Tag: used instruments

The Used Instrument Market is Changing

Have you noticed that the used instrument market is changing? Pianists, ignore this. Your market is the same.

For as long as I can remember, you could get a decent used student or intermediate flute for 80-90% off retail, and a used pro flute for 40-50% off. It didn’t matter how old or new the instrument was, it took an immediate plunge and stayed there. Those numbers are no more.

I’m a huge supporter of buying used instruments, and I practice what I preach. I’ve been looking for an intermediate flute for my daughter for about 6 months, and I’m consistently seeing used intermediate flutes go for 15 – 30% off retail. That’s a big difference from before. To me, that’s not a used price. That’s a sale.

While I was looking around, I decided to mosey on over to the flutes that are on my wish list. I really want a Haynes Q3 or an Altus 1107 with a gold riser. The pro flute market hasn’t changed much, to the point where I could get a used pro flute for the same price as a used intermediate. Hmmm. What’s up with that?

Used Car Market has Parallels to Used Instrument Market

I did some digging. I found some parallels between the used car market and the used flute market. Remember how for the past couple of years, you couldn’t get a new car if your life depended on it? There was something about the computer chips being stuck in a shipping snafu. The used car market skyrocketed, up to 4 times the normal price because people were still getting in situations where they needed to replace vehicles.

Once new vehicles became available again, the used cars came back down in price. They’re still not at what they were before, but the market is calming down.

A similar thing happened in the musical instrument market. The flute parts are mostly made in Asia, even if they’re assembled here in the USA. With the shipping situation that happened in the past three years, the instrument makers couldn’t get a hold of parts to make new instruments. I heard that new instruments were on backorder for 6 months during the past few years.

The student market and the intermediate market have a little more urgency than the pro market. If a person wants to start playing an instrument in school, they usually get a new one. With the new instruments on back-order, the people who would normally buy new had to buy used.

The intermediate instruments have a little less urgency. In flute, usually a student will upgrade to an intermediate after 3-5 years. They won’t be held back by their instrument until about the 5-6 year mark or so, so they have a little bit of breathing room. Still, once an instrument is holding you back, you need to upgrade.

The pro instruments are handmade, so they’re not held back as much by shipping issues. Less people get to a pro level so there’s less demand. Even if they outgrow their intermediate, oftentimes a musician will know how to make do until they can afford a new instrument (me!). With delayed gratification already happening, people are more likely to say, “That’s okay, I’ll wait.”

How to Handle the Changes

The used car market has gone towards normal levels for the past 6 months. I would expect the used instrument market to do the same within the next 6 months or so. We’ll see.

Here’s what I’m going to do. First I’m going to wait 6 months to see if the prices go down. If they do, I’ll get a used intermediate flute for my daughter.

If the prices don’t go down by this summer, I figure I have a few options:

  1. Get an intermediate headjoint from a parts flute for less than $50 off ebay, in the brand that works well for her, and find a used intermediate flute that’s a less expensive brand than the ones she likes. Have my tech fit the headjoint to the cheaper flute.
  2. Get a pro flute for the same price as the ones that she likes. Do the same thing as above with the headjoint.
  3. Just buy a new intermediate flute. There isn’t enough of a price difference to warrant getting a used one.

How about you? What would you do in this situation?

Guess I Need to Buy a Trumpet

It all started at my studio Christmas recital. My oldest child was getting ready to play her solo on Clarinet. I noted that I don’t teach her anymore on Clarinet, but she still wanted to play in the recital. I’ve done that in the past with other people. For the record, I still teach her piano.

I went on to say that back in college I took all the pedagogy courses which helped me be certified through 8th grade on all the wind and percussion instruments. My oldest is now in high school, so I handed her over to a clarinet specialist.

I got a phone call shortly after the recital, asking to start two young trumpet players. They’re below band age, but I knew that technology has changed. If I can start a flute player in 1st grade due to new technology in flutes, I can definitely start a trumpet in 1st grade. The trumpet only uses a quarter of the volume of air as the flute (not talking about backpressure) and they don’t have to worry about a long reach with the arms.

Research time!

I love research. My favorite way to do it is to sit there with a cup of coffee and 20 tabs open on my browser, reading through each website that popped up on my internet search.

I looked at a ton of websites, and they all agreed that the pTrumpet was the way to go, especially for children under 5th grade. The reason for this is not because of lung development, but because of the weight of a regular trumpet vs. a plastic trumpet. A regular trumpet is just too heavy for the littles.

My trumpet mom bought the trumpets at Reverb (affiliate link) because that was the best price I could find, being on sale for 50% off for Christmas. I didn’t see any at my local music stores. I also didn’t think to ask, so, if you’re reading this, sorry!

Now I had to research which what the best trumpet method book to buy. I looked at a ton of websites to see what the best method books were out there for trumpet. I saw a bunch of them recommended band method books, but I wanted something specifically written for trumpet.

The number one ranked was Rubank (affiliate link). Well, I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, lol. The Rubank series has been a standard for band instruments for decades. I trust it.

There were a few websites that also recommended using Arban along with the Rubank. It’s a $45 book, which I thought was a little steep for a brand new beginner book, even though it’s supposed to stick with you all the way through college. I figure I’ll mention it later once they’re a little more serious.

Time to Message Musician Gear Garage

So, I’ve made it pretty clear that I love buying used instruments, especially when first starting out. As soon as I was done doing the research for my client, I messaged my friend, Chad, over at Musician Gear Garage. I said, “Welp, I need to buy a trumpet.”

Chad asked me what my budget was and I told him. He told me he had an Olds Ambassador from the early 60’s. Due to my purposes, he said that it would be a great fit for me. I should have something better than a student trumpet for teaching as I get better and better.

He told me that Olds started out as a professional instrument maker. As the student market grew, they took their professional trumpets, stamped them with the Ambassador label, and sold them as student trumpets. They did that until 1964 when they merged with Reynolds.

“Sold!” I said, and I set up an appointment to do my yearly checkup for my woodwind instruments, at which I’d buy up my new trumpet.

Buying a “New” Trumpet

When I got there, I dropped off my woodwinds and said, “So, where’s my new trumpet?” We opened it up and it was a shade of brass that I’d never seen before. It has almost a reddish tone to it.

He had a wide selection of mouthpieces for me to try out to check which one I liked the most. As I stood there buzzing, I double-checked every mouthpiece after I made my decision. As I tried them out, I was getting better. Due to this phenomenon, I changed my decision at least three times. I finally settled on a standard 7C (I can’t remember the brand, lol).

I really loved the fact that he allowed me to try out all the mouthpieces for my individual best fit. I’m sure I wouldn’t get that kind of treatment if I were to buy a trumpet at most other places.

Maintenance

This is what he told me about maintenance:

  1. Valve Oil should happen any time you feel one of the valves sticking. He showed me a different way to put in the valve oil that makes it less likely that you will ruin a valve.
  2. Slide Oil should happen once a week. I like to do those types of things on Sundays.
  3. A Bath should happen once per quarter. It’s just a little dish soap in the bathtub and your disassembled trumpet (minus the felt pads).

As long as I meet these requirements, I don’t need to bring in my instrument regularly like I do a woodwind. I only have to bring it in when something is stuck or dented. Woohoo!

So, that’s the story about how I bought my first trumpet. I had a lot of fun doing it. Stay tuned for hearing about my first week playing it.