Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone ever convert a martin D-35 or any other guitar for that matter from right hand to left hand? I have a request to do that on a guitar and need some advice on what it would envolve and about how much to charge for this. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Yep but all I did was a FB level, refret, new bridge, saddle, nut, set-up and finish touch-up If I remeber right I charged $400

   I do a complete left hand conversion which includes filling the existing saddle slot with matching Ebony material and then rcutting the slot to a left hand compensation, fabricateing a fresh bone saddle and cutting the proper intonation compemsation into its top edge and replacing the existing nut with a freshly cut bone nut slotted to receive the strings in the lafty configuration.

    A restring with the guage strings chosen by the owner and a setup of neck relief and string height top it off at $125.00. I did one on a Takamine yesterday after a player bought it at our local music store and they referred him to me since I do occasional repairs for them.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

Thanks Michael and Kevin for the input. It looks as though I can offer Kevin's solution and price or Michael's price for a new bridge etc. Thanks again.

Robbie most of my price was for the fretboard recondition and refret approx $175, maybe this will hep you set a price

done it several times, $150

$150 for a new top, bridge, braces, rosette, binding, reset neck wow I thought I was cheap. Don't get me wrong I am not making fun there is a lot of work there. Does that include matrerials?

OOPS wrong thread Ok we are talking lefty conversion here. Nothing wrong with me

I've told several people this, and it is just a FACT. Around here, a basic fretjob, fretjob only, is $300-400 dollars, average. And there are guys charging a hundred bucks more than that (yes, $500 bucks) and have a 6 month waiting list in their repair shop. Heck, a bone nut/bone saddle is $120 bucks!   A $250 dollar fretjob would be a steal.

I'm telling you, if you have the skills around here, you can be BUSY. For example, here in my little nothing of a town, the local music store (they're friends of mine) take all their instruments to, GET THIS, Charleston, South Carolina...a 5 hour drive. They take, and pick up, once a month, in a van.

I need to quit this building vision, and move into repairs, and set ups.

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Bill,
   I do some repairs for our local store because a friend owns it and it keepes my nose and eyes in other people's guitars on a regular basis.

   It also breaks up my week for a few hours here and there, but I'm careful to not over do it since I'm busy building.

   I do a complete fret job on an unbound fingerboard with full fingerboard level for $150.00 and on a bound board for $200.00. The leveling of the board provides a return to the factory radius and repairs any dips or swells that may have developed from neck movement with time to give a proper flat approach to the bridge that was originally intended. Once a refret is done, the neck should never develop those dips and swells again since all of the materials and glue joints have fully set into their final status and shape. It should be a step incorporated into any pro fret job since it offers the owner of the guitar the closest possible set up to that of the factory and, in most cases, a better one.

   I charge $35.00 each to replace a nut or saddle with a new bone one made specifically for the guitar at hand and cut the intonation to set it to the guitar as well. That comes out to $75.00 total for a full nut/saddle replacement.

   A $500.00 fret job is rediculous from any repairman and it isn't fair to the customer. I do understand that some guys work extremely slowly and need to charge those high prices in order to keep their hourly wage at a reasonable level. If a repair person knows that they are the only skilled one for many miles they have the option of gouging their customer base, but should consider being fair and reasonable with them in any case.

Just my opinion,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

Kevin:

"A fretjob by Kevin Gallagher for $200 bucks." Around here, if I told someone that, I'd be laughed off the porch, and forced to put my guitar in the truck.   

I'm DEAD serious when I say I'm going to bone up on my fretting skills, get good, charge fair rates and let the fretjob/setup income pay for my building/wood/tool addiction. Sounds like a plan.

BG

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

[QUOTE=Bill Greene]   Around here, a basic fretjob, fretjob only, is $300-400 dollars, average. And there are guys charging a hundred bucks more than that [/QUOTE]
The sign over the door must say, "D. Trump, luthier"! My Yamaha only cost $230.00, for crying out loud! It would be cheaper to buy a whole new guitar, which includes the labor and a boat trip from Asia, than to buy a couple feet of metal string, plus labor. It's no wonder that I and many others are driven to learn how to do it ourselves. Now, if I only knew how to refine petroleum...CarltonM38843.490775463

Please don't take this the wrong way but I think that charging $150-250 for a re-fret is way too cheap. If a customer has a cheap guitar ($230) I don't lower my price because he/she chose to buy a cheap guitar that now needs a fret job. He can go buy another one!

