Colin my friend a couple of things to consider if I may please.
First - regarding selling though music stores here is what I learned when I did this, sold though a music store.
These days, at least on this side of the pond, Mom and Pop music stores are closing all over the county.... It's also not uncommon to see a store pack it in and hang it up without even attempting to sell the store.
Why? Internet competition.... Things are sold on price and sadly on price alone. Traffic in music stores is often with smart phone in hand and savvy enough to check prices on that Taylor or Tak. Folks these days use the brick and mortar stores as "show rooms" to go try stuff out and then often they go to Guitar Center or on-line to MusiciansFriend or Sweetwater, etc to make the purchase actually adding to the sad plight of the traditional music store.
What this often means to the customer is that they are purchasing an instrument, at times sight unseen.... on price and since customers can't know what they are in for they rarely realize that one of the best value-adds that traditional music stores did for folks was to take the f*ctory instruments and pass them through the repair department at the store to have them properly set-up. Even many Mom and Pop stores are not setting up instruments these days because of the small margins and again Internet competition where price seems to dictate for many....
So Mr. and Mrs. customer takes the new ax home from say GC never knowing or understanding that the f*ctory set-up may suck so badly that the instrument with high action is best relegated to slicing hard boiled eggs or cheese.... Just made myself hungry here...
With all of this in mind, an understanding of the world of the music store owner, the market, and ultimately and most importantly the buying "styles" of Mr. and Mrs. Customer we, individual builders can use this understanding to better position ourselves to realize economic success through the selling of our creations by addressing some of the above.
So the pitch to the store is, when looking for a place to sell your stuff, that what you have represents real differentiation from other stores and Internet resellers in so much as it's one-of-a-kind and not something that everyone else has. Many music store are going the boutique music store route these days in exactly an effort to do something that the Internet resellers can't do. As such they may specialize in vintage and used stuff and this is also where individual builder offerings come into play as well.
What you offer is different, superbly set-up and ready to go making sweet music with the only thing being needed to add here is a happy customer to be the new steward of the instrument.
If you get my drift here my point is that what we do IS different, often one of a kind, often better made in my view too... and very capable of being just as individual as the clients themselves AND the music that they produce.
That's the pitch and it works because it understands and meets the needs ($$$) of the concerns of music store owners and managers.
Consignment sales can be good to do especially if you can hold the line at 15% consignment and have a decent relationship with the store owner.
Regarding selling spec stuff vs. commissions. I successfully avoided doing commission work with my own stuff for lots reasons:
1) If I had to look at someone else's idea of what a guitar should be for say 150 - 200 hours I would go nuts and likely not even want to complete the thing...
2) Many commissions may be personalized either in design, woods, or perhaps even personal inlays that may flip the switch of the prospective client but may also be impossible to sell to anyone else if and when the customer backs out of the deal. Not easy to sell a guitar with someone else's girlfriend's name on the fret board....
3) Stuff happens. In the time that it takes to do the commission deal and then build the instrument folks can have life events, not always good events either, that can cause them to back out of the deal.
4) Through the years with my own forum participation and personal friendships with many, many Luthiers I have heard one sad story after another about how some commission deals go south. And if you guessed that it's often the builder/Luthier who gets screwed you guessed correctly.
5) A commission build has to be eventually delivered. Thing can go south on the build as well. Where with spec guitars only after the instrument is completed and YOU are completely satisfied that you want it out there with your name on it you retain complete control of what the world sees from you and your work. If one turns out well enough and you want to sell it - go for it. If you are not happy with it take it out back and shoot it. It's all up to you!
So I just stayed with building what I was interested in, which was more fun for me by the way...
and when the current guitar was finished if I didn't want it, have someone to give it to, and wanted to sell it I simply hung it in my shop and repair clients would invariably see it and ask to try it. This led to sales. At times I hung them in the "qualified" music store and by qualified I mean that they understood product differentiation and were chasing that boutique music store vibe in their own efforts to survive the relentless decay that has happened to brick and mortar stores because of Internet competition.
Anyway sorry to be long winded but I thought that I could give you some ideas that may help you now that you have officially gone commercial with your guitar building!
Congrats again!
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