Pickup installation cost - is this too much?

[FELINEGUITARS]

it all depends what they mean by 'set-up', and it depends on their reputation and experience

if that is a full set-up including a little nut work and minor fret work from someone good then £80 could seem like you are getting a free wiring job.


anyway,  the guy quoted £20 - which i think may have actually been £20 per pickup.  wiring the switch  is uusally more connections than wiring a pickup so say £20 again, maybe a little extra for the coil tap.  you can see how these things start to add up.
 

i tend to do it based on actual work, so it might be £20 for the first pickup and £10 for subsequent ones.  half the work in a simple swap is getting the guitar ready and putting it all back together - and you only do that once no matter how many pickups you install.  and the set-up would be reduced rate so you were not paying twice for some jobs that only happen once - things like restringing

Wez explained it pretty well.

If the local shops offer the right mix of expertise and friendly service then shopping local is good
Sometimes if you are not too impressed with local offerings it is worth travelling further afield.

Hope it all goes well

[BigB]

Sadly Croydon is a bit out of the way for me, especially when I work 10 minutes away from a bunch of music shops.

If UK "shop tech" guys are anything near the average french ones, save yourself some pain and money and go find a proper luthier instead.

[Alex]

In my experience it is best to find a tech/luthier you trust and go back again and again, than going for the cheapest/most convenient. One of the reason I learned to do soldering my own was that there wasn't any reliable techs where I lived in Germany and one actually messed up the job.