Purchasing Music Equipment



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Introduction

Purchasing new gear should be a fun experience. However, with all of the choices of great gear and the seemingly unlimited number of online and local vendors, buying gear can stress even the calmest among us. The following is my take on purchasing music equipment.

A Few Tips

The following are a few shopping tips and comments:

  1. The advantage of buying online is availability and price. Most local stores just cannot compete with the inventories and product selection the main online stores offer. Price-wise, today, most local and online stores offer the same prices on gear. Call it price fixing or coincidence, it is pretty amazing that the price for a Standard Fender Stratocaster is $369, regardless of where you're looking (U.S.). However, depending on the online store and location, chances are you won't pay sales tax. For me that saves me between 7% and 9% on each deal. Also, some online stores offer gifts, rebates, and discount codes to sweeten the deal. In a recent purchase, I received a $100 rebate, a free Guitar gig bag, no sales tax, and free shipping. My local dealer could not come close to the matching the deal.

  2. The advantage of buying locally is that you can play it, test it, handle it, compare it, in the flesh. And you can make the final selection. If it needs some basic tweaks or setup, many local stores will take care of it for you (except the mega stores, e.g., Guitar Center). Other advantages: no waiting-take it home the day you purchase it, customer service, easy to return/exchange, no shipping problems, you keep the local store in business, and so on.

  3. Know your prices. I always check out the online price and go from there. This is becoming less of an issue on some items as online and local retailers seem to have set the prices in lock step.

  4. Identify deal-sweeteners. The retailer my not budge on the price, but they may include a case, gig bag, strings, cables, or other items to sweeten the deal. Know ahead of time, what deal sweetners you are interested in.

  5. Always ask for the best deal. Don't be timid. Online or local, always ask for their best price offer, especially when purchasing multiple items. This is the key to shopping at GC. One day, they won't cut a dollar. The next, they'll deal like crazy. I did a package deal with GC including a trade-in that was pretty incredible.

  6. Wait for the Big Sales. I have not had any luck with this one. But if you can plan, save, and wait for the big sale, you can make a killing. Locally, Modern Music has invitation-only sales that are pretty incredible. GC also has sales from time to time.

  7. Read user reviews. Harmony-Central and the online retailers provide tons of user reviews of music gear. You have to take the reviews with a grain of salt, but I know in my case, often I have found a common thread of truth from multiple reviewers that I also found to be true. Don't rely on a couple of reviews, you need a bunch to get the full and honest picture.

  8. The Golden Rule! Before I purchase an item, I try to previsual how, where, when I am going to use it. You probably would be surprised how many times I talk myself out of a purchase after going through this excercise. Sometimes the greatest discount or rebate comes from simply not buying the item.


    Online Music Stores & Links

    The last two years I have purchased (and sold) a fair share of music equipment. Out with the old and in with the new so to speak. An aside from the frequent disappointment with the new stuff in relation to the old stuff (i.e., have not found anything that plays better than my '79 Strat), I have learned a few things about buying stuff online and locally.

    www.Music123.com
    I made my first online purchases through Music123 and they are a reputable outfit. However, after one bad experience with them I decided there are other fish in the sea--I no longer shop Music123. Here's the story...After a longer than usual wait I tugged the Music123 chain on an order (a $200 Power Amp). Several days later I received the order and the fun began:

    1. The amp was not in its original plastic shipping bag and the documentation was missing.
    2. The product was damaged and not in working condition--it was an obvious return.
    3. It was missing screws holding the case together, a few of which were rolling around in the box.
    4. The heads of the remaining screws were stripped, with a huge scratch mark across the top of the case.
    5. Music123 offered to replace it, but the return shipment was on me. After a few heated exchanges, they sent me a free shipping label, but I still had to make a trip to the local UPS store.
    6. After a few more heated exchanges, they offered to send a truck out to pick up the item. Never showed. We have regular UPS pickup/deliveries at the office daily, and none of the drivers had the request to pick up the item. Finally, I took it to the UPS store.
    7. Music123 would not ship the replacement until they received the damaged unit, even though the whole thing was obviously their fault.

    www.Sweetwater.com
    Very professional outfit. Great advice. Free shipping on almost everything, plus they generally use FED-EX. They check and do a basic setup on every guitar they sell. I purchased the Variax 300 from Sweetwater and could not have picked out a better Variax from stock. The setup was perfect. Plus, I heard of the new Variax 300 firmware update as the order was pending. I called Sweetwater and asked if they would install the new firmware update, which they did (actually pulled the guitar from the shipping dock to do the install). Another service Sweetwater provides is an online (free) Trading Post. Last year I sold a Carvin Amp, Drum Machine, and my '70s Electro Harmonix pedals through their Trading Post service. I would make every purchase from Sweetwater except for one thing: They don't always carry the cheap stuff I usually buy. It seems like Sweetwater stocks and sells mid range guitars and above. But if they have it, they are my first choice. Ask for Craig Wilson.

    www.MusiciansFriend.com
    Very professional outfit, great prices, quick shipping. What I like about MusiciansFriend is they carry everything, much like Music123. Like most retailers, they price match. Plus, they run sales, free gifts, and rebates. If you're a careful shopper by price, often MusiciansFriend will end up being cheaper. Recently I sold my '79 Strat to finance a couple of acoustic guitars. I ordered three guitars from MusiciansFriend. The order included a rebate, a price match discount, a free guitar gig bag, and free shipping.

