Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone!

My name is Tomislav Habus.

As a long time active guitarist I always had a problem with a choice of guitar. Some available guitars were not good for me because of neck characteristics, body dimensions or some other things that bother most of guitarists and guitars that I like were unavailable in my country or to expensive for me. Few years ago I came to idea to try to build a guitar. It was a big success and from that time I built many guitars for me and my friends. After positive reactions of fellow guitarists I decided to build guitars commercially and I want to establish small company for production of high quality guitars for fair price.

Building guitars is my passion but currently I don't have money to start business so please check out my campaign on Indiegogo and help if you can. You can find more details, pictures and whole story there.

http://igg.me/at/HabusGuitars/x/11226607

Please don't forget to share my campaign.

Thank you !!!

I think the most common route for financing a business is working a full time paying job until you have the funds to get started, Tomislav. Most guitar builders have to work very hard, and live frugally to get to where they are, and might be reluctant to finance someone else's dream. You might try friends and family. You'll find lots of advise and help here, and it's free! Best of luck.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

As your asking people to invest in your business you should offer them something in return, perhaps a discount on an instrument or some other type of item (t-shirt, coffee cup or something). This seems a lot like panhandling to me. It looks like you're doing nice work BTW.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

There are nearly 10,000 members of this forum. I would guess at least half wish they could build a business of making custom guitars. Despite that, I would be surprised if even 50 members make a full time living (even a very modest one) from building guitars.

Custom building guitars is like one off clothing design and haute couture. You can never compete in price with mass produced clothes at Walmart or even Macy's. Your market is the rarified world of celebrity gowns and custom tuxedos. Every young designer wants to enter that market, but there is room for only a very few. The few customers willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars on a gown are rarely willing to wear something from an unknown designer trying to break into the market. They want to say that they are wearing Vera Wang or Ives St. Laurent.

Custom guitars are the same. If you are living in the U.S., you probably need to sell 2-3 $5,000 guitars a month to cover your overhead and cost of goods sold and live modestly (maybe only1-2 if you live in the less expensive rural heartland). People willing to pay $5,000 - $8,000 for a guitar are far and few between. If they are willing to pay that much, they are probably reluctant to buy a guitar from an unknown luthier starting out. Even if they love your instrument, a second hand guitar from Robert Benedetto, Charles Fox, Ervin Somogyi can be sold. A used guitar from an unknown luthier has no resale value. It's a very hard sell even if you have access to a lot of people who are in the market.

I don't mean to discourage you. You may become one of the very few. I am just suggesting that most people on this board will be very sympathetic to your quest, just not likely to support it financially.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Don't get discouraged. Jose Romanillos built his first guitar on his kitchen table. Offering a 5% discount for a $30 contribution seems like a fair trade. There are many generous people in the world who like to make someone's dream come true. Even with the tools and materials it will take a lot of hard work to get your business off the ground. Best of luck!

Yep -- get a day job, build what you can in your spare time, sell and re-invest in yourself. However, first thing to establish or confirm is whether or not there is actually a market for your services or goods. Also, there is a TV program here in the USA called "Shark Tank" -- and one thing is made perfectly clear, as pointed out above investors need some kind of a return on their $$.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Nice git-boxes!
Rlrhett hit the nail on the head,
and drove it home in one shot.
Alan

So, what u are asking is for folks to fund your passion?

It took me about 10 yrs to be self employed . It doesn't happen overnight. I invested a lot in my business 1 dollar at a time. I wish you the best. No one that is successful in this trade had it handed to them , we all worked with a passion. Ken built his business over years of time as did I and just find that niche . Get a paying day job and do this on the side. As you get more work invest in better tools and inventory get out there and show your instruments. In the end it is worth every splinter.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Not a lot wrong with asking. Folk do it all the time. Whether he is successful or not is another matter. There seems to be a whole 'movement' on Youtube, who ask for some sort of donations. Patronage is not dead, just yet. Some produce a whole load of rather uninteresting and rather basic videos and somehow receive a bit of money in exchange for doing so. They won't get rich off it but I guess that it all adds up.
The site 'Patreon' is just another form of asking for money. Usually or virtually always have to show some work first though. Good looking women seem to be a little more successful at it than ugly looking men. I wonder why.

