£65 for a set up.?

[bubinga5]

He's got the bass. Too embarrassing to turn up and take it back and say he's charging too much. You live you learn.

[discreet]

10 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Too embarrassing to turn up and say he's charging too much. You live you learn.

At least ask for tea and cake. And see if he'll run you down to Sainsbury's and back. You've got to get your money's worth these days.

[FinnDave]

I pay £60.00 for a string change and set-up (four string bass) and I supply the strings. That's in Oxford, so 65 doesn't sound much different.

[Cato]

There's a guy near me who charges £115 for his 'professional' set up.

That includes fret dressing and an electronics check.

Last I heard he had a waiting list so there must be a fair few people willing to pay that for his services.

 

[gary mac]

I normally charge £35 for a set up. Typically this will include adjustments to the nut slots, truss rod and string height. Lubricant where required. A thorough clean. Fret polish and board treatment.

Strings not included in the price.

 

[discreet]

1 minute ago, gary mac said:

I normally charge £35 for a set up. Typically this will include adjustments to the nut slots, truss rod and string height. Lubricant where required. A thorough clean. Fret polish and board treatment.

Strings not included in the price.

A bargain!

[Happy Jack]

£115 for a set up? That's some serious

 

[Happy Jack]

In fact, that guy could probably sell you some

 

[CameronJ]

3 minutes ago, gary mac said:

I normally charge £35 for a set up. Typically this will include adjustments to the nut slots, truss rod and string height. Lubricant where required. A thorough clean. Fret polish and board treatment.

Strings not included in the price.

 

This is exactly what I’d expect. Roughly how much time would you say the process you’ve described above takes to complete?

[bubinga5]

The DR's are £40 +. I wouldn't expect a string change. 

[Cato]

1 minute ago, Happy Jack said:

In fact, that guy could probably sell you some

 

I haven't actually used his services myself, although I am considering contacting him, but not for a set up.

I suspect that something dire has happened to one of of my skinny stringers during the summer heat, the action has shot up and I can't get it down or intonate the thing.

[Reggaebass]

PMT have a guy who comes in once a week to do all the bass set ups they charge £35 for a full set up   I didn’t think that was bad 

[bubinga5]

I guess this comes down to what is a full set up.?

[Delberthot]

I recently changed from a set of D'addario EXL160BT strings with a combined tension of 114.3kgs to a set of EXL220BT super light gauge strings with a combined tension of 58.96kgs and in total spent about 20 minutes over the course of a few nights adjusting the truss rod, intonation and saddle & pickup heights.

I'm by no means an expert and actually find myself checking online to double check which way the truss rod goes relative to where the fret rattle is before touching anything. As long as you take your time and don't make any extreme adjustments then you can't really go wrong.

When i was a young lad twice I had my basses set up and on both occasions I had to adjust everything when I got them back as the action had been set too low.

There's only one person who truly knows how to set your bass up ( unless you are fortunate enough to be in a big touring band and can afford a bass tech who can study your playing and how your basses are set up ) and that is you. Only you know when it is exactly right so I would never entrust someone I have never met, who doesn't know how I play, regardless of their reputation, to touch my basses as I know that it will never be exactly how I want it.

A fret dress, refret, filing the nut or routing the body for a new pickup.electronics are completely different and I would probably go to a pro for that kind of work

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by Delberthot

[Cicero]

 

@Delberthot Seeing your avatar, I can't help but think you're ha-ha-ing at everyone that's paid for a set-up 😀

[leftybassman392]

As many others have said, it depends what work is done and what sort of charges the tech feels he can get away with justify locally. I used to offer it as an add-on service for my students. It was a fairly basic setup that normally didn't involve any work on the electrics, or frets beyond a clean & polish. I would typically charge around £30 at today's prices (plus strings), so yeah, for the work that was done it does sound a bit steep (though not outrageously so).

Best advice from me would be learn to do it yourself and save the tech visits for the properly technical stuff. It really isn't that hard and (again IMHO) can give you some valuable insights into how your gear works.

[Reggaebass]

Yeah that’s true. I asked for a full set up and they did the truss rod ,bridge, intonation and pickups. It was a vast improvement 

[arthurhenry]

£65 is perfectly reasonable. It was £50 in the nineties!

[Reggaebass]

I actually think it’s quite exiting picking a bass up after a good setup , as it’s my main pastime  I don’t mind how much I spend 

[goblin]

38 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

.

There's only one person who truly knows how to set your bass up ( unless you are fortunate enough to be in a big touring band and can afford a bass tech who can study your playing and how your basses are set up ) and that is you. Only you know when it is exactly right so I would never entrust someone I have never met, who doesn't know how I play, regardless of their reputation, to touch my basses as I know that it will never be exactly how I want it.

 

 

Pretty much this! Also knowing what you want, if you can tell a tech what you want, a good tech will be able to deliver too. I'm fortunate where my tech has seen / studied my playing, and we were talking in general and he went "Yeah that's the thing about your playing, because you've got etc etc touch and you're a fairly etc etc player" - so luckily, he knows what I like and it makes it easier for me to relay back to him what I want.

[TheGreek]

I mostly use Terry Chapman (Stevenage) to set my basses up. He charges £45. I know that Lozz used to, not sure if he still does as Terry was ill for a while - I say "as low as you can go" and that's what I get. I have also used a local shop who doesn't charge but takes forever. Gary Mac did a set up and Bigsby installation on a geeetar for me - no complaints whatsoever. I'd thoroughly recommend going to him.

[timhiggins]

I do my own as i was always disappointed when anyone else did it ,and i would only ever expect to pay 35 to 40 tops

as others have said its easy to do yourself .  

[seashell]

One person's easy is another person's total pain in the neck. I am really hopeless with anything technical, and it makes me really grumpy even trying to attempt it. Luckily I am in a position where I can pay experts to set up my bass, alter my curtains, change my tyres.. all that technical shizz that I really cannot bear to do.  I even hate changing my strings, but I can just about manage that without assistance. Takes me a very long time and much swearing though.

It's obviously different if you are a bit hard up and/or actually like that side of things.☺️

Re the original question - I'd say £65 is a bit steep, but I'd be willing to pay it if I knew they were going to do a really good job. 

[Sibob]

A few weeks ago I paid £100 for a full setup (minus strings, flats so didn’t need changing), but that included a full fret levelling & polish etc.

It took him (a busy luthier) one day to turn around. The bass played beautifully after, like really really good!

So if your guy does good work, i’d say the price is ok if it genuinely will feel like a different bass after, although i’d hope they can turn it around quicker than 10 days, I always feel a bit hard-done-by after 7 days haha

Si

Edited September 2, 2018 by Sibob

[discreet]

13 minutes ago, Sibob said:

I always feel a bit hard-done-by after 7 days haha

Great Scott man, are you telling us you only have one bass??