suggestion would be to just pair up wood and electronics and call it the heart and soul series or something like that. Otherwise, you're going to have every nerd on the internet asking for certificate of authenticity for pihckguard screws or whatever.
 
#25
MultiScaleMale said:
From a business perspective, I think it would be a terrible idea. Why would you limit yourself to appealing to bass players in only New York or whatever state you're in?
Click to expand...
Locally sourced can have wider appeal than just to inhabitants of the locale...

OTOH, I don't think anybody here is in the "thousands upon thousands of customers" realm, though I could be wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: james condino and deff
#26
NY has almost unlimited hardwoods, incredible maples, and exceptional red spruce growing in your backyard. Almost every urban location also has 100s of exotic trees that have been planted. I consider those fair game, but urban trees can be tricky and many sawyers will not consider them due to all of the nails and other metal possibilities.

I'm in a similar situation in western North Carolina- amazing local hardwoods, plenty of nice spruces, and we have local Persimmon- a true north American Ebony with a dark blackish heartwood.

So many folks focus on simple clear finishes & they rely on their woods to make the instrument stand out. I try to get all of my students to learn great skills with a spray gun and color application so they can use simple woods, but still have strong designs that stand out in a crowd from their color work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Beej and T_Bone_TL
#28
T_Bone_TL said:
Locally sourced can have wider appeal than just to inhabitants of the locale...

OTOH, I don't think anybody here is in the "thousands upon thousands of customers" realm, though I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

No, I didn't think anyone is, but if you want to sell five / year why limit to a particular state? And really only the people in that particular state that might be interested. Wood with a story would have far more appeal, even within the state or locale.
 
#29
Was just out in missouri a months or so ago and went persimmon hunting. We made a wonderful pudding... So tasty :drool:
As for the trees the wood is beautiful but they're not a very large diameter tree, and not straight at all. I don't know what you could use it for other than a really nice fretboard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Slidlow
#30
MultiScaleMale said:
No, I didn't think anyone is, but if you want to sell five / year why limit to a particular state? And really only the people in that particular state that might be interested. Wood with a story would have far more appeal, even within the state or locale.
Click to expand...

For the record, this was a creative idea focused on the building aspect, and my thread was meant to get ideas on what other "local" sources builders were using, or if builders were thinking about that at all - I wasn't really intending this to be about marketing plans. But at any rate, I'm not sure why you're convinced that this would be a limitation, from a marketing perspective? If I (theoretically) built a bass from New York State parts and materials and sold it on the open market, I'd assume that people would just evaluate it on how nice of a bass it was. If someone from Maryland liked it as a bass, I doubt they'd pass over it because it was built from things that came from New York, right? No one would even know it was a "New York" bass unless you told them. And I guess the good news is, you'd get to choose how and what you told them. For people that were interested in locally-built stuff, you could use that as a feature to help sell. For instance, if you were selling the bass through a local indie music store - you could mention that it was built from local parts and materials. For sales meant for a general audience, you wouldn't even need to mention it. Although there might be an angle with those people, as well. Lots of manufacturers and small builders use state or local branding on products where it makes sense, or market that they use locally sourced materials. From a marketing perspective I see it as a win-win: you gain an advantage with some people, but don't inherently have any extra cost or disadvantage for a broader audience. Plus it's a fun and interesting challenge. Which seems right on target for the LC!

Again though, my focus was intended to be on building and not marketing.

Slidlow said:
Didn't know persimmon were as far north as NY state? I'd like to use some but finding it seems difficult.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it does. I've never seen it up here. I would like to try it for a fretboard some time as well. Body and neck woods are easy, I don't even have to leave my property. Fretboards are tough. Luckily, I like maple, but it would be nice to have something that was similar to rosewood or ebony. I'm not really a fan of some of the other domestics I've seen people use. I've seen pistachio on a uke fretboard, but it seems about as hard to get as persimmon...
 
  • Like
Reactions: TrustRod
#31
dwizum said:
For the record, this was a creative idea focused on the building aspect, and my thread was meant to get ideas on what other "local" sources builders were using, or if builders were thinking about that at all - I wasn't really intending this to be about marketing plans. But at any rate, I'm not sure why you're convinced that this would be a limitation, from a marketing perspective? If I (theoretically) built a bass from New York State parts and materials and sold it on the open market, I'd assume that people would just evaluate it on how nice of a bass it was. If someone from Maryland liked it as a bass, I doubt they'd pass over it because it was built from things that came from New York, right? No one would even know it was a "New York" bass unless you told them. And I guess the good news is, you'd get to choose how and what you told them. For people that were interested in locally-built stuff, you could use that as a feature to help sell. For instance, if you were selling the bass through a local indie music store - you could mention that it was built from local parts and materials. For sales meant for a general audience, you wouldn't even need to mention it. Although there might be an angle with those people, as well. Lots of manufacturers and small builders use state or local branding on products where it makes sense, or market that they use locally sourced materials. From a marketing perspective I see it as a win-win: you gain an advantage with some people, but don't inherently have any extra cost or disadvantage for a broader audience. Plus it's a fun and interesting challenge. Which seems right on target for the LC!

