Who wants to go into the guitar building business?

BLACK MESA GUITARS IS FOR SALE!

I'd never heard of Black Mesa till a few days ago but he's apparently been in business for 20 years.

From the Website


I sent an email to see where he's located. That my first question. If it's not close then I'm not interested. Even if it is close it's a long shot that I'd seriously consider it. But it did interest me enough to at least ask the first question.

Cheers,

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

Do they do any guitars that look nice?

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No no and no

That's a subjective question.

I like this one.

Black Mesa Guitar

Note the neck body joint. That's a "heeless" bolt on connection. Very innovative if you ask me and could be a patented asset. Makes upper register playing much easier - particularly for folks with small hands.

The objective question you want to ask is "do they make money"? I haven't made any inquiries into how well the business is doing.

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

So why is he selling? Who sells a golden goose?

And if it we're any good a business, he wouldn't be advertising it on the website of the business for sale.

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No no and no

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Just makes me think all show and no go, I'm afraid. And that neck looks like all the worst points of a Gibson Firebird and an 8 string shredder guitar combined.

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No no and no

That just the head shape on that model - and I don't care for it either. They're not all like that and there are some really nice looking instruments in the gallery.

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

Folks sell businesses every day for any number of reasons. You'll have to ask the seller to find out in this case. There's contact info there. While you're at it you can ask if he's had an appraisal done.

I sent him an email asking where he's located. It's about 40 miles south of Tampa, FL. That's over 2000 miles from me so I'm not interested.

The assets he's selling is very portable but I don't see much value based on what he's listed. There's hardly any hard assets at all. Not sure that his customer base would be worth much, his website will have some value but not much, and his name is not worth anything as far as I can tell. (I'd never heard of him till a few days ago).

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

Had a look and I can't agree with that. Every one has the same theme. Gregarious over the top wood grain with poorly colour matched hardware choices. But yeah, ok that is just me.
For what it's worth I am impressed by the very straight string path across the headstock.

Now the real niggle in the matter is this. The guitars are very showy. Not highly priced at all for hand made instruments. Yet the company is up for sale.

Why isn't it a success? Why isn't it better known? Why aren't people all over the internet talking about these guitars.
Now I hate to say this because I could well be (and probably am) completely wrong about this. But all that to me adds up to product that looks nice but doesn't perform as well as it could.

As for customer base. Well we guitarists are silly things and allow ourselves to fall prey to marketing much more than any other musician. But still how many people do you expect to get repeat custom from on a hand made guitar from a small builder?

Try getting that figuring from any manufacturer that isn't selling up for $2K a pop.

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No no and no

Hiya: lots of reasons why a small company might suddenly be sold, many of them sad. A death or serious illness come to mind.

Still, selling a tiny custom guitar company as a going concern seems a bit of a long shot. For starters, most people in that line want to put their own name on the headstock, cos there aren't too many other rewards. In the guitar world we love the word "boutique", but in business terms it does tend to mean "tiny and unprofitable".

I bet that company's timber stock would be worth looking at, though. Makers with some cash to spare might happily make a trip to inspect that lot (are you on your way, Paul Reed Smith?).

Cheers - C

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Aging in the wood vault...

So does the builder select only on figuring or does the tone debacle come into play?
Gotta say, he doesn't make a lot of mention of it on his site.

Anyway the guitars are clearly based on this over the top grain theme. So after a look through the books to see if the company is making money. You have to look at sources of such figured woods. Else you are going to lose any customer base that is there.

Take a look at this, my bands singers Westone Prestige 250.



Beautiful guitar, utterly stunning. I can honestly say, I've never seen workmanship like it from a successful guitar building company. Aside from a PRS Dragon I got to handle some years back. All for £400 in 1982.
The Westone guitars did quite well. They sold a fair bit when I was a kid. However that model ran for two years only. End of 81 to the end of 83. 84-86 they did the same model but in a darker tobacco burst that looks nowhere near as pretty.

Why did Westone ditch those models and concentrate solely on more understated finishes. Such as

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No no and no

All opinion aside if I were considering Black Mesa Guitars, or any other business for that matter, It has to be appraised. Got to know the value of his tools, materials, and inventory (hard assets). Got to know what his website is worth (I'm sure it's not much). Does he have any patents or patent pending IP. Got to see his income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow.

The other stuff like why is he selling doesn't matter and whether or not his guitars are pretty is subjective.

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

Here's hoping that this guitar maker can sell his business without too much hassle. Always a little sad to see a guitar builder stop building guitars. Keep us posted if you find out anything about this sale in the future.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

... and whether he can fulfill demand for his 'repeat' customer base.

i really don't think there is one. So he paid a couple of K for his tools and a K at most for his stock of wood.

It's all on sales, profit from those sales. And prospective future sales. Nothing more.

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No no and no

Haha - I rather suspect those numbers are a little off. A high quality band saw costs that much by itself, and if the guy has other industrial level equipment, such as thicknessers, spindle sanders and such then the value of his tools will run well into five figures.

Far as wood is concerned: Forum user Nutter and I went for an afternoon tour of a couple of excellent tonewood suppliers and I spent a grand in two hours flat - that expenditure on fancy timber didn't even fill the back of the car.

You've slept in my spare room, Nick: that cupboard in the corner holds a good couple of K's worth of my figured timber and there's still room in there for a rack of clothes!

Eye-candy timber is pricy. If Mr Black Mesa's wood hoard fills anything bigger than a cardboard box I think we'd find it adds up to quite a bit of cash. I rather doubt he'll find anyone to take on his company as a going concern, but I expect his material assets amount to something reasonably significant.

Cheers - C

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