Hi Tomislav and welcome to the OLF.

I took a look at your funding site and left you a small contribution to help you get started. Wish I could do more!

Having also looked at your very cool guitars I have to tell you that I suspect that you have a gift for Lutherie because your guitars are very, very cool. More specifically the arch tops caught my eye with very cool tail pieces and an over all look that I really like - nice work!

Some have left you some very good advice in this thread and some have left you...... well some left you with some very good advice and let's leave it there. Forums can be supportive and encouraging and that's what I found on this forum around ten years ago when I was just starting out.

Something else that caught my eye is that you are building without a proper shop and in your apartment. When I started I used a second bathroom in my condo for my shop.... I was also known to make shavings and dust in the Residence Inn in Sunnyvale, California where I lived during the week having my day job on the west coast of the United States.

Point being that if one wants this, to be a great Luthier.... bad enough we will do what ever it takes to get us there including asking for and hopefully receiving some help from others who also have the passion and share the dream. As such you most certainly qualify in my view for all good things including well wishes.

Regarding the business of Lutherie this is something that I know some things about and I am even asked to talk about this at gatherings but often defer not wanting to bore folks with what it takes to run and have a proper, profitable business.

Regardless though in your world having been ravaged by civil war and some pretty horrible events in the recent past the economy may be more suitable for a successful Lutherie start-up than what is our experience in the west. After all most of the world's musical instruments are not made in North America and with good reason as well.

As mentioned being a Luthier has to be a real passion because the rewards in the monetary sense are not on par with other endeavors. It's also very susceptible to the ups and downs of an economy in so much as what we are seeking, again in the monetary sense, is the disposable income of others. If the economy tanks as it did here in the states during the great recession... Luthiers often feel the brunt of this right away....

On the other hand and to quote Hemingway a clean, well lit place.... and that passion for Lutherie can go a very long way toward making one whole and happy as a clam. These days personally I am happier than I have ever been in my life before and much of that happiness comes from being a full time, working Luthier. Every single day I have an opportunity to learn, grow, have lots of fun and make folks happy as well. What could be better than that (rhetorical question, I can think of lots of other answers too... )

So here is my advice for you:

1) Stay the course and no matter what jerks you encounter along the way know in advance that passion, talent, and focus will get you where you want to go!

2) Don't take a check from Greece.....

3) Find a support system (other Luthiers who actually can walk the walk and not just talk some of the talk...) that you can learn from. Consider even apprenticing with others at the same time you are pursuing your very own thing. Most of all though not only should a great support system have lots of learning opportunities for me the encouragement part was also key and super important. We all need a pat on the back once in a while....

Most of all though the real-deal... Luthiers who I know personally who have made a great go at making a living with Lutherie all share one trait: Regardless of the trends, the torrified this or that etc., regardless of what others say, regardless of how hard it can be at times if this is your real calling and passion going YOUR very own way, doing what you believe in and know to be right, staying the course (a thousand points of light.... ), AND just keep on building and I suspect that you will find your place in the trade as some of us do. Learn and do repair work too - it makes one a better builder to learn how and why guitars fail.

Ask for help as you have when you need to, help others even when it's not easy to do so, and believe in yourself and the value that you provide and you will get to where you want to go.

Here is wishing you the very best of luck, happiness and fortune in your pursuit of excellence through making very, very cool guitars!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Guess I'm from the old school.
There were no "kickstarters" nor even computers when I started building. Darn lucky if you could find a book. My advice is the old adage, "Don't quit your day job".
Good luck.

Dobro dan Tomislav!
Much respect for your talent and situation. Beautiful guitars!

Sretno!
Mark