Dormant gear, thinking of renting my gear

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bradb
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Dormant gear, thinking of renting my gear

Post by bradb » Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:25 am

Hi everyone,

I've got a few great analog pieces of gear here sitting. Compressors, pres, effects, etc. Functional and unique stuff. With 2 kids and a hectic job and new house, it will be awhile before I can set up the home studio. I wanted to share some of my gear to local engineers / producers but wanted to get a few bits of advice first from the community.

1. I've only been living in the Bay Area for 3 years and haven't been connected to the audio production scene. Is there reasonable demand for something like this?

2. Are there any dire warnings or possible mitigations about the risk of loaning out your precious gear to strangers?

3. Any other advice on where to connect my gear with local people who may need to hire it out?

Thanks everyone!

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Gregg Juke
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Post by Gregg Juke » Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:38 am

My advice would be Don't Do It.

Sell it, or keep it, but don't rent/loan it. Not if you plan on using it again yourself some day.

And if you do decide to rent it until it's toast, get some iron-clad contracts and half up front as a deposit...

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kslight
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Post by kslight » Sat Mar 29, 2014 2:59 pm

Depends on what you have. If you have a lot of something really cool and uncommon (for example, my friend has a full rack of 8 Chandler TG1s and 1 Zener Limiter that he rents out as a set) that a STUDIO would want?I would feel comfortable renting it out to a STUDIO. Things like mixer sidecars (which is more or less what the above is) come to mind.

However if you are talking about a single preamp or compressor?and renting it out to home studio people?I'd probably suggest that the risk is not worth the return. Friends that you really trust maybe, but strangers?? No

MitoPro
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insured person to person gear rentals

Post by MitoPro » Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:42 am

There is a way to do this safely/insured. Some friends of mine just started a website called https://www.sparkplug.it/ which is designed to facilitate renting gear person to person. Think of it as AirBnB for your music stuffs.

No, I don't work for the company, so I'm not shilling, but like I said, the founders are friends of mine. I know not everyone will be into the idea of renting out their personal gear, just letting it be known that there is a site out there that facilitates doing so.

For OP bradb, I'm curious what you have that you were thinking of renting out? I just moved to the Bay Area and most of my stuff is in storage. I may have projects coming up where I might need to rent some gear (with a proper deposit, day rate and insurance, of course).

Cheers.

chorga1
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Post by chorga1 » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:49 pm

There is also decent "competition" for this sort of thing in the bay. Silent Way recording and David Denny in SF, and Steven Jarvis in Oakland.

So unless you had something super special, probably not worth it.

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vvv
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Post by vvv » Fri Dec 19, 2014 3:49 pm

As a player, I might loan a axe or amp to a friend (and have), but rent it out to a stranger? No way.

As a recordist, my gut says the same.

I mean, if you have two of something and don't mind risking one because the other is sufficient, well, ... still sounds like a PITA.

Consider, you arguably need insurance, mebbe even a license, you need some economical way to collect or even reacquire from deadbeats and scumbags, and, if you operate out of your house or studio, they know what you got and where.
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