Re: What's the deal with Blackmachines?
They aren't "handmade". The pickups are bare knuckle, duncan and emg, the frets are dunlop nickel silver, the hardware is gotoh the woods are typical like ash and maple and they are cut in cliche and standard manner. Just by knowing this, I frankly don't care if it sustains for 30 years, weighs nothing and I can control it like it's an appendage of my body. It's mostly just assembled. He's not winding the pickups or casting the hardware or inventing new electronics or using super exotic woods or making an innovative nut or bridge in a minimalist fashion. Yeah I'll order everything from warmoth and give it to an amazing luthier I know and he will put the parts together REALLY well and there is my blackmachine, and I can make another too with the money I save. Hell even if he does put it together PERFECTLY, the neck joints aren't even that good, and the frets and bridge and neck are still typical metal and wood that will wear and warp, then that feeling when playing that is part of the extreme price is gone in probably a year of regular use and it's gonna be set up by another luthier again IF it survives the overseas shipping.
Ah the typical response of a person uneducated in hi-end guitars, guitar making and what its like to work for less than minimum wage. It never ceases to amaze me how worked up people get at boutique guitars. Its just an instrument. If you don't like it move along or even play your guitar instead of spending your time online talking out your ass what the best guitar is.
You have never played one yet you are jabbering on as if you have owed several. Do you also review films that you haven't seen? I'm sure the third hobbit film is just awful for so many reasons *rolls eyes*. I could look at pictures of a Bugatti Veyron and think "its not so fast" but you won't know until you get in behind the wheel.
Handmade in todays guitar world means no CnC. Just good old fashioned tools and brute force. By your logic I suppose he should be using his actual hands to craft the instrument since he doesn't make his own tools. Next he will have to grow and harvest his own trees. i also like the way you don't account for actually building the guitar and putting in the endless hours of meticulous craftsmanship. Most lutheirs work for minimum wage yet when a luthier finally gets an inch of fame and can afford to support a decent lifestyle people like you are up in arms with your delusional sense of self-entitelment. Nobody is sticking a gun to your head so you can back away from the wall.
Blackmachine are very innovative, at least they were before everyone started copying their designs. You could see this if you did a little bit of research. Nobody was doing what they were doing 10 years ago. Most people turned up their noses at their ideas but look at modern custom guitars now. Thin bodies, chambering, exotic woods, multi-scales, snakewood necks, 7,8 strings, etc While most of these features aren't new mixing them all together certainly was back then and people back then were just as up in arms as you are. "It won't resonate because of the thin body", "snakewood necks will snap", "Nobody plays 8 strings", "Fanned frets are pointless".
The truly utter ignorant part of your post is where you say it will wear off in a year. Tell that to the guys who are being offered $15,000 for their guitars they've had for several years. Most mind you aren't even well off and have a lot of bills to pay. Despite being offered up to 4 times what they payed they will still not let go of their prize position. That just shows you how nice these guitars are and a testament to how players bond with them.
Sometimes there is more to something than the sum of its parts. Your house is just bricks and wood but its home and for most of us that is a special place. Someone else who's home is even bigger, has better furniture and a coastal view won't be able to see why you love your house so much.
Welcome to the Internet: where everyone's an expert, and anything that doesn't conform to your assumptions is stupid.
Does anyone actually know what these guitars sound like? Has anyone played one? Or are we just pointlessly arguing about how much it costs to build a hypothetical guitar?
People always try to knock Blackmachine despite never playing one of their guitars. Its just the dumb way the internet works. Movies, games etc are all reviewed and criticised by keyboard warriors with nothing better to do than try to pull apart something they don't understand. Same way these guitars are overhyped and glorified by people who've never even seen one in person. Two ends of the extreme yet they will fight all day long.
My mate owns one. A 6 string model. Better than anything I've ever come across and I've owned and played 100s of guitars.
The reason BM fetch so much is because they are supply and demand. They stopped building guitars so you can't buy them anymore. What happens when you can't buy something anymore but everyone wants? The price goes up as much as people still want it.
Why then, should a random person on the internet tell these guys how much they must earn? Is it wrong to make a decent living building exclusive guitars?
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Football players make millions of dollars every year but when a luthier makes enough money to send his kids to college everyone is up in arms.
