Cheap techs Leeds/Nottingham

Rocker

£80 is not a lot for that amount of work.

Modulus_Amps

Sporky said:

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

Yeah, I am not arguing  .... its also late and I am high on solder fumes

GoldenEraGuitars

While this job sounds simple, it’s really a ballache tbh. @WezV  has detailed it bang on. Pay the money and be glad you didn’t arse up your nice scratchplate with a dremel (seriously?!). There’s a few hours in that job, a pro’s knowledge and the use of their tools. 

John_A

Having to pay £150 to get a radiator moved and the end result won't be half as much fun as your guitar

guitarfishbay

£80 seems fair to me. Honestly if you don’t want to pay someone else then it’s time to skill up and learn how to do the tasks yourself.

meltedbuzzbox

Can't you try someone like 

http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html

Then it's just a few screws and a little soldering

matt.drink73

meltedbuzzbox said:

Can't you try someone like 

http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html

Then it's just a few screws and a little soldering

That's not a bad shout. He's charging £60 for a whole strat scratchplate from scratch including all of the materials.

I've got no issues with doing it myself, which is probably what I'll end up doing but when I can get a completely custom scratchplate made from scratch with every screw hole and beveled edge etc for £55-60 I can't be the only one that thinks £80 is a bit steep for a heck of a lot less work than a whole scratchplate?

guitarfishbay

Jack has an established sideline in making pick guards. He can probably make them faster than someone who only does the odd one.

I figure anyone else is quoting you 2 hours give or take of their time to do the job.

robinbowes

You're comparing apples with oranges.

On the one hand, making a scratch plate.
On the other, adding a pickup and switch to an existing scratch plate, plus designing the wiring scheme, sourcing the parts,  and putting it all together.

Seriously,  pay up, or do it yourself.

R.

iseverynamegone

£80 seems fair of that work . Ozzy Owl Guitar Sanctuary in Sheffield (Facebook) does great work. 

musicman100

Stop been tight n be realistic 

matt.drink73

musicman100 said:

Stop been tight n be realistic 

I'm fairly set on doing it myself now as I can't justify the money. I've bought CS 69 pickup and a tele 3 way switch and I have a tonne of old scratchplates lying around to practice on. Probably not going to be for a few weeks though as I've got a fairly busy lineup of gigs and studio bits and I want to give myself a few day buffer in case I mess something up. I'll let everyone know how I get on!

hywelg

matt.drink73 said:

I've got no issues with doing it myself, which is probably what I'll end up doing but when I can get a completely custom scratchplate made from scratch with every screw hole and beveled edge etc for £55-60 I can't be the only one that thinks £80 is a bit steep for a heck of a lot less work than a whole scratchplate?

You see thats where your thinking has gone awry. Someone who is tooled up to make scratchplates all day long, has got all the templates and appropriate cutters, making a scratchplate is a piece of piss, probably 10 mins work. But then that same guy would likely be utterly crap at wiring or soldering.

You are asking a luthier to modify something that was made elsewhere so he will have to make the template in the first place to do the job properly. Frankly I think £80 is cheap if the luthier is good at his job and has anything like a decent order book.

So do the job yourself by all means, but tot up the time taken to do the job and then equate that to someone earning his living from doing that work. You'll soon figure out you dont have the right tools for the job, router cutters for cutting plastic neatly (without melting it or leaving raw edges) are not cheap either, and then you'll need to figure out how to make a neat template that will work with a bearing guide. Best of luck. You don't know what you don't know, yet......

matt.drink73

hywelg said:

matt.drink73 said:

I've got no issues with doing it myself, which is probably what I'll end up doing but when I can get a completely custom scratchplate made from scratch with every screw hole and beveled edge etc for £55-60 I can't be the only one that thinks £80 is a bit steep for a heck of a lot less work than a whole scratchplate?

You see thats where your thinking has gone awry. Someone who is tooled up to make scratchplates all day long, has got all the templates and appropriate cutters, making a scratchplate is a piece of piss, probably 10 mins work. But then that same guy would likely be utterly crap at wiring or soldering.

You are asking a luthier to modify something that was made elsewhere so he will have to make the template in the first place to do the job properly. Frankly I think £80 is cheap if the luthier is good at his job and has anything like a decent order book.

So do the job yourself by all means, but tot up the time taken to do the job and then equate that to someone earning his living from doing that work. You'll soon figure out you dont have the right tools for the job, router cutters for cutting plastic neatly (without melting it or leaving raw edges) are not cheap either, and then you'll need to figure out how to make a neat template that will work with a bearing guide. Best of luck. You don't know what you don't know, yet......

I'd like to think that someone making guitar scratchplates would at least know the basics of wiring one, hence me asking if there were any techs more accustomed to this kind of work as opposed to a full on luthier.
Maybe I'm being a little naive but if it's 10 minutes to make a scratchplate plus a little wiring that wouldn't take much longer I couldn't bring myself to part with £80 for it. As you said it's reliant on the right tooling and skill-set but surely these people must exist, I can't be the only one wanting this kind of work doing so there's got to be a chap out there with a decent routing setup  and a soldering iron that could whack it out in half an hour.

No disrespect to any techs out there, mine pulls off the impossible regularly. But on this occasion I'll take my chances with a drill and a file

GoldenEraGuitars

Do you have a router? 

As mentioned before, it’s a fiddly and time consuming job for all that it is. I have the tools, the space and the time to do it but I’d also have to make a template prior to doing the work.

Look at it from a techs point of view...

£80 total
-£14 vat
- £40 labour (2 hours start to finish?) 
- £10 materials (making a ply or mdf template?)
- £? Business overheads

A tech in a shop has to pay rent, rates, electric, vat, insurance etc etc...

£80 doesn’t go far in business these days.

matt.drink73

UPDATE:
I ended up doing it myself to save the cash, it's a little rough and ready if you look closely but it's fully functional so I'm happy. I ended up having a practice with an old variax scratchplate and figured out the best way to do it was to draw an outline with the original scratchplate and drill a load of holes until I was left with a hole big enough to get a file into. I filed it up to the lines and drilled out the screw holes. I ended up going with a tele 3 way switch because I have a habit of knocking Gibson 3 way ones into the middle position without noticing and I just marked the holes and made a slot with a small drill on a dremel. All in all took me about 2 hours. If I'd paid for it I'd be a bit miffed but for my ham fisted self I think I did an okay job. If it was a museum piece I would've got someone to do it but this guitar gets thrown at amps and chucked about a lot so I don't mind and from more than a couple of feet away you can't tell.
Pickup is a Fender CS 69 from the middle position so it's a little hotter, wired out of phase so the middle sounds nice and shit

NelsonP

Looks like you've done an ok job.

Are you happy you did it yourself?

mbe

Looking good.

Every pound is a prisoner in your pocket.

matt.drink73

NelsonP said:

Looks like you've done an ok job.

Are you happy you did it yourself?

Yeah I can live with it being a little sloppy to save that much cash. If it was mint and I was doing something to the original scratchplate I'd have been more tempted to get it done properly, but it's a custom scratchplate and the guitars had a tonne of work done already so I don't mind at all.
Just bought myself a TC sub n up with the money I saved to get some mad Jack white stuff going on, at least that's how I justified it to myself

AlexO

Looks good to me Matt, well done mate.