Advice on Buying a Musical Instrument

Once a decision has been made to buy a musical instrument, it is important to realise that there is a lot of difference between the cheapest instruments and the most expensive. A beginner would probably be better starting off at the lower end of the market and then progress higher as their skills improve. A professional musician would be looking at the higher end of the market to obtain the quality of sound that they desire. The scale below illustrates the point.

If you are buying a new musical instrument, then a good look through the Yellow Pages would help you to locate the local musical instrument shops. It would then be worth visiting the shops to get a feel for the range of prices and expertise that they can offer, a long established shop maybe a good starting point as they have a reputation to maintain. Many larger musical instrument shops have a practice room where you can try out an instrument, however larger instruments may have to be played in the shop. There are also many online instrument shops these days which will also give you a good idea of the price range. If you end up buying an instrument from an online shop, don't forget to go down to a local shop to see if you can test out a similar model. It is important that you listen to the sound and get a good feel for the instrument before you buy it. Some examples of online shops are below and you can find more websites in our Useful Websites section:

Musical Instrument Sales Buy, Sell and Advertise all Second Hand Musical Instruments on the Net. Dealers, Shops, Makers and Repairers also listed. One of the largest classified musical instrument websites. www.musicalinstrumentsales.co.uk

Music Room - www.musicroom.com

If you have friends who have recently bought an instrument or know parents of your children's friends who have, then it would be a good idea to ask them for advice as they may have already done a lot of the research. Your child's music teacher may also be able to give you some good advice on where to start.

There is a wide range of specialist Publications / Magazines which can also be looked at and don't forget the internet for looking at a wide variety of online shops.Look through as many as you can, read the reviews and compare the prices. Sometimes a local library may also be able to loan out copies of a variety of music publications. Some examples of online magazines are below.

If you have decided to buy a second hand instrument then there are again many options available. The first is the small ads in your local newspaper, shops also sell second hand instruments and don't forget ebay as a lot more people are using them to sell their instruments.

More information is available on our Buying Tips and New OR Used Section.