We have been renting instruments to
Schools throughout New Jersey Since 1965 !!!
PARENT ALERT!
A Note of Caution
Music Educators would like to caution you and deliver a word of warning to parents regarding the purchase of any musical instrument.
First, we highly recommend that beginning students rent their instruments, rather than purchase. Our rental plan applies all payments towards the purchase price of the instrument you are renting and discounts upon early purchase. Also, we provide instrument repair for our customers.
Secondly, we recommend parents not buy an instrument from vendors who are not specifically band instrument rental companies. These non-music stores are vendors such as department store catalogs, discount membership warehouses, on-line purchases, etc. Several problems can exist with these types of purchases:
- The quality of these instruments is generally poor, and will cause playing problems for your child.
- When these instruments need repair, the repair can be difficult and more costly than the cost of a quality instrument, therefore, local music stores usually will not repair instruments purchased as stated above.
- When your child is ready to purchase an instrument, your school music teacher can recommend quality brands of instruments.
Low price instruments, although appealing in price, are of low quality, and can lead to low student achievement.
Note: The instrument you are renting from Garden State Music Center is a QUALITY NAME BRAND and is recommended by band directors nationwide for their durability and performance.
A Letter from Garden State Music
Dear Band Director,
We at Garden State Music Center have always considered our repair shop an integral pan of our school service business. Unfortunately, we are now starting to see instruments that are posing service problems. Bargain hunters are finding really inexpensive instruments on the Internet, in discount stores, and in some catalogs. Sadly, these instruments are not bargains. We believe most of them originate in India and China, and the manufacturing processes used to make them fall far below the standards we have all been accustomed to seeing in well-known brands such as Selmer, Conn, Yamaha, Leblanc, King , Armstrong, Gemeinhardt, etc.
Because they are often made from “pot metal” disassembling even a part of a horn can cause a key to break. It is difficult to solder this material because of its comparatively low melting temperature. “Pot Metal” has several definitions according to the American Heritage Dictionary.
1. A copper and lead alloy, formerly used in making plumbing fixtures.
2. A cast iron used especially in making pots.
3. An inexpensive alloy of poor quality, usually containing lead, used especially in making castings: cheap jewelry made from plated pot metal.
We can not in good conscience try to repair these instruments. There are no parts available. Even attempting a simple repair can cause a bigger problem than the initial one. In addition, the materials and craftsmanship do not respond to adjustments for any length of time. In most cases, we will not be able to repair these instruments.
We hope that you will use your expertise to set minimum standards for your program and the instruments required. Further, we hope you will act as guides for your student's parents so that they will not be taken in by the promise of a $129 clarinet or a $100 violin. The bitterness caused by poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price. Naturally, we will continue to stand behind the products we sell and all others that are repairable by normal practices.
I hope that you have a great and productive school year.
Sincerely,
Garden State Music Center
“Cheap Junk,” eBay, And Coping Strategies
As Appeared in Music Trades Magazine May 2003
Americans' growing acceptance of purchasing products online is reaching the music products industry mme than ever. Not surprisingly, many of the school music dealers attending NASMD were ready to weigh in on the topic of instrument sales on the internet, typically citing eBay, e-commerce's dominant consumer merchandise site. One of the more illustrative "horror stories" about shoddy instruments shared at the convention came from junior-high band director Gale Mallory. "One child brought in a clarinet she'd bought on the internet for $100," she recalled. "It had no brand on it We never could get anything out of the lower register because the keys were totally messed up; the tone holes were cut higher than the keys-but she got a 'great deaL' I convinced her mother that that instrument just wouldn't work, and she bought another clarinet"
Several dealers reported that their service departments refuse to repair the really cheap instruments. In some cases, a lack of spare parts makes repairs impossible. On woodwinds, the keys are typically made of "cheap pot metal" that breaks when handled not only by the child owner/renter, but by the service people when a repair is attempted. In the worst cases, attempts to solder this metal, with its low melting temperature, causes further, irreparable damage. More than a frustration, this situation can result in legal liabilities for the store when parents claim that the dealer is responsible for instrument breakage.
