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Overhaul turnover time

5K views 52 replies 18 participants last post by  Dr G 
#1 ·
In your experience, what's the usual turnover time for an overhaul on a vintage Selmer tenor ?
 
#10 ·
I'm now waiting to see this turn into a thread about a horn waiting for a year to be processed.
 
#11 ·
Last full rebuild was 2 weeks from drop off. They waived me off a week before dropping it off. It was a little bit of a favor to work it in, as I know one of the techs. Otherwise, it might have been 4-6 weeks. This is a huge busy shop, but they do great work. I've got another tech of many years, who will rebuild a sax in two weeks as well. He's an individual, but rotates stores and schools. I'd say the numbers of rebuilds are way down from a few decades ago. I guess folks just buy new imports instead of rebuilding.
 
#15 ·
My tech said 3 weeks, but it will be more like 4. I'm OK with that. I don't want a rush job.
When I brought it in things were slow, but it got busy all of the sudden.
He works by himself, so he can't dispatch some of the work to employees.

Thanks for the replies.
 
#18 ·
Average work time on a vintage Selmer is about 1 week, but we like to keep it for another week to play it in really well. The play in process is fairly rigorous and involves lots of hard playing and then tweaking the setup. So for our shop we like to make it a 2 week process in total. If the horn hasn't been abused much in the past and is structurally solid, then 10 days is fairly doable though.
 
#19 ·
This is a sorta odd thread because we gotta ascertain what we are talking about here.

The amount of HOURS of work put into an overhaul

vs.

the amount of time you gotta leave the sax at the shop before you get it back, overhauled.


These, in most cases, are entirely different things....

So if one says " yeah, it takes my tech 3-4 weeks" and the next guy chimes in "that's nuts, man, mine turns it in a week"....most of what this really has to do with is backlog and bench schedule (and perhaps whether or not you have been a longtime customer of that tech)...as opposed to whether one tech can complete a particular scope of work faster or slower than another...
 
#22 ·
Not enough. When I do a big job on a sax I become conscious that I am earning less than a plumber or hairdresser. That is because for me at least, this job has large overheads - getting on for $100,000 in equipment and stock (with a turnover that would appall an accountant).
It is also because for many large sax jobs it is like working on vintage car that has been neglected for decades... a lot of work! I am also conscious that to do the job efficiently and well, with a reliable result, involves an enormous learning curve. In other fields that does not come cheap!
 
#23 ·
I'm fortunate. My experience with techs have always been good. Last time my 6 was overhauled it took about 2 weeks because (1) it needed a new neck receiver and (2) he kept it longer to let things settle and tweak. He also included a free session a month later for further tweaking.
 
#24 ·
Time to repad around a week, this fits around normal day in day out repairs, waiting cue for a repad is currently 6weeks for me, at the worst I had 7 months of booked sax repads.

I would concur with Gordon, that th overheads to set yourself up to make a full time living from it, are exhorbarant to say the least.

Steve
 
#28 ·
A friend called a plumber. The plumber had minimal tooling, had to travel to a local supplier to buy a standard crox nut, and had to hire a crox tool. And charged like a wondd bull.
Give me a list of other jobs where a one-person operation has around $100k setup.
 
#27 ·
Bwahahahaha, 100k, maybe if you only specialise in saxes. My shop, my tools, 100k is just a drop in the bucket.

Gordons point I believe is, example a plumber with 1000 dollars worth of tools charges more than the average repair tech.

We do this because we enjoy the job and the industry, not to get rich

Steve
 
#31 ·
A few years ago a mate of mine in the northern territory started a one man home handyman business. Approximately 100k to startup, this included a van, stock, tools, insurances. His hourly rate was $80 and was cleaning up. My local sax tech is a really nice bloke, works from home gets to spend time with his wife and kids. He's struggling financially but that's his lifestyle choice. I asked about how he gets business, and it's all word of mouth. He didn't have business cards or pamphlets or decent website. I gave him a few suggestions, which included going to local schools and offering his services, even loaning some of his old equipment out to them, but he wasn't that interested in doing the ground work. Too make sure my advice was sound I rang around and spoke to a few schools, most were keen to further the discussion. So my point is, at $80 hour, and if the work is of high quality then the reason why people don't make money is because there is a failure in the sales process.

I love learning about new industries and the benefits and pitfalls that come with it. So please take my comments as a person wanting to learn.

Steve
 
#42 ·
So my point is, at $80 hour, and if the work is of high quality then the reason why people don't make money is because there is a failure in the sales process.
That is a really erroneous, or in the least over-generalized, comment. Ignoring a multitude of other dynamics which may be present in a person's life.

Sorry, but, truly....

Dude, MOST techs I know charge around an average of $80/hr. They are usually NOT wanting for work.

I could say for the most part, most are 'struggling' to a degree...
 
#37 ·
Last time I had one overhauled it was a week. But the tech didn't work only on this horn for the entire week, but from me bringing the sax to me collecting it it was a week.

On another note, was this not more or less the content of this other thread?

The participants too were more or less the same ones ( minus MM) and the same kind of positions were expressed.

Wit a number of working hours varying from 3 to 5 , 6 to 12 to 60 to 90 and prices all over the place.

https://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?144945-How-long-does-an-overhaul-repad-take
 
#38 ·
I would say, big difference in doing a repad and an overhaul of any level.

I have had maybe 30 saxes where the customers were willing to invest the money in mechanical precision (so a form of overhauling) the other say 400 sax repads were as cheap as I can do it, minimal keywork, basic repad process with tone hole levelling etc

Steve
 
#44 ·
If the tech has a good reputation, time and money are flexible in my opinion. I would rather wait a little longer and pay a little more for a superior overhaul. Getting things fixed right the first time makes the sax easier to maintain.

I wish all techs well in their effort to make ends meet you are all a godsend to our community.
 
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