🎯The recommendation
Four numbers and one profile. Everything below this is the evidence for them.
- Who
- Bassist first
- Early-career, a semester or more of building or repair, plays bass seriously, knows who Darryl is without being told.
- Pay
- $25/hr
- Start at $25, review at 90 days. W-2 hourly, non-exempt. Not a 1099.
- Hours
- 20/wk
- Hard cap 24, never over 8 in a day. Overage needs Jacob in writing.
- Bill Darryl
- $50/hr
- 100% markup. $500 a week out, $1,000 a week in. $2,167 and $4,333 a month.
📌Post in these three first
Free, fast, and aimed at exactly the right people. The full channel table is further down.
MMR Jobs
Musical Merchandise Review. Self-serve, $0 for a 30-day listing, and the readership is instrument-industry product people. Sweetwater and Shure post here.
Instagram, from Darryl's personal account
His name is the whole asset. Organic hiring posts break no Meta rule. Do not boost it without declaring the Employment special ad category, which strips targeting.
Musicians Institute, Hollywood
Fifteen miles away with a deep bass program. Call Artist & Career Services at 323-462-1384 and ask to post on Interstride plus the next job fair.
🗓️Four weeks, Jacob owns it
Starts Thursday 18 September. Week one runs without Greg, who lands back from Tokyo on the 24th.
- Thu 18: post to MMR, ROSTR, EntertainmentCareers, LinkedIn
- Thu 18: email the six schools in the directory
- Fri 19: call MI at 323-462-1384, open the Berklee employer account
- Fri 19: email TalkBass for written permission, do not post cold
- Mon 22: Darryl posts on Instagram, Jacob DMs ten builder accounts
- Mon 29: send the six questions to everyone who looks plausible
- Wed 1: score the returns, pick six for interviews
- Target: 25 applicants in, 6 through
- Thu 2 to Tue 6: six 30-minute interviews on the rubric
- Wed 7: pick two for the paid trial, book Darryl for both
- Thu 9 and Fri 10: four-hour paid trials, Darryl in the room
- Sat 11: decision, offer out the same day
- Mon 13: first day, onboarding with Jacob
⚠️Three things in the brief that turned out to be wrong
Guitar Craft Academy Hollywood does not exist. Musicians Institute runs Guitar Craft only in Nashville, and MI's own site says that campus "will cease operations effective August 31, 2026." The Hollywood campus is performance, production and business. It is still the best local channel, for its bass program, not for building.
Neither Cal Poly has an industrial design major. SLO lists industrial engineering and industrial technology, Pomona's ENV college has architecture, art, landscape architecture and planning. The real California industrial design programs are CSULB, ArtCenter, SJSU, CCA and Otis. CSULB is the useful one here because it also has the deepest bass lineage in the CSU.
Santa Monica College has no lutherie program. Nor do Pasadena City College, Cerritos, El Camino, Orange Coast, Citrus, Mt. SAC or LA Trade-Tech. Palomar College in San Marcos is the only California community college that offers one, and its students build a solid-body electric.
🏫Where to email, ranked
Every row verified on 16 September. Where no public email is published, the career services page is linked and marked "form".
| # | Program | Where | From SM | Contact | Why it is on the list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Musicians Institute, Bass Guitar | Hollywood CA | 14 mi | Career services, form · 323-462-1384 | Densest local pool of working electric bassists. No building side any more. |
| 2 | CSU Long Beach, music + wood | Long Beach CA | 30 mi | Career centre, form | Only campus in range with both real bass lineage and a wood and product fabrication shop. Cross-post to music and to design. |
| 3 | USC Thornton, Music Industry | Los Angeles CA | 14 mi | contemporary.music@usc.edu | A literal product-management feeder, with Popular Music bassists in the same building. |
| 4 | Palomar College, Guitar Making Technology | San Marcos CA | 110 mi | careercenter@palomar.edu | California's only community college lutherie program. Students build a solid-body electric. |
| 5 | Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery | Phoenix AZ | 385 mi | Employer job form · info@roberto-venn.com | Bass is a sanctioned build path and the school emails every posting to its graduates. Best yield per email sent. |
| 6 | Minnesota State College Southeast | Red Wing MN | remote | heather.fleming@southeastmn.edu | 37-credit guitar repair and building diploma. Career services posts employer jobs by email request. |
| 7 | Galloup School of Lutherie | Big Rapids MI | remote | school@galloupguitars.com | Journeyman and technician tracks, PLEK certification. Graduates relocate for shop work. |
| 8 | MI Guitar Craft, Nashville | Nashville TN | remote | Form · 615-333-9423 | Closing 31 August 2026, so the final class is actively looking. Time-boxed opportunity. |
| 9 | Northampton CC, Martin Luthier Lab | Bethlehem PA | remote | luthier@northampton.edu | Four months, seven instruments, CNC and inlay. Backed by Martin Guitar. |
