What a guitar setup and other repairs cost in 2026

Take the same guitar to three shops and you can walk out with three different setup quotes. That happens all the time.

Plenty of shops never put a price on their website. The ones that do often mean different things by the word “setup.” So players end up guessing. We got tired of guessing.

We checked 668 repair shops across 281 cities and towns. Among the independent shops with a website, about one in five posted their prices. The shops are in and around nine cities (Nashville, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Portland, Houston, Seattle, and Denver), counting the suburbs and nearby towns. A price counted only if the shop posted it on its own website, either on a menu, a rate sheet, or a line like “setups from $65.” None of the big chain stores posted a price we could use, so every typical price here comes from independent shops. We didn’t make up any numbers, and we didn’t rely on “a guy on a forum said $80.”

To be exact, 102 of the 515 independent shops with a website posted prices we could use. That tells you something too: most of the time, you have to call to find out.

The short version

Some amp shops also charge a diagnostic fee to find the problem. That’s a different charge from the hourly rate, so it isn’t in this table. See the amp section below.

Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Portland had enough shops posting setup prices for a local number (more on those below). Everywhere else, too few shops posted prices, so most of this article uses the combined numbers from all nine areas.

What “setup” usually means

When a shop lists an electric setup, it usually means adjusting the guitar so it plays well: string height, intonation, neck relief, and a general check so everything feels right. Strings often cost extra. If your frets need leveling, your nut needs replacing, or your electronics crackle, expect to pay for that on top of the setup.

That’s why $70 and $150 can both be fair prices. One shop is charging for the basic adjustment. Another is pricing in more work, or it’s in a more expensive part of town.

The typical posted price was $88. At the lower end of the scale, shops listed setups for around $50 to $70, and one went as low as $40. At the higher end, prices ran from about $120 to $200. Some of those shops describe a more thorough job, and the $199 one is a same-day setup.

Fewer shops posted prices for acoustic and bass setups. Where they did, acoustic setups came in a little under electric, and bass a little over. Take these as a rough guide:

Four cities with enough setup prices

Each of these includes its suburbs and nearby towns, so Portland counts Vancouver, Washington, and Chicago counts places like Naperville and Aurora.

Chicago came in well under the typical price across all nine areas, with most shops there asking around $60 to $75. Los Angeles ran a bit higher.

Nashville and Portland both landed at $90, right about where the combined number sits. Being a famous music city didn’t mean Nashville shops charged noticeably more for a standard setup, at least among the shops that post prices. Portland stood out another way: a bigger share of its shops posted prices than in any other city we looked at.

In Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Seattle, and Denver, only three to seven shops posted a setup price. A local number built on that few would mislead you. We’ll add those cities once more shops there post prices.

Other guitar work shops posted prices for

A setup isn’t the only thing guitars need. Here’s what independent shops listed for other common jobs, counted the same way:

A few things to keep in mind:

• Parts (bone blanks, frets, pickups, tubes) usually cost extra on top of labor.
• Some shops only post a “starting at” price. We included those, but expect to pay at least that, and possibly more.
• Some shops include a full setup in their fret leveling or nut price, so a few of those prices cover more than one job.
• $488 is the typical price independent shops posted for a full refret. Unusual fret wire, bound fingerboards, and valuable vintage instruments cost more.

Amp repair is usually billed by the hour

Amp repair prices are harder to find online than setup prices. A lot of amp techs look at the amp first and give you a quote after. That makes sense, since the problem might be a $3 cable or a repair that takes hours.

Where shops did post an hourly rate, the typical price was $100 an hour, based on 10 shops (lowest $60, highest $140). If you asked us what amp repair labor costs right now, that’s what we’d tell you. But ten shops is a small group, so use it as a starting point, not a firm number.

Fewer still posted a diagnostic fee, the charge to open the amp up and find the problem. Among the 7 that did, the typical fee was $75 (lowest $35, highest $100). Treat that one as a rough guide. Some shops take that fee off the final repair bill. Some don’t. Their websites usually don’t say which, so ask.

We’d hoped to show amp rates city by city. But even after we went back and checked more shops, no single city had enough of them posting hourly rates to give a fair local number. Seattle came closest, with three shops. For now, the national figure is the one we’d stand behind.

Why so many shops don’t post prices

Among the independent shops with a website, about four in five (413 of 515) didn’t list a price we could use. Not one of the 121 chain stores we checked posted a usable price. Some shops just say “call for a quote.” Some don’t have a prices page at all. Some websites are barely maintained, and 61 of the 636 we checked didn’t load properly when we tried.

That doesn’t mean those shops are expensive or shady. It does mean players spend a lot of time on the phone. And it means an article like this can never cover every shop.

Posted prices are the ones we can actually point to. They aren’t a full count of every repair tech in the country, and we’d rather say that plainly.

How we gathered this

If you want to check our work, here’s how we did it:

• Where: nine U.S. cities, plus the suburbs and towns inside each city’s official area as the Census Bureau draws it. That’s 281 cities and towns in all.
• Which shops: all 668 guitar and amp repair shops in our directory in those areas. Of the 636 with a website, 515 were independent and 121 were chain stores. No chain posted a price we could use.
• What counted: prices posted on the shop’s own website or price list, each one checked by hand against that page. For “starting at” prices we used the starting price, and for a range we used the middle.
• What didn’t count: forum posts, prices mentioned in Google reviews, our own estimates, or anything we’d have had to email a shop to get.
• City numbers: we only gave a city its own setup price if at least eight shops there posted one.
• When: September 22 to 24, 2026.
• How many: we checked 636 shop websites. 102 shops posted at least one price we could use, all of them independent, spread across 56 of those cities and towns. That’s 102 of the 515 independent shops, or about one in five. 69 of them posted an electric setup price.

Shops change their prices, so some of these numbers will be out of date soon. This is what shops were posting in September 2026.

What to do with these numbers

A typical price isn’t a quote.

If a tech quotes you $75 or $140 for a setup, that doesn’t mean you’re being ripped off or getting a steal. It’s how that shop prices your guitar.

Use these numbers as a gut check. If a quote is well below what most shops post, ask what’s included: new strings, fret work, a proper intonation adjustment. If it’s well above, ask the same thing. Custom work and repairing a damaged guitar cost more, and they should. For amps, plan on a diagnostic fee plus an hourly rate, unless the shop posts a flat price for the exact repair you need.

Find a shop

Browsing a directory beats calling random shops you found on Facebook.

• Guitar repair shops
• Amp repair shops
• Or pick a city from the homepage city list and browse from there

We’ll update these numbers as more shops post their prices and as we add more shops to the directory. If you run a shop and want your prices included next time, link your prices page from your homepage so it’s easy to find.