Kidder Music Services recently took dramatic action, distributing a letter that cautions, band directors and music students' parents about the risks of purchasing cheap foreign-made musical instruments from the internet, discount stores, and some catalogs." In frank, no-holds-barred language, Kidder Vice President Beth Houlihan actually names brands to be avoided, cautions that Kidder will likely not be able to repair poor-quality instruments, and counsels, "The bitterness caused by poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price." Jim Kidder asserted, "The sad part is that some parents think they're giving their child an adequate chance at music when they buy a $69 piece of junk. They think, 'My son or daughter didn't succeed, but I did my job'- but in reality, they set their child up to fail"
Menchey Music Service's Joel Menchey emphasizes his store's repair service at parent meetings, but only compares it with the lack of service available when products are purchased online "if the issue comes up; clearly we don't want to volunteer alternatives to our program. We let them know that service and the ability to repair the instrument are factors they should consider when making the purchase. Fortunately, in most school programs the band directors do the dirty work for us. The band director is perceived as the neutral party, with no vested interest in encouraging the parents buy a more expensive instrument. But in reality they do have a significant Interest; to a degree, the success of their program depends on the playability of their students' instruments."
Despite the vexing problems with cheap, foreign-made horns, several dealers pointed out that foreign-made doesn't necessarily equate with poor quality. "There's a difference between the products we're referring to as junk made in India, Pakistan, China-wherever-and the ones we get from our American suppliers, even if their horns are actually made in Asia," said Jim Kidder. "When our American suppliers go over there to produce their horns, at least they're going to provide their customers a parts list. As long as the products are coming from a reliable, consistent source, and the customer and the dealer have recourse for breakage and damage, I feel comfortable with that." Arts Music Shop's Ron Mallory suggested that eBay is an acceptable source "for folks who are educated about the quality brands and what a good horn is made of. But first time buyers seem to look only for price, and as we all know, cheaper doesn't mean better. Our part of the industry is centered around parents and first-time buyers. Those are the people who really need to get a good start with a quality instrument-and the ones who can be hurt the most buy a bad one."
Several dealers said they know that they are losing sales to eBay, but don't have any way of knowing how many. Bill Harvey of Buddy Roger's Music submitted, "If the people who go onto eBay never came into our store to begin with, are we really losing them?" Joel Menchey believes that his store is losing some margin dollars from eBay, but less in the band and orchestra area than in combo, pointing out that the used gear that's typically offered online often brings higher-margin sales than new products. And Jim Kidder commented, "I hear someone say 'eBay' nearly every day, whether it's a telephone call from someone who's seen a product offered on eBay or someone bringing in a horn for repair that they'd bought online. What's more worrisome are all the eBay horn purchases we don't hear about; there are probably 30 times more of those-the ones traditional retailers don't have a chance to recoup or convert to sales."
While no one expressed real fondness for eBay, some dealers said they are resigned to competing with web sales, al . a few have actually begun using the internet in a limited way for particular product categories. Joel Menchey has sold products on eBay, "particularly electronics with a 'shelf-life: and we got cost out of them. In a way," he said, "if it's used correctly, selling gear on the internet can be a better method of liquidation than a blow-out sale, because we don't spoil our own market."
Buddy Roger's Music uses eBay to sell unique items not typically carried in its stores. "Say you get a Buescher 400 tenor sax," said Bill Harvey. "Most people who come into our store just see that as an old sax. But on eBay, somebody, somewhere in the world is looking for a Buescher 400. The best example we had was when we took in a wood contrabass clarinet five years ago and decided not to put any money into repairing it until we started seeing some interest. We talked to the school directors in our area, and no one was interested. When we finally got involved with eBay, that bass clarinet was one of the first things we put on it, and we sold it in two weeks for $2,000, as-is, without any repairs. We would have been happy to get $400 for it!"
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