Re: Replacing a Neck vs Fretwork

Lumpy wrote:

> I had an investor interested in the process
> so we contacted Plek in Germany. Cost of the
> machine is ~$125k. That means 1,000 setups
> simply to break even on the machine, before
> you start paying rent and making a profit.

A pipe dream lucky enough to die early.

It's been my lot to note a number of times how unbelievably naieve &
unsophisticated about finances many small, rich venture capitalists can
be, whereas a poor man is often very astute. I have a glib
acquaintance who's bilked such people out of around $200 million with a
springwater "business" that's never made a nickel. Some of this money
was personally "invested" by famous people.

A notion of running a Plek operation as a single or even main entity
makes no sense, without even having to think too much, unless it were a
sole-source subcontrating specialty service to a manufacturer or to a
large list of active & busy tradesmen concentrated in a small
geographical area. It could otherwise only be part of a whole luthiery
operation, and at minimum, interfaced with excellent complete neckwork
& refretting services capable of dealing with all necks. Not as any
primary rent-paying cash cow. 125K is not much money to capitalize
into the burdened OH rate of a serious & established service biz, where
both its added productivity, volume & cross-marketing come into play.
With most people already happy with an excellent (if slightly less
perfect) fret finishing at a lower price, the extra margin of quality
obtainable is not an important biz consideration - it's only the
selling point for the price increase difference for achieving the
needed capitalization rate, which adds nothing to the bottom line in a
before/after scenario, and may instead subtract from it on a unit basis
in order to meet a longer-term & larger goal.

One has to already be known and respected for neckwork to make it fly.
As for a mfg'r, they don't need you or your margin, they can get their
own machine in-house more easily than you can & run it for half your
cost. It isn't like whoring a nice CNC machining center in cheap digs
as a parts sub, because a finished product is involved, which makes you
a bottleneck in the critical path product delivery. As for a lot of
active & profitable small luthiers in one geographical area, it isn't
1971 anymore, and they all put themselves out of business with no help
from subs.

Anyone who thinks they'll have a big parade of players bringing or
shipping their axes to a Plek-only vendor, will be singing that
modified Broadway tune:

"There's no business
Like no business
Like, no business I know!
Everyday you take another bruising,
Everyday your money worries mount!
Lot's of tranquilizers you are using,
While you are losing
A fat account!

There's no business
Like no business
It helps ulcers to grow!
One day you are puffing on a big cigar,
Your life is champagne and caviar!
Next day you are losing both your house and car,
Heigh ho!
Bankrupt we Go!"

And a fair percentage of axes taken or sent in will go straight back at
high shipping losses, because they need to be refretted, with an
increasing number POBH'd customers who will never frig with you again.
So you would be repeatedly paying $30 - $50 for the priviledge of
having people go around telling everyone how you wasted their time &
are no fkn good, even though it's an untrue exaggeration, because
that's what people do.

Soon, no one will deal with you for anything else, either, and by then
your naieve investor will have realized he got raped and will have sent
his lawyer or goons after you, so you will be a piss-soaked bum
standing in front of a flaming 55 gal drum somewhere under a bridge on
the lam, babbling over your can of Sterno to other derelicts about "my
Plek operation that could've made me rich." :-)

Finally, you'll be runover by a train or die of TB, and whoever bothers
to show up at your internment will say: "He used to play private
concerts in the castles of the rich & give overpriced guitar lessons
and had a decent life, what a sad dumfuk he turned into."

- f.

.

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