Fair Prices?

[inoulose]

i called my local music store and told them that i wanted to put an emg 81 and 85 in my guitar that currently has emg-hz's. As you can tell, that is a switch from passive to active pickups. They told me that the pickups would cost around 100 each and the installatino would be at least 100. All together around 300. Is this a fair price? Thanks.

also, if anyone knows where to get cheap installations or cheap emg's let me know thanks.

[crafty]

Sounds about right, but you could save $100 and do it yourself. EMGs are really pretty simple if you get the prewired kits.

[Marzocchi705]

There was someone on here who had a link to a online store where you could get EMG's for about $60. $100 is way too much for an installation IMO.

I dont have that link to hand and i cant remember the thread it was in, sorry, maby someone remembers this thread?

[JoJo T. Magnifficent]

if its 100 US$ for installation, then its a ripoff, the local muso shop here in NZ charges 80$NZ for pickup installation, thats about 40-50 US$, but that quote is for passives, they might want alot becasue they want to route a battery compartment, but id ask them bout that, and make sure its completely nessicsary first.

Edited May 5, 2005 by JoJo T. Magnifficent

[westhemann]

There was someone on here who had a link to a online store where you could get EMG's for about $60. $100 is way too much for an installation IMO.

I dont have that link to hand and i cant remember the thread it was in, sorry, maby someone remembers this thread?

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that was a long time ago.i have not seen them for less than $99 in a long time.

if its 100 US$ for installation, then its a ripoff, the local musio shop here in NZ charges 80$NZ for pickup installation, thats about 40-50 US$, but that quote is for passives, they might want alot becasue they want to route a battery compartment, but id ask them but that, and make sure its completely nessicsary first.

$100 is a fair price for installation.the reason it is more expensive than passives is because they have to entirely rewire it with the supplied pots and jack,unlike passives,where they just slip out the old wires and slip in the new ones.

if they were,in fact.going to rout a battery box,it would be MUCH more expensive,and they would definately tell you first.

[erikbojerik]

Do the EMGs come complete with their own wiring harness...???? I was thinking $100 each for the pickups then another $100 for pots/wiring (+ installation)...wasnt THAT bad...

Bartolini charges upwards of $100 for their pre-wired harnesses (no pickups).

[westhemann]

o the EMGs come complete with their own wiring harness

yes.they come with everything you need

[guitman32]

I remember back in the day, I paid $140 for an 81 and an 89.

I think $100 per pup is too much. Here is one auction with a $160 buy it now. With shipping, it comes out to around $170.

I think you should wire them yourself. If you study the diagram and read up a little bit on soldering, you can save some good money, and invest in the future. This way, you can wire any pickup you want for the rest of your life. Even if they only charge $50, buying a soldering iron will be cheaper.

My $.02.

Cheerz

[Jivin]

In Australia we pay the equivilent of around $160-190USD per pickup for EMG's.

I think thats a ripoff, but I dont really think paying $99US for an EMG is that bad, seeing as you get a couple of pots and the output jack with it as well. Even if you factor that in it still comes to more than your average Seymour Duncan humbucker... but the difference isnt that much.

- Dan

[lovekraft]

I know it's not worth my time to replace a pair of passives with EMGs in a solid body for much less than $100US. I charge well over half that much for replacing a pair of passives with no pot replacement. Add in battery hookup, and you're there pretty quickly.

[hy_dro66]

At our shop we charge retail for all pickups and install them for free if you buy them from us(if you didn't buy them from us we charge our minimum shop rate which is 37.50 total). It takes about 20 minutes to install them. I would not pay 100 dollars to have someone install pickups. Rip OFF

[westhemann]

At our shop we charge retail for all pickups and install them for free if you buy them from us(if you didn't buy them from us we charge our minimum shop rate which is 37.50 total).  It takes about 20 minutes to install them.  I would not pay 100 dollars to have someone install pickups.  Rip OFF

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in other words you give away your time.some people can't afford to provide charity every day like that."rip off" my left foot

[lovekraft]

I would not pay 100 dollars to have someone install pickups. Rip OFF

But I never force people to pay my prices - I'll even point out somebody who will do the work cheaper, with the necessary caveats, of course. My work is expensive, but it's also prompt, clean, reliable and guaranteed pretty much forever. I can't afford to drive a Mercedes, but that hardly makes them international scammers or devalues their products. If you can make a decent profit giving away your work, that's great - I can't, and I won't work for free. If I'm charging too much, people will simply go elsewhere to get their work done, no harm, no foul - as long as I have to turn down work, I'm going to have to assume that people find my rates reasonable for what I do.

You might want to ramp down the aggressive streak just a bit - somebody who wasn't as good-natured as I am might take offense!

[Jivin]

If it really does only take 20 minutes then in my opinion 100USD is a little on the steep side. I know labour is a real kicker, but $300USD an hour for someone to install a set of EMG's?

