Counting the cost...

I'm not sure why I've been thinking about this lately, but I've been wondering how much this whole thing is costing me. Before I began as a first time kit guitar builder, I naively estimated "less than $1200"; at least that is what I told my wife. Knowing that the kit was about $500, I estimated that various specialty tools would be about $500, and other books/plywood/misc would be another $200. Turns out I was about half right.

The top portion is accurate to the penny, these are all the costs of things directly related to and/or necessary for this first guitar build: $1460. The bottom portion is an estimate based on memory on stuff I've purchased that are used for building the guitar, but also have other uses too (power tools, etc). So while these things could be used for other things, it is doubtful I would have purchased them if I wasn't building the guitar. These are just estimate, so give it an error bar of +/- 200. Grand total of $2400, my instinct suggests it is slightly more than this, there may be a few things I have forgotten about.

I should point out that I did a lot of things on the cheap. Those power tools for instance were great buys, I could have spent $100-$500 EACH on them instead of roughly $150 total. And there were power tools that I didn't buy that would have been nice: drill press, planer, spindle sander. There were jigs/fixtures that I could have bought, but made instead: 15' and 30' radius dish, mold for sides, router side attachment, etc. I trash picked a bunch of bicycle inner-tubes to make rubber binding bands, glued them together with CA glue. I made a 100 small kerfing clamps out of clothes pins and rubber bands. I made a go-bar desk by ripping $20 worth of oak to make the sticks and using the work bench and the ceiling of my basement as the two surfaces.

I could have saved a little money had I done a few things differently. Making the neck now seems easy compared to a year ago when I started: I could have made it from scratch instead of buying the pre-carved model and saved about $100. But that was a long time ago, I've learned a lot about lutherie AND woodworking since then. Those Hirsh (Two Cherries) chisels weren't cheap... but then the cheapo's I bought initially (set of 5 from Harbor freight for $5) were absolutely junk, held an edge for about 5 seconds. At least they gave me something to practice sharpening on. At one point I thought those wooden F-clamps from Grizzly were a waste of money... until I used all of them on one step. 90% of the time you have 90% of your clamps sitting around collecting dust. Then one day you use them all up and wish you had more. Could have done without the branding iron, but it's kinda cool. Could have bought a cheaper flush trim and rabbeting bits; how much is it worth knowing you "probably" won't screw it up because you have the right tool?

I wonder if my wife would have let me do this if my estimate was accurate back then... probably a good thing it was low:) I'm actually slightly more frugal than she is, maybe I wouldn't have let myself start this whole thing if I'd have known. Good thing is that if I ever build another one, it will be much cheaper since I've already invested in most of the power tools, other specialty tools, jigs and fixtures that are required: probably could do it for $600-$800 total. Already thinking 'bout that one: Small jumbo, myrtlewood B/S, fingerstyle 25.7" scale, ziricote fingerboard/peghead/bridge/tuning knobs...

Yeah, I'm hooked alright. I think the thing about lutherie that is so consuming is simply the challenge. I need a challenge in my life or else I get bored and ultimately depressed. And believe me, building a guitar is a monumental challenge. There is so much knowledge to learn, skills to hone and ways to improve past methods. But it suits me so well because it combines a variety of skills/interests that I have.
1) I am a musician.
2) I am an engineer; building things, fixing things, solving problems is in my blood.
3) I am a physics teacher; I enjoy thinking about the physics behind sound/vibration, etc.
4) I like to work with my hands, there is something very calming and gratifying about it.

This is how God made me, why fight it. Sometimes I wish God would just come down and ask me to build him something, like David or Nehemiah or Noah. I think it would have been cool to be Noah, building an ark for 100 years. He didn't care that his neighbors were heckling him (You're building a WHAT ???), he was too consumed with the project to care. He was doing something he enjoyed, something he was good at, all for God's glory; the best of both worlds.