Well, I've a late night special announcement to make -
Australian Guitar Tonewood is online and open for business
You can find it here -
http://www.australianguitartonewood.com
This is the shop that has been alluded to in other previous posts. Given some of the recent discussion, I should also point out that I have indeed gone through all the proper channels before posting this information here! And I'm not asking for any of your money to do this, unless of course, you wish to purchase something, in which case, I will
Thanks goes to the mighty Bob and his posse of capable compadres for their support. So it's probably just as well no one explained to me just how much work would be involved in creating a shop like this, before I launched into it.
Every spare moment of the past five months have been creating the backbone of this shop. Getting it to look and function as I wanted was, an interesting learning curve... That's before processing timber to populate it with. I'm happy to say it should be fully functional now, with secure Paypal payments and Australia Post calculations on the fly. Of course, I've learnt that it is unlikely things go 100% smoothly and surely there will be some bugs or glitches that require ironing out. Please bare with me while I work through any issues, if they do in fact arise. And then, perhaps they won't My aim was to offer the largest variety of quality Australian timbers, milled specifically for musical instrument construction, in one shop. I wanted it to be the best possible online timber shopping experience in this industry. I wanted clear examples of what you were buying, so you could be confident in your purchase - the next best thing to buying in person. Sounds easy right?!
I wanted to do all this because it is what I would have loved access to in my early building days!! The same way I reflect on the internet in general these days...This business actually had it's roots in a good seven or more years ago, when initial planning and discussions took place. Other commitments took precedent and so the online shop took a back seat until the beginning of this year. I'm very happy to have it up and running now. The shop is not about volumes and often items listed will be one off or very limited quantities - so if there is something you like, buy it because it may not reappear for a while! Staples include Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) and Gidgee (Acacia cambagei), but there will be many more species listed over time - many of which it is likely you have not crossed before. There is plenty of great rare and unusual timber in the pipeline to be processed and it will be listed as it becomes available in the coming months, so check back in to find new stock regularly.
You can sign up as a customer and for a mail out list, which I will endeavour to maintain when new exciting developments occur etc. There is also a blog in the shop where I intend to write about different timber species, interesting trees, harvesting, processing or even aspects of building. I would like to feature customers work in time and longer term, I hope to branch out to other products in the shop, perhaps including some luthiery services such as fret slotting on our exotic fretboard range... Might as well dream big right?
Finally, I'd just like to say that a business like this really does rely on word of mouth to gain a foothold. I don't frequent social media or other forums so I'd be more than happy for any of you to mention it on social media, blogs, forums or the like, should you feel like helping. The better the business grows, the more I will be able to expand on the offerings - which benefit us all.
I'd be happy to answer any questions and if you have feedback of any sort (constructive!), I'd really appreciate your suggestions or comments.
Thanks all and I hope you enjoy the shop!
Cheers,
Jeremy.
