What do you think of this business idea?

[Shark Diver]

It's a great start.

Yeah, doing what you know/love is the best thing to ensure success. And if down the road you wanted to expand the line you could always make have a sub section like: Metalamps Plus.

 

[mightywarlock]

Yeah, I looked into VintageAmps.com, but it was already taken.

 

[MetalTerrorist]

I would rent to the studio not the artist. If the artist has enough money to rent and record they can just buy. Or has their own amp that he/she loves so much. However the studio might keep you in mind. If they have such an artist looking for gear for a session you might get a call. Then you will have to discuss reasonable rates, damage insurance etc.

You just have to get out there and talk to people. Call em up and just throw out some ideas. You can never really tell what's a good Idea until it already worked out or not. I wish you luck.

Luke

I agree with this. I think a rare few studios would go to the effort to rent a good amp rather than use a modeler or plug-in but those that do, the good ones, would probably take advantage of the resource. It's not like a studio in Columbus, Ohio can just run down to Guitar Center and grab a Bogner for some tracking. However, a small studio, still putting all their profit into upgrades and equipment is probably gonna get nice tube amps last of all. However, being able to tell perspective clients that it's an option to use some high-end tube amps would seem to me to be a great selling point.

I'm sure some of you have met or heard a great musician/songwriter who has no knowledge or understanding of what good gear is or how it influences and inspires. Maybe some total bad-ass that's very talented yet only ever played through a Peavey Duece combo and isn't really conscious of his tone aside from he's able to hear himself but the studio can plug him into something great and kick his sound and hopefully his performance up a couple notches.

I know a couple guys like that.

 

[stratotone]

I thought about it, since I have a decent wad of amps that would be at least someone appealing for a studio or backline rental... but the numbers just don't add up.

If you have good insurance on your equipment, I believe it would cover it, you'd need to check. My insurance co that covers my house laughed at me when I said how much my gear was worth, so I buy specialized gear insurance from Nashville.

 

[cardinal]

Yeah, I'd definitely buy good insurance and come clean to them with what you're doing with the gear. If you ever have to file a claim (someone steals it, runs one with no load, pours beer all over it, etc.), you'll want to make surthree insurance will actual pay.

I think it's a good idea if you have unique stuff. I think it's uncool, but I think folks "rent" stuff from GC by just buying something and returning it within 30 days. So you'll probably want stuff that's harder to track down.

 

[petejt]

I thought of this as well a couple of months ago, while planning ahead to travel overseas.
I thought instead of having everything in storage, I could lease them to a studio where they can be put to good use there, as long as they are well looked after.


I asked a local guitar ship about leasing out my gear as a backline for gigs, and they said they just lease out little combo amps that aren't worth that much or have been broken then patched up. The bloke said "I'd hide that Marshall of yours under your bed! Don't let anyone get their hands on that one!" My guess is that a lot of leased backlines require a lot of insurance, because stuff gets wrecked quite easily.


I'm still going to follow up this idea with some local music studios. Maybe for next year sometime.