I charge $350.00 for a re-fret ($225 for a re-dress) and $600.00 for the Sylvan Wells fretting system. As far as intonating a saddle goes...that's $275. for an acoustic (standard steel six string)and $350 to put Buzz Feiten on an accoustic.

To convert from a righty to a lefty all I do is fill the slot ( no new bridge!, no re-fret or re-dress! why?) re-cut the slot and put a new saddle and nut in...price-$200-$250 depending on my work load and how fast the customer needs it back...attitude also pays a factor in price ( I don't intonate the saddle for this job...anymore than the factory did...that's extra!).

You folks who charge much less...well that's your perogative...but I have seen this sort of thing in other professions...You know... the guy who does tax returns for $25 each out of the trunk of his car VS. as the CPA in the big office?...Maybe...Maybe Not! Depends on complexity and other factors. Each fills a need and is happy with what they are charging/doing. So I don't fault anyone, but perhaps we need some sort of a national price check to see what the rest of us are charging to get a feel for what's "reasonable". The Whole concept of "Reasonable" is very subjective anyway and in mho directly related to each luthiers overhead burden as well as location and marketplace. They sure do get big bucks in N.Y. city...but man, the rent is also killer!

How do you price your guitars? What's "reasonable" ...do I want to sell 100 a year at $1500. each or do I want to sell 20 at $5000.? Or...something in between?
I say let's all eat Cake! Take em for all they got and then some...the heck with reason...prices so high...the're INSANE!

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Yeah, Dave, you're right. You can understand my frustration, though, can't you? I have a $230.00 guitar because that's all I could afford (and because I'm planning to build myself one that is, I hope, better). However, that doesn't mean that you, doing professional-quality work, should have to make starvation wages to accommodate poor people (though I bet that you, like many OLFers, do gratis work occasionally). Besides, fretwork is difficult to do correctly, and you should be appropriately compensated for your expertise.

Carlton,
I hear you...and I agree...I often do work for gratis...In fact I have given handmade guitars away, done free repairs, and for those with the right attitude done severe discounts on the price of my work. I have an old Martin in my shop that belongs to a neighbor, he is a little older and not of good health. The guitar needs a re-fret and he can't afford it...it's going to get one this week! Gratis.

I certainly do understand your frustration ...I have a WASHBURN, which is sort of my favorite "go to the beach/boat/anywhere" guitar...I have sanded it back, refinished it, put new frets on it, installed BFTS and fixed cracks in the back...all told about a $1000 worth of work on this $150 guitar! But I like it!

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

[QUOTE=Dave-SKG] Carlton,
I hear you...and I agree...I often do work for gratis...In fact I have given handmade guitars away, done free repairs, and for those with the right attitude done severe discounts on the price of my work. [/QUOTE]
Thought so...WTG!

Maybe it would be good to have a standardized list of what people are charging for repair work. Does anyone know if such a list exists and how to get it? Then we coud adjust our prices accordingly.

The way most other "professions" do it is they ask members to answer a written survey that asks questions of this sort. Then they publish the info (usually) in the monthly trade publication (once a year). Sometimes they actually produce a book/booklet that is sold. The info is usually sorted by STATE and becomes more and more detailed WITHIN each State and area of expertise. It often varies alot even by state because of the difference between rural and city locations/populations.

I bet Lance or Brock could put something together that would give similar results. The problem is if you mix non-professional and professional answers/data, as well as, member and non-member answer/data, the data turns to "junk" pretty fast( it becomes too homogenized)...that's why a simple poll/thread on line really wouldn't work. People often aren't very honest when it comes to "online, community polls" You need to be able to control and sort the responses to "HELP" insure validity. even then the data can be wrong. I am sure someone on this forum may have more experience and/or better ideas...

I for one, would love to be able to compare a West Coast fret job cost to an East Coast one. But it wouldn't mean much if one was done by a one man shop, and the other by guitar centers (and we didn't know that tid-bit of info) for example. It might have some value but I don't know if it would be enough. But more importantly I would like to know other info like Average, Median, and Hi/low costs for different jobs and the shop size, geographic location etc. Sure would be a big job tho.

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"