I've never been in business doing that sort of thing so I dont want to tread on anyones toes... but from what I have seen the only guitar repairman ive ever sent my guitar to (for something non-related) charged $75AU for a normal pickup replacement, and I imagine if there was more work involved (eg: active emg's) he would notify me of a bit of extra cost.

At the end of the day really, I know these people have to make a living, so I dont mind paying a bit more, but I just -hate- it when they are all shifty about it. I don't think I would -ever- pay my local music shop a cent to do something like this because the guys down there are shady and I dont trust them a bit, however going to a repairment you trust is a different matter, so I guess that puts a bit of a different spin on things.

- Dan

[westhemann]

If it really does only take 20 minutes

no...that is total b.s.

to go a quality job on emg actives you must unstring the guitar,dewire the pickups and all components in order to remove them completely(without damaging them or the guitar,by the way),install and correctly wire all of the new active electronics,seal it back up,restring it to pitch,and check to make sure everything works properly.

and besides...ever hear of shop overhead?it's the little things like electricity.employee salaries,phone bills...you know...the stuff that most of you don't ever think about....but without that stuff you would have no shop.

$100 is SOOO reasonable for a good pro job.i do all of my installations myself...and i know what it takes to do a good professional job on a guitar without causing any burns or scratches.

ever see these shops do this work?they lay the guitar down on a soft padded area,cover it with clean protective material,do the work in a careful,professional manner,and return it to you unharmed.how many of you work like that?

[splorge]

it took me bout 1 1/2 hours the first time i installed emgs just over half that the second time with no previous experience

i think its ridiculous paying $100 for around an hours work, its not rocket science

how would you feel if your mechanic/plumber charged 100/hr?

especially for something anybody who can follow simple instructions can do

maybe its different wherever you guys are but here when someone calls you a ripoff for charging WAY more than they do theres really nothing you can say back unless you have seen their quality of work

[westhemann]

how would you feel if your mechanic/plumber charged 100/hr?

well...let's see.most mechanics charge around $75 an hour for labor...plumbers around $50 an hour

its not rocket science

and if it was rocket science,i am sure you would figure out a way to down that...that's what people like you do,they critisize other people's work and livelihood.

i think its ridiculous paying $100 for around an hours work

especially for something anybody who can follow simple instructions can do

all this tells me is that you don't do it properly.proper soldering and neat wiring takes experience and skill...big blobs of solder on a cold joint with wires running every which way and crossed solder joints causing background noise don't count.

maybe its different wherever you guys are but here when someone calls you a ripoff for charging WAY more than they do theres really nothing you can say back unless you have seen their quality of work

i think the very FIRST thing that comes to my mind and others when they hear "free installation" is that the person giving his work away does not think much of his own work.some people are happy with sloppy wiring.but all of you downing this price rate for active installation don't seem to know a single thing about what it entails.you all compare it to passive installation as if it were the same.it is not.

with actives you replace ALL of the electronics...you have to.with passives all you do is desolder the ground and desolder the hot wire,then replace to the existing pretinned pot and lug.not much to it at all.$37.50 to $50 is fair for that.

anyway.if you don't get it then you just don't get it.install them yourselves.believe me,not everyone can do a proper job of it.

oh ..and by the way.i bet the $100 price includes cutting the pickup wires to a proper length.coiling wires around in a big circle or tying them in a knot to make them cram inside the cavity is not what i consider a good job.that's what you expect from a cheap import guitar,not quality pro work

[splorge]

whoa i think this argument may stem from the huge difference in labour ive never heard of a mechanic charging more than $40nzd here(29usd)

why i said what i did about mechanics was because i have installed emgs and other actives in quite a few guitars (some mine some my friends) with no backround noise it is nowhere near as complicated/difficult/require as many tools/get you as dirty as say replacing rings (something i have also done)

but the point im trying to get across is that mechanics plumbers are skilled tradesmen who have probably spent years on apprentice wages

whereas installing pickups does take some skill but not years as an aprentice sort of skill

[westhemann]

what i did about mechanics was because i have installed emgs and other actives in quite a few guitars (some mine some my friends) with no backround noise it is nowhere near as complicated/difficult/require as many tools/get you as dirty as say replacing rings

of course.but replacing rings is more like a several hour job(i have also done this..unfortunately i have a natural talent with engine work...)

but don't confuse more intense labor with "more complicated work".keep in mind for example that an architect that draws the plan of the building i am to erect makes much,much more money than me,even though i am out in the sun working with steel all day,and the architect is sitting in the AC drawing.

for me,replacing rings is a no-brainer....proper wiring and solder joints are much more "high concentration" tasks.

i don't have a camera to post pics of a good cavity.i remember jeremy(lgm) posted quite an impressive setup a while back..but i would not know where to find it.

[splorge]

for me,replacing rings is a no-brainer....proper wiring and solder joints are much more "high concentration" tasks.

