Serios inquiry...

Tudorp

Big guy with a lil' uke..
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I have a guy I sold a Bruce Wei uke to I set up a few months ago. He loves the uke and has been playing it allot. He has seen some of my guitar and uke restoration projects, and now wants to send me that uke back (It's a curly Maple) and strip the poly finish Bruce put on it, and he wants me to refinish it with a Nitro lacquer which is what I typically use on my rebuilds, and guitars. I was leery about doing it, with all the projects I have going at present, but he is persistent, and a nice guy.

The question is. What would be a fair price to charge, and pay to have a poly finish stripped, and refinished with Nitro? I've done it more than a several times, so that's not the issue, but only on my own stuff, and have no idea what a fair charge for something like that would be.

???
 
Whenever I get repair work come through the door I charge it out at an hourly rate that I set from various calculations based on what my time is worth. I'm a spray painter by trade so that's dead easy. I get paid well to do what I do, and I shouldn't be doing it for less just because that part of what I do is in my shop at home.

The tooling that is required for the job and the wear and tear on them. Use of consumables, and let's not forget the expertise it takes to do the repairs. I also factor in what others in my location charge out for similar work. As the nearest repair person that does anything other than a set up is more than 400km away that's really much help to me. The question really is if you are good at what you do, and stand behind the work you produce, what is a fair hourly rate for your shop, even though you may not be churning out the work to make it a full time job, there is no point in doing it for next to nothing. You are only devaluing your other work, and those of your peers.

Shop rates vary widely from location to location, and as I'm on the other side of the world it's not much use to base you're rate on what mine is. The formula above though is valid for wherever you are. Perhaps others in the US will let you know for your area.

As you've done this type of work on other instruments you will have a reasonable idea of how many hours you are going to spend. The only other thing to do is multiply the hours for the job against what you feel your shop rate needs to be.

Unfortunately most people that want this type of work done have absolutely no idea on the time and costs involved. And when they get the quote they think that you are having a go at them.

I just Googled the Bruce Wei ukes and if the price reflected on the site I saw is actually going price, then for me to refinish a uke like that would be far more than the uke is worth.
 
Yep, I told him that. The Bruce Wei ukes are nice ukes in their price catagory, but they are far from a "Custom". I bought them, and did a proper set up on them and resold them for $250-$300 that is with a hard case. That is about what they would compare to with other factory built ukes. I told him it would be pretty costly, and for a $200 uke, isn't gonna be very cost effective for that uke. He is persistent, and apparently loves my "Novice" work. The people that has my work, has really loved it. But, again, I am a novice, and a hobbyist. I don't want to charge too little, because one of you guys (I can't remember who it was), make a VERY thought provoking comment once about guys like me that don't do it for a living, but other just a hobby. If we start doing work like that for pay, and worse, charge too little, it under-minds the pros and what they do. I appreciate that, and respect that, and FULLY understand that. That is also why I really don't do it much but to support my own hobby. So, the few times I do agree to do it for pay, I want to be fair to me, and my skill level, and be fair to the guys that are paying their mortgage doing this type of work. I highly respect the craft, and any real "craftsman" (they are all but fading away as it is). I highly respect any hands on craft. My dad was one.

Anyway, that said, yeah, I have a good idea what it will take to do it time-wise. To be honest, I do it much like I do classic automobiles (another life long hobby). I used to do my own mechanic, fabrication, and paint work on vintage hot rods when I was able to do that sort of work. It is very much similar work when applying a finish to anything really. I'll come up with something to be fair, he pretty much signed me a blank check (too bad I am so freaking honest huh? hahah)

Thanks for the input..
 
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