Bench fee?

[Axtman]

What do you guys charge as a bench fee?

There is a local guitar shop that wants me to bill for repairs I have done for them. I have worked on a few projects for them in the past. I have not charged them very much because hey are very good to me and have given me some free broken amps. I recently repaired four (yes 4) Trace Elliot amps for them and they want to bill the customer.

As I have said before, I repair amps as a hobby. I usually buy broken amps cheap, repair them, then sell them (sometimes at a profit). I have repaired friends gear, but I am not interested in repairing equipment for a living.

Thanks.

[TomCarlos]

I too have pondered this same question... so let me share what I came up with.

Since I have a lab at home, I have no overhead. I am NOT by any means an experienced tech. So I will only take on simpler repairs. And yes, I have often come here for help. If I anticipate an amp is too complex or hard to work on, I won't even consider it.

I found that some friends would take advantage of my goodness and expect me to do repairs for nothing. So those days are gone. In place, here is what I go by -

• Phone consultation: No charge
• Diagnosis – $60 for 1 hour minimum
  • Amp testing, research problem
  • If I repair the amp in the same hour, $60 fee applies.
• If along the way I discover a repair is much more complex than anticipated, I stop and return the amp, no fee.
• Basic Easy Fix - $60 for 1 hour minimum, $15 per quarter hour after that.
  • Soldering
  • Test, Replace tubes (no biasing)
  • Replace jacks
  • Replace caps
  • Tube biasing with easy access to board and adjustment pot
• Moderate repair - $120 half day, $200 full day
  • Tube biasing where I pull the chassis and replace parts
  • Troubleshooting and parts replacement
• Full Restoration - Scope and service to be discussed

There are times when a repair is costly and the amp value is less. So on rare occasions, I offer to buy the amp (salvage value), do the repairs on my own time, then resell the amp. But there isn't much profit in this. So yeah, it is part of the hobby.

I'll be interested to see what other "hobby techs" reply with.

Good luck !!

[Chuck H]

If you exist in this gere SOMEONE will ask you ti fix something someday. You'll want to say yes because you'll be flattered and you hope to be a hero. I'm not an experienced repair technician by a stretch. I won't talk about actual fees but I have what I think is a good observation on the matter...

I charge for my time with the exception of time I spend LEARNING about something I didn't know that is necessary for the reapir and a proper technician probably would have known. (<period) There are career professionals scratching out a living who are excellent. In that light I just don't think it would be fair to charge for time spent due to my ignorance while scabbing work in their field.

EDIT: My most profound experience with this subject came with a Kustom amp head. I'm pretty good with tubes and the basics of SS are similar in many ways but I was in over my head. Not to mention that there's a lot that's "known" about the classic Kustom designs that I didn't know. Like their modular board arrangements and the fact that many of the transistors are now unobtainable. So I did a lot of learning and research on that project for no compensation. BUT... That sort of research is something I do with my spare time often enough that this aspect of what to not charge doesn't bother me. In fact I look at it as a good excuse to learn the arcane things I like to know.

[Mick Bailey]

I've never had a bench fee as such and my operating model has been 'No fix, no fee'. If I spent time on something and couldn't fix it for whatever reason, I'd take that on the chin as I got pretty good at evaluating equipment for repair. My philosophy has been that I charge a customer no more than I'd be prepared to pay myself, other than when a customer has expressly agreed to a repair fee in advance. Often this is on some piece of equipment that needs extensive work that exceeds the value of the equipment. If I have to research something (such as reprogramming a microprocessor) or building a specific piece of test equipment, or learn something new, buy new tools (as when I moved into SMD rework), I absorb that cost or time.

I got fine-tuned on what I would accept and what turn down. Enzo taught me that sometimes the best thing is to say no. I used to take on anything, got a reputation for this and got anything and everything. All kinds of worthless junk that was not in the slightest interesting or fulfilling; domestic HiFi, headphones, in-ear monitors, mics, radio packs, lead repairs, making leads.......as soon as i got rid of that I could focus on more fulfilling work. Of course, when a regular pro customer who spends thousands with you brings a digital camera for repair, its difficult then to say no, so I'd do the odd job like that.

Everyone has different methods, Its all about what you're happy with and what works for you. I managed to earn a living from it, keep my house, motorcycles, cars and holidays going for years - but I had to turn over a lot of equipment to do that and be quick, effective and reliable with repairs.

[The Dude]

I charge a minimal $40 bench fee that is applied to the repair. This is mostly to keep the garbage away. I used to get a lot of "crap" repairs where the customer would say, "Well it's only worth 50 bucks, but can you take a look at it anyway?". Look, an hour is an hour. Regardless of what you paid for something, my time is also worth something. The bench fee has pretty much kept those sorts of repairs away. Also, I've found that if people have already made some investment in a repair, they are more likely to pick it up and pay the remainder. That said, I do work with people on repairs, there are no hard rules, and there are exceptions. I will do a bit "extra" for good/repeat customers. You can't be an ass an expect to stay busy.

[DrGonz78]

I always think in terms of first hour of work $30. Call that the standard for a basic job per labor. I may lower labor costs on a large project or a difficult repair where I learn something new. I have never really charged for a repair that I could not fix. Luckily that is like only a few amps but I don’t do this for a living.

Fact of the matter is I received a fender acoustic amp the other week. I knew right away it was a connection issue so I dug the chassis out. What do I find? Well apparently this amp went to the renowned shop in town, you know the one Guitar Center sends their customers. So the tech pulls off the spade connectors and cuts them off. They then install an external speaker jack and splice that to the speaker terminals. Thing is the tech merely tack soldered the wires to the speaker terminals. I barely pulled on the wires and it just came off with my hand. So how much did they charge my new client for a badly executed “mod” at that shop. Not a big deal but I was shocked by lack of craftsmanship in this case.

The before and after pictures. Nice soldering job yuck

[The Dude]

Crimp connectors must be expensive in your area.

[nosaj]

Could've used this
nosaj

[DrGonz78]

Goes to show just pure laziness. Also I spend a lot of time ensuring the solder connections are solid. The last thing I want is for the speaker wire to fall off and hit dc voltage.

“If you don't have time to do it right the first time, how will you ever have time to do it over.“