Why carved top is too expensive?
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DangerousR6
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Ahhhhh, quit making excuses...Just admit Ya'll are just lazy... :icon_biggrin:Gregg said:
Cagey
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Still takes a thicker piece of wood, more machine time, and more hand finishing time.
- The thicker piece of wood could have made more than one top otherwise
- The machine has to make numerous passes it wouldn't normally make
- All those multi-level passes mean a lot more hand-sanding to smooth it out
And, it's what years of Warmoth experience has shown what the market will bear. There's not a lot of competition, for that particular market niche - which is why you're posting the question here, instead of the forum run by "Acme Carved Guitar Tops - Cheap!"
I, too, wish everything were cheaper... There's been more than a few body makers pop up in the last several years, but they rarely can get under Warmoth's price, and Warmoth does do enough volume that I believe they can get great exotic wood. A lot of people can cut out an alder Telecaster bod, but if you want the sauce on it...
well here you are! :hello2:
I, too, wish everything were cheaper... There's been more than a few body makers pop up in the last several years, but they rarely can get under Warmoth's price, and Warmoth does do enough volume that I believe they can get great exotic wood. A lot of people can cut out an alder Telecaster bod, but if you want the sauce on it...
well here you are! :hello2:
O
OzziePete
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enb141 said:
Too expensive is your summation....Others don't feel that is the case. If everyone felt that way, Warmoth wouldn't sell them and they'd either have to drop the price or drop the model. Market forces.
There are many more processes to producing a carved top body than just carving the top. We're selling them as cheap as we can for what they cost us to build. High quality standards and made in USA equals the price. The alternative to their current price is for us to not produce them. That's not to say that someone else cannot make them cheaper, I am referring only to the "Warmoth" production environment.enb141 said:
spauldingrules
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I would agree they are "too expensive" for me to buy. I am excluded from the market. Just like a Mercedes or oceanfront property. It doesn't mean they are "overpriced." If they have buyers, they are not "overpriced."
Of course, Gibson can make a carved top LP and retail it, with neck and pups, assembled, in the USA, and sell it through a retailer for under $1000, where a Warmoth body is $400 minimum. Warmoth probably has a little room to spare, but it doesn't mean they are overpriced or unfairly priced.
Of course, Gibson can make a carved top LP and retail it, with neck and pups, assembled, in the USA, and sell it through a retailer for under $1000, where a Warmoth body is $400 minimum. Warmoth probably has a little room to spare, but it doesn't mean they are overpriced or unfairly priced.
S
swarfrat
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Even though CNC allows increased production, machine time is very expensive. I don't recall exactly what we figured our machining time at at my last job, but the machines were better paid than I was.
I'd wager carved tops take significantly more machine time than flat tops, those are all essentially planar operations, and much faster with general purpose tooling.
W could possibly turn them out much faster with specialized tooling, but that has its own cost.
I'd wager carved tops take significantly more machine time than flat tops, those are all essentially planar operations, and much faster with general purpose tooling.
W could possibly turn them out much faster with specialized tooling, but that has its own cost.
Cagey
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swarfrat said:
Here's a high-speed video of a CNC doing the final pass after initial topography has been milled, and you can see there's a tremendous amount of time involved due to the numerous passes that have to be made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCi6Py32u_s
That's still not gonna be clean; somebody's gonna have to hand-sand the hell out of it to get rid of milling marks.
Now if they could only teach the trees to grow them, the way they've taught fish to grow triangular for my McFishies.... :hello2:
what the hell good is "genetic engineering", if they're only going to waste it on dumb crap like food? :icon_scratch:
all you gotta DO is take a flame maple seed and a x-light mahogany seed, splice 'em together so it'll grow in layers and dip it in LSD-25 - look at how great all them hippie's kids turned out.... if that dont work try some LSD-35 or 72 or somethin. shoot dont these guys even WATCH the SciFI channel.
what the hell good is "genetic engineering", if they're only going to waste it on dumb crap like food? :icon_scratch:
all you gotta DO is take a flame maple seed and a x-light mahogany seed, splice 'em together so it'll grow in layers and dip it in LSD-25 - look at how great all them hippie's kids turned out.... if that dont work try some LSD-35 or 72 or somethin. shoot dont these guys even WATCH the SciFI channel.
As has been stated "expensive" is a relative term.
I'm gonna plunk down the cash for a carved LP at some stage but for the price of a 'plane jane' LP there are much better strat & tele options in the showcase (colours, features etc.).
It'd be nice to see some more offerings of all flavours of carved tops in the showcase even if the price is a bit higher. I guess though at the end of the day they're not as popular as the strats and teles ... and they're gonna keep making more of what is guaranteed to sell.
... and the genetically engineered Les Paul tree ... I'm definitely into that!
I'm gonna plunk down the cash for a carved LP at some stage but for the price of a 'plane jane' LP there are much better strat & tele options in the showcase (colours, features etc.).
It'd be nice to see some more offerings of all flavours of carved tops in the showcase even if the price is a bit higher. I guess though at the end of the day they're not as popular as the strats and teles ... and they're gonna keep making more of what is guaranteed to sell.
... and the genetically engineered Les Paul tree ... I'm definitely into that!
Don't get it; how/what do you want different in the carve?! I think warmoth's carve is one of the finest around, better than most gibsons I've seen, but who am I.
and if you don't like the carve, for example, you want the 'dish' to be deeper on a LP, grab a palmsander, and do it yourself...warmoth is an awesome REPLACEMENT PARTS-builder. yeah they seem to be a customshop, with customshop specs, features and quality, but replacementparts is their corebusiness. people tend to forget that.
and if you don't like the carve, for example, you want the 'dish' to be deeper on a LP, grab a palmsander, and do it yourself...warmoth is an awesome REPLACEMENT PARTS-builder. yeah they seem to be a customshop, with customshop specs, features and quality, but replacementparts is their corebusiness. people tend to forget that.
