Learning instruments - anyone bought second hand?

[costagirl]

DS keen to learn clarinet - really want to encourage him,and can afford the lessons in school, but am a bit at price of buying/renting new instrument. Has anyone bought second hand and found it ok?

Yep, we bought a second hand clarinet for DS about 6 years ago (and it was second hand when we bought it, so it's really third hand!) and it's been great.

We'll probably buy a new one next year, because he's studying as one of his standard-grade / higher subjects.

We bought it from a small ad in the paper, but we had to wait several weeks till one was advertised. You could try Gumtree.

Took advice from my daughters music teacher, a friend who knows about such things and went to music shops and sussed things out in terms of makes etc. Then bought a lovely sax on Ebay for about a third of what it would have cost new. (And saxaphones aren't cheap!) Didn't go for the first one on Ebay - spent a while lurking and then did the usual of sticking to my budget when bidding. Lost a few but kept at it and got it in the end. A little time consuming but a) I saved about £300 and b) I know a lot more about the sax than I did before which comes in handy.

Good luck! (And Gumtree and Freecycle are good too - I was looking on them as well but Ebay came up trumps first)

Also, if it's a peripatetic tutor, he or she might know pupils from other schools who are selling one.

I learned clarinet on a 3rd hand (plastic) instrument and bought my (very nice) wooden clarinet 3rd or even 4th hand.

As far as I know, it makes little difference with a plastic clarinet, though you might want to buy a new mouthpiece. With wooden, it can be better to have a "played in" instrument, though in this case you might want to have it serviced, pads replaced etc as well as the mouthpiece. Mine also needed a cork seal replacing but was still several hundred pounds cheaper than a new one (i got it in a pawn shop!).

We have been borrowing the LEA clarinet for the last year for DS1 and are thinking about getting him his own. The teacher is very particular on the make and wants to check over any second hand instrument before we buy. I would advise asking the teacher before buying. Maybe your LEA have a spare or maybe she knows somebody who wants to give up and has one to sell. The teacher was very wary about us getting one off ebay or something. Persumably she has seem some bad ones pass her through her classes.

Alternatively, what we are looking at is leasing one for about £15. After 6 months you can opt for putting the money towards paying for purchasing it as well. Makes it much more affordable.

There are some very good deals available on leasing instruments. If you are not sure the child will stick with it or if it is an instrument that grows with the child (eg: quarter size to half size etc) it can be a good idea. Not sure where you are but could recommend a music company in the south London/South Coast area who do this. When we needed to buy we took our leased instrument back to them and they gave us a choice of several second hand ones to buy - best to see the instrument and possibly play it a little before buying. Also there was a govt scheme last year to buy instruments (including second hand) on an interest free basis over a year, which was very good. Not sure if it is still running but any music shop could advise.

Thanks for your comments. We can rent an instrument on monthly direct debit, if DS gives up within 6 months we just hand it back, or after 2 years we own it. Guess this is reasonable.