Welcome to 2023

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your support in 2022. You all made it the best year we have had yet. Because of all your enthusiasm, we brought on another member of the team early 2022. His name is Alex, and he has spent the latter part of the year apprenticing under me. He primarily finishes bodies, but he is eager to try his hand at finishing necks as well. He is a musician just like the rest of us and is a drummer. He is also a Marine. His attention to detail is what makes him a big asset to us. You may have even seen some bodies with his initials on them.

Now onto the ugly. You may have noticed a price increase (yikes) on all store items. We have all felt the squeeze of global inflation and it was necessary to take a hard look at what it costs to put out a premium product. Everything has significantly increased as far as raw materials go. The electricity rate has doubled, abrasives have jumped, some wood species have doubled in price, fret wire is astronomical, even shipping supplies have jumped. Our primary shipping partner recently raised rates across the board 6.9% (nice). Some may see this as a small violin, but others may appreciate the transparency. This decision doesn't come from greed. Cost of business has increased, and previous pricing was unsustainable in this new "economy." We consulted a few trusted customers to get their take on keeping pricing the same but sacrificing quality to be more in line with the other shops. Or keep the quality the same and adjust pricing accordingly. The overwhelming majority of the response was keeping the quality the same. Was any of this explanation necessary? Probably not. But I felt compelled to say why.

Anyhoo. Enough of the doom and gloom. We look forward to helping you with your projects this coming year. We are going to try and keep adding product to the store to expand options. The library is large, but not everything is listed.

Rock on!

-Chris