| 10 | Red Rocks CC, lutherie certificates | Lakewood CO | remote | Jeremy.Cox@rrcc.edu | Stacked lutherie certificates on a fine woodworking core. |
| 11 | Berklee, Bass Department | Boston MA | remote | careercenter@berklee.edu | Deepest electric bass pool in the country, no lutherie. Employer posting is free through Symplicity, human-screened, paid roles only. |
| 12 | CSUN, Music Industry Studies | Northridge CA | 22 mi | career.center@csun.edu | Local, industry-side curriculum, jazz studies bassists on the same faculty. |
| 13 | Cal State LA, Commercial Music | Los Angeles CA | 18 mi | Career centre, form | Local and cheap to reach. Year-long studio practicum means students have shipped something. |
| 14 | CalArts, Music Technology | Valencia CA | 35 mi | clw@calarts.edu | Students build electro-mechanical instruments. No bass department, so treat it as a builder channel. |
| 15 | North Bennet Street School | Boston MA | remote | info@nbss.edu | Three-year violin making. Long shot for a bassist, strongest hands in the directory. |
📣Every posting channel and its rules
Read the middle column before posting anywhere. TalkBass will delete an unapproved thread on sight.
| Channel | Allowed? | The published rule | Cost | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMR Jobs | Yes | Page states "Post a Job, $0" for a 30-day listing. No moderation policy published. | $0 | High |
| Instagram, organic | Yes | No rule bars an organic hiring post. Paid promotion must declare Meta's Employment special ad category, which limits age, gender and ZIP targeting. | $0 | High |
| Roberto-Venn job form | Yes | "Advertise Your Job to R-V Graduates. Use the form below to input your job description." Each posting is emailed to graduates. | Not published | High |
| Musicians Institute | Conditional | No public employer policy. Student platform is Interstride, not Handshake. Relationship only, by phone. | Unknown | High |
| TalkBass | Permission first | Commercial User Policy: anyone on a music business payroll "must request prior permission for any thread they may wish to start"; threads posted without it "may be deleted without notice." No jobs forum exists. | $30/mo licence | High if approved |
| Berklee Career Manager | Yes | "Free to employers that wish to publicize full-time, part-time, internship, gig, and audition opportunities." Unpaid roles are generally refused. Every posting is human-screened. | $0 | Medium |
| MIMF | One forum only | Builders' Supplies and Services forum invites commercial ads "and the occasional 'help wanted'". The Classified Ads forum is non-commercial tangible goods only, so it is the wrong place. Rule text is a 2023 capture; the live site is behind Cloudflare. | $0 | Medium |
| No Treble | No job product | "If you're interested in advertising opportunities with No Treble, please email us at sponsorship@notreble.com." Free editorial route is news@notreble.com. Their Bass of the Week column runs boutique builders weekly. | Quote only | Medium-high |
| Bass Musician Magazine | No job product | Press releases accepted for "events, bass books, CD releases, DVD/instructional videos, gear news & endorsements, and artist news". Hiring is not on that list. Their Luthier Spotlight column is the natural free fit. | Quote only | Medium |
| Official Luthiers Forum | Ask first | Two published statements conflict. The static policy says a business must be an OLF sponsor to use classifieds; an owner post from August 2026 says "Classifieds are FREE NOW!" Email Lance@LuthiersForum.com and state you are a business. | Unclear | Medium |
| r/Luthier, r/Bass | Unverified | Reddit blocked every automated read of the rules pages. Open these two links in a signed-in browser and read the self-promotion rules before posting. Do not post on an assumption. | $0 | Medium |
| ROSTR Jobs | Yes | "Just sign-up online and post a role in minutes. For free." | $0 | Medium |
| EntertainmentCareers.net | Yes | "Basic Postings are free for employers. All jobs listed must represent positions at your company." LA-heavy readership. | $0 | Medium |
| Yes | "Members can have up to one free job post active at a time", live 14 days, auto-closed at 30, with an application cap. Needs a company page. | $0 | High | |
| Indeed | Yes | "You can post up to 3 free jobs per calendar month." Free posts get little visibility without sponsorship. | $0 | Medium |
| Guild of American Luthiers | No | No jobs section. Print advertising closed: 2025 was "the final year we are printing American Lutherie." | n/a | Low |
| Scott's Bass Lessons | No | The Campus forum is inside the paid Academy and no promotion policy exists. "Bass Player Union" is not an SBL property; the similarly named group is a private Facebook community. | n/a | Low |
| Hitmarker | Skip | Gaming and esports only. Wrong audience, $99 a post. | $99 | Low |
💵Why $25 in and $50 out
The job blends three lanes that price very differently. At $25 the offer sits in the operations-coordinator band and below the $37 median for a junior product manager in Los Angeles, so expect the bass and the Darryl connection to carry the pitch rather than the number.
