Preparing Gear for Sale

If you're selling or part exchanging gear you'll obviously want to get the best price for it, so it really pays to get it into the best possible condition. As I'm into electronics I'll deal with that side of the gear market and leave drums and percussion to our resident experts Bob Henrit and Tony Horkins at a later date.

Amps, Cabs and Combos

How much you squeeze out of the buyer depends on how "well looked after" the gear looks and how it performs electrically, so we'll look at these two areas in that order.

Appearance: The vast majority of gear is covered with black rexine which makes tarting it up relatively easy. For scruffy rexine a rub down with Ajax liquid followed by a damp cloth will get rid of the dirt. Allow it to thoroughly dry and then use black boot polish followed by a good buffing. (A buffer pad on an electric drill makes this job a doddle). If the rexine is torn then stick the flap back with Evo-Stik and touch in the edges with a permanent black felt tip marker pen. The marker pen is also useful for scratches on the rexine and on black painted panels. If there is a particularly bad patch on the rexine you can, as a last resort, cover it with a sticker like the "Keep Music Live" ones that we at IM&RW sometimes hand out. (These have got a lot more street credibility than the ones you get in Shreddies packs.)

Finally if the rexine is so bloody awful (eg the cat has used the cab as a scratching post, you dropped corrosive sweet & sour sauce over it etc) that it can't be disguised you'll have to consider recovering it. For 30p Adam Hall Supplies, (Contact Details), will send you their catalogue of goodies including rexine, carrying handles, castors, protective corners, etc.

If your cabinet covering is a more glorious shade then furniture polish will do a reasonable job. Try matching tears and scratches with permanent felt tip pens — I say permanent because it gets a bit embarrassing if the customer touches the cabinet and comes away with coloured hands.

Next in line are the knobs which often give an impression of how well-used the gear is. If they won't clean up then you might consider buying a new set from the manufacturer/distributor. A classic case in point is the silver knobs used on the early HH gear which show distinct and unflattering wear after a few months. New knobs will set you back between 30p and 50p each and may well be worth it.

Loose covers often get torn along the piping and can give an otherwise smart looking bit of gear a shabby appearance so have a go at them with the iron-on repair tape sold in many haberdashery shops — it comes in loads of colours so you're sure to get a reasonable match. If the cover is beyond repair, then throw it out and sell the gear without a cover ("Well I've only ever used it at home so I've never needed the cover and I don't know where it is at the moment").

Electrical: The most damning thing when selling an amp is to try and explain away the crackles when the controls are turned. These can usually be cured as follows:

1. Unplug from the mains.

2. Remove the casing until the backs of the potentiometers are get-at-able.

3. Get a bottle of cleaner (Carbon Tetrachloride, Tetrachloromethane, CTC — same thing, different names, available from chemists or, if you can't get that, Dabitoff or Thawpit stain remover from hardware shops) and a pipette (an eye dropper will do).

4. Drop some cleaner into the slot in the pot (see Fig 1) and turn the knob back and forth about 50 times. If necessary repeat this until the crackles disappear. Any spilt cleaner will not harm the amplifier guts and will evaporate in a few minutes.

5. If the crackling still exists after three attempts at cleaning then you will need to replace the pot — a new one will cost less than £1. To be sure of getting the correct type either make a careful note of all the numbers printed on the back or stamped around the edge of the pot or, having carefully sketched which wire goes where, unsolder it, remove it and take it with you to the shop. (A radio/TV repair shop rather than a music one).

The other dodgy area on second hand gear tends to be jack sockets. The all metal, skeleton-type sockets can usually be improved by roughening up the spring contact with sandpaper and then bending it in a little to improve the contact pressure (see Fig 2). Closed sockets (the plastic type) area bit more of a problem. The contacts tend to suffer from oxidation and can sometimes be cleaned by inserting a rat-tail file and wiggling it about a bit. This is usually only a temporary solution but who cares? It won't be your problem. If you can't cure it a new socket only costs 30p-50p.

Keyboards

Most of the comments on amps etc apply to keyboards, however there are a couple of other points. Many keyboards use wooden end cheeks and these tend to take the brunt of the damage. Scratches in dark wood can often be covered by making up a little instant coffee with a few drops of water and then applying as a stain with a cotton bud. White stains caused by hot coffee cups and so on can be removed by rubbing with a walnut (shelled) — it takes patience but it works beautifully.

