Can we buy the instrument we’re renting?

Yes, and you can do it whenever you like rather than waiting for the rental to end. Everything we rent is available to buy, at every label, and what you have already paid in rental fees comes off the price. Ken calls it the Equity Build-Up Program, which is a formal name for a simple idea: the years spent renting while a student grows are not money spent instead of buying.

How much comes off. Up to 24 months of rental payments on a violin or viola, 12 months on a cello, and 6 months on a bass, excluding tax and damage insurance. On band instruments, an A Line rental becomes your family’s property outright after three school years, and if you want to own it sooner you can buy out the remaining balance at a ten percent discount.

It does not have to be the same instrument. The credit can go toward any instrument we have, not only the one in your case. That matters more than it sounds. A student who has been renting a half size violin for two years is not going to buy that violin, they have outgrown it. The credit follows them to the full size one, or to a viola if they have switched.

Which instruments you can buy. All of them. White Label, Black Label, Euro Label on strings, and any of the band lines. If you have been renting an entry instrument and want to buy something better, the credit still applies.

When it makes sense. Usually once a student has stopped growing and stayed with the instrument, which for most players is somewhere in high school. Before that, renting and swapping sizes for free is almost always the better arrangement. We will tell you honestly which one you are in, and we would rather keep you renting for another two years than sell you a full size instrument to a student who needs a three quarter.

Call us when you want to talk it through. We can tell you exactly what your credit is worth, since we have the payment record, and what it would take to move to whatever you have your eye on.