what should it cost to have a luthier assemble a warmoth?

[oppressedLefty]

I'm considering building a guitar from Warmoth parts, and was wondering if others could give me a ballpark what it would cost to have a skilled guitar tech or luthier to assemble it (attached the neck, installed a floyd and locking nut, tuners, pickups) and do a flexible wiring scheme for 2 humbuckers (series, parallel, coil tap, etc).

Also, Could anyone recommend a skilled guitar tech or luthier in the northern Virginia area?

Thanks.
Paul

 

[whyachi]

Check this out for ideas on the cost, http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=11464.0
and here for possible guitar techs in your area, http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?board=9.0

 

[Cagey]

It shouldn't cost much because, quite frankly, there isn't that much to it and it doesn't take very long. Warmoth does the difficult and time-consuming parts. I'd call it 2, maybe 3 hours work, with some parts requiring some uncommon skills. Wiring and setup aren't obvious, for example. So, I'd figure $50 to $75. As for finding a luthier, I don't think that's necessary. By the time you get your parts from Warmoth, the luthier's work is done. Any music store with a good setup guy can finish the thing off for you.

 

[dudesweet157]

I personally think $50-$75 is a bit unrealistic.  The guy I go to, who is REALLY good, charges that per hour ($50.00).  On my first Warmoth, I think I paid $200.00 to have it assembled, but when he was through, it was immaculate.  He rounded the fretboard, beveled the fret ends, went the full 9 yards on the setup (Called me in to have me play it while he made minor adjustments to the action, vibrato bar, etc.).  At the time, it was totally worth it to me, as I had no idea how to do any of those things, and really didn't want to screw up my parts.  I have since learned how to do many of those things myself, but I still take it to my guy for fret and nutwork.

Just my $0.02, and, as always, YMMV,
David

 

[Cagey]

It probably depends a little on where you live. Around here (Detroit metropolitan area) there's quite a bit of competition, so prices may be a bit lower than you might expect. You can have your frets dressed, nut filed, neck adjusted, intonation set, etc. for around $25 plus strings. Doesn't sound like much, but there's a lot of work out there so the guys who do it can pull in $1,000/wk. pretty reliably. Can't drive a Porsche on that kind of money, but you certainly won't starve.

 

[hannaugh]

Just remember, if you were to decide you wanted to do it yourself, we the forum can walk you through it.  It's fun!

 

[Rouse]

Over a period of about 4 weeks, I paid $80-100 for mine

 

[whyachi]

It probably depends a little on where you live. Around here (Detroit metropolitan area) there's quite a bit of competition, so prices may be a bit lower than you might expect. You can have your frets dressed, nut filed, neck adjusted, intonation set, etc. for around $25 plus strings. Doesn't sound like much, but there's a lot of work out there so the guys who do it can pull in $1,000/wk. pretty reliably. Can't drive a Porsche on that kind of money, but you certainly won't starve.

You can't drive a Porsche on $1k / week? I'm pretty sure I could. Damn, I need to move to Detroit apparently, if $1k / week is nothing.

 

[hannaugh]

I'd give a kidney to make $1000 a week.

 

[Dan025]

It probably depends a little on where you live. Around here (Detroit metropolitan area) there's quite a bit of competition, so prices may be a bit lower than you might expect. You can have your frets dressed, nut filed, neck adjusted, intonation set, etc. for around $25 plus strings. Doesn't sound like much, but there's a lot of work out there so the guys who do it can pull in $1,000/wk. pretty reliably. Can't drive a Porsche on that kind of money, but you certainly won't starve.

You can't drive a Porsche on $1k / week? I'm pretty sure I could. Damn, I need to move to Detroit apparently, if $1k / week is nothing.

i could but the porsche would be old! 944 maybe. no seriously a poesche on 1000 a week could be done. just. but it could be done and i'm not talking about a boxster or an old 944 either. granted it meens you are single and live with mom who does the grocery shopping and cooking. i know people that buy houses on less income than that and clearly a house is more expensive than a porsche (well here it is) but those people never get out of debt. the payments are just doable but the insurance would kill me in this state.

 

[Dan025]

I'd give a kidney to make $1000 a week.

it's funny to see how people live all over the country, i can make $1012 a week every week before taxes but it means working 50 hrs and working night shift for a 15% differencial. but also remember that i'm the lowest paid level of worker as i just started the job. my father works for the city of new york as a supervisor of mechanics and makes at least twice that and has for years. we are by no means wealthy in my area. we have a normal size house and drive second hand cars with high mileage. no fancy flatscreen tv's or anything unusual. 

