how would i get a job doing setups and repairs?

[MarkMyWordsXx]

guitar center outsources a company, and there so dumb that i doubt they could explain how to get in touch with them.

how would you guyes reccomend i get a job doing this? i can basically handle every simple set up situation, and for anything more then that i can fuiger it out.

so?

[Bass Kahuna]

If you have no real work experience doing setups and repairs for anyone else (a music store, a guitar repair shop, etc....) then perhaps you should think about doing it on your own on the side. You're going to have to start your own clientel and reputation on your own. Once you've done that, you may decide to stay on your own, and if not, you'll at least have experience and knowledge and have built a reputation that may help you land a job at the local guitar repair shop, which is probably who you're local GC is sending stuff to.

Find the website for your local music scene (almost every town has one, and if your town is too small to have one there is probably a larger town or city near you that does have one) and start hanging out on there, posting that you're available for repairs and setups.

Approach a local music store (a mom and pop type place, not GC...) and ask them if you can help out with some minor repairs.

Try advertising in your local newspaper as well.

I would suggest that if there are things you don't know (and you've admitted that there are.. no worries, just pointing it out...) I would strongly suggest that you get some guitar repairs books from someone like Dan Erlewine or others, pickup a few really cheap-o guitars and basses in pawn shops or garage sales and start practicing on those. Chances are you're going to get requests for everything from changing strings to repairing broken headstocks, and you don't want to try your first broken headstock repair on someones Gibson Les Paul Custom... `cause if you goof it up they're not gonna be happy... and happy customers are your best advertising.

Start buying tools you think you might need, especially tools designed specifically for fretting work.... StewMac is a good resource.

Oh, and if you're going to charge people for your services, you'd better get call down to your local chamber of commerce and figure out what you need to do to get a tax ID and / or business license.

[202dy]

BK and Joshua are spot on.

If you are serious about being in business then some business skills will be necessary. While a class in accounting might not be on the list, a copy of Quick Books or another accounting software package is a must. Using it every day will help you see where all the pennies are so that you do not lose dollars in the process.

Understanding other business basics is important. There are overhead and profit in addition to cost. Even if you are working out of your basement or a spare room you will generate costs. A basement will need to be lighted, heated and the humidity will need to be controlled. These will increase the electric bill. If people are coming to you parking may become an issue to say nothing of possible zoning complications. You will spend time doing the books for which you need to pay yourself. You certainly do not work an extra hour or two for your current employer without being compensated and you should not work for yourself without pay, either. (BTW, the term working for yourself is a misnomer. When you are in business EVERYone is your boss. And most have no experience in the job.) There is insurance, without which you should not attempt to operate. Talk to your insurance agent about a business protector policy with liability limits of a million per occurance, minimum. The policy must address the storage and handling of other peoples possessions. There are office supplies (paper for the printer doesn't grow on trees in readily usable 500 sheet reams), coffee for customers, gasoline and other car expenses for transporting instruments to and from stores. There is advertising, that great sink hole that can take a very long time to see a payback from. This is a partial list. If you have never read a book on starting a small business yesterday is the time to start.

Then there is profit. At the end of the year there must be a profit. That is money that is intentionally planned to be left over after taxes. Why? Because you want to buy a more tools. Or a riser block for the band saw so you can re-saw spalted maple for the top of that bass you always wanted and couldn't afford. A complete repair shop will cost ~$10,000 USD to fully outfit depending how much time you have to make tools and how much you want to spend on Stew-Mac and Luthiers Mercantile. Minimum bench tools include the band saw and a small belt-disc sander. You will want more. Profit is what you reinvest in your business so that you can expand and stay state of the art.

There are potential frustrations galore. You will do repairs for people who will refuse to return your phone calls for months only to show up at a quarter to eight on Saturday night when you're late for a gig. When a music store customer, or one of your customers, complains and the problem is that they do not understand that you cannot change the laws of physics as they occur on this planet you may have to give them their money back to keep them happy. It is a guarantee that the music store will hang you out to dry if there is a problem. You may spend a hundred bucks on nut files to do a job tomorrow and not use them again for six months. While they are essential to your business, you'll be eating hot dogs, not steak because of it. If you've never made a nut from scratch the first one may take four or five hours only to break when installing it and another two or three to make the next one. Not to worry, eventually you'll be able to knock one out in an hour or so. But at first there is a learning curve. Expect to climb it. The important thing is to be willing to put in the time to make a product that is on par with the best that can be had anywhere. And remember, you will work on twenty times as many guitars as you will on basses. Think about every guitar player you've ever worked with and what they are like. They are your customers.

BTW, you have to perform all of these feats while attempting to keep eight fingers and two thumbs permanently attached to your hands.

Setting prices is a tough nut to crack. Stewart McDonald used to publish the "Luthiers Blue Book" in their catalogs. It was a casual survey of pricing across the USA and a few other counties. Unfortunately they do not appear to have record of it now. Today searching the internet and calling the local stores for pricing will enable you to compile an average across a number of sources that can be adjusted for your locale. If you are in a major city the charges will be more than in a rural area because the cost of living will probably be higher. Don't forget to make sure that you are charging enough for overhead and profit, too.

Given all of that, there are some unique rewards and satisfactions that come from doing a restoration or setting up something that someone will come to learn music upon.

