TK Smith Guitars

[repoman]

I took that 10 hours thing as a joke as in 'I have 10 hours of time playing it (wink)"

[Nelson Instruments]

Could be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They're cool nonetheless!

[Chankgeez]

Bobby, how many hours of work do you think he puts in for one of those?

[Nelson Instruments]

Well I won't pretend that I know his methods.
100 hours isn't realistic at all.
Even 30 hours would be on the high side but if he was doing everything by hand (like cutting all wood with hand saws and coping saws) and not using any power tools then that might be in the ball park.
Without looking into it I'd assume he uses the normal power tools/machines that most use.

So as for making the guitar itself 10 hours actually sounds right.
Keep in mind that letting glue dry doesn't count as time.

metal parts aren't cheap and polishing aluminum can take time and is a dirty job.

If he has worked out his production flow (and I think he has) I honestly think 10 hrs is in the realm of possibility.
10-20 hours is realistic.

[Chankgeez]

Thanks, Bobby, yeah, I have no idea how many hours work goes into building a guitar.

Good to know it's not 100 though.

Pretty sure he's got some nice vintage industrial power tools too.

I think it's more than 10 hours though. That inlay work is pretty nice.

[Nelson Instruments]

Yeah the inlay is a good point that honestly I never considered. So more than 10.
But even with inlay there are the questions of how does he cut out the inlays and the areas they will be placed into?
If he does all parts of the inlay process by hand then that would add some time.
That's why I prefer to not do much in the way of inlays. Even if you get amazingly good at it you still spend a lot of time on it.