Now *this* is what engaging the customer meaningfully is about

Obviously part of the cost, if you are only making a batch of 10 then they have to be more expensive.

I better versed with Guitar building. I have been buying Martin guitars since 2000 or so. I started to buy from their custom shop in 2008 I believe it was and never looked back.

Now how they build guitars is interesting, it is on an assembly line, task by task, one for body, one for top, one for neck, one for trim, etc till you get to the final assembly and QA.

They are not cheap guitars, but totally hand made by a skilled luthier that does all of the work is much more expensive.