Ray wrote:
But these Ramirez guitars, plse tell me, they are also factory made stuff and how would they compare, both quality and price, with something hand made by a luthier? Seems pretty steep for factory made kit or do I miss something?
Lots of guitars are made on production lines - some very good guitars as well. Most Martins, the entire Larrivee standard range.
I think the "factory" "hand-made" divide is a bit fuzzy. Larrivee are "factory made" but the necks, on all their models, are hand fitted. Morgan, AFAIK, do most of the construction work by hand but then send the guitars to the Larrivee production line for spraying and finishing.
Martin make so many guitars they can't afford (in terms of time or money) to have them hand made. And this has been going on for some time. I recently learned that there were a whole bunch of Martin dreadnoughts in the early 70s with bum intonation because the bridges were 3mm forward of where they should have been. Somebody set up something wrong on the production line.
I would think that with the exception of the smallest shops there are not a lot of entirely hand made guitars. Even companies like Lowden where most if not all the work is done by hand have production lines with different craftsmen responsible for specific parts of the construction - EG one to do the finishes, one to shape the necks.
So is it hand made or factory made? Chose your definition ?