Care For Your Instrument

The number one rule to always remember is to never ever leave your instrument unguarded; and the number one place you never ever leave your instrument unguarded is in your car. Not even for 5 minutes. Never. Why? Well, the first reason is obvious. A thief could break your car window and snatch your instrument out of your car in 10 seconds flat. 

Second, If you leave your instrument in your car on a hot day, even for a very short period of time, it may suffer severe damage from excessive heat, and heat is your instrument's worst enemy. So, treat your instrument as you would treat your child or pet in this respect. 

Third, your homeowners insurance, most likely, will not cover the financial loss of your instrument if you leave it in your car and it is stolen or damaged. Palm Strings can not stress enough the importance of following this #1 rule! Remember this rule also when you take your instrument to a restaurant, airport, or any other public place.

There are some very simple things you can do to properly take care of your instrument, For one, after you have finished practicing or performing, have a clean, soft cloth handy to wipe the rosin off from underneath your strings, finger board, and tail piece. While you are playing your instrument, your bow hair is releasing rosin dust all over the front of your instrument. If you allow this rosin to accumulate and "melt" into the varnish, the varnish can suffer damage. Also, wipe your strings clean after every use so that the life of your strings will last longer. Wiping your strings down can keep your strings sounding good, longer.

Second, loosen the hair on your bow before putting it back in your case. This is also known as: 'putting your bow to sleep'. It is important to do this because loosening the hair allows the wood stick to rest and recover from being under considerable stress and tension while being played. Loosening the hair before putting it away also helps protect the bow stick from possibly warping, breaking or snapping in half. We know of a violinist who forgot to loosen her bow before putting it away and flying from Miami, FL, which is a very humid climate, to Las Vegas, Nevada, which is an extremely dry climate. When she reached her hotel room in Vegas, she opened her case to discover, to her horror, that her priceless bow had snapped in half! This happened because she simply forgot to put her bow to sleep before she left Miami, FL. The bow hair had shrunk so much from the desert dryness in Vegas that it caused the bow stick to break.

Third, keep your instrument away from heat sources such as floor vents in your home, fireplaces, stoves/ovens (don't practice in the kitchen!!!), etc. Even leaving your instrument in direct sunlight through your home widow is a dangerous heat source for your instrument and can cause damage. The same advise would apply to air conditioning sources as well. 

Fourth, keep your instrument in your case at all times when you are not using it. It is a very easy rule to follow that should become an automatic habit in very short time. Just because your instrument is safely packed into your case, does not mean it is immune to damage, So, try not to bang your case around while you have your instrument in it. 

Last, but not least, always be aware of "incidental damage" hazards caused by electrical hook-ups that you might want to attach to your instrument such as microphones and 1/4-inch jacks. If these electrical additions are not carefully and properly attached to your instrument, these devices can cause damage. You should also exercise the same awareness when you attach a shoulder rest, or any other appendage to your instrument, such as the Bow Block. The rubber feet on your shoulder rest can wear through and cause metal to come into direct contact with your instrument and severely scratch it.

For our rental instruments, Palm Strings does not add on an extra "insurance charge" to your monthly rental rate to simply cover minor maintenance/repair issues. In our opinion, the extra "insurance charge" is just another excuse for a retail shop to hike up their rental rates. For minor maintenance/repair issues, such as a collapsed bridge, a fallen sound post, stuck peg(s), open seams, etc, give us a call to set up an appointment to bring your instrument in for a quick fix, for FREE! 

However, for major repair issues such as a broken neck, cracked/broken peg box or scroll, excessive heat damage, cracks in the wood, broken bridges, broken and/or separated finger boards, or any other major structural damages, Palm Strings reserves the right to charge repair fees. Your security deposit that you paid at the time you first rented your instrument from us will go towards the cost of the major repair(s). If the cost of the estimated repair(s) is beyond the value of the instrument, then Palm Strings reserves the right to declare the instrument as a total loss and the renter will have to pay for the value of the rental instrument MINUS the amount of money the renter has already paid for the rental of the instrument.

If you purchased an instrument from Palm Strings outright, we will do your minor maintenance/repair work for FREE for up to 1 year from the date you purchased your instrument! For major repairs, our standard repair fees will apply, but we will always discount the total repair bill by 10% since you bought your instrument from us. It's our way of always saying THANK YOU for your business. :-)