The Last Word: Used is More Useful Than Ever

Feeling used? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing. The world of “pre-owned” has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years. Sales of existing homes are back on track, exceeding the sales of new ones not only in numbers (duh, there’s way more of them) but also in terms of price-rate increases in many key markets. Then, the used car that once drew a supercilious eye has become the badge of enlightened frugality, with overall transaction prices for used cars up 15 percent in 2014, says USA Today. But the effect is especially pronounced when the “certified pre-owned” category is considered. That cohort in December posted a 21-percent increase in the amount that customers paid for the cars compared to the same month last year, reports CNW Research.

A similar phenomenon seems to be taking place in the universe of “pre-loved” MI gear and to some extent used pro audio equipment. NAMM doesn’t track them, but used/consignment shops – stores that sell nothing but used equipment that they either buy outright from sellers or represent on consignment from them – are popping up, in the big centers like New York and Los Angeles but also in the newly revitalized Midwest, in places like Kansas City and Nashville. That’s where Rick Reith and Tom Bukovac opened Second Gear, in Music City’s Berry Hill neighborhood, which is fast becoming the new geographical hub for music there as the old Music Row area is bulldozed for upscale apartments and glitzy watering holes. As the store’s one-year anniversary comes up in February, Reith, a live-sound engineer (Bukovac is a first-call session guitarist in Nashville), says the demand for a place like his, which is as much an ad hoc hang as a retail proposition, seems to be growing. And the Millennial generation may be why.

Looking For Something Different

“People seemed to be looking for something different in a store,” he told me. He makes the distinction between used guitars and vintage ones, the latter being left to the big players in town like Gruhn’s and Carter Guitars. But that still leaves most of the pre-owned world available, and it’s territory he and others are happy to inhabit.

As are their customers, who have learned to call ahead to make sure the shop is open, knowing that both partners still ply their respective other careers at times. In fact, that sense of multiple day jobs fits nicely with the Millennial reality that no one is ever going to have just one job anymore. And younger musicians and their budgets are the sweet spot for used instruments and equipment.

Used also fits with the growing yearning for quality in the larger culture. Just as the growing cohort of audiophiles will put up with the higher costs and inconveniences of vinyl (what’s a turntable?), many younger musicians will spring for a used guitar or bass or horn even though many of the new ones in the budget categories are actually astoundingly good axes, which take advantage of the manufacturing technologies and efficiencies that have come about since the days when most of us looked down on Asian-made Strat wannabe’s. Again, this is still staying out of the vintage realm, where prices, though not as stratospheric as they were a decade or so ago, are still put of reach for many.

The Pro Side

This effect is being seen on the pro audio side, as well, though not as pronouncedly. When the emphasis swung to digital in music production, the bottom fell out of the high-end vintage equipment market. What might have been a bit of resurgence in that category was blunted by the success of plug-in versions of gear like Urei LA-4 compressor/limiters. They’re still out there, but prices on eBay have continued to decline. Nonetheless, the trade in them remains brisk even at lower price levels. And interestingly, many of them are finding their way into the used-MI stores.

Used-instrument shops are becoming a locus for a new generation of players who have been brought up in the sharing economy, where ownership isn’t as prized as it once was, whether it’s a car or an apartment. They have Uber and Airbnb for that. Musical instruments may be more transient in their lives and careers than they used to be for generations before them. In that way, the used shop is becoming the nexus for a new generation of musicians whose culture may be significantly different than that of the ones before it: the idea of music as a road to riches has been pretty well debunked by now; they’re looking more for sustainability than celebrity. They’re approaching everything differently than those who came before them, and that’s going to apply to how they relate to their instruments, too.