Renting out gear you already own
· 3 min read
The equipment in your cupboard has already cost you the money. Everything after that is upside — as long as the handover is handled properly.
Most working musicians own several thousand pounds of equipment that gets used a handful of times a year. It's already paid for. It's depreciating whether it moves or not.
Renting it out is close to pure upside — provided you handle the one genuinely risky part, which is the handover.
What actually gets rented
Not everything is equally in demand. The things that move:
Keyboards and synths, especially anything heavy, vintage, or expensive enough that people want to try before buying. Rhodes, Wurlitzers, older analogue synths, good stage pianos.
Amps and cabs, particularly for people who've flown in or don't drive.
Drums, and specifically good snares. Kits are awkward to move but a snare is a small, valuable, highly personal thing people will happily rent to get a particular sound.
Anything niche. Unusual percussion, a specific pedal, a harmonium, a bowed instrument. The market is small but there's almost no competition.
What doesn't move: ordinary microphones, standard interfaces, anything cheap enough to just buy.
Pricing
The usual convention is a day rate around 3–5% of replacement value, with a weekend at roughly 1.5× the day rate and a week at 3–4×.
That's a starting point, not a rule. Adjust for:
- Scarcity. If there are three of these in your city, you're not competing on price.
- Hassle. Something that needs careful setup or is a nightmare to move should be priced for the effort, not just the asset.
- Whether you deliver. Delivery is worth real money to the person hiring and should be a separate, stated fee — not absorbed into the rate.
Delivery is the whole business
This is the part people get wrong, and it's the difference between a listing that books and one that doesn't.
The person renting a Rhodes for Saturday has thought about their session. They have not thought about a van. If your listing says "pickup only" from somewhere awkward, you've added a logistics problem to their day and they'll frequently just do without.
Offering delivery at a sensible fee converts dramatically better. If you can't, be very clear about where pickup is, what the access is like, and whether it'll fit in a normal car — that last detail answers a question everyone has and nobody asks.
Writing a listing that works
Model, year, and condition, precisely. "Vintage synth" is not a listing. "1978 Rhodes Mark I Stage 73, recently serviced, one sticky key in the upper octave" is, and the honesty about the sticky key builds more trust than pretending it isn't there.
Say what's included. Power supply, pedal, case, stand, cables. Explicitly.
Photograph the actual item, not a stock photo. People are trying to assess condition and a manufacturer's press shot tells them nothing.
Say whether it needs a travel case and whether you provide one. This is a real filter for anything fragile.
Mention what it doesn't do. If something's noisy, or a knob is loose, or it needs ten minutes to warm up — say so. You'll avoid the argument.
Protecting yourself sensibly
Be realistic rather than paranoid. A few things that help:
- Photograph the item before it goes out, dated. Takes thirty seconds and settles almost every dispute.
- Meet the person. Even for delivery, handing something over in person tells you a great deal.
- Check verification and reviews. People with a booking history have something to lose.
- Be explicit about what counts as damage in your listing, so it's agreed in advance.
- Don't rent out the irreplaceable thing. Some items shouldn't leave your house, and it's fine to have a list.
On SESH the payment side is handled — the renter pays when they book, the money is held rather than handed straight to you, and your payout is released 24 hours after the rental period ends. That window exists precisely so that if something comes back wrong, there's still time to raise it before the money has moved.
The realistic expectation
Gear rental won't replace an income. What it does is turn a depreciating cupboard into something that pays for its own maintenance, occasionally covers a bill, and — regularly — puts you in touch with other musicians nearby who needed exactly the thing you had.
That last part is worth more than people expect. The person who rents your amp is a person who plays.
List a piece of gear — it's free, and takes about five minutes.