| Lane | LA range | Median | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior / associate product manager | $31 – $46 | $37 | Indeed LA, Sep 2026 |
| Operations coordinator | $21 – $33 | $26 | Indeed LA, Sep 2026 |
| Junior luthier / guitar tech | $18 – $26 | $25 | Salary.com LA, Sep 2026 |
| Mid-career contract PM (not this hire) | $60 – $130 | $77 | contractrates.fyi 2026 |
| Santa Monica minimum wage, cleared at $25 | floor | $18.47 | City of Santa Monica, from 1 Jul 2026 |
🧾 The bill-through math, line by line
- Pay rate $25.00. Legal floor cleared: Santa Monica minimum wage is $18.47 from 1 July 2026 and the California minimum is $16.90, so $25 sits 1.35 times the higher of the two.
- Employer burden about 15%, or $3.75. FICA 7.65%, FUTA and CA SUI plus ETT around 3%, workers' compensation, and the ETT assessment.
- True cost to TRC $28.75
- Bill Darryl $50.00, leaving $21.25 gross per hour for payroll processing, insurance exposure, recruiting amortisation and invoicing float.
- Markup is 100%, above the 35 to 50% band that general professional staffing reports and inside the 30 to 75% temp band only at its top. Do not hand Darryl a line-item breakdown of the pay rate. Bill a flat service rate.
- Put $50/hr flat in the agreement. Approved overtime is paid at $37.50 and billed at $75/hr, holding the same multiple.
⚖️ Classification: W-2 hourly, and why 1099 fails
- The B prong kills the contractor route. Labor Code 2775 requires the work to be "outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business." The moment TRC resells these hours to Darryl as a service, the labour is TRC's product for that engagement.
- The C prong fails too for a recent graduate with no other clients, no entity and no EIN.
- Part-time cannot be exempt. Labor Code 515 measures the 2026 exempt threshold of $70,304 against a 40-hour week with no proration. So: hourly, timekeeping, daily overtime over 8, meal period by hour 5, a 10-minute rest per 4 hours, itemised wage statements.
- Workers' compensation is mandatory at one employee under Labor Code 3700. Confirm the TRC policy covers an office or product class code before day one.
- Put the pass-through in a client services agreement. TRC is the employer of record, Darryl is buying a service and not a worker. Name who bears wage liability in the contract.
🧪Screens, rubric, trial
Six written questions, a scored 30-minute interview, and four paid hours with Darryl in the room.
📝 The six-question written screen
- What do you play, how long, and what is your main bass right now? Send a link or a clip if you have one.Sorts real players from people who own a bass. Ninety seconds of audio tells you more than the resume.
- Name two records Darryl Jones played on, and say one thing about his playing on either of them.The fandom test. Right answers include Miles Davis's Decoy and You're Under Arrest, Sting's The Dream of the Blue Turtles, and the Rolling Stones from Voodoo Lounge forward. A search-engine answer reads flat; a real one talks about the feel.
- JMI has a model called the Chatham. Where does that name come from, and name one other JMI model.Chatham is one of Darryl's South Side Chicago neighbourhoods, as is Gresham. The Mach II DJZ is the other obvious answer. Tests whether they read the site before applying.
- Describe building or repair work you have done with your hands. A course, a shop job, or your own bench all count. Which tools do you actually know?Specific tool names are the signal. Vague answers about "working on guitars" are not.
- Our custom configurator has 137 options and no price on any of them. Darryl has 30 minutes for you. What do you ask him, in what order, and what do you ship first?The product judgment question. Good answers cluster the options, price the common path first, and ship something partial this week. Bad answers try to price all 137 in one sitting.
- How many hours a week can you work, which days, and how far are you from Santa Monica?Filters out the full-time seekers and anyone commuting from Riverside for 20 hours.
