Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm asking all the pros out there, how much would you charge for a repair like this? First off, I did this repair for a friend. He doesn't play guitar but his father-in-law gave him this 1980 Kamouraska classical guitar. If I'm not mistaken, these were made by the Boucher brothers before they formed Normand guitars in Québec. I thought it was a great looking guitar and that it had an amazing tap tone. Hand made, solid tonewoods throughout (mahogany and WRC), and I thought it a shame that is was a total write-off.

At first, I thought I could just glue the old headstock on with epoxy. I knew it wouldn't be pretty, and I told the owner so, but he just wanted something that would work. However, someone had tried that in the past with carpenters glue, so the joint was compromised. I didn't expect it to take once I realized this, and it didn't fail to disappoint.

At that point, I decided to sand the break clean, after which, I realized there was a lot of surface to glue onto, plus, it was going to be pretty darn close to where one would do a scarf joint. God bless my 48'' edge sander!

I must say that the hardest part of it all was matching the finish. I guess the boys back in the day used a stain under nitro. I decided to go with garnet shellac and stains as I had just acquired some ColorFX stains. I added a lot of red, yellow and amber drops to my shellac, even a few drops of black. I'd add some, pad it on a test piece and look at the match. I must have done this over 20 times. The end result shellac was so dark as to look black and I would never have used it for anything, but there you have it. After that it was French polish time.

The match is maybe not 100%, but I've shown it to a lot of people and if they don't see the pictures, they have a hard time believing that headstock is not original to the guitar.

So, how much would a repair like this cost? You can always PM me if you don't want to reply on the open forum.

And if you're wondering, I'll probably be getting a bottle of Single Malt for my troubles, but I'm just wondering, are we talking a 12 year old, or a 21 year old?

Thanks!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Here's another shot as I was putting on the strings.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Nice job.

Pricing varies widely from market to market and with the experience level both with business and Lutherie of the Luthier. In our market had we taken this one on and there are good reasons not to take some repairs on such as prior hack adulteration it's a 21 year old and up.

One way to estimate these things is to take the going rate of of area skilled trades pros such as plumbers, auto mechanics, factor in your time, over head, opportunity costs, be honest with all of this and you will see that costs add up pretty quickly.

Nice job though, very well done!

nicely done! No idea about the value of the repair, but I would think good scotch and years of friendship. To me it looks like their were more than a few hours in that repair.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

And if you're wondering, I'll probably be getting a bottle of Single Malt for my troubles, but I'm just wondering, are we talking a 12 year old, or a 21 year old?

21 year old, for sure. Like Hesh said, find a per hour rate that you are happy with, and all expenses, and then tack on 20%. The extra 20% will hopefully be a profit, or cover any unexpected difficulties or extra hours. There's a difference between making your wage and making a profit.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Very nice job and worth at least the 21 yr bottle. As I get more into doing repairs I find I am struggling with the pricing aspect of it myself - I have a tendency to undercharge.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Excellent repair, Alain. That looks like exceptional work. Yeah, 21-year old single malt for sure.

I understand the rationale behind Hesh's comment about plumbers, mechanics, etc., but that seems like the low end to me. I've never tried to get music out of a P-trap or a spark plug, but I'm pretty sure the intonation would be off.

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George :-)

Hey guys, thanks for the great comments!

Hesh, that makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, I'm probably the world's worst businessman. I'm trying to take a mental tally of the hours I put in, because of course, I didn't write anything down. Ha! I'm thinking at the low end, it must have been at least 15 hours.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Looks nice -- I always added pins or a biscuit, the HS veneer does add some strength. Jackson's were the worst followed by Gibby's. I found repair work so stressful I felt I never charged enough.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Bravo! Good job. If it had been my shop, I would have charged a minimum of $200 - $225.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Generally pricing should be done before the job begins. Set a price, and do it for that, no matter what it takes.
So now you are left with a problem, you know how many hours it took, and there is no way you are going to ask that amount.
So just ask a nominal amount, say $150.
Don't forget to say "but that is for the repair, the setup is $300."

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

Very impressive!!! 21++ I would say.

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EddieLee

I'll make sure to direct my friend to this page!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Alaine: Congrats, very nice work. IMO doing high class repair work like this consistently is much hard then building guitars. The process for building becomes somewhat routine in relationship to the required steps. But repair work presents with a lot of different variables in a large percentage of cases. All the best and take care.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

"First off, I did this repair for a friend. He doesn't play guitar.........I thought it was a great looking guitar and that it had an amazing tap tone. Hand made, solid tonewoods throughout (mahogany and WRC), and I thought it a shame that is was a total write-off."

"At first, I thought I could just glue the old headstock on with epoxy. I knew it wouldn't be pretty, and I told the owner so, but he just wanted something that would work. "


It is possible that you value the guitar more highly than he does. When I do work for friends for whiskey I generally let them choose the brand and age (and the size of the bottle!) As I've grown older my palate has become much less refined and most any strong drink will do if imbibed with friends.

It looks like you did a fine job of repairing the peghead - definitely something to be proud of!

Thanks Tom. And Clay, I do believe those are some wise words! lol

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...