Cheap techs Leeds/Nottingham

matt.drink73

Hi guys,
I'm looking to get a bit of work done to my strat and I've asked around a few techs and got what I see as some very high prices.
Basically it's an AVRI that I've had modded into a delonge esque thing as it works perfectly for all my live stuff. Since selling my CS Strat I'm missing the neck pickup so I thought I'd put one into this. It's got all the routing for it so it's literally just a case of cutting a pickup shaped hole out and one for a switch and wiring it up. The cheapest I've been quoted is £80 and I've had quotes of upwards of £100 which to me seems on the high side considering my usual tech made the whole custom scratchplate for £70. Can anyone A - tell me if I'm being a tightarse and if that's about the going rate and B - recommend anyone who might be able to do it on the cheap with a semi fast turnaround time that's either Leeds or East Nottingham based.
I'm tempted to attack it myself with a dremel or take it to my usual tech but they're a fair distance out my way and the turnaround times can be fairly long and I can't really be without it for too long.

Ta

Handsome_Chris

I payed to a get an enthusiastic amatuer to mod my strat at I price I thought was cheap.  I now have a guitar that a pro cantc rectify without actually replacing the whole body. 

Pay the pro what they ask for: it will save a lot of heartache.

stimpsonslostson

Handsome_Chris said:

I payed to a get an enthusiastic amatuer to mod my strat at I price I thought was cheap.  I now have a guitar that a pro cantc rectify without actually replacing the whole body. 

Pay the pro what they ask for: it will save a lot of heartache.

This. You get what you pay for. 
Also, in my experience a (reasonably) long turn around time indicates someone getting lots of work. 

Roland

Have you still got the original scratchplate?

Dominic

Both so true
There will always be somebody who does a job a little cheaper and a lot less well.

matt.drink73

I'm usually all for that, I take all of my stuff to techs normally and I think I paid upwards of £350 for all the work I had done to this guitar and the workmanship is amazing. But in this case I'm not sure I could justify shelling out that much on it considering I could get a whole new scratchplate cut and wire it myself for less. Some of the techs I've asked are asking the same cost as a fret dress and I don't mean to be ignorant but I can't see how it's as much work as a full fret dress.
Looks like my dremel might be getting some use soon!

BloodEagle

Pay the extra dough and wait the extra time, anyone who can turn it around in a comparatively really short space of time for what seems like a bargain probably isn’t that busy and I’d ask myself why that might be 

matt.drink73

Roland said:

Have you still got the original scratchplate?

I have yeah, in my head it's a case of tracing the hole from the original and cutting it out with a dremel, smoothing out the edges and drilling out and countersinking the screws

dhaywood67

I've only ever used Andy Farrell just outside Nottingham. His work has always been acceptable and seems fair in terms of price. I don't know about one off stuff like this though.

matt.drink73

dhaywood67 said:

I've only ever used Andy Farrell just outside Nottingham. His work has always been acceptable and seems fair in terms of price. I don't know about one off stuff like this though.

I'll drop him an email and see what kind of rates/turnaround he's looking at.
 My go to for everything is usually Cat and Jenna at Xperience in Carlton but unfortunately (for me atleast) their quality is no secret so turnaround times are pretty lengthy and it seems silly going to them and waiting for ages for something so small

Modulus_Amps

do you have a router... with a straight bit + bearing? if so if you buy a cheap scratch plate which you can use it as a jig to machine out the existing one, fairly easy to do and should look professional.

robinbowes

People charging high prices usually means they don't want the work.

Wait, is that £80 *including* the pickup + switch?

R.

Sporky

It's possible that they don't want to do the job, so they're quoting a price at which they've hit the tipping point where it's worth it.

WezV

Blade switch or toggle?   I ask because you are lacking the usual space for a blade.

this job is:
*take it apart
*remove everything from the plate
*cut a pickup hole
*find the best position for a switch(its non-standard)
*drill a switch hole or route a slot
* wire up a non standard wiring scheme(although not a difficult one)
*reassemble
*test
*make sure it plays at least as good as it did before

I really don’t think £80-100 is that bad at all

WezV

Modulus_Amps said:

do you have a router... with a straight bit + bearing? if so if you buy a cheap scratch plate which you can use it as a jig to machine out the existing one, fairly easy to do and should look professional.

I would argue that is only simple if you are familiar with template routing on thin materials.  Most would mess it up if they have not done it before

Sporky

Some of us still mess it up most times.

robinbowes

Yeah, I've not figured out how to route scratchplates properly yet.

Modulus_Amps

WezV said:

Modulus_Amps said:

do you have a router... with a straight bit + bearing? if so if you buy a cheap scratch plate which you can use it as a jig to machine out the existing one, fairly easy to do and should look professional.

I would argue that is only simple if you are familiar with template routing on thin materials.  Most would mess it up if they have not done it before

depends if you know how to use a router with a template properly

WezV

Modulus_Amps said:

WezV said:

Modulus_Amps said:

do you have a router... with a straight bit + bearing? if so if you buy a cheap scratch plate which you can use it as a jig to machine out the existing one, fairly easy to do and should look professional.

I would argue that is only simple if you are familiar with template routing on thin materials.  Most would mess it up if they have not done it before

depends if you know how to use a router with a template properly

Er... I think that’s what I said???

i do.  I still remember when I didn’t.  I don’t assume most guitarists do.

Sporky

Isn't that what Wez said in the post you quoted?

matt.drink73

robinbowes said:

People charging high prices usually means they don't want the work.

Wait, is that £80 *including* the pickup + switch?

R.

£80 plus the parts, I'm going to order a mojo pickup for it but I've been putting it off for ages until I find a way to fit it.

WezV said:

Blade switch or toggle?   I ask because you are lacking the usual space for a blade.

I'm either going to go for a Gibson style toggle or potentially one of the mini ones so I don't knock it.


There's a Dan Erlewine video where he makes his own jig for a Dremel that's tempting me. I'm not too fussed if it's a little rough around the edges providing it's functional and won't die on me.