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How much is enough to ask for shell purfling on a commissioned guitar?

I have no concept of what to charge, but I do know it is a pain in the butt to do.
Sure is pretty tho

My take. There is no "going rate". Your rate should be based on the price of materials and the quality of your work and experience. If you are very experienced at it and your pearl purfling always comes out great, generally you charge more because you've earned it. However if you are not so experienced and the customer is going to have to pay for your learning experience, you charge less the first few times around. No reflection on your work intended. Just my general take on charging for work. That said, pearl purfling is not a pain in the butt at all. Simple pearl purfling is very easy to do. Pretty fun actually!

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

If you use Zipflex, it’s actually easier than wood purf IMO because the material is so compliant. I would take into account the cost of material and whether you’re establishing what you would consider a more upscale package.


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If you do pearl add about $5 per inch

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks for the responses.

This is for #62. Not my first rodeo.
I have done this many times but didn’t charge for much more than materials. It just seems to be so very tedious that it should merit an up charge. I just have no concept of what to charge.

Also m curious about Zipflex. Does it look like natural shell? Can it be leveled/sanded/filled like shell? Are teflon strips used?
Is it worth the cost?

FWIW I have used Ziplfex before and it is definitely very cool stuff and easy to install but for the cost of it and the time comparison between doing it the traditional way it doesn't seem worth it to me. And in the end I do think the real shell looks better. Plus installing real shell is kind of meditative and fun too.

I use Abalam with the Teflon strip now and as has been said it goes really fast. At most it only adds an hour to do a whole top edge and rosette.

I believe Zipflex uses .05" thick Ablam. It's very flexible and easy to work with, and no danger with sand through. I've used it twice for top purfling.

+1

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I tried Ablam and it worked great. I didn.t use the teflon strip, but went a head and did the whole 6 piece package at once. You have to be careful to make your channel the exact depth so you don't remove any of the material as it is very thin. The blue tipped stick is to push it down to the bottom of the channel as I go. Abalone sure looks great against the Alaskan Yellow Cedar.

Ed

I bought a kilogram of what looked to be violin frog slide rejects. I snapped them into smaller pieces and inlaid them into the rosette and purfling groove. What I liked about snapping instead of cutting was it didn't create any dust.

Abalam or Zipflex?

Pat

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Pat

The going rate in my shop?

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George :-)