←

its the exact opposite for me

i find replacing rings alot more complicated than installing pickups but ive only done rings on fiddly japanese roadbikes (a gsxr 750 and a fireblade) so that may or may not explain it.

either way it seems why i think $100 for an active install was over the top was because it was something that I found reasonably easy. i can now see why people that find it a complicated task think its a reasonable price

(i was bracing for you to tear my reply apart sentence by sentence again )

[Jivin]

If it really does only take 20 minutes

no...that is total b.s.

to go a quality job on emg actives you must unstring the guitar,dewire the pickups and all components in order to remove them completely(without damaging them or the guitar,by the way),install and correctly wire all of the new active electronics,seal it back up,restring it to pitch,and check to make sure everything works properly.

and besides...ever hear of shop overhead?it's the little things like electricity.employee salaries,phone bills...you know...the stuff that most of you don't ever think about....but without that stuff you would have no shop.

$100 is SOOO reasonable for a good pro job.i do all of my installations myself...and i know what it takes to do a good professional job on a guitar without causing any burns or scratches.

ever see these shops do this work?they lay the guitar down on a soft padded area,cover it with clean protective material,do the work in a careful,professional manner,and return it to you unharmed.how many of you work like that?

←

I probably should add, the people at my local guitar shop don't actually do any of the work, they have a relationship with a repairman who gets his business through them. I have used the same repairman before and he just operates out of a workshop in his house. So yeah, its quite obvious from a business perspective that the guitar shop would take a slice, and their overhead costs would probably be a factor in deciding on the size of that slice, however these guys decide the price for the work on the spot there without consultation with the repairman. It should be a question of business, not a question of how much you can rip off joe bloggs who wants new pickups.

You could say all of that until you are blue in the face, and I do honestly understand where your coming from (and agree with what you've said i might add), and I understand it all a lot more than you would know, however from my experience with this shop at least, I know when I am being ripped off. I honestly hope that this sort of operation is a 1 in a million sort of thing, but I really doubt it. Your knowledge of the operation of a guitar store may be far greater than mine, and I dont want to generalise, but the fact that businesses need to cover their overheads can only carry so much weight, and a lot of shady operations push it way too far.

- Dan

[westhemann]

So yeah, its quite obvious from a business perspective that the guitar shop would take a slice, and their overhead costs would probably be a factor in deciding on the size of that slice, however these guys decide the price for the work on the spot there without consultation with the repairman.

yeah.in that case what they are doing is called "subbing out " the work(subcontracting)

what they do in that case is they charge exactly the same as if they had an in house tech,but then they get this other guy to do it for as little as possible.i think this,although it is very common,is not really a good ,honest way to do business.

a good,honest way would be to tell the customer "i am sorry,we don't do that kind of work here.but here is the phone # and address of a guy who does"

in this case you are paying for overhead costs that have very little to do with the repair of your guitar

[Maiden69]

whoa i think this argument may stem from the huge difference in labour ive never heard of a mechanic charging more than $40nzd  here(29usd)

Can you tell me were is this, 'cause I will tell a lot of people not to take their cars there, I bet they splice wires with aligator clips and then put masking tape over them.

In Texas, were Wes is and one of the cheapest states in Cost of Living expenses, any auto mechanic shop Hr charge is at least $60. If you go to a dealership is $75 for general mechanic, and about $100 for electromechanic. How do I know, I'm getting my resume ready to go over there and get a job, and I certainly won't go and work at a place that charge $29 an hour, because they are either evading taxes, paying under the minimun wage, or making shady business on the side.

I'm pretty experienced on electronics, and it takes me about 1 hr to install a set of EMGs from start to finish. And this is hurring up. Taking my time, about 1 1/2hr.

Another thing, have you gone to an auto shop lately? If not, go by one, and look at the guys working on a car. 1/2 the time is invested in your car, the other 1/2 is invested in the internet, talking to the friend working on the car next to him, or taking the 15min smoke break.

I use to do work dirt cheap, and still do once in a while, but not if it will be my job, or the source of income.

[VanKirk]

$100 is very reasonable if you know the shop is reputable and guarantees their work.

Occassionally, while installing a radio system, for say a police department, the equipment fails to work even though I've wired everything correctly.

I have to figure out the faulty equipment, remove it (after I've already installed it) and arrange a replacement with the factory.

Then, reinstall and test again.

I still have to make it work cause that's what the customer pays for.

By the time I've gone through all that it's like doing 3 installations, timewise, and if there's another problem during the warranty period I have to return and fix it again.

Anyways, if the shop is legit, you pay $100 and get a fully functional guitar as asked regardless of what they had to do to accomplish that.

If you think you can do it and save money then take the time (as in time=$) to do it yourself and hope it works right the first time.

[splorge]

whoa i think this argument may stem from the huge difference in labour ive never heard of a mechanic charging more than $40nzd  here(29usd)

Can you tell me were is this, 'cause I will tell a lot of people not to take their cars there, I bet they splice wires with aligator clips and then put masking tape over them.

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yes i can tell you where this is, its a little country called new zealand (hence the nzd).but i dont think its a feasible plan to tell all 4million of us not to go to a mechanic

Edited May 8, 2005 by splorge