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• Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Goldeneraguitars
http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html
Then it's just a few screws and a little soldering
I've got no issues with doing it myself, which is probably what I'll end up doing but when I can get a completely custom scratchplate made from scratch with every screw hole and beveled edge etc for £55-60 I can't be the only one that thinks £80 is a bit steep for a heck of a lot less work than a whole scratchplate?
I figure anyone else is quoting you 2 hours give or take of their time to do the job.
On the one hand, making a scratch plate.
On the other, adding a pickup and switch to an existing scratch plate, plus designing the wiring scheme, sourcing the parts, and putting it all together.
Seriously, pay up, or do it yourself.
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
You are asking a luthier to modify something that was made elsewhere so he will have to make the template in the first place to do the job properly. Frankly I think £80 is cheap if the luthier is good at his job and has anything like a decent order book.
So do the job yourself by all means, but tot up the time taken to do the job and then equate that to someone earning his living from doing that work. You'll soon figure out you dont have the right tools for the job, router cutters for cutting plastic neatly (without melting it or leaving raw edges) are not cheap either, and then you'll need to figure out how to make a neat template that will work with a bearing guide. Best of luck. You don't know what you don't know, yet......
Maybe I'm being a little naive but if it's 10 minutes to make a scratchplate plus a little wiring that wouldn't take much longer I couldn't bring myself to part with £80 for it. As you said it's reliant on the right tooling and skill-set but surely these people must exist, I can't be the only one wanting this kind of work doing so there's got to be a chap out there with a decent routing setup and a soldering iron that could whack it out in half an hour.
No disrespect to any techs out there, mine pulls off the impossible regularly. But on this occasion I'll take my chances with a drill and a file
As mentioned before, it’s a fiddly and time consuming job for all that it is. I have the tools, the space and the time to do it but I’d also have to make a template prior to doing the work.
Look at it from a techs point of view...
£80 total
-£14 vat
- £40 labour (2 hours start to finish?)
- £10 materials (making a ply or mdf template?)
- £? Business overheads
A tech in a shop has to pay rent, rates, electric, vat, insurance etc etc...
£80 doesn’t go far in business these days.
• Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Goldeneraguitars
I ended up doing it myself to save the cash, it's a little rough and ready if you look closely but it's fully functional so I'm happy. I ended up having a practice with an old variax scratchplate and figured out the best way to do it was to draw an outline with the original scratchplate and drill a load of holes until I was left with a hole big enough to get a file into. I filed it up to the lines and drilled out the screw holes. I ended up going with a tele 3 way switch because I have a habit of knocking Gibson 3 way ones into the middle position without noticing and I just marked the holes and made a slot with a small drill on a dremel. All in all took me about 2 hours. If I'd paid for it I'd be a bit miffed but for my ham fisted self I think I did an okay job. If it was a museum piece I would've got someone to do it but this guitar gets thrown at amps and chucked about a lot so I don't mind and from more than a couple of feet away you can't tell.
Pickup is a Fender CS 69 from the middle position so it's a little hotter, wired out of phase so the middle sounds nice and shit
Are you happy you did it yourself?
Every pound is a prisoner in your pocket.
Just bought myself a TC sub n up with the money I saved to get some mad Jack white stuff going on, at least that's how I justified it to myself