What Happens Between Rentals (or Why we Charge a Switch Fee)?

Vermont Violins is tremendously proud to rent instruments that are beautiful both visually and tonally. Having an instrument that looks good and sounds good will help motivate us to play and will foster better care of our instruments.   Remember getting that biology textbook in high school that had been in circulation for several decades and was filled with doodles and lovenotes to prospective girl or boy friends?  Remember how you added to the mess, happily doodling away?  Maybe you also remember getting that brand new text book and enjoying the feel of breaking the cover, putting a protective cover on the book and actually NOT doodling in it?  

Well…that’s how we feel about our rental instruments: we want every child (or adult) to enjoy the visual beauty and not have to look past previous users’ scratches, bumps and dents.  We also want the instrument to SOUND new: have pegs that turn properly, fresh strings, fresh bow hair.  If it sounds and looks great, your motivation will expand and you’ll practice harder, play better, and ultimately have a more successful musical experience!   A well-adjusted instrument will not only sound better, but will be easier to play – and that again fosters musical longevity!

So, we do a lot to restore our instruments when they come back from a rental client.  Here is just a short list:

·        We are one of the very few rental shops that change strings religiously between use.  Every instrument goes out with fresh strings so that a child (or adult) gets full use of their instrument and don’t suffer tone-dead string half way through the year!  We use premium (Pro Arte, Dominant or Evah) strings so this is a HUGE expense! Partially used strings that we remove are donated to strings programs in impoverished parts of the world.

·        Bowhair is checked for freshness and vibrancy.  You won’t receive a bow soiled by finger grease from a prior user – most bows go out with fresh hair.  The “dead” bows that come back to us are refurbished and made new!

·        Fingerboards are redressed for appropriate curvature.

·        Pegs are adjusted to perfect working order

·        Bridges are checked for straightness and appropriate curve. 

·        Nuts, Saddle and Bridge notches are checked to make sure the strings are not cutting in

·        Full Clean and Polish is done to remove all fingerprints, stickers, and ?? to restore an instrument to visual beauty;

·        Cases are checked to make sure they are fully functional and are vacuumed.

·        Cello & Bass pins are checked for smooth action

·        Soundposts are re-adjusted (or recut) for best sound

·        Seams are closed

·        And so much more!

We do charge a small material (switch) fee to offset the cost of these usage issues.  Generally, we set these fees to be about ½ the cost of the strings we are putting on…but you can see a lot more happens than just new strings.  These material fees do not come close to covering the cost of an exchange, but they do help offset the expense.

It is always a huge pleasure to see folks go off with their first, second or third instrument looking and sounding their best.  The smiles on the players’ faces makes all this fully worth while!

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