Hey guys I recently defretted and refinished the neck on my '92 BCR innovator and the work i did is starting to lead to various refinishing/defretting jobs for local musicians. Well seeing as how I have never done this type of work for cash(just fun) I have no idea as to what these types of services cost or what to charge. So here I am asking my fellow TBers for some guidance:help:, how much would you charge for . . . a defretting job . . . refinishing/painting the body of a fender style guitar/bass. . . refinishing the back of a neck from poly to oil? any help is very appreciated, and thanks in advance

i would also know some of this stuff, because i have been getting this too. a friend got a new gretsche hollow body in transparent orange, and thought the see-through pickguard was junk, so i made one out of bloodwood. he said the shape was a perfect match, and if he didn't know any better , he would have thought it was a factory job. then a freind always wants me to set up his mim fender p, and another wants me to defret his stingray knockoff. then there are a few people around the highschool that are asking me to make them a guitar or bass

Are you guys wanting to do this as a hobby and make a few bucks on the side or do this professionally? There's a big difference there.

Refinishing a Fender body is not cheap at all, expect to charge a few hundred bucks for that, any less than that and you'd be working for free. Look at all the costs the materials alone are and pay yourself a decent salary too. A finishing job takes DAYS to do not just a couple of hours. You need to pay yourself decently too. Building a whole instrument from scratch for a friend at school is a lot of hard work. There's two options here, build something at a pro level and charge a pro price for it (but then the instrument NEEDS to be a pro level instrument, if its not then you're basically screwing the guy) the other option is to built it to get the experience under your belt and have something out there that shows off your work. You can charge whatever you want for it but make sure you've got all the parts/hardware covered and bit more too for your work and "in case something goes bad" money to replace something that went wrong. Make sure your friend saw your previous work and knows what your limitations are.

Check out prices of repair shops in your area to give you an idea of what a good market price is, a lot of them will list it on their websites.

well personally I've been doing it as a hobby for a few years, I worked as a custom woodworker for a long time doing custom solid hardwood cabinets and counter tops and everything in between so i have allot of experience in that field. I have a profession/full-time job already so I'm not trying to make a career out of it or be a "professional" luthier because I believe to be a professional you have to dedicate yourself to whatever your doing and i guess I'm more dedicated to playing rather than building, with not enough time to master both. I enjoy doing these mods but don't really want to take the time to learn whats necessary to say build a custom bass for anyone. but there seems to be a lack of people willing to do these kind of mods in the area so i just kind of stumbled into doing this for some side cash.

I've been thinking this way too -- mostly as a way to try to get better...maybe someday to do it more professionally? dunno...don't actually have a plan -- but it's fun.

So the rough numbers I've seen for a few jobs --

A full refret seems to fall in the 250-350+ range. Fret wire isn't expensive, but you'll use some sandpaper, glue, your files will take some wear and tear, and a lot of time
make a new nut -- if you do a refret, you might find yourself remaking a nut for someone too...saw one place charge 60 for that -- nut material, file wear and tear, and it takes some time to shape, sand and polish...
Fret dressing -- 30-60
Setup -- 30-60
Body refinishes -- I haven't seen anything along those lines for under 300 -- I painted a headstock, and went whole-hog -- 9 color coats several clear coats, sanding, polished to a glassy finish...and after that I vowed to never try to paint a full guitar body :-)

Good luck!

ltt

I've been thinking this way too -- mostly as a way to try to get better...maybe someday to do it more professionally? dunno...don't actually have a plan -- but it's fun.

So the rough numbers I've seen for a few jobs --

A full refret seems to fall in the 250-350+ range. Fret wire isn't expensive, but you'll use some sandpaper, glue, your files will take some wear and tear, and a lot of time
make a new nut -- if you do a refret, you might find yourself remaking a nut for someone too...saw one place charge 60 for that -- nut material, file wear and tear, and it takes some time to shape, sand and polish...
Fret dressing -- 30-60
Setup -- 30-60
Body refinishes -- I haven't seen anything along those lines for under 300 -- I painted a headstock, and went whole-hog -- 9 color coats several clear coats, sanding, polished to a glassy finish...and after that I vowed to never try to paint a full guitar body :-)

Good luck!

ltt

I think you're pretty much in the ballpark, except for fret dressing...I would think 60-100...

Personally, I own inexpensive instruments and do ALL my own work (except for a pickup repair...thanks, Phil)...I also "tweak" (setups, fret dressing) instruments for others...but I stay clear of the "luthier" type stuff for others (refins, etc)