Apologies if this is an inappropriate question to ask, but I have no idea and wanted to get some ideas.
My friend wants me to convert his Fender PA 100 into a guitar amp. Something "80s hair metal sounding" which of course gives me some good ideas for the preamp.
Pretty excited to do a mod like this, but I have no idea what to charge. Should I charge per hour or for the whole job? What would you charge if someone asked you to do this mod?
It might need recapping, and the lead dress on these things doesn't look great to begin with:
Also, anything fun in general would you recommend doing with this amp?
i don't charge a per hour bench fee because anything but the messy stuff (drilling, painting, whatever) is done leisurely on the futon with the tv on. doesn't mean i work for free, just that this kind of work is super relaxing for me so feeling like i had to punch a time clock would take some of the Zen out of it. if i were dealing with a larger volume of repairs/mods/whatever it would be different and i would have to have a clearly defined fee schedule
i do itemize every part i use and if i had to special order anything i don't keep stocked (like the friggin 50 dollar fan from peavey for the 50/50 power amp that caught fire because it failed) that shipping is factored into the cost
that all being said, conversion projects like this are the kind of fun that i live for (I've got a couple of hammond chassis and a dukane tube intercom I'm currently working on, all torn down to bare chassis) so "a fewhundred bucks" plus parts would be what I'd mention as price. this includes the things that are most tone-consuming that Joe guitar player wouldn't even think of: all of the research and sketching and figuring out what works with the transformers that came with it, etc. i enjoy all that stuff, but it does take home. i dislike the painting/finishing aspect of the project so I'd definitely throw out a larger number if required
i can bend on the labor cost a bit for say a friend/local musician if i know they both don't have a lot of money and are willing to wait on the finished product longer. that old axiom: you can have things done cheap, right, and quickly. now pick two
PRR wrote:
Plotting loadlines is only for the truly desperate, or terminally bored.
https://schematicheaven.net/fenderamps/pa100.pdf came up on Google
so you've got 6 preamp tubes and 4x6l6gc
if it were me I'd create a two channel amp, one channel clean fender with reverb the other mean Marshall
depending on how nuts you want to go you could even have them footswitchable (aby box on the front end would work as well)
really with that hefty of a transformer (that's a lot of tubes!) you've got a ton of options
I'm the kind of guy who likes to start from scratch on a build like this instead of modding what's already there. I'll save any resistors and film caps that test within tolerance and chuck anything else
PRR wrote:
Plotting loadlines is only for the truly desperate, or terminally bored.
Without an exact plan, a project like this could take 20 to 40 hours of your time easily. If you had a specific goal, like JCM 800 preamp, then maybe 8-12 hours. What's your time worth?
I build and repair tube amps. http://amps.monkeymatic.com
Its amazing how quickly the hrs can pass by. You start doing a few hours a day after work and then 6 hrs on a Sat and another 6 on a Sunday and you have reached 27 hrs in a blink of an eye!
And then the time it takes to order all the parts!
And then you find out the parts are out of stock at the regular place you ordered from and then you need to spend time finding another supplier and then that supplier charges 2x more for the same part !
And then there is a problem you need to solve for your particular build and you spend time researching it online.
Learn to do such / mod on something smaller , then save yourself a pain in the ass and have your Buddy buy a used JCM 800 and then have a new face plate made for it that says Fender PA 100!
When I die, I want to go like my Grandfather did, peacefully in his sleep.
Not screaming like the passengers in his car!
Cutting out a man's tongue does not mean he’s a liar, but it does show that you fear the truth he might speak about you!
I charge $250 plus parts on the ones I have customized.
Really cheap considering all the hours put in.
There is no way we could charge actual fees because it would be so expensive to the customer.
If your time is limited then you say no to the whole mod due to being too costly.
I'm 63, 64 next month, retired, and have the time to help people out.
Keep track of the time taken and at the end consider that the job was for a friend and establish a forfait amount for your job then add the cost of the parts
this will be a reasonable price
I personally didn't ask any fee for my job and usually receive something (the more often good quality wine bottles )
I generally get what works out to be $10/hr (local Aus currency) for the building and mods I've done.
Less would make me feel ripped off and like I'd rather spend the time on my own building backlog. More starts adding up to the point where the project doesn't go ahead.
