How about picking out a student cello?!

BassDad
Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:29:49 +0000

A lot depends on how likely your child is to stick with the instrument, how likely the instrument is to get damaged in the course of the time you have it and how risk-averse you are.

Rental has the advantage that you know your total cost up front. It will be $700-$800 for two years and you know that if anything happens to the first one, you can have a replacement in a couple of days at no additional cost. You also have the advantage that if your child grows a bit faster than expected or decides that they really wanted to play double bass, you can swap instruments with no fuss. If your child loses interest after a couple of months, presumably you can return the instrument and cut your losses.

Some rental places have programs where they let you apply a percentage of your rental payments toward a future instrument purchase. At $30/month or so, I doubt that is part of your plan.

If you buy a package including a decent carved Chinese instrument, a nylon case and a fiberglass bow, your minimum cost will be about $800 (including a new set of strings and some minor adjustments after the first year.) You can probably sell it in a couple of years for about $300 - $400 if it is still in reasonably good shape, without any cracks and no more than a couple of minor scratches. Instead of $800 out of pocket, you might be $400 to $500 and have a somewhat nicer instrument to boot.

However, if the instrument is seriously damaged at any point it could cost more than it is worth to get it repaired, making it a total loss. Would your insurance cover it if, say, a stand partner tripped and put their knee through the front of your kid’s instrument? How about if someone didn’t stow things properly on the school bus and a runaway vibraphone landed on it?