Much my own experience. There are some "hype" items that come along. But these soon are passed over and the cream stays at the top.
With finer and finer craftsmanship, each level of "finer" requires that much more work. When it is all done by just one fellow, or one fellow and an assistant and all by hand, the time investment is huge. Some makers like Ken Smith have more people involved, but the process is still the same and he still sets up each instrument and picks the wood. I think Fodera has just one assistant. The same is true of Carl Thompson and Jens Ritter. That means a very small number of instruments can be built by these makers. And it isn't like these folks are going to be the next Bill Gates, they are just making a decent living doing what they do. It's comparatively modest what a custom maker makes. And there's the whole self-employment thing to deal with. The successful makers are extremely dedicated to the craft.
And the products are better sounding too. When we think of luthierie, we think of electric bass instruments as being something different from violins or acoustic instruments and they are not. And this kinship with acoustic instruments is what separates the very best hand mades from other hand crafted electric instruments. It has to do with the tuning and proportioning of the parts of the instrument. Nothing to do with "carpentry", "joinery" or "finishing". That intangible carved in tuning is what makes a finer instrument finer. When you can no longer see the difference but you can feel it and hear it, that is the territory of the truly best individual makers. True the difference is small. The number of people who can hear it may be so small that the difference is even suspect. But to someone who looks at a bass on the wall asking (maker previously completely unknown to customer) how about that one there? And the proprietor replies, "Well, now, that's an eight thousand dollar bass." The customer just played some basses from $2500 to $5000. He wants to know the difference. Sure the 8K looks cool, but is it that much better than the next one? So the customer tries it out and can't believe his ears. He loves it, cut's a deal with the proprietor and it is gone. That's what happens with these top level instruments. Someone who hears that difference doesn't care who the name is on it. Nor do they particularly care what it costs if they have the cash. If a person can hear that quality of sound and sees an example, it's not going to matter who tells them whatever about whomever anymore. That maker is going to be immediately in higher demand than the number of instruments he can make. An equilibrium point is reached. The maker streamlines the operation to the extent that he can without compromising quality. But truly that just can't be done past a point, or these makers wouldn't be who they are. I think in most cases the reputations of the fine makers are earned and the prices justified by the extremely fine attention to every detail, including the acoustic characteristics of the finished instrument.
