Tough times for suppliers?

[kiwigeo]

Anyone else noticed an uptick in frequency of Stewmac advertising in the email in box? Im getting two a day now.

Must be getting a bit tough in the luthier supply business?

[56nortondomy]

Yeah me too. Wayne

[Steve.Toscano]

They probably trying to grab the market that bought from LMI, which youd think would happen organically anyway.

[peter.coombe]

I suspect a lot are buying from LMI now before they close.

[kiwigeo]

I suspect a lot are buying from LMI now before they close.

I bought in 100 years worth of spare blades for my Scheider gramil

[Robert Gleason]

Here is my unpopular take on the health of lutherie in general. In the 1980's I first began to notice an uptick in builders here in Hawaii. Mostly ukes, but still lutherie. I work at home now, but back then I had a shop in town in Hilo, Hawaii. Since I already had the contacts with various industry suppliers, I started to sell guitar and uke parts and supplies to quite a few builders. Soon I was selling to retail stores too. Small builders and stores were unable to order the minimum quantities needed to get good discounts from music industry suppliers. My wife and I started to order those larger quantities and distribute them at wholesale rates. Things like pickups, tuners, purflings, some kinds of raw woods for fretboards, shell for inlay, bending blankets, strings, lacquer, fretwire and a host of other items. In additiuon I made slotted fretboards, kerfing, binding, and koa uke and guitar sets. It was a very sucessful business in the 90's to about 2015 or so. It dovetailed nicely with my building and made paying the bills a whole lot easier. Around 2012-2013 I began to see business diminish. The business was not expanding anymore. I had been selling to builders in the U.S., Japan. and Hawaii. I always sold my supplies at the best price you could find anywhere, so I don't think I was losing my customers to other sources of supply. From the point of view of a supplier, I believe that lutherie is no longer in a cycle of expansion. Most of us that have been around a long time are probably going to do O.K., but I would not want to be a new builder trying to just start out. I was not surprised by the closing of LMI. Regardless what anyone thinks about their high prices and various ad schemes, IMO they deserve a great deal of credit for helping to make lutherie as sucessful as it has been. You can't buy lutherie supplies at your local supermarket!

[JZG]

I suspect StewMac is repositioning itself a bit under its new ownership. Guitar making has become more accessible as a hobby, partly due to all the YouTube channels focused on it. Perhaps StewMac can see more money in selling in bigger volumes to hobbyists but at a lower price. It has ramped up its promotion via others’ YouTube channels quite a lot over the past year as well.

[robmaude]

With LMI closing, where are people planning to buy molds and templates? The StewMac molds looks a bit skinny compared to the LMI ones.

[BradHall]

As I have heard Stewmac bought a lot of LMI’s inventory including intellectual property. I’m happy to see an American company doing this instead of it just fading away.

[kiwigeo]

Whoever has bought Stewmac needs to throttle back on the advertising emails....three in one day.

I hope Stewmac continue supporting Robbie Obrien now that LMI is about to be no more.

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, yes I was thinking the same thing, I haven’t opened one of those emails for a month. I wait till I need something. Back in the day I remember I used to enjoy getting their paper catalog in the mail.
Taff

[kiwigeo]

Hi, yes I was thinking the same thing, I haven’t opened one of those emails for a month. I wait till I need something. Back in the day I remember I used to enjoy getting their paper catalog in the mail.
Taff

Ive still one of those huge folders chock full of info that Allied Lutherie used to send you.

[kiwigeo]

LOL.....enough's enough! Ive just unsubscribed from Stewac emails.