How much is a fair price for my L5S ?

[Doughboy]

I'm thinking of possibly selling my Warmoth L5S & was wondering how much you guys think would be a fair price? I'd probably try to sell it to a Warmoth user, as 'civilians' don't quite understand the whole Warmoth 'thing'. I paid $2500 for the whole thing, it's about a year old & in mint condition.

Here are specs & pics.

BODY
L5S  Hollow Alder Body
AAAAA Quilt maple top
Cream binding
Vintage tint gloss

NECK
Warmoth Pro 1 5/8
Warmoth headstock w/ Quilt maple veneer
AAA birds eye Maple neck
Ebony fingerboard no dots
Wizard contour
Graphtec nut
10-16 Compound radius
6100 frets
Cream binding

HARDWARE
Tone Pros Tune-o-matic bridge
Locking Tuners
Planet Waves side jack
2 Gold EMG 85s
Quilt Maple truss rod cover

 

[JaySwear]

hm the pictures didn't work for me

EDIT: pics showed up the original post, i've removed them from mine

but i'd say about half what you paid if you can find somebody to pay that. it's a beautiful guitar, but custom is only worth so much to the non-original owner  :-\

 

[bassfrancesco]

That's a real nice, and unique build.  Suggest you put on ebay as, you may get luckier there.  Here, likely most will be inspired to build their own.  Cheers.

 

[whyachi]

That's a real nice, and unique build.  Suggest you put on ebay as, you may get luckier there.  Here, likely most will be inspired to build their own.  Cheers.

That's the trade off. We know its a quality piece, but we could change a few things and do it ourselves..

 

[Steve_Karl]

If you put it on eBay, more detailed, and many more pictures would surely help sell it.
Nice guitar!

 

[Dan025]

priceless  :icon_scratch:

for that one i'd thow it up for the total of the parts just for curiosity and see what people bid, if someone bids a fair amount contact them and work something out.

i think many warmoths that don't sell on ebay faor full price is because the seller presents it as something more than it is and people are smarter than that. this is a nice guitar and tastefully done, it doesn't look run of the mill and it's looks should be atractive too just about anyone. if you don't get it then just put it up again for a lesser price. the lower prices of other warmoths may bring the value down which is a shame. i would fully expect to get less than full value for it but it wouldn't stop me from trying cuz there isn't a bad chance someone out there looking for a nice thinline type bodied guitar would see this and just have to have it.

 

[Doughboy]

Thanks for the info guys. I may put it on Ebay, but I spent all day playing it & now I don't know if I want to part with it. It sounds pretty sweet & hopefully even sweeter when I put some flat wounds on there.

 

[Keyser Soze]

If you do decide to sell it you might want to consider parting it out.

I know that that may sound like sacrilege, particularly since you personally selected all the features.

The problem is, with every custom feature that gets added to the mix it becomes less and less likely the sum total will appeal to any given prospective buyer.  And the key to getting decent money on an auction site it to have multiple interested buyers.  Otherwise you are just hoping for the one guy who 'absolutely must have it.'  Everyone else will base their bids on whatever parts they find desirable, essentially adding nothing for those items they don't want.  The net result averages out to less than you could get selling stuff separately.

I've bought three whole partscasters off eBay, and was able to part them out to get most all my money back, while still keeping select items for myself (got a Lollar pickup for essentially nothing that way once.)

 

[jay4321]

You'll never get a "fair price" for that guitar, and what it cost you to build isn't even a factor.

I'm guessing you might get as much as $800-$900, and that's a big maybe, as right now lots of people are selling and few are buying. I hunt guitars on ebay a lot, and some have some serious illusions about the value of their stuff - I was looking at one that's been listed for weeks, with and a couple dings and DIY mistakes like awkward knob hole locations, and he's looking for perfect-new-guitar money and unwilling to work with me at all. Guess what guy, if you can't sell it in a month, you've got a price problem...

But anyway it's gorgeous. I agree that you need some seriously pro-quality photos to help sell it for sure, though I predict you'll wind up keeping it.

