Do it yourself...kits???

[rjgoos]

Ola wrote:

>The project is slowly starting to resemble a musical instrument. Since the last update, I've routed the neck pocket, so I was able to fit the neck and body together for the first time. I also installed 2 of the 3 planned fretboard inlays, round mother-of-pearl dots on the 12th and 17th fret.<


Well Ola, I admire anyone who could make their own instrument.

I have also transmitted such thoughts to Jaap Kramer, who made his own tap/touch style guitar (www.tapguitar.com/tapseminar98/jaap.jpg).

I wonder if some sort of tap-guitar-kit would enjoy any success? I see that many companies sell guitar kits, even moderately-well-known companies like Carvin. The savings appear to be significant...with Carvin, anyway, the kit costs 40% less than the same guitar finished ($349 vs $589). Apparently all of the difficult woodwork is done with these kits, finishing one consists mostly of bolting on the neck, finishing wood, installing pickups and tuners, adjusting, etc.

Or is the tap guitar world just too small for anything like that to happen?? Or is the construction and setup of a tap guitar just too difficult?


R Jay Goos

[rockola]

On my last project (a Telecaster, with a store-bought neck), I spent easily as much time finishing it as I did on all other stages put together, and I wish I'd spent even more. You should get a kit or build an instrument from scratch only if you enjoy putting one together, not because of some perceived savings - just for an example, if you screw up at any phase, whoops, there go your savings.

As for a tap guitar kit, the market just isn't there. Of course, I might be proven wrong and someone like Warmoth might start cranking out 8-, 10- or 12-string necks and bridges. All the other stuff is standard. (Although as the Megatar has demonstrated, it's possible to use standard Strat bridges for a 12-string tap guitar.) But for that to happen, the whole tapping thing needs to become more popular - and it's not a given that it ever will. Also, they wouldn't be as cheap as the guitar kits, that's for sure. You can get an entry-level Megatar for cheap even now, not to mention used instruments, which from what I have observed tend to be in good shape - tappers apparently take good care of their tools. Would you be able to save much by getting a similar kit?

[rjgoos]

rockola wrote:

>As for a tap guitar kit, the market just isn't there.

Yeah, I think it's one of those circular problems regarding touch/tap instruments in general....expensive instruments means small market....or is it small market means means expensive instruments???

I guess my problem is that I just can't believe that this style of play isn't more mainstream by now. I am surprised that you can't call an 800-number of a company like Sam Ash or Musician's Friend and buy a competent touch/tap instrument for, say, $600-800.

I think the future of the touch/tap guitar is far from secure. I don't know what the annual output of [SE + Warr + Megatar + Box, etc.] is in a year....but I would guess it is a three-digit figure. We have just a very few people making them, and as far as I can judge from photographs, the people making them aren't getting any younger (except Traktor, of course). I wonder who will be making instruments 10-15 years from now.


RJ Goos

[traktor]

Originally posted by rjgoos
I guess my problem is that I just can't believe that this style of play isn't more mainstream by now. I am surprised that you can't call an 800-number of a company like Sam Ash or Musician's Friend and buy a competent touch/tap instrument for, say, $600-800.


Hi, R. Jay,

I wouldn't expect to ever see a competent instrument sell for $600. (Imagine buying a competent guitar *and* and competent bass for $300 each, with above-average fretwork, quality pickups, and the special set-up usually provided aftermarket by your luthier.)

However, $800 or $900 (in today's dollars) doesn't seem out of line ... *IF* our movement continues to grow. Only if it continues to grow will the manufacture of such an instrument appeal to a world-class mass marketer like gibson, ibanez, fender, etc. And (I'm kind of guessing here) I suspect that only a large manufacturer would be able to devote the resources to create such a mass instrument.

The other issue which time will resolve, and which probably must be resolved before mainstream time is:

What is the *most useful* tuning and string arrangement. IMHO, the big boys will only be interested in manufacturing 10,000 instruments in a run when these instruments consist of *ONE* tuning arrangement.

Can you imagine calling up Fender and asking for a strat with inverted 5ths and the first three strings swapped with the second three strings?

Haw!

[Jersey Ray]

here is the answer to the trivia quesiton:

Warr made a kit called the "Talon" around 1996. I don't know how many were sold or how they turned out It was a kit version of the Raptor, if I remember right.

[rjgoos]

Jersey Ray wrote:

>Here is the answer to the trivia quesiton:

Warr made a kit called the "Talon" around 1996. I don't know how many were sold or how they turned out It was a kit version of the Raptor, if I remember right. <


Well paint me green and call me Gumby...

It would be interesting to know if not enough units were sold, if the after-purchase service (calls from people not getting them set them up right) costs were too high, or if one sale of a Talon simply subtracted one sale of a Raptor (reduced profits overall).

RJ Goos

(P.S. Ray, Cinema Inferno is a great CD, just got it last week).