average cost to build

[louckswayne]

Hey Guys
One of the reasons I am thinking of building a guitar, is because I cant afford 3k to 4k to
buy one! This is big money just to play it at home for your own recreation. So this brings
me to my question. Is it possible to build a 10 string 4+5 for $1k or less? Are there any ways
to cut down the cost a bit?
Thanks
Wayne

[mac639]

Hi Wayne,
This being a public forum, I don't want to ramble on and on about how to build yourself a nice workable guitar for very little money. But anyway...the first thing is that you're going to be doing all the labour...and there's lots of it, for essentially NOTHING. So we're left with the cost of the materials and any machinery and supplies that you'll need to achieve the build. I've built 18 pedal steels to date and 2 more in the works right now. I'm a "scrounger" by habit I guess, so I'm always on the lookout for cheap or free materials etc.
The guys on here are going to give me the gears for saying this, but I built my first D10 steel with 8 pedals and 2 knees for around $50.00 in 1962. All the aluminum was free as I worked for a company with a huge machine shop and got all the scrap aluminum I wanted. The cabinet wood came from our own woods on the farm, the rods and misc. bits and pieces came from the local hardware store. I played that guitar all over the place for 30 years with virtually no maintenance or problems. But it took me a whole winter to build it, nearly drove my wife of only a few years crazy. It can be done! You need to look at my building book. I wrote a pedal steel building book about 10 years ago and sold loads of them. But times and technology changes so I started a new one. The book is still not finished, even after a year or so, but I'm down to pickups etc. so getting near the end.
The short answer to your question in my opinion is that you could build a really beautiful, precision pedal steel for way less than $1000.00. I don't spend more than maybe $200 - $250 in materials for any guitar I build including the cases. But it takes me 200 to 250 manhours to do it.

Cheers,
Mac

[azureskys]

If you do all the work yourself and buy only whats needed you can do it for a couple hundred bucks, you dont need spectacular wood for a cabinet , ive seen a couple plywood pedel steels that were fantastic looking and played beautiful use your imagination in your project and dont get in a rush it ll only cost you more if you screwup as the old saying goes measure twice and cut once and if you need some help ask here on this forum , there is a lot of guys that ll help you all they can and it wont cost you a cent besides you just might gain a friend .One thing that could help keep cost down is make a keyless tuner , it might cost about 5 to 10 dollars for material to make it as opposed to a reg key head with tuners which will cost a heck of a lot more if you have to buy the keys plus you ll have to either make the key head or buy one , so looking at it this way you ll have to count the cost on everything that goes into a pedel steel and determine what you wanna spend on your guitar. wish you well on your building . Russ

[louckswayne]

If you do all the work yourself and buy only whats needed you can do it for a couple hundred bucks, you dont need spectacular wood for a cabinet , ive seen a couple plywood pedel steels that were fantastic looking and played beautiful use your imagination in your project and dont get in a rush it ll only cost you more if you screwup as the old saying goes measure twice and cut once and if you need some help ask here on this forum , there is a lot of guys that ll help you all they can and it wont cost you a cent besides you just might gain a friend .One thing that could help keep cost down is make a keyless tuner , it might cost about 5 to 10 dollars for material to make it as opposed to a reg key head with tuners which will cost a heck of a lot more if you have to buy the keys plus you ll have to either make the key head or buy one , so looking at it this way you ll have to count the cost on everything that goes into a pedel steel and determine what you wanna spend on your guitar. wish you well on your building . Russ

Russ
Thanks for your input. I will be asking lots of questions so please bare with me!
Wayne

[Pat Comeau]

I don't spend more than maybe $200 - $250 in materials for any guitar I build including the cases. But it takes me 200 to 250 manhours to do it.

Mac

200 to 250???... , Mac could you list the material in detail to be able to come up with those numbers?,

1. rock maple wood...atleast 40$ minimum for a D10
2. aluminum 100$ minimum
3. 1/2" sheet of plywood for case 30$
4. hardware and paint or carpet ect...for case 50$ minimum
5. used pickup 50$
6. finish lacquer, sand papers ect...50$
7. legs 100$ to 150$
8.nuts and screws ect...25$ minimum
9.set of strings 15$
10. nut rollers 50$
11.10 tuning keys 50$ minimum
12. expenses = broken drill bits , taper , files and cutting blades ect...$?
13.nylon tuners 20$ for 20
14. labour ...free

minimum total 580$, and that is just a minimum and i'm sure i'm missing some, if you don't have any of those materials...it'll be hard to build SD10 4x5 PSG for less than that in my opinion, i make almost all my parts myself and i can't build a SD10 3x4 for less than 800$ in materials and that's not counting my labor.

here's an old post i made a few years back about my first build and i had almost all the partsand it still cost me close to 500$ to build.

