I get asked a lot where to buy the gear I recommend. The answer isn’t as easy as you might think.
There are several things to keep in mind whenever you are making a purchase of professional (or near-professional) level equipment.
Firstly, you need to understand that this equipment isn’t something you’re going to find at WalMart or Target. They just don’t carry it, because their core demographic doesn’t buy it.
So you can look at your local chain music store … think Guitar Center or Musician’s Friend or Sam Ash Music or similar. That’s an okay option, but as a chain, they tend to have only certain things in stock and while they’ll special order something, you often can’t return it. Also, and this is my personal opinion based on my own experiences in those stores, their employees are often musicians who need a day job, and they won’t necessarily “get” what you need, given the fact that you’re developing a product; not an album.
Yes, there’s always Amazon. I certainly use Amazon for things. I freely admit that. They’ve got tons of stuff, but I’d be willing to guarantee you that, if you could get customer service on the phone, they wouldn’t be able to help you pick the gear you need if you paid them. And while they sometimes have the best price, I would like to suggest that it’s often worth a few dollars more, when you get more than you’re paying for anyway.
Christy’s Theory of Economic Sustainability
Buy local. When you don’t have a local resource, buy from a company that is local somewhere.
Seriously, you’ll help your town or city stay afloat by helping the local merchants stay in business. This means doing business with them. The bonus for you in this is that – assuming that the proprietor is running a professional operation – you will have a resource you can easily access when you run into trouble.
But not all of us have a good locally-owned and operated gear store in our neighborhood or town. So what do you do then?
Well, there are two main companies with which I have done business that I would recommend.
The folks at Full Compass know what they’re talking about, and love to talk to others about it. They have a wide range of gear options, and their sales folks are exceedingly useful in helping you pick one item over another.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, they are a woman-owned business that (if you look at their news releases page) gives back to the local community in both time and money.
The Sweetwater sales and service folks also know what they’re talking about. Many of them are engineers and musicians who actually use the gear they sell. Just like the Full Compass folks, they can help you pick if you need some help deciding.
Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sweetwater has been growing steadily over its 30+-year history, and provides employment opportunities for many, many local folks.
Which to Choose?
If you don’t have a local shop (as I don’t), I actually go back-and-forth between Full Compass and Sweetwater. They each have excellent service. Their techs can answer pretty much any question you have.
Sweetwater offers a significant bonus in giving a 2-year warranty on nearly everything they sell. So unless you’re a total knucklehead and drop your live ribbon mic in a tub full of bubbles, they’ll help you out with any problems you have.
I buy from both based on who has what when I need it, who has the best price, and who’s giving free shipping. I feel comfortable with both of these retailers.
An Interesting Approach
Both of these retailers do something that, if you’re not accustomed to highly technical industries, will sound strange. When you establish an account with either of these retailers, you are assigned to a specific person as your sales person. That individual gets to know your needs/goals and keeps in touch to make sure all is going well.
If you get weirded out by that sort of contact, they may not be for you, but personally I find it useful to know that I can contact “Bob” whenever I’m stuck on finding just the right thing. It makes the process personalized, and builds my confidence in the company as my go-to.
Let Me Sum Up …
You can find many items that I recommend on Amazon. And you have me to call upon for help setting things up and trouble-shooting. If, however, you buy from Full Compass or Sweetwater, you have a much larger team available to back you up in the event that I’ve gone off deep sea diving (which I’ve never done, but it sounded really cool to write it here).
No matter what you choose, make sure you choose gear that will improve your sound quality, make your recording process simpler, and give you less to do in editing. If whatever gear you buy doesn’t do those three things, you’ve got the wrong gear.
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