A friend and I put together a pretty nice sound system a couple years, back, well as a good collection of studio recording gear.

Has anyone had experience renting out sound systems to people? What was it like? What kind of insurance did you have for your gear? Rental contracts?

This gear is sitting around in my friends garage, and we don't use it nearly as much as we'd like and we've talked about renting it out before, but never put too much effort into it.

BTW what we have is:

2x 18" powered subs
2x Dual 15" passive mid ranges with horn tweeters
1x 1500watt (I think thats the rating) amp for the mid-range cabs
2x 12" passive monitors
1x powered mixer for monitors plus input

We also have a full compliment of DJ gear.

Its def enough for a side room or small club. All the main stuff is JBL.

Really depends on how much you appreciate cosmetics, rental deteriorates cosmetics rapidly. On the other hand if it now is doing nothing stowed away in a garage, it is not of any use either.

I rent out, but only including myself as engineer. I don't leave my stuff alone.
So if people want to DJ themslves, fine but as soon i see stuff i don't like i'll pull the plug, pack and go.

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Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

+1

the problem with your setup is that it is very easy to ruin. And any sort of event that plays loud music where the main people in charge are probably high is just not worth the money you would make compared to the value your gear would depreciate and the risk involved.

but if you are there to babysit, i suppose. Your setup would usually go for 500 ish for the weekend. but the only people that will pay that are wedding or corporate type stuff and you need a company with references and that market is saturated already.

Also, you would need to know about electronics. Because you can't just start plugging shit in and expect it to work. Power systems range from fiire hazard and above. You need to know the technical side of what you are running, what you require, and the proper equipment so you don't get sued if a fire does indeed happen.

so ya, alot of risk. Not a lot of money to be made. And stress.

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"This is why Superman works alone." GC
old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest

I have some experience in the technical side, and my friend designs sound systems for a living (amongst other low voltage systems) so we have that covered. He also went to school for audio engineering and took some courses in concert/stage sound as well.

We'd def baby sit and cover anything like fire in a rental contract.

There are plenty of smaller parties/events here too that would rent as well.

I'm the pack&go DJ, got a very high end mobile setup (JBL PRX635 + XLF sub, 4 LED PARS, strobo, fog machine, led bar FX all DMX)
I mostly get jubilea, birthdays etc. in bakc gardens living rooms, community buildings etc.

play from classics to the deepest tech & Tribal, depending on the audience, sometimes got stuck on '80ties all night (I will survive and sunny and stuff , sometimes nice crossovers and 2 hours of deep vibes

for a typical 50 people birthday i can get 300 from 20.00 to 02.00h
but that's full service so DJ + gear

i like to do that a few times a month as i enjoy it. I would not rent out my gear unmanned, too much of a geek and control freak and gear fettishist for that.

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Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

My friend just rented out his CD-Js + mixer.

I borrowed out my turntables, but one of the pickups broke, but I think it was just the needle or something. Doesn't really matter anyways, they just got me a new one.

quote:

Originally posted by Joss Weatherby A friend and I put together a pretty nice sound system a couple years, back, well as a good collection of studio recording gear. Has anyone had experience renting out sound systems to people? What was it like? What kind of insurance did you have for your gear? Rental contracts? This gear is sitting around in my friends garage, and we don't use it nearly as much as we'd like and we've talked about renting it out before, but never put too much effort into it. BTW what we have is: 2x 18" powered subs 2x Dual 15" passive mid ranges with horn tweeters 1x 1500watt (I think thats the rating) amp for the mid-range cabs 2x 12" passive monitors 1x powered mixer for monitors plus input We also have a full compliment of DJ gear. Its def enough for a side room or small club. All the main stuff is JBL.

if you want to rent something out it should at least be complete. i see lacking amps, preamps, eqs, active crossovers etc. also you should offer to set it up for them and even transportation. this way u know it wont be treated like crap and eventually broken. be there for the first sound test. if its good you can leave (with money). also u need a deposit from them incase broken stuff. id never rent out the dj gear though, djs are suck assholes.

when i have to bring my own gear here i charge accordingly (transport plus hookers and they pay my insurance . i don't let anyone touch anything . invest in a limiter.

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Freak Out Tóng Zhì

Yea the only kit I'd be looking to add to our rack is a limiter and probably a eq.

We have a mixer with pre-amps.

it only takes one hack playing badly mastered music too loud to....

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Freak Out Tóng Zhì

if you were gonna be babysitting the gear i might hire a different company

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Fortuna Favet Fortibus.