So I emailed an inquiry to one of the paint dude's customers, Jim at www.strict9guitars.com who was interviewed on John's www.paintyourownguitar.com site. Mainly I inquired about his wisdom about the value that painting a guitar adds to a guitar's value so that I can offer something for our kids' school's annual auction next year. Had I started this venture about 3 months ago I would've gotten a Star Power Guitar painted for this year's auction on the 10th. Oh well. Better to have some experience & practice behind ya with backing photos & videos to help people see that this me did do it....Hopefully I will be able to "Do It My Way."
My 2nd reason for inquiring is possibly doing paint things for other people to make money on the side, but keeping it a hobby & fun, to help the cause of feeding the 3 bottomless pit boyzages as well as the even more hungrier fuel tanks on two cars with increasing fuel costs.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the wisdom from Jim as it's helpful.
"I'm painting a guitar for a raffle right now so I'm kinda in the same boat...
The value of a paintjob is very subjective. Basically it's worth whatever you can get somebody to pay for it, haha. That said, as a hobbyist (which I am) I can basically charge whatever I want for my labor above and beyond what it costs for supplies. Let's say the paintjob is gonna cost me around $80-$90 for paint/supplies, then maybe I want to change the color of the knobs or the pickguard so it looks a little cooler with the chosen finish, now I might have another $30-$50 into it, bringing me a cost of around $110-$140, so let's say it's gonna cost $125 to acheive the finish I'm looking for. Then you grab a StarPower project for about $250 and you're in it a grand total of $375
Then you gotta ask yourself "what could I sell it for, your market might be different in your area than in mine, but let's say you could get $600 for it. Would you be willing to paint the guitar for $225 and if so, then do it, and have fun, remember when you treat it like a job, it's not as fun as it was when it was a hobby! haha
As far as painting guitars for other people...
Do some internet searches as well, there are places that'll actually show you right on their website how much they'd charge you for a single color finish on a strat. They have a bit of a reputation and can crank 'em out faster than you and I can, so they might get a few bucks more for their version, but it'll get you started.
And of course theres what usually happens to me, and that is "man, that's gonna be a cool finish, I'd REALLY like to do it", so I go a little lower on my price just because I REALLY wanna do the finish. I'm working on a checkered Firebird right now, just for that reason.
When you finish yours you'll have an idea of how much time is involved, my first 4-5 guitars I actually kept track of how long it took me to do each step, so I'd be able to see how long each thing took seperately, and to be able to add up those little tasks to help me get an idea of how much to charge. It's not an exact science, but it'll get you close.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, have fun and just enjoy painting guitars. Enjoy setting them up, enjoy taking pictures of them, getting to play them before anybody else, the whole thing, otherwise it's kinda like a job and then the money just doesn't seem to add up. I mean let's face it, if you have a real job, your hourly overtime rate is going to be more than the amount of money you make an hour painting guitars, but if it's fun and you make a little who cares.
I never ship a guitar back without insuring it for the amount that it would cost me to replace it for the customer, and I always make them spring for the shipping, as a seperate cost from the paintjob. I also never send a guitar home without a case, even a cheap universal from Musicians Friend. I have folks sending me parts to build them a guitar then paint it, and I always tell them to send an extra $40-$50 and then I go grab them a case to send it home in. I thought you might find that useful.
Remember to tell them you are a hobbyist and that it might take a little while, otherwise they may try to hurry you, and don't be afraid to tell somebody "no". If you don't have time, or you're not sure if you can pull off the finish their looking for, whatever. If you do it anyway it can stress you out and it goes back to feeling like a job.
Have fun man, and send me some pictures, I always like to see what other people are doing, keeps the PYOG spirit alive!" - Jim
Until later comes turn it up to...Rock On! Yo....Duh....Mon.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Project Stripey Strat - Link
Pics all in one place of fender sanding & painting project...
http://www.pplministries.org/FenderPainting.htm
http://www.pplministries.org/FenderPainting.htm
Monday, February 12, 2007
Ouch....oomph...thud....may I have another...
Step 1) Get a basketball
1.5) Get some shaved ice in a large bucket & get a companion to be with you.
2) Get some hooks you can screw into wood & run a rope through.
3) Get some rope.(1)
4) Get a flat piece of wood about 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick that's about 4 feet long & about 18-24 inches wide.
5) Stand on top of wood as you would on a skateboard.
6) Take a sharpey & outline your feet.
7) Attach a couple of hooks at the front & rear of each foot's contour line.
8) Grab your board & your basketball & don't forget yourself & go stand at the top of some stairs.
