You have the right buisness model.

Ours, with guitars, was I'd sit down (or Pete would) with a legal pad, and the customer. "what do you want?" was how it started... Most potential customers had no idea what they wanted by the way. They just liked the idea of a "custom" guitar. When we walked to the wood pile to select species for various components, they had no idea either... probably why our most popular model was the "1958" model (a '58 Strat) and usually in sunburst or an original color.

When the customer DOES know what they want, we collected the data, worked up the costs, took a 50% down-payment, and started building.

We DID do the first (as far as we are aware) commercially made electric solid-body lap dulcimer. Customer had converted an acoustic one, and knew what he wanted. It was solid purple heard with a Wenge fingerboard, gold hardware and active Bartolini electronics which included a "boost" switch for solos...

I'd still be doing it if I could have. I got a job in NY and my partner was always on the road with Phish, so I couldn't spend every bit of every weekend (back in CT) trying to stay above water with orders, quarterly taxes and inventory stuff...

Beautiful looking drum. Wow! The problem I have with really exotic and beautiful drums like that is that I'd be afraid to go to work with it and accidentally scratch it.

And yes, I know lots of stories about builders making the most gorgeous shells from the most exotic woods imaginable. One guy I knew worked at the local music store and he had a few of his drums in the display case. "Joyous Lake" was the name of his company and it was basically just him building drums (and even entire kits), one-at-a-time. I think he built every single piece, himself -except the rims and lug screws. He designed his own throw offs. They were works of art -not to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but....as you might expect, he priced himself off the map and the drums were TOO nice to play (Don't even look at that one!).

Dang! I was hoping the new software would auto-size the picture. My apologies.

Big pic is fine with me!

This is sort of the problem doing "full custom" like that drum, without a buyer.

On one hand you want to show off your "chops"; on the other, you have a bunch of time and money tied up...

Thank you!

[QUOTE=O-Lugs;474893]And yes, I know lots of stories about builders making the most gorgeous shells from the most exotic woods imaginable. One guy I knew worked at the local music store and he had a few of his drums in the display case. "Joyous Lake" was the name of his company and it was basically just him building drums (and even entire kits), one-at-a-time. I think he built every single piece, himself -except the rims and lug screws. He designed his own throw offs. They were works of art -not to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but....as you might expect, he priced himself off the map and the drums were TOO nice to play (Don't even look at that one!).

Pricing himself out of the market is not the story I've heard from several people....

Guys!

Just a friendly reminder from the VDF management team ... PLEASE ... use the pic attachment system when adding pics to your posts. When you embed the pic file into the text box, the pics are HUGE, and whereas we all enjoy huge pics!, the problem is: It blows the text right off the page and expands it grossly. This makes it extremely difficult to view on a mobile device. The effect is not as pronounced on a PC where you have a nice size monitor to grab the entire screen. That all said ... there "might be" some changes to the actual pic upload system in the near future which will make this a lot easier to manage. Until that happens though, please DO use the attachment system and do not embed the files directly into the text box. We THANK YOU kindly!!!

Tommyp

Sorry about that. I guess I just assumed the new software would be the kind that allowed a user to post a pic and have the program resize it. I know it's not an issue at many other sites I post on but I'm pretty dumb when it comes to doing anything on the computer other than answering emails. I'll try posting the pic as prescribed.....Here goes....Wish me luck!....

EDIT: Nope! I did exactly what you said and it turned out to be a giant pic again. Kinda frustrating for an old guy. Oh well...everyone just imagine this really super deluxe hand made snare drum with a paduak shell and rosewood lugs......*cough*

@latzanimal...Do tell!

Actually...yeah...What was it? Something about him taking money for orders and then not coming through with the goods... I kinda remember something. All I know is that I actually was able to play (tap) on a couple of the snares he had there and they were really nice drums. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a particular one. It would have just ended up as a wall hanger, but it was impressively nice!

There was a boutique builder in the Atlanta area in the 90s that had similar problems. The Bearing Edge, I think. The drums had exotic veneers and finishes, custom brass lugs, but at heart were Keller shells. I saw a couple in person and they looked very nice. If I remember correctly, people started having a hard time getting their orders filled and then people started finding that the veneer was coming off because it had been glued on with contact cement. Eventually he went under and a lot of people lost their money.

Say what you will about the "cheap diecast lugs" and other commonly used items used on drums made by major manufacturers.. If something goes wrong, you will usually have a company that will stand behind their products or at the very least, will be able to supply parts for a drum that is well out of warranty. This is often not the case with boutique builders. Certainly not the many builders of old that crashed and burned in the past.

Drums as tools should be designed with practicality in mind. Wall hangers and photography models can be less practical.

Lots of guys back then were building JUST snare drums. No one had those huge steam molds that are needed to make ply shells, so they just bought Keller shells....OR, they made stave shells or block shells and routed them into roundness....put on those brass hex bolt lugs...slapped on A Nickel throw off....two-piece screw together grommet...some kind of screw-on plate for a badge...

The deal was to try and sell a new snare bed design....Or, ESPECIALLY a new bearing edge profile. The type of wood was also very important....usually the more exotic, the better. This went on and on and on. John Good at DW saw the opportunity to capitalize on the idea that rare wood and fancy, glossy finishes were what the man-cave drummers wanted, so he started making entire sets with all kinds of combinations of exotic woods....He had a "scientific" sounding reason for it and lots of people bought into the idea. Of course, no one wanted to take those kits on gigs to do actual work! But, his doing that, effectively put an end to the garage/boutique guys once and for all.

Now, I think drummers are returning to more a sense of wanting a classic drum sound -the type that all the music-changing bands utilized back in the day. They want drums that were made in a big, American factory during a different time. No modern manufacturer can supply that....in my opinion.