The Cost of Cheap Equipment

The music equipment business trades on emotion as much or more than any other aspect of the music industry. But we have found there are real differences between instruments that cost less than $300 and those that run up to $1000. Still plenty of room for emotion to play a part too.

For instance, you might feel underdressed to play a big venue with a low-end instrument, even if nobody notices or cares. Pretty much an emotion thing there. But what if the battery dies in the middle of a set? Then you realize you have to use a screwdriver to replace it because they only put the quick-change doors on the more expensive model. You do keep a screwdriver in your case, right? Where is the case? They put it somewhere? Let's say emotion plays a part here too: panic. embarrassment. 

There are many manufacturing shortcuts that lower the purchase price but make an instrument impossible to set up properly or maintain. These are usually hardly noticeable. For instance our bass player had an instrument that had the audio jack fully embedded in the wood of the body. When it shorted out soon after purchase the only way to service it was to find a repair shop with a special removal tool, or send it back for a replacement.  From the outside it looked just like the jack on the more expensive models. It's cheaper/quicker to yank the jack into the hole with glue than to hold it in with a nut that is screwed on from the inside on a longer, more expensive part.

The most obvious sign of cheapness is usually the fret ends - if they aren't filed right they can be sharp enough to rub the skin off your hand. Another is the roll-off of the volume knob - does the volume smoothly descend to silence, or does it cut off 1/8 of a turn before you get to the stop?

More subtle are issues with making adjustments and replacements. The jack is a good example. Pickup height adjustment screws made of very soft metal with loctite on the ends. Look out for instruments that seem to be tuned several steps lower than normal. A new thing is acoustic guitars with what seem to be high-end wood veneer tops that are really more like decals of wood. Maybe OK for a Christmas gift to a Taylor wannabe?

That said our bass player is off to the music store to check out another bass with more strings this time - wish him luck : )

The music equipment business trades on emotion as much or more than any other aspect of the music industry. But we have found there are real differences between instruments that cost less than $300 and those that run up to $1000. Still plenty of room for emotion to play a part too.

For instance, you might feel underdressed to play a big venue with a low-end instrument, even if nobody notices or cares. Pretty much an emotion thing there. But what if the battery dies in the middle of a set? Then you realize you have to use a screwdriver to replace it because they only put the quick-change doors on the more expensive model. You do keep a screwdriver in your case, right? Where is the case? They put it somewhere? Let's say emotion plays a part here too: panic. embarrassment. 

There are many manufacturing shortcuts that lower the purchase price but make an instrument impossible to set up properly or maintain. These are usually hardly noticeable. For instance our bass player had an instrument that had the audio jack fully embedded in the wood of the body. When it shorted out soon after purchase the only way to service it was to find a repair shop with a special removal tool, or send it back for a replacement.  From the outside it looked just like the jack on the more expensive models. It's cheaper/quicker to yank the jack into the hole with glue than to hold it in with a nut that is screwed on from the inside on a longer, more expensive part.

The most obvious sign of cheapness is usually the fret ends - if they aren't filed right they can be sharp enough to rub the skin off your hand. Another is the roll-off of the volume knob - does the volume smoothly descend to silence, or does it cut off 1/8 of a turn before you get to the stop?

More subtle are issues with making adjustments and replacements. The jack is a good example. Pickup height adjustment screws made of very soft metal with loctite on the ends. Look out for instruments that seem to be tuned several steps lower than normal. A new thing is acoustic guitars with what seem to be high-end wood veneer tops that are really more like decals of wood. Maybe OK for a Christmas gift to a Taylor wannabe?

That said our bass player is off to the music store to check out another bass with more strings this time - wish him luck : )