Small Company Luthiers - Seems Too Risky

[scgtr]

Small company luthiers - I don't get the hype/prices. I'm not talking about Suhr, Tyler, Dingwall, and similar sized shops that have a proven track record and dealer networks.

Its these small, one or two man operations with long wait times and expensive prices for strat and tele copies that I don't get. Scrounging around the net easily turns up stories of buyers who paid deposits and never received guitars or did not receive what they ordered.

So, what am I missing? I'm not seeing anything a decent luthier (or anyone with some setup assembly experience) couldn't recreate with USACG and Warmoth parts.

 

[Crunchtime]

Especially considering some of those high price guys use Warmoth and USACG parts.

 

[scgtr]

That's what I have always wondered about. With some of these guys it seems like a buyer is essentially paying an exorbitant amount of money for an assembly and setup job. I'm thinking many of them may even ordered the bodies already finished from another company.

The whole deposit aspect seems weird to me as well. From what I have been reading, many of these small builders operate in a continual red zone where they are using deposits from one customer to fund the builds of another.

I have been worried that I have been missing out on some incredible level of guitar, but I think it may all just be hype. Its just a weird and seemingly shady market.