How much is too much!

Could be he's pricing it as something he'd rather not do to run you off. Maybe it's a fairly substantial job to do right. Honestly, who knows?

 

Sometimes, you quote a job you don't really want to do with a high price - you don't really want to do it, but if they're willing to pay a lot, then sure...

 

Yeah, dude's got other priorities and doesn't really want to do it. Go elsewhere.

 

I had a Sadowsky preamp installed in my Schecter AND a total body paint job by one of the best shops in the country, and that job was $450 plus the $200 preamp purchase.

 

That's overpriced so I won't comment on the $600 quote.

The Tone Monster preamps sold by Ty are, apart from the bridge ground, solderless fits.

This is a task you can undertake yourself. There are workarounds for the bridge ground if you don't own a soldering iron.

Don't entertain these jokers. Drop me a PM and I'll gladly talk you through the installation

 

Which Tone Master Model is it? I am seeing them vary from $54-94 new on Ebay. $150-$200 max on labor. They do not have to solder so it really shouldn’t take them over one hour to remove and replace.

 

I don’t know what labor costs are in NYC. One builder I watch online is $100 an hour and he’s not in New York. The $150 quote could be an hour and a half labor which, if it includes a setup with the new strings, isn’t unreasonable. If I thought I had to solder the preamp in I could see quoting that amount of time.

 

I learned this from an electrical contractor a long time ago. A job is worth exactly the most a person will pay for it. Let me ask you a question is you support of your of this small business worth $290? And that is OK if it is. If not, you may want to let him know why he’s not getting your business.

But in fairness to your smaller business man, because of the demand on his services, he may need to charge $600. I’m thinking this job will take about two hours labor plus the cost of components. On the surface his hourly labor charge is a high. I’m thinking he is slammed solid and really doesn’t need the business.

 

I would only spend more at one business vs the other unless I felt like the quality of work/turnaround justified it.

 

Apparently you have never done this kind of work yourself?

Doesn't the Marcus Miller come with a preamp?

I don't know what shop hours are anymore but to my untrained eye, if the bass is unmolested and it's a straight swap of the preamp and install new strings. I'm thinking two hours at $65 an hour you are looking at about $130, depending what real shop hours are, I'm guessing as I do my own work.

 

Is the correct answer.

 

Way, way, too much. I put a John East Marcus retro in that exact same bass and it wasn’t hardly any work at all. I would be willing to bet you could figure out how to do the installation of the tone monster yourself.

 

They did. I managed to blow mine up years ago and now I’m wondering if maybe it was a broader issue, lol.

 

I know exactly who the tech is just by description.
He has become a sort of a legend on YouTube, but that’s about all. Some of the stuff he’s done in the past, I asked him questions about why he did “this” rather than “that” because what he did didn’t make sense and was inefficient. His answer was kind of like “well, that’s how it came, so I didn’t change it”.
I kind of lost interest in his work after that.

$600 might be him covering his @$$ if something goes wrong later…kind of like an auto mechanic will charge more for a part than you can get from AutoZone yourself, because of the part fails within a certain amount of time, he fixes it on his dime the 2nd time around.

 

Shadakaaakaaa indeed!

 

Indeed!

 

We'll help him!

 

That’s disappointing if it really was “him” with that high quote.

Edit - holy moly and tone monster preamps are only like 50 bucks?? Wowww.

 

May I ask which Youtuber this is please (you can PM it to me, if you like)?