 

[Cagey]

You can't drive a Porsche on $1k / week? I'm pretty sure I could. Damn, I need to move to Detroit apparently, if $1k / week is nothing.

If you could take home $1K/wk, you might be ok. But, most people have to pay for taxes and insurance, among other things, so your net is a lot less. Even a 370Z will run you roughly $700/mo. (we have one here). A Porsche is going to be a bit more, depending on the model. A 911, for instance, runs about $85K. Finance it for 5 years, you're looking at roughly $1,700/mo, not counting maintenance and insurance. Then you need a house, spouse, kids, clothes, Warmoth parts, food, beer, etc. $50K annually is only about $40K really, which doesn't go as far as it used to.

 

[hannaugh]

I'd give a kidney to make $1000 a week.

it's funny to see how people live all over the country, i can make $1012 a week every week before taxes but it means working 50 hrs and working night shift for a 15% differencial. but also remember that i'm the lowest paid level of worker as i just started the job. my father works for the city of new york as a supervisor of mechanics and makes at least twice that and has for years. we are by no means wealthy in my area. we have a normal size house and drive second hand cars with high mileage. no fancy flatscreen tv's or anything unusual. 

Our problem is we can't find enough hours.  If I were working full time, I'd be making somewhere around $1400 a week, but full time jobs are pretty hard to come by right now.  Ever since it became law that businesses have to provide benefits to full time employees, no one is hiring full time people anymore, at least that's how it seems here. 

 

[Cagey]

Our problem is we can't find enough hours.  If I were working full time, I'd be making somewhere around $1400 a week, but full time jobs are pretty hard to come by right now.  Ever since it became law that businesses have to provide benefits to full time employees, no one is hiring full time people anymore, at least that's how it seems here. 

I think that's true everywhere. But, usually if you're in a $70K+ position, you're a professional that doesn't have a problem selling time. It's the unskilled jobs that aren't logging full-time hours.

 

[whyachi]

Suddenly I feel poor.  :sad1:

 

[Cagey]

Suddenly I feel poor.  :sad1:

Everybody is now. They just passed Obamacare, and it's a dark day for the U.S. Things are going to go to hell in a hurry. But, I don't think we're supposed to talk about such things here.

 

[-CB-]

Back to the subject of the thread -

Much depends on the complexity of your parts.  Vintage tuners or others not requiring "peg holes" to keep the tuners lined up... easier than the ones that require the little offset hole for the peg to be drilled.  How about the nut.  What material?  Who fit it.  How about the finish on the neck - is it in the nut slot, needing to be cleaned out?  How about the bridge?  Some easy, some a little more complex, especially if the body is W finished and you have to put in TOM and stop-bar bushings.  How about string ferrules.  How about lots of stuff.  The complexity of the wiring is also a factor.  When you go with push pull pots and mini switches and all sorts of esoteric wiring options, thats gonna add to the cost... because it adds to the time.

So lets take the rundown - not in order.. just off my head.
Fit tuners
Fit nut or tweak nut
Fit neck
Fit strap buttons
Fit pickguard
Fit pickups
Fit controls
Fit bridge/tail/ferrules
Fit knobs and other hardware like the hold down etc
Do the wiring
Fit the jack plate

The whole time - dont scratch it, dont break parts, dont break screws.  That boils down to - use due care.

I see three to four hours on a complex guitar, and two to three on a simple guitar.

Then string it up and do the setup - normal rates apply.  Strings, normal rates apply.

Around here - the shops charge $75 to $90 per hour.  A full setup - with no fret work, is about $50, plus strings.  So just take your local area rate, and stick it on the hours used... thats it.  Here, to assemble say... a Strat, Tele or other simple guitar, figure just under $300, maybe $250ish if they needed the work.

 

[willievega]

I wish I could find someone who could do those guitar assemblies for 25-50 bucks.

 

[GratefullyRedd]

I wish I could find someone who could do those guitar assemblies for 25-50 bucks.
http://[/img   ]How do you upload a pic around here, anyway?
[/quote]
don't we all

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

I had a guitar shop do the entire setup.  it cost me $500.  There was extra routing to be done because of the pickups, and they also shielded it. Sometimes I think I paid too much, but the place has almost nothing but 5-star ratings on Yelp.

For my next project, I've been putting it together myself, and well, it hasn't be going as smoothly as I'd like. I'm not done yet, though, so I can't say if I would have rather done it myself or not.