Estimating Repair Pricing

The previous post explored the step by step process of a guitar setup. Let's look at estimating the cost of a repair today.

When I first started doing repairs, I'd gladly fiddle with guitars in exchange for a token sum or beer. Why did I do this? As I was inexperienced then, I didn't expect to be paid for my services but thankfully, I was part of a music community and some of them trusted me enough to let me work on their instruments.

I was an undergraduate then and was happy with any token sum that was rewarded for my services. However, it is a very different proposition now as I'm doing it for a living. Hence the balancing act of pricing for sustainability+growth and affordability for consumers can be a tricky issue.

Our pricing at the Maestro Guitar Hospital is based on hour rates. Effectively, we charge $50-$70 an hour for work as charging by hour is the most transparent method. Let's take a scenario below:

"Wah, this guitar neck damn jia lat, the truss rod cannot turn, have to heat up the neck"

Assuming this is actually true, and that heating up the neck is the appropriate action, how long does heating up the neck actually take? Let's break it down:

1) Clamping and setup of heating apparatus - 10 mins
2) Heating process, using heat blankets - 10 to 20 mins
3) Guitar is left clamped for at least 6 hours.
3) Setup - 45 min to 1 hour

Minus process 2) and 3) which doesn't require the active presence of the guitar tech, the entire process would take about 1.5 hours at most. Going by an hourly rate of $50/hour, the repair would have cost $75.

Clearly, charging by time rather than by 'nature' of job is a more transparent way to approach repairs. Why? There are simply to many variables involved when it comes to determining the nature of job. There's a reason why doctors and lawyers charge by time as well as there are simply too many variables if nature of job is used.

Let's now use the setup in the previous post and do a time break down:

1) Adjust truss rod and lower nut action - 10 min
2) Clean up fingerboard and polish frets - 5 min
3) Check levelness of frets and knocking down uneven ones - 10 min
3) Action adjustment and intonation adjustment - 20 min
4) Pickup height adjustment and final adjustments - 15 min

Hence a setup takes 1 hour for a fixed bridge guitar and approximately 1.5 hours for a tremolo equipped guitar. I sometimes spend about another 10 min just 'noodling' on the instrument just to make sure the playability is right.

So, if any point of time you'll like a time break down of the services done to your guitar, you can always send me an email at kc@maestroguitars.com

We believe in keeping things transparent for our customers and if one day we are charging $300 for a setup and fret level, then it's probably because I'm fixing Carlos Santana's guitars. In the meantime, don't sweat it, our prices will stay around this price category for awhile :)

Some articles for reference:

Dan Erlewine's take on pricing here

Interesting forum discussion here

That's it now, keep strumming

KC