Your experience of being a luthier in Australia/New Zealand, and moving a wood stash over there.

[JeffHGW]

I'm currently in the US, doing a guitar building apprenticeship for one more year. Before I came here for the apprenticeship, I was living and building guitars in NZ. After the apprenticeship, I will be setting up my own shop somewhere. I've got a US and NZ passport, so I can stay here, or go to NZ or Australia. I'm leaning towards not staying here in the US. But it seems like it could be more challenging in NZ/Australia, to be further away from most of the customers, shows, harder and more expensive to get some of the materials, dealing with CITES, import/export etc. I'd be interested to hear about your experiences of being a luthier in NZ and Australia. The benefits and challenges? What's the guitar scene and customer base like in your experience? Where are most of your clients located..domestic or international? Any CITES or import/export related difficulties? Right now I'm focusing on steel string acoustic guitars, but I was doing electrics and basses before and might be open to doing some more of that.

Since I've been here I've been collecting some wood. If I move to NZ/Australia I'd like to bring that with me. So far I've got roughly 30 back and sides sets, 20 tops, plus some fretboards, neck wood, and other bits and pieces. It's not a small amount. Has anyone had experience sending wood to NZ/Australia? Any recommendations on the most cost effective way to send it? And how to navigate customs smoothly? There is some CITES wood, which came with documentation, so I know I have to apply for a re-export permit for that. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jeff

[Allen]

I'm in Cairns and gave up building guitars as the shipping cost on them overseas became untenable after Australia Post enforced size restrictions. Last time I checked Couriers were going to charge minimum $800 to ship a guitar to the USA. Then the paperwork, customs, brokers etc. was in the too hard pile for me. Ukuleles are simple and ship pretty much anywhere in the world for $100.

I've never had issues getting supplies from overseas. They occasionally get opened by Quarantine Inspection but still get delivered. Shipping costs can get a bit much now with the $AUD in the dumpster.

My clientele is about 50% Australian and the rest predominantly US with South East Asia and the EU taking up the rest.

[kiwigeo]

Just to keep things in perspective....I've just finished boxing up my tonewood Stash. 37 cartons.....540kg of wood.

So far I've got roughly 30 back and sides sets, 20 tops, plus some fretboards, neck wood, and other bits and pieces. It's not a small amount.

[Dave M]

Did someone mention hoarding a while back?

[peter.coombe]

Most of my sales are in Australia, but about 20% gets exported to the USA, Canada and Europe. I have sent a guitar to Canada and one to Belgium and the rest have been mandolins and octave mandolins. The guitars had to be sent via courier because of the size restriction of Australia Post. I used Pack and Send for those, and the cost is roughly double that of Australia Post for the same package. The mandolins are easy to fit into the size restriction, but for the octave mandolins I made a plywood box because the banjo cases I use are too long. The same applies to within Australia, courier for guitars, Australia Post for the rest. I do make a small guitar and tenor guitars that I have shipped via Australia Post. They fit (just) into the size restriction. As for CITES, the only CITES listed species I have used to date is Brazilian or Honduran Mahogany and that is on Appendix II, so no issues for finished items. I do have some Brazilian Rosewood, but that will stay in Australia. There are lots of Australian native woods to choose from, and I mostly use native hardwoods or imported wood I can buy locally (e.g. Rock Maple, Walnut). USA is a pain if you have shell inlay, but at the moment they do not seem to be checking anything. I have moved away from shell and now use opal or wood for inlays unless it is a special order that I know will remain in Australia. To the USA to be 100% legal, the USA customer needs to lodge paperwork for any shell inlay and also Lacey Act paperwork if the item is more than $2000 USD. I have read that the threshold has been lowered to $200 by the Trump admin, but I am not sure if that is true. My last shipment of a mandolin to the USA went straight through US customs with no paperwork requested, and no import tariff. How long that will last is anyone's guess. As far marketing is concerned, I have a web page and most of my sales stem from that. You do need to spend a fair bit of time on marketing activities or you won't sell anything. That includes a nice web page with pretty pictures and lots of information, exhibiting, social media etc. Some of the folk festivals have exhibits of hand made musical instruments and are worth attending if you need the sales, but they are somewhat unpredictable. I like to attend not just for potential sales an the exposure but to meet other luthiers. I live in a small country town so it is isolated, but I am the only repair person within about 200km so I get far more repair work than when I lived in Canberra. Get your repair chops up to scratch, it can get you through lean times. I can sell everything I make and still have a backlog of special orders, but I have been doing it for over 30 years. However, I would starve to death if Lutherie paid the bills. Make sure you have some sort of reliable backup income.

As for hoarding wood, when I moved from Bega to Canberra, it took 6 trailer loads just to move the wood. Roughly 3 cubic meters so probably around 1.5 -2 tonne! The stash has not gotten smaller, if anything it has got bigger, despite making an average of around 15 instruments per year. It has overflowed into a shed I have on a small rural property. Being isolated, ebay is my friend for native woods. Ebay mostly has rubbish, but occasionally there is a gem, usually from Tasmania, and I pounce on the gems. Must stop that, can't live forever. A very nice stick of fiddleback Blackwood is on the way right now, as if I need more Blackwood, but it did look exceptionally nice. I get Spruce from USA suppliers and keep it within Aussie Post size and weight limits.

[Nick]

The market in NZ for hand built guitars is pretty limited, there aren't many that are willing to pay the $ for something hand built. I had a customer once who was interested in an electric, and after looking and saying that my guitars were fantastic, and on hearing the price, told me that he could get much cheaper off the shelf at the local guitar shop. I informed him that perhaps he'd be better off going there then if a bargain guitar was what he was after. I have made a few acoustics and electrics for customers (mostly by word of mouth) but not many, certainly not enough to support me full time.
I also have a friend that piled his savings into setting up an electric bass business, managed to get a endorser for a while in the states (a reasonably well know funk player), displayed at Namm a couple of times and had plenty of interest, but ,especially after covid, the freight companies bumped their prices up, skinning the customers for even more dosh, and so it has unfortunately pretty much died a natural death as the freight from NZ to UK and the States was almost twice the value of the chunk of wood inside the box.
And as for buying CITIES timber, forget it, a lot of luthier's supplies for timber don't want to deal with the paperwork.
Go west young man (West of NZ that is)

[kiwigeo]

Go west young man (West of NZ that is)

I think most of New Zealand is already over here in Oz..last one to leave please turn out the lights