 

[jay4321]

The problem is, with every custom feature that gets added to the mix it becomes less and less likely the sum total will appeal to any given prospective buyer.  And the key to getting decent money on an auction site it to have multiple interested buyers.  Otherwise you are just hoping for the one guy who 'absolutely must have it.'   Everyone else will base their bids on whatever parts they find desirable, essentially adding nothing for those items they don't want.  The net result averages out to less than you could get selling stuff separately.

And I agree with all of this completely.

 

[Schlieren]

the only reason im building a custom guitar is that my original guitar was a custom guitar as well;

i bought it for $300 and it was easily worth $1200 in terms of quality of construction and sound

basically, don't ever build one of these if you think you might want to sell it in the future

 

[Mor Paul]

Butch.

Discuss.

 

[CrackedPepper]

Thanks for the info guys. I may put it on Ebay, but I spent all day playing it & now I don't know if I want to part with it. It sounds pretty sweet & hopefully even sweeter when I put some flat wounds on there.

Don't sell it then - I looked at eBay just now and none of the Warmoth guitars that are out there are anywhere near what you put into it.  Not a single one anywhere Buy It Now or $1K asking prices...

 

[OzziePete]

If I saw a beautiful Warmoth guitar on eBay and wanted to buy it, the nagging issue for me would be about the build quality, ie: the way it was put together.

We (as a group of like minded souls) put these instruments together, and well, I bet there's more than few of us who've made mistakes assembling the guitars we made. I know I have.

Most of these mistakes would probably go unnoticed, but I bet there's a whole section of Warmoth's customers who have totally botched up a guitar or bass build. Some of those would then try to offload it onto eBay and recoup some money.

Now, I am not accusing the OP of this, but I am sure if we face up to facts, we all know it does happen. A guitar put up for eBay sale that is made at Fender has a better chance of recouping it's value than a Warmoth guitar put together by Joe Citizen or his 'luthier' as a  result.

People who bid on the Warmoth guitar have no real way of being assured that the instrument is properly assembled and playable, except from considerable scrutiny of the seller's photos.

I think that issue is something that lowers the value of a Warmoth guitar or bass than many other factors. I am sure that anyone who knows of Warmoth would also be aware of the manuafacture quality of the parts, but then, they can't be assured of how that instrument was assembled.

 

[Patrick]

well the problem with butch's guitar was the paint job and parts looked awful, and on top of that he had his name on it. but this guitar can actually be parted out, but  the body might be the toughest to sell

 

[spauldingrules]

Part it.  I'd bid on the body but none of the other stuff.  Other people may bid on the neck, pups, etc., but not want the whole thing.

 

[TBurst Std]

I'd be interested in the body as well.

 

[Doughboy]

I put a set of flat wounds on it a few days ago & it REALLY warmed up the sound & made it more Jazzy. That was what I was looking for. The guitar, itself, looks & plays really well, it was the warmth I was looking for. However, I may still sell it if I have a good enough offer. I will only sell the body & neck together since they are the same color & I really don't want to be stuck with mismatched parts. If anyone is interested, please PM me.

 

[TBurst Std]

No interest in the neck as that contour is on the totally wrong aspect of the spectrum for me.

 

[Dan025]

Butch.

Discuss.

oh man where to start...

well see guitars like that and the diy mistakes present on others on ebay diminish the value of all other warmoths. the body was gaudy and ugly and impractical. it was left handed but routed for righty controls. why kill access to the upper frets? what third party will see that and go "hey that's cool, i want to buy it." it only had a volume, some people like to have tone controls. every thing about that guitar made it undesireable


those things dont aply to this l5s. it is tastefull and appears well done but the unfortunate reality is that people will look at the value of other warmoths to determine the value of this one even if this one doesn't have undesireable features other than maybe the thin neck which some will like and prefer even if it's not a shred guitar.

i mean people buy ibanez hollow bodies with thin neck profiles. years ago there was a used ibanez in the local guitar store and it got a lot of attention, every time i walked in someone was playing it and talking about how great it was but they didn't have the $800 to spend or they already had more guitars than there wife allowed. and someone did buy it after a couple months.