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Just saw a post on Facebook from Ryan guitars, and there were about 7 finished necks/inlaid headstocks tucked away in cubbyholes.

I always thought he was another “small” boutique maker, but now I’m wondering. Any idea how many guitars he would make in a year?

Steve

You could ask him?

With the help of CNC Webber up in Canada does about 100 per year. Ryan's guitars look a bit more involved and his prices are a lot higher as well so I would assume less than that but more than 20. Email him and ask, he responds pretty quickly to questions IME.

I stopped by his shop to pick up some zipflex a few years back. He had two people working with him then. I have no idea if they were full time. From the number of bodies that were ready for necks and just the way things looked, I'd guess 20-30 a year. I'm most likely way off.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Plenty of small boutique makers do 20-30 guitars/year. Hard to put food on the table making a handful of instruments a year, unless they are $40,000 each.

Andy

I would think that even at 500 guitars a year you would still be a "boutique" guitar company. If a skilled amateur can put a guitar together in 40 hours, I would think a well set up professional 1 man shop could do it in 1/2 that time.

My memory sometimes fails me, but I believe I read that he builds about 50 a year. At the time of publication of the article, he had one other person in the shop. This was a 2 or 3 years ago. No clue where I read it!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Clay, I think you might be a little optimistic with your numbers. Kent Carlos Everett, a number of years ago, had a business model where much of his output went to retail stores. He was putting out 50-60 guitars/year.

Carlos is a very efficient builder and a self-described workaholic, but he said this pace just about killed him.

Btw, he’s a great guy, great teacher, and great storyteller, and if any of you have the opportunity to take his masterclass, jump at it.

Steve

really 40 hours?
How many do it in 40 hours?
Own up please..

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I don't know where these numbers come from, but I could no more build a guitar in 40 hours much less 1/2 the time (20 hours) then I believe someone could bake a German Chocolate Cake in 2 minutes.

For a jigged-up builder focused on a couple models, 80 hours is more in the zip code.

Andy

Doing the math, one of the most efficient builders in the country - John Greven - has run as low as 42 hours (exclusive of overhead labor) per guitar when on a 70 instrument year...and that is a 49 week, 60 hour per week schedule. Gibson is reported to run in the low 20's per instrument, Martins in the teens, and Taylor at 10 or less. Mr. John Arnold claims 35 to 65, which I assume means variations on dreadnaught, 000, and 00 full body (no cutaway) guitars.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I would say it takes me no more than 40 hours of actual production time to build a basic guitar - i.e. no cutaway, simple bindings, store bought rosette, avoiding other time sinks. I batch some components so I'm only doing them once a year which helps reduce the overall time involved.
Many of the "upgrades" custom building includes add a disproportionate amount of time to production.