Again though, my focus was intended to be on building and not marketing.



I'm not sure if it does. I've never seen it up here. I would like to try it for a fretboard some time as well. Body and neck woods are easy, I don't even have to leave my property. Fretboards are tough. Luckily, I like maple, but it would be nice to have something that was similar to rosewood or ebony. I'm not really a fan of some of the other domestics I've seen people use. I've seen pistachio on a uke fretboard, but it seems about as hard to get as persimmon...
Click to expand...

Sorry, no more comment from me. Carry on.
 
#32
locally sourced timbers is fine if you can get them but hardware and electronics eh, -good luck on that. additionally, if you use shellac, do you think you have locally sourced laq beetles for your sealer? otoh, you could use egg glair harvested from local chickens and applied with local horsehair brushes applied in so many layers to ultimately become more effort than it's worth.

where i'm at i just can't do 100% local or even regional. primary focus is acoustic guitar and there's only a handful of woods that are proven to work well and maybe .5% of them are from where i'm at. electric instruments certainly have more flexibility though.

recycled materials would be more viable imo.
 
Last edited:
#33
MultiScaleMale said:
Sorry, no more comment from me. Carry on.
Click to expand...

Hey no worries, I just wanted to nudge this back towards building and less on marketing. Always welcome the input though, even if we see things differently.

@Arie X and others who are commenting that they don't have hardware or pickups/electronics available locally - I'm curious, have you actually looked? I was really surprised at what I found once I did!
 
#34
dwizum said:
Hey no worries, I just wanted to nudge this back towards building and less on marketing. Always welcome the input though, even if we see things differently.

@Arie X and others who are commenting that they don't have hardware or pickups/electronics available locally - I'm curious, have you actually looked? I was really surprised at what I found once I did!
Click to expand...

plenty available locally, nothing except pickups made locally but with component parts sourced globally. i can actually get strings handmade like 10-20 miles away but the wire comes from elsewhere. switchcraft used to be about 10-20 miles away but they moved production elsewhere. there's several places that sell used electronics that i can scavenge -if they're still in business.
 
Last edited:
#36
I am a big fan of going "Local" when possible, especially in a day and age when you can go online and order virtually anything from anywhere.

But for the sake of discussion...

Having gone down this particular rabbit hole in my previous career in LEED/Green Architecture, I feel it can be a maddening endeavor, trying to get 100% local! Depending on where you live, some people will be fortunate to have plenty of options, others will have no possibility.
I currently live in NC, so I have access to local lumber and we have MojoTone pick-ups just a little East of me.
But where do I get bridges and tuners? Or strings?
And, as has already been pointed out, do we ignore the electronics?

I definitely think it is worth the effort to get what you can locally, but it may not be possible to get 100%.
 
#37
OK, while it may well be impossible to achieve some sort of 100% green, low travel miles, electric guitar and bass construction, it doesn't mean there aren't a host of valid reasons for exploring the optional use of local woods.
There is a lot more wood in terms of volume and weight in an electric guitar or bass than any other material and if some local woods, commonly available, can provide much the same qualities as the often endangered and hard to source traditional woods, why not use them?

If being a bit more green isn't a factor, using local where possible might still be worthwhile. Without shipping great distances, locally available and milled wood might be cheaper and if it matches the performance of the more exotic types, then why not use it.

I'll bet that if Leo Fender had set up shop in an area with plenty of freely available and cheap wood types other than Alder, Ash and Maple, nearly everyone would regard whatever woods he'd used instead as the "standard" electric guitar/bass woods.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TrustRod, BishopJP and ctmullins
#38
FYI Hipshot is all in house. I even got to see the old stove they do their powder coating in.
They make bridges and tuners for many famous bass/guitar brands, of coursed custom labelled with the famous brand not Hipshot. You'd be surprised as I was seeing them in person.

Heck they even offer that service to small builders like me, for a surprisingly small 1 time charge.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dwizum and deff

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back