[Pilgrim]

All of the above is good advice - but here's one more, critical piece: Liability Insurance.

DO NOT even think of touching someone else's instrument in a for-hire situation unless you have plenty of liability insurance. Things do break, and if a $4000 bass breaks while you're working on it because of a bad part, YOU may be sued. In that case, you're a dead duck if you don't have insurance.

Don't even think about going into business without insurance. I don't like it any better than you do, but if you can't get insurance, don't work on instruments.

If a business hires you, they should have liability and other insurance, but make 100% sure that if that's the case, their insurance will cover YOU. (And they may not want to cover you, even if they can. It costs them money.) Otherwise, you'll have to have your own coverage.

[pthorstenson]

Heres my 2 cents. A reputation as an honest trustworthy person is your best asset and has been mentioned above. It starts here.
Don't ever bad mouth a potential customer (Guitar Center is dumb etc).
In your first post, you use language and spelling that makes you look ignorant. After reading a post like that, I'm not taking my Pedulla to you. Sorry. Clean that up.

Take note of all your customer service experiences that you have like dining out, a bar whatever. Note what you like and what seems artificial to you.

Last week I took my 30 year old Yamaha acoustic into the shop for new tuners. No follow up phone call so I stopped by a few days later and find my prized guitar sitting on the bench out of the case. How long had it been sitting out?? Who knows, but they wern't working on it and thats not how my guitar will be treated and I won't be going back there. Point is to never let your guard down about cultivating that all important image and reputation as someone who treats a instrument like their own.

I wasn't trying to be jerk above but TB has that potential to be a huge networking opportunity for you. I'd hate to see you screw it up before you started.

PJ

[Chasarms]

There are still a few mom and pop stores out there that are not guitar center or the like. Most of those do their own setup.

The thing is, if you work in one of those, you are probably going to have to be a little more diverse than setting intonation and soldering pots. I worked in a store like that in college. You are going to have to cover the sales floor when it is busy, vacuum the floor and maybe go get lunch on occasion.

So, you need to have a pretty general knowledge of most instruments, a presentable look and the ability and willingness to talk to people.

It's a fun job if you can find one.

[bluestarbass]

I used to think that. Im a master or setting up a bass or guitar. But "figuring the rest out" is a bad idea. Can you refret a guitar? Can you steam a neck? Can you reset a neck into a body? These are all things youll be asked to do and you must be able to do them very well and have the tools to do them. Poke around stewmac.com and see how expensive all the tools you will need are. In the end dont expect to make much money, or any at all for the first few years. The comment about liability insurance is good, but if you trash someone's prs even if you replace it except that customer to ruin your name all over town.

[MarkMyWordsXx]

Originally Posted by pthorstenson

In your first post, you use language and spelling that makes you look ignorant. After reading a post like that, I'm not taking my Pedulla to you. Sorry. Clean that up.


PJ

your right, the way i talk to my 'friends' on the internet should determine weather i can service your pedulla or not


i get what your saying though, however there is a nice way to get your point across.

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by MarkMyWordsXx

your right, the way i talk to my 'friends' on the internet should determine weather i can service your pedulla or not

i get what your saying though, however there is a nice way to get your point across.

Without giving offense, I agree with the nudge you received...because I thought the same thing. Would I let someone who writes like that work on one of my basses? Honestly - probably not. I do hope that you get the job you want, and are highly successful at it!

The rest of this post is not critical, but has the goal of helping us all to reflect on how we are perceived......

Here's free advice from an old fart of 57 (the kind of guy who might make the decision whether or not to hire someone):

How people perceive you as a businessperson should be reflected in every communication you carry out. Your thoughts should be expressed clearly, and your writing should be clear and accurate in spelling, punctuation and composition. Your personal presentation should be neat, clean and professional.

Stereotypes are real in people's minds. First impressions can never be changed. The way you present yourself makes a big difference in how people respond to you. Like it or not, even something like one email can make a big difference.

Almost every post I contribute here on Talkbass is edited two or three times before I finish it. I do my best to avoid improper punctuation, words left in lower case when they should be caps, incomplete thoughts or phrases and other problems. It ALL adds up to how people perceive you, and if you can avoid errors in perception, then it makes it much easier for people to judge you on your skills.

[Subculture13]

Buy this book:


It is a fantastic resource to get started with. I swear by it. 15+ years into a healthy career as a guitar tech, I still find myself referring to it from time to time.

Get it here: Stew Mac.

And no, I have no affiliation to the author or Stew Mac, its just a good book.

[Coreyk]

I am in the position you are seeking...The advice you have gotten from the above posters is *golden*. Print it out and keep it.

And don't sweat the occasional pithy comment, like the one you got about criticism and tone either. The first time you get a "hugger-mugger" customer you'll appreciate the truth of it.

As for the financial end, it's all true, and then some.
Like Frank Ford says "...learn to like beans. You'll be eating a lot of them."

Also, it's a good idea to join a professional organization, such as the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans. That organization does feature a lot of repair-related material in their journal, and run a bi-annual symposium that is full of hands-on classes with some of the best luthiers and repair people living.

http://www.guitarmaker.org/


Having the ASIA Code of Ethics posted on your shop wall helps keep your customers reassured, as well.

Good Luck,

Corey Keller

(feel free PM me for my professional information)