Reach local with phone, before global with interwebz.

A few weeks ago our a cappella group, Root 7, performed our Winter Concert in Williston’s Old Brick Church. The space, while not overly large (~200 seats), had great acoustics, and needed only a little from the amplification side. Our sound was done by a friend of a friend, and he used an amazing condenser microphone that captured our live sound pefectly.

After some research online and speaking to our local music store in Burlington, Advance Music, I found the mic in question – a Rode NT-4. With a gig coming up and us wanting to lock down our sound, it was important for us to get one of these, ideally to play with before we committed to owning it.

I went online and was able to find the mic at MusiciansFriend.com for the same price as Advance quoted me, with free delivery included. But before I just pulled the trigger I called Advance back to see if they could get one faster.  The value of having a local retailer who is involved with the purchase was a big part of my thinking here – knowing someone locally is asking the questions to help you think through the buying process…making sure you’re considering things you may have missed.

On the call with the music shop we talked up to the point of me getting the purchasing person on the phone, and before we got too far he mentioned that they had a used NT-4 in stock, and they would let me borrow it for a week to see how it performed, before committing to making the purchase.  It also means I’ll have someone to call locally, who I actually have met, when/if anything does go wrong.  For context, the mic costs about $530 new, which is no small amount for a semi-pro a cappella group.

So I’m going to swing by Advance over lunch and grab the mic, and we’ll try it out this week.  But it’s a great example of how a phone call can save you a bunch of money, and a relationship with a local retailer can pay off in the short term.