📊 Interview rubric, 30 minutes, scored 0 to 4
| Criterion | 0 | 2 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bass credibility | Owns a bass, does not play | Plays regularly, no gigging history | Gigs or records, has opinions about tone that survive a follow-up question |
| Shop literacy | Never held a file | One course, remembers the basics | Has done setups or a build, names tools and tolerances without prompting |
| Product judgment | Waits to be told what to do | Can execute a defined task well | Cuts scope on their own, ships the common path first, says what they would not do |
| Writing | Vague, needs a second read | Clear but long | A builder and a developer could both act on it without a follow-up call |
| Working with Darryl | Star-struck or dismissive | Polite, agrees with everything | Respectful and still pushes back when the answer is wrong, then writes down what was decided |
Gate: 14 of 20 to reach the paid trial, with no single criterion below 2. Bass credibility and product judgment break ties.
🛠️ Paid trial, 4 hours, both finalists
- Paid at the offer rate, $25/hr, invoiced as a one-off. Never ask for free work.
- Hours 1 and 2, with Darryl in the room. Price the configurator options. They lead the session, Darryl answers. Watch whether they cluster the options or grind through the list.
- Hours 3 and 4, alone. Write the spec sheet for one model, the Chatham, at a level a builder can work from and a developer can put into the shop.
- What you are grading: did they get a decision out of Darryl on the ambiguous options, or did they let it drift. Is the spec sheet something you could hand to a third party today.
- Both finalists do the same task on different days, so the comparison is clean.
📋Copy, ready to paste
The job post is also saved as job-post.md if you want the raw file.
Job post
225 wordsProduct Manager, Jones Musical Instruments (part-time, hourly, Santa Monica / hybrid) Jones Musical Instruments builds bass guitars for Darryl Jones, the bassist in the Rolling Stones since 1993 and a Miles Davis alum. The instruments run $3,595 to $5,495 and are named for the South Side Chicago neighborhoods Darryl grew up in. We are looking for one person to own the product side of the company, part time. You would work on the custom-build configurator, the online shop, the mailing list console, and the JMI Backstage iPhone app. Concretely: pricing the build options, writing spec sheets, checking what ships against what was ordered, keeping the catalog honest, and sitting with Darryl to turn what he wants into something a builder and a developer can both read. We want a bass player. Some hands-on experience with instrument building or repair, even a semester of it, counts for a lot. You should be able to hold your own in a conversation about neck profiles and pickup placement, then go write a clear spec about it. The job is 20 hours a week, hourly, W-2, based in Santa Monica with hybrid flexibility. Pay is $25 an hour, reviewed at 90 days. You are hired by The Recording Club and you work with Darryl directly. Send a note, a resume, and one thing you built or shipped to jacob@therecording.club.
Email to a career services office
3 linesHi, I run operations at The Recording Club in Santa Monica. We are hiring a part-time hourly product manager for Jones Musical Instruments, the bass company of Darryl Jones, who has played bass in the Rolling Stones since 1993, and we are specifically looking for a bass player who has done some building or repair coursework. Could you post the listing below to your job board, or tell me the right way to get it in front of your students? It pays $25 an hour for 20 hours a week and it is a real product role, not an internship. Happy to come talk to a class or look at student work if that would be useful to you. Jacob Dennis The Recording Club, 1660 9th St, Santa Monica jacob@therecording.club
DM to a bassist who might refer someone
2 linesHey, we are hiring a part-time product manager for Darryl Jones's bass company here in Santa Monica, $25 an hour for 20 hours a week. If you know a bassist who has done any building or repair work, send them to jacob@therecording.club and I will get back to them the same day.
❓What we could not verify
- Reddit's rules. Every automated read of r/Bass and r/Luthier was blocked. Open r/Bass rules and r/Luthier rules in a signed-in browser before posting. Whether r/Bassists exists at all is unconfirmed.
- Whether Roberto-Venn charges for a job posting. No fee is published anywhere on the site.
- Advertising rates for No Treble and Bass Musician. Both are quote-only, no media kit published.
- Whether TalkBass would approve a hiring thread. Their policy addresses gear and product ads, not job ads. That gap is why you email first.
- MIMF's current rules. The quoted forum text is a 2023 archive capture; the live site is behind Cloudflare.
- TRC's workers' compensation class code and rate. The 15% burden assumption moves if the studio class code is high.
- TRC's full-time-equivalent headcount, which determines whether the 30-hour ACA line matters. Below 50 FTE it does not.
- Santa Monica-specific salary data. Every rate above is LA metro. City-level data does not exist at this granularity.