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I almost have it done. Soon off to finish. The wood was supplied to me via a tree trunk slab. Black walnut. I pieced it together, routed and shaped, and nitro finish. What is something like this worth? I will not be doing electronics, pickguard, h/w, etc.

Pics would help, of course. The flashier the grain, the higher the asking price.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

picky picky. OK, here are some pics. Not finished yet. Got to fine sand, surface prep, then nitro etc. Side note: wood from this tree came from owners tree that his grandfather planted 70 years ago. I'm building two acoustics from it as well

wet pictures, better idea of what it will look like under nitro

I'm just looking for an idea what you guys charge for this kind of work. I know acoustics much better.

$250 - $300 for the raw body. Extra for nitro finish - at minimum another $150. Should be a great looking axe when completed.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Thanks Chris. I appreciate that. And, what u quoted was near what I was thinking.

Well, the old saying is it is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I suppose high end bodies like Warmoth would be a yardstick. A little more because it is a custom piece of wood, or a little less because the customer would have just gotten a Warmoth body if it was going to cost so much? That is something you will probably have the best feeling for.


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Probably fair and reasonable. However I would be very leery of routing out a body and handing it to someone to fit the neck, drill and mount the bridge and do the setup. I recently had a commercial body and neck (yes they were Warmouth) that required two StewMac shims to get the overstand and angle to work with the bridge that the customer wanted me to mount. Add to that the frets were far from perfect and required a fair bit of work. My humble suggestion is to get those parts from your customer and actually mount them so you can be sure everything is perfect (and maybe drill all the holes before you get the finish on). Your customer may not have a drill press and he may not be experienced at setting up a guitar like this.

edit to add - right now I'm making a barnwood body that will be shipped to New Zealand (actually taken, I'm going there in March). My customer is shipping a Warmouth neck to me so I can fit it and he has specified the bridge and pups that he wants to use. I will put it all together here, then take the neck off so it will fit in my luggage. We'll put it all together over a beer in Aukland and I can be pretty confident it will work. There simply is no way I would ship the raw body to him.

That's reasonable what you say, and I may end up doing more. Customer is well versed in electric guitars. And, I used his neck to fit.

Update pics before nitro

The bottom picture is after sanding epoxy to remove all imperfections. Top picture is after epoxy wash coat

Customer was not interested in a warmouth body. He wanted his granddad’s tree enshrined in a guitar.

Ahhhh... so A LOT more! [FACE WITH STUCK-OUT TONGUE AND WINKING EYE]


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Yup.