One of the greatest things about the online shopping experience is the ability to get nearly any piece of equipment you desire for an online source. The problem is that you still have to do a lot of shopping around to find what you want.
Many of the reviews for equipment are informative, but I’ve found that often times you don’t get the detail that you wish to really know about. Most manufacture sites are good about giving features and specifications, but you can’t get comparisons very easily.
Sometimes you can visit some music forums and ask or search out information about certain equipment, software, or accessories. Other folks experiences can be helpful. I do find that the majority have short attention spans and comments are incomplete or don’t describe the final outcome. On the other side a few will provide great insight to your questions and will do a good service to help you.
My Experiences with Offline and Online
One thing that still annoys me is the time it takes to get informed. In the past I’ve had two experiences. I was shopping for different equipment. One was a larger performance amp for my digital piano and the other was a mixer and microphone for recording when playing grand piano.
Shopping on line for the bass I got a general idea of the features, but everything was geared to the bass player. I was very hesitant to purchase because I really couldn’t decide what to buy.
I started dropping in on several music shops and happened into a shop where the owner was very familiar with the equipment. (Not the teenage fun club salesman that you usually run into.) I was able to quiz the shopkeeper and found out that a certain bass amp was perfect for my digital piano. It also was on special and one of the last to have a certain style of speaker, needless to say I purchased it.
Improving your chances of a good online experience
To improve your shopping experience online there are a few import things to be on the lookout to protect yourself.
For me there are four things that I always look for first.
For online shopping they are
- satisfaction guarantee
- available information and specifications
- knowledge of the sales people or contact people.
- And of course great prices, that’s why we shop online.
I have had very good luck with several merchants including zZounds.com which we have just started an affiliation. If you are in the market for additional gear and accessories this merchant is a good place to look. I’ve written up a page on why I am recommending them as a go to source for your music equipment needs. You can learn about the other 6 key items to consider that this merchant has at: Music Equipment zZounds.com
I’ve also expanded the recommendations section to cover several of the popular notation software packages. I’ve lumped them into 4 categories. You can check them out here at Music Notation Software.