Guitars

Most of the points about guitars are pretty obvious but you'd be surprised how many people try to sell their guitars with year-old strings on. Things like a thorough clean and polish, new strings and an HB pencil line in the nut if it creaks go without saying. But what about the intonation? The note at the twelfth fret should be an exact octave from the open string and if it isn't, it should be adjusted. The advent of electronic tuners makes the job a bit easier but it can be done in the good old fashioned way — by ear. As tuners are so popular, I'll assume you can get your hands on one, so here we go:

1. Fit new strings and thoroughly stretch them to bed them in.

2. Plug into the tuner and tune the guitar.

3. Lightly touch the top string above the 12th fret wire and play the string. A bell-like harmonic should be heard.

4. If necessary, fine tune the string until the tuner shows top E exactly.

5. Damp the string to stop it vibrating and to allow the tuner to reset.

6. Play the E string at 12th fret in the normal way and compare the tuner reading with that for the harmonic. If the intonation for that string is correct the readings should be identical. If the played note is sharp compared with the harmonic the string needs lengthening; if it is flat the string needs shortening.

7. Use a small screwdriver to adjust the bridge saddle (see Fig 3). Usually a clockwise turn of the adjuster screw will pull the saddle back making the string (as measured between saddle and nut) longer, anticlockwise makes it shorter. In other words if the played note is sharp turn clockwise, if it's flat turn anticlockwise.

8. Turn the screw 1/4 of a turn and recheck from stage 3. The movement of the saddle will have shifted the tuning of the string so you will have to retune at stage 4.

9. Repeat until the string octave is correct.

10. Repeat for the other strings. With some guitars, such as the Telecaster, each saddle adjusts two strings and so you often have to work for the best compromise for each pair of strings.

Buying Second Hand Gear — A Hagglers' Guide

Having read the first part of this article you should be well aware of a few things to look for but for hagglers everywhere I humbly submit the following extra points:

Amps

1. Look at the power rating and the load into which it is specified. Check that the power rating is in watts RMS not "Music Power" or "American Watts" — 100 watts Music Power is only about 50 watts RMS. It's also worth pointing out that "100W RMS into 2Ω" will not give as much power as 100W RMS into 8Ω "when running through a "normal" 8Ω speaker rig.

2. Carefully check the specification plate, don't go by the name. A "Twin 100" amp could well be a 50 watt (RMS) amp with two input sockets!

3. Check the condition of the casing and cover.

4. Do the pots crackle?

5. Is there an almighty (and potentially damaging) thump through the speakers when the amp is switched on from cold?

6. If it has a detachable mains lead does it have the new moulded flat type, IEC plug and socket or the (very) old fashioned (and troublesome) Bulgin system? (see Fig 4). If the amp has a Bulgin, give it a thump near the Bulgin plug and you'll almost certainly get the most appalling crackle — now that's something to haggle about!

7. Turn up full volume and tone and listen for excessive hiss and "fried eggs" crackling sounds.

8. Plug in an instrument and play hard listening for sound break-up.

Speaker Cabs

1. Turn the amp full up, play a guitar/synth loud and listen for distortion.

2. Play a loud, low note and listen for cabinet rattle or buzz.

3. Make sure all the drivers are working by putting your ear to each one in turn.

Mikes

1. Check for tone and clarity, preferably by comparing with a mike you already know.

2. Check 'pop' rejection by reciting "Peter Piper..."

3. Thrash the lead around with the amp turned up to a reasonable volume and, listen for crackles.

4. Check that it's the right impedance to work with your system.

5. Look for rusting around the grille.

6. Check how easily it feeds back (often difficult to tell in a small room so take a mike to compare).

7. Does it hum if you let go of the metal case (faulty earth)?

Guitar

1. Is the neck bent or warped? If it is, go no further — find another guitar.

2. Is the action OK? Play every note on the board and listen for fret buzz.

3. Are the nut slots excessively worn, can the strings move sideways in them?

4. Are the frets worn or badly finished at the ends?

5. Does it intonate accurately?

6. Does it hold tune after heaving the tremolo arm?

7. Do all the pickups and controls work as expected?

8. Does it hum when you let go of all the metal parts including strings (faulty earth)?

Keyboards

These are so specialised that you really must take someone with you who knows, if you yourself don't.

All these points are, of course, in addition to the obvious questions "Do I like the sound/looks/feel/etc?"

So there we are — spot a few minor faults, exaggerate them and then start haggling — if you can't get at least 10% off then I disown you!