9) Run the rope through the hooks & around your feet so as to secure & bind your feet tightly to the board.
10) In one swift & perfect move, leap yourself up on top of the basketball & balance the board, & hence yourself as well, on top of the ball.
11) Now pivot yourself on top of ball so that the front foot is pointing down towards the bottom stair & such that most of your weight is on the forward foot.
12) Have your companion throw the shaved ice at you at random frequencies from various angles.
13) If you'd like you could skip the rope & hooks & just use a nail or staple gun to bind feet to board. But that involves blood & more pain. Your choice...
If you can do all this & not fall off of the ball or fall down the stairs....you can then attempt to snowboard.
When people say they spend most of the time on their rears whilst learning snowboarding...it's worse than that. It truly becomes "I've fallen, & I don't want to get up. Save yourselves & I'll just lay here crumbled up in a tired & exhausted & sore heap of I'm not 20 anymore." I think I did more push ups to stand up than all push ups done by the peons at a military boot camp in a year. And this was after taking a lesson & trying things out on the slope.
For me, I've spent my whole life with my feet existing separately & independantly from each other. To have both feet buckled down onto a board is quite foreign. Conceptually I could not get past that barrier. Boarders...have a great time....I'll stick to the simplicity of skiis. I've rediscovered muscles that I thought might have fallen off long ago......MEDIC!
Until later comes, turn it up to ouch.
1.5) Get some shaved ice in a large bucket & get a companion to be with you.
2) Get some hooks you can screw into wood & run a rope through.
3) Get some rope.(1)
4) Get a flat piece of wood about 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick that's about 4 feet long & about 18-24 inches wide.
5) Stand on top of wood as you would on a skateboard.
6) Take a sharpey & outline your feet.
7) Attach a couple of hooks at the front & rear of each foot's contour line.
8) Grab your board & your basketball & don't forget yourself & go stand at the top of some stairs.
9) Run the rope through the hooks & around your feet so as to secure & bind your feet tightly to the board.
10) In one swift & perfect move, leap yourself up on top of the basketball & balance the board, & hence yourself as well, on top of the ball.
11) Now pivot yourself on top of ball so that the front foot is pointing down towards the bottom stair & such that most of your weight is on the forward foot.
12) Have your companion throw the shaved ice at you at random frequencies from various angles.
13) If you'd like you could skip the rope & hooks & just use a nail or staple gun to bind feet to board. But that involves blood & more pain. Your choice...
If you can do all this & not fall off of the ball or fall down the stairs....you can then attempt to snowboard.
When people say they spend most of the time on their rears whilst learning snowboarding...it's worse than that. It truly becomes "I've fallen, & I don't want to get up. Save yourselves & I'll just lay here crumbled up in a tired & exhausted & sore heap of I'm not 20 anymore." I think I did more push ups to stand up than all push ups done by the peons at a military boot camp in a year. And this was after taking a lesson & trying things out on the slope.
For me, I've spent my whole life with my feet existing separately & independantly from each other. To have both feet buckled down onto a board is quite foreign. Conceptually I could not get past that barrier. Boarders...have a great time....I'll stick to the simplicity of skiis. I've rediscovered muscles that I thought might have fallen off long ago......MEDIC!
Until later comes, turn it up to ouch.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Stripey-zoidals...
So in looking more at these Mean Street guitars I came to learn that if you want one of the guitars with anything but the stock white, black, or natural finish one must pay an extra almost $400 & then wait is 4 months for the paint job. Ughage. So one ponders the buying of a natural finish model & then paint it stripey. Found a couple o' cool resources...But first a caveat is that apparently it has become illegal for others to sell books that teach about the process of cloning a trademarked design. Whatever world...I love this comment "(Artists - Watch Out If You're Showing People How To Draw Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny!)"
http://www.crazywebbys.com/~5150/index.htm
http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/offer.html
So me is tempted to buy the how to paint books for good solid foundation & then apply the painting journey to just a plain boring block o' wood. Once perfected, will then try on me solid blue Fender. If all is well then will consider the Mean Street purchase. Sounds fun & this actually seems more fun than building a tube amp kit.
Until later comes turn it up to paint.
http://www.crazywebbys.com/~5150/index.htm
http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/offer.html
So me is tempted to buy the how to paint books for good solid foundation & then apply the painting journey to just a plain boring block o' wood. Once perfected, will then try on me solid blue Fender. If all is well then will consider the Mean Street purchase. Sounds fun & this actually seems more fun than building a tube amp kit.
Until later comes turn it up to paint.
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