Hi, i'm new to the forum and i build my PSG a few weeks ago, i took a few parts from my old sho-bud maverick (BL pickup,legs, bridge support,nut roller bridge, fretboard and endplates) everything else was bought and hand build by me,

Birds eyed maple :$60.
aluminum and rods, metal,bolds and screws...ect around $100 more or less.
Finish...lacquer, thinner ,glue, sand paper,wood inlays ...ect around $100 more or less.
10 ,tuning keys $50.
and another $100 for other stuff i don't remember
exactly.
so as you can see you're looking at around $400 to $500 if you have some parts already and you can build your own changer, but if you have to buy the changer and bridge support ,nut roller, legs and endplates...ect ,you're probably looking somewhere around $800 to a $1200 for a S10, i know you can get a good student model for that money but the fun is to build it with your own hands ,so good luck if you decide to build one it's alot of fun...sometimes

PS i'll be posting a post about my PSG and pics.

Pat C

[mac639]

Hi Pat...
We're getting into an interesting subject here as far as costs go. As you may or may not know, I'm a real "scrounger". I'm always on the lookout for adaptable, cheap, or free stuff to use. That doesn't necessarily mean poor quality stuff though. I've had a musical instrument restoration and repair business for nearly 50 years I guess, and have accumulated an awful lot of "stuff". I'll be 74 in a couple of weeks, and I'm trying to use up some of the maple, butternut, cherry, mahogany wood etc. I've had laying around for years. If I buy maple from a local sawmill friend, a nice dry 8" board 8 feet long costs maybe $15.00. And aluminum. I used to work for Johns Manville Asbestos Corp. in Asbestos Quebec for 20 years. We had a huge machine shop there....made everything there from tiny parts for machines to full size freight rail cars. I got all the aluminum I could use mostly free. But that was a long long time ago. Now I use free aluminum rectangular tubing in various sizes that I get from a local outfit that makes solar panel frames. But I have paid $2.00/lb for some stuff I've bought from scrap dealers..but I hate those guys with a passion. Anyway, I'll sort of list the stuff.
1. Rock maple wood......$15
2. Aluminum...............free
3. Case material............$75 solid oak and oak plywood, steel trim
4. pickup (homewound) $5 (wire).... magnets I've got
5. finishing materials.......$20 Polyurethane, sanding stuff etc.
6. legs (aluminum)..........$35 telescopic snow brushes
7. bolts/nuts etc. ........ $25
8. strings......................$8
9. nut rollers..(make) free
10. tuning keys.............$30 you don't need Grovers except to brag about!
11. nylon tuners......... $5 (for 50) these are #8x1" nylon concrete masonary anchors
12. pull rods/pedal rods $20
Total $238.00
I don't know if this makes any sense, but it's pretty close I think.
As far as the pull/release changer business. I'm building a pull/release guitar right now with 4 pedals & 5 knees...what else can you need on an E9th.
Actually I'm thinking of making it an E6/9 Zane King tuning...I've still got the option open since I'm not that far along.
Cheers,
Mac

[Bent]

I really admire people like Mac and Eldon for being able to do what they do - make a nice looking, solid, GREAT sounding steel guitar. It can be done, folks. These guys have just proved it to you all.

As a comparison I would like to tell you about the 3 builds I have done so far, where every thing was bought at retail prices; I mean every nut, screw, aluminum, finishing products, wood, case (ready made), legs (ready made), pickups (ready made), tuners(ready made)
Without itemizing each part I will say that the grand total for a SD10 came to CAN$1500.
A price example: the aluminum needed for 4 end plates came to about $130 - so roughly $32 per end plate JUST before you start counting time,shop overhead etc.

[mac639]

Bent.. that's a whoppin' amount of money, but you've built a beautiful and precise piece of machinery that you can be proud of for the rest of your life. Me, I'm just a cheapskate tinkerer but building these things sure beats watching the TV all day and hopefully helps to keep the dimentia at bay for awhile longer.
Thought I was goin' down the road though for the past week or so. Had a bout of the "flu". Kept me right in bed for 3 days and only today do I feel pretty good. I haven't even had a head cold for about 5 years so this really flattened me. Thankfully the kids all live here around so they kept us in groceries, took our Golden for walks etc. etc.

I'm waiting for spring and by heck I'm going to try my hand at sand casting. My scrap box of aluminum bits is overflowing, can't wait to try to melt some of it down and make some parts
Talk to y'all later
Mac

[Eldon]

Gotta love the word "Scrounger" I think it needs capitol letters. I belong to the fraternity(??). In my former life I had access to landfill sites in our district and they used to be favourite coffee and lunch stops or just pit stops if the trip was long. My father and uncle came through the 30's and I was pulling treasures out of the trees in the back 40 once they passed on. I'm confident it's genetic.

My current guitar has steel pop rivets for bellcrank bearings. The footpedals are fashioned out of double arm grocery shelf brackets. The fretboard and both ends from an old salvaged aluminum sign etc.

Each item/piece has potential to be something else. Today in town I bought some drywall anchors, they'll make great adjusters for return springs.

.......................... I ramble, it could just be some disease.

[Bent]

Eldon, I envy the likes of you who can see some value in any piece of what other would call junk. Not only do you help keep this earth green but you are doing a great service to yourselves by keeping that brain working. I admit to a scrounging desire myself, but lately I just can't be doing it..there is only so much room in my shop! Your sewing machine motor turned pickup winder is still going strong, especially after I retrofitted it with a light dimmer for speed control.