    No fault to MusiciansFriend, I was disappointed with two of the guitars. Both were factory-sealed, but setup very well. Nothing wrong with the guitars, I just decided that they were not for me. I called up MusiciansFriend to return them and without question they setup the return which included the return shipping by FED-EX. I was shocked. I assumed I would have to pay return shipping. All I had to do was print the mailing labels and tape them on the boxes (I kept the original packing materials). In my book, you can't beat that for customer service.

    Guitar Connection
    I don't know about their instrument merchandise, but this outfit has the absolute best prices on instructional materials for guitars and other musical instruments. I have found their prices to be at least %20 less than everyone else. So if you're looking for Hal Leonard, Mel Bay, Berklee, etc., check them out.

    Guitar Consultant
    While in this vein, if your looking for outstanding video lessons and instructional material, especially in the area of Rock Guitar and Shredding, check out Will Landrum's Guitar Consultant site. I know Will personally. He's not only an excellent musician and shredder, he's a great guy. He made me appreciate my equipment much more by simply playing through it for awhile. Actually, after listening to him play I was ready to just sell it all and get into basket weaving. Will also has a very different approach to videotaping his lessons. He video tapes from over the shoulder. Plus, the layout of his videos is very organized and easy to use, unlike some (e.g., ___________).



    Local Music Stores

    I prefer to purchase guitars locally if possible. Being able to select a specific guitar by playing it, handling it, is the advantage of the local store. No surprises. Ordering a guitar online is a gamble, although Sweetwater at least attempts to weed out problems with their testing and basic setup. We have all heard that tone, action, quality differs significantly within one model of one brand. For instance, I purchased a Squire Telecaster. I tried several but one really stood out. However, it did have one problem that the others did not: the string grooves in the nut were cut too high. The dealer (Modern Music - Lisle) took care of the problem, no charge. If I had purchased this guitar online, who knows....

    Modern Music - Lisle
    Modern Music is one of those great family-owned guitar/music stores. Good product knowledge and great service. Free neck (guitar) adjustments for life. And their prices match the online stores. Sure, you pay sales tax, but they more than make up for it with service. If they have it and there are no other offers to significantly sweeten the deal, I buy from them.

    Naperville Music - Naperville
    Naperville Music matches prices with online stores can carries a few brands that Modern Music does not carry (Gibson, Epiphone, Alvarez). Good product knowledge, great service. Though I have not used their lutherie services, I have heard good things. Recently I purchased my Alvarez nylon-string guitar from them--they gave me a great price and service on the sale.

    Tobias Music - Westmont
    You want a Taylor or other fine acoustic guitar? Tobias is hands-down the best place to buy it. Can't beat their prices and they setup each guitar for the player/buyer at the time of purchase. They set the action (grind the saddle) according to your playing style and taste. I have had heard numerous players complain that they would have purchased a Taylor, except the action was too high. Taylors (and most brands) setup the guitar before shipment with the action at the upper limit. It is the store's responsibility to dial it in for the buyer. Tobias takes this responsibility seriously. I would have purchased my dreadnought from them, but due to my finger injury, I need a wide neck and only Seagull offered the wider neck in my price range. When I'm ready to buy an upscale Taylor, Tobias will get my business without a second thought.

    Guitar Center - Villa Park and Aurora
    Guitar Center is not my favorite place to shop. The stores are busy and way too loud. How in the heck do they expect you to test out a musical instrument, especially an acoustic instrument, with the piped in music. I swear, one day, they had competing pipes of music at the same time. Could not wait to get out of there. So why shop there? Deals. It seems near the end of the month, you can really swing some sweet deals. If they won't deal, I won't buy at GC.

    Sam Ash
    Like GC, Sam Ash is not my favorite place to shop, but for some things they (and GC) are the only game in town. Keyboards for example. I wanted a cheap Synthesizer and could not make up my mind. Both GC and Sam Ash had the three keyboards I was interested in. I played them for hours (and I mean hours). Back and forth. Like GC, you can wheel and deal with Sam Ash. When dealing with GC and Sam Ash, if you go in knowing the prices, you can do pretty well. If they're not willing to cut the price, ask for add-ons (guitar case, gig bags, etc.).