Phil Walsh takes a breakfrom his regular Workbench column to guide you through buying second-hand equipment.

Buying and Selling Secondhand Gear

One of the great joys of playing in a band is getting together just the right equipment for you. As the character of the band develops so do your equipment needs and certainly in the early days of a band's life it is likely that these needs will change fairly quickly. As with other prices in the market place the cost of gear follows the reverse Spinning Wheel law — "What goes up won't come down..." It is therefore distinctly advantageous to buy second hand gear provided you can be sure that you've not been sold a sheep in wolf's clothing — well there's no prizes for guessing that this month in Workbench is all about surviving in the second-hand jungle.

Buying:- Shop vs Private?

This is a debate that will rage on even after this definitive, state of the art discussion, but I may as well put my spoke in by outlining some of the pros and cons.

In a shop you can generally expect to pay about 70% of the cost of the new items for one in very good condition, and that includes VAT. (It's nice to see the Government raking it in — they got the VAT on the original 'New' sale and then rake it in again when it's resold as second-hand — that's what I call a nice racket.)

Comeback: In buying from a shop it is likely that you can glean some sort of guarantee from them — usually between three and six months — but it's worth tying it down. Phrases such as "Well if something does go wrong just bring it back and we'll have a look" don't cut much mustard if they've come from a shop assistant with no authority to promise anything. I would insist on it being spelled out in writing exactly what you get for your money — parts only? Parts & Labour? It's also worth finding out if the shop will offer servicing after that guarantee has run out and also whether the servicing will be done on site or contracted out — which can often take a long time.

Advantages: If you don't know precisely the make and model of equipment you're looking for then shops have a big advantage in being able to offer a range of equipment for you to try out and compare. Also you can usually use your credit card to spread the load (though it's a lot cheaper to takeout a bank loan).

Furthermore, you are protected by the Sale of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973, which states that the goods must be of merchantable quality, ie they must be fit for the purpose for which they were sold. Thus if an amplifier suddenly doesn't work two hours after you leave the shop, you are entitled to a refund.

HP is available from a shop, usually on goods over £100. If your individual costs come to less than that you can put all your group gear on one HP contract in one person's name. However, if you're under 18 or not a homeowner they may require someone 'of substance' to guarantee the loan — once again a personal loan from a bank works out cheaper.

Disadvantages: Buying from a shop is usually, though not always, more expensive than buying privately — it's the dreaded VAT you see. Also, it is usually more difficult to haggle in shops, though personally I would never dream of not trying. I usually start by trying to pick faults in the gear, mentioning the fact that it's a bit more than I can afford and then slapping in a bid of about 80% of the asking price in the hope that I will eventually get about 10% off. As the last resort you can try the Access/Barclaycard trick. Access/Barclaycard charge shops 2-5% of the cost of each sale for the privilege of using their system. The dodge goes like this: agree a price, then ask if they will accept Access, when they accept, offer to pay in cash less the 3% Access commission. Try it on — I've got a 70% success rate!

Private

Cost is generally cheaper than shops — reckon on paying about 60% of the list price. In particular there are some real bargains to be picked up from people who don't realise the value of what they've got. It's very much the luck of the draw. The only real bargain I can genuinely lay claim to was an original VOX AC30 (with the original blue label Vox speakers) which I picked up for £30 through the local newsagent's boards.

Comeback: In a nutshell — you ain't got none! It's very much a case of buyer beware. If you end up buying rubbish then it's tough luck — but more about that later.

Advantages: The most obvious one is price, especially with the advantage of a much better haggling position. Then there's the fact that during a private sale you don't have to endure the music shop show offs — you know, the type who grab a guitar (slightly detuned) and play the one run (usually Stairway to Heaven) they know at top volume expecting everyone to swoon in admiration.

Disadvantages: Quite simply, there's no guarantee, no possibility of after sales service and you're not protected by the Sale of Goods Act.

Part Exchange

You will notice that so far I've made no mention of part exchange. It's very difficult to know whether to classify part exchange as an advantage or disadvantage of buying in a shop. Whatever price you're offered is going to be pretty low because the shop has to add on its profit and VAT before it resells. This means, in practice, that you can expect to get about 40% of the new price. At this price you're virtually giving your old gear away, but there again if you need the money you may have to do just that. If you have got gear that you're replacing the choices, in order of preference, are sell privately and buy privately, sell privately and buy at a shop, or part exchange at a shop.

Now the general advice given to anyone buying second-hand gear is that if you don't know a lot about the equipment you're after, take someone along who does know and who won't be bamboozled by high powered sales pitches. The big problem is that your 'expert' may be better at sounding expert than actually being expert. Unless you're really sure he/she knows his/her stuff it might be better to become an expert yourself. This, of course, is a plug for next month's Workbench, when we'll go through the tricks of the trade — and show you how to prepare your gear to get the highest price for it whilst at the same time pointing out faults to look for when you're buying, in order to beat down the price.

Buying — General Points

It's amazing the number of people who decide that they want, say, a new amp and then buy on impulse. Whilst there's nothing wrong in this I would advocate a more structured approach. Try to sit down and make a list of the features you actually need. For example a list for an amplifier might look something like:

Number of channels — 2
High or low input — both
Reverb — Don't mind
Graphic — Yes
Effects loop — Yes
Channel switching — Yes
Two stage volume controls — Yes
Built-in effects — No
Tape in/out facility — No
Output Power — 100 Watts RMS
Output impedance — 8Ω

Armed with this list you can then attack your back issues of IM&RW and sort out a shortlist of amplifier makes and models to look for.

I would urge you to try to buy popular gear — it's usually popular because it's good, reliable and has stood the test of time. It does tend to cost more than lesser known gear but it also holds its value and has a higher resale potential. Buying a 'Krap Super 100' head may save you money in the first place but if it goes wrong circuit diagrams may be in short supply and nobody will know how to fix it, so fixing it will take longer (at about £15 per hour). When you come to resell it, nobody will want it for anything more than a half chewed Polo. (The mint, not the car).

Gear that has recently been superseded tends to be cheaper and very often shops will clear out old models (that are brand new) at something close to second-hand price to make way for the new models. This is only a general rule — look out for the exceptions. Roland recently brought out a new, improved range that was actually cheaper than the range it replaced — you can't trust anything these days!

Next month — Preparing gear for sale — Knock-down points in buying — haggler's guide.