Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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pegguitars
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Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by pegguitars » Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:40 am

Way overdue to do this, looking at insuring some vintage gear. Any experience dealing with insurance companies, recommendations, etc?

Not looking for "professional" coverage, just want it to be covered in the event it's stolen or broken, etc.

Many thanks.

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Jazzmastervsjaguar » Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:59 am

Ha. Funny enough I was just on the phone with my insurance company (Sate farm) about this. Basically they told me that it would be covered under my existing home owners policy and to just take pictures and have an inventory list. If they have it on file before something happens then they won't put up a fight if anything happened to them that your homeowners policy covered. No change in price for me. I just needed them to send them a list basically and some minor documentation (pictures).

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by pegguitars » Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:07 am

Thanks for the feedback.

My insurer does cover musical instruments; however, they have a limited coverage amount. With the appraisal value and market value assessments of my gear - I'll need a separate policy to cover them.

I know there's a few different insurers out there [Anderson, Heritage, etc]. Plans seem expensive, but worth it if/when needed.

Could use advice as to what to look for/avoid, etc.

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 24, 2021 9:14 am

Heritage insured a list of my instruments for $200 for one year, it was coverage for $25k. I never had to use it and have let it lapse, but I will renew it.

My homeowner's insurance would be quickly used up in event of a fire or something and there would be little to replace my instruments, so I should keep it.

I had no complaints with the service or the cost, but I never needed to file a claim or anything. Still, I'd recommend it.
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by DeathJag » Thu Jun 24, 2021 9:37 am

Isn’t the whole thing based on “valuation” of the goods, not the cost to replace? How can you document the values so that the insurance company will believe it? I once inquired about insuring rare comics and records and I came away with “I’ll never be able to prove their worth so it’s not only not worth it, but also a titanic waste of time to attempt.” I don’t have any vintage guitars, but I do have some vintage and super rare amps... Maybe it’s easier to document their value? But how?

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by JSett » Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:14 am

I renewed my home and contents insurance just this week. It's obviously different depending on agent but mine covers anything up to an individual value of not more than £3000 without nomination. Anything over that needs to be specified individually. My last insurer wanted anything over £1000 listed individually. There is a cap of £17500 total for large value items. I upped this to £30k

All they told me to do was to take a picture of anything of high value to prove ownership in case of a claim. I just keep a file in the cloud with a list of the guitars/amps/etc along with pictures of them & their serial numbers. It took me less than an hour to do the lot.

Doing all this only added an extra £54 to my yearly premium cost.
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 24, 2021 12:54 pm

DeathJag wrote:
Thu Jun 24, 2021 9:37 am
Isn’t the whole thing based on “valuation” of the goods, not the cost to replace? How can you document the values so that the insurance company will believe it? I once inquired about insuring rare comics and records and I came away with “I’ll never be able to prove their worth so it’s not only not worth it, but also a titanic waste of time to attempt.” I don’t have any vintage guitars, but I do have some vintage and super rare amps... Maybe it’s easier to document their value? But how?
I provided them with a list of what I have that I considered insurable. In the event of them needing to reimburse me, they would just write me a check after investigating the claim.

I should also mention that I paid only $200 because I don't play out and don't travel with the instruments, you pay more if you do.
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by DeathJag » Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:59 pm

But how could you prove they were worth what they were insured for?

I have had two run ins with insurance where they just looked online and gave me what they thought was a fair price, minus depreciation. I’d guess that vintage guitars would appreciate instead!

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:11 pm

DeathJag wrote:
Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:59 pm
But how could you prove they were worth what they were insured for?

I have had two run ins with insurance where they just looked online and gave me what they thought was a fair price, minus depreciation. I’d guess that vintage guitars would appreciate instead!

I don't know... I never used it. I gave a value at the start of it all on a spreadsheet. Maybe they would go by that.

At the end of the day, you pay for the coverage you want, if I wanted a million dollars' worth of coverage they would sell me that.

And if I said my brown Stratocaster was worth a million dollars when I lost it, they would just decline to payout on that value, and it would be a matter for the courts if I disagreed.

But if I said it was worth $1k, which it is, they would probably pay out on that. I don't think it would be a big problem.

If it was a vintage instrument, you might want to get some kind of appraisal or something, and be sure that the insurers had that and that the value was agreed upon.
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Highnumbers » Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:05 pm

Big vote of support for Heritage insurance.

They will insure based on STATED value (no appraisal needed for single instruments valued under $150k) , and their staff understand musicians and how valuable old gear is. Your homeowners insurance is NOT enough, and good luck explaining to State Farm how your undocumented vintage guitar is worth $20k.

Heritage typically insures around $0.66 per every $100 of claimed value up to $100k at which point the price goes down to $0.55 per $100.

And that covers shipping as well, so if you buy or sell a guitar, you don’t have to buy extra insurance from UPS or FedEx at inflated prices.

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Embenny » Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:47 pm

Highnumbers wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:05 pm
Your homeowners insurance is NOT enough, and good luck explaining to State Farm how your undocumented vintage guitar is worth $20k.
Well, this probably varies between companies and policies. Documenting your gear is just a wise move that doesn't take long.

That's not to say anything against standalone instrument insurance. You just need to know what's available to you and what it costs. In Canada, dedicated instrument insurance is 10x more expensive than the US (I got quotes as high as 10% of the value of the gear). You could basically rebuild your collection once a decade for the same price.

But my homeowners' insurance doesn't cover an instrument that's being used to perform for money - it does cover it if you're traveling with it, taking it to a friend's house, etc, but once you go to gig with it, it's no longer a personal effect and isn't covered.

So you just have to be aware of the types of coverage and their cost, which vary by location.

I only ever took my least expensive gear to gigs, and insuring as an add-on to my home insurance was a fraction of the cost of any other option. I have a Google sheet keeping track of serial #s, value, etc, and have photos in a cloud folder, so it wouldn't be difficult to prove ownership if there was a fire or theft.
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Nord » Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:26 am

Lots of great advice here! I went through this process recently and spoke to my Allstate agent for a good long while about various scenarios.

Upping the home owners insurance works, just make sure that you understand what the maximum payout per item / instrument as well as the total value of the payout / replacement. For example, your policy may only pay out, say, $3,000 per item and you'll have to prove the market cost / replacement value. Spreadsheet with serials and photos in the cloud, as suggested so far, is a good call, that's how I do it as well. Next, the total value for the entire claim (i.e. all of your items / instruments) is another number to understand the implications off.

Where it get tricky / more expensive is if you have very expensive vintage gear that's individually worth more than the per item insurable cost and / or if you play out — and get paid for it — with your gear, no matter what the cost. Let's say you play a paid gig with your $2k Mustang and something happens to it. That instrument may be covered by your home owners insurance while it's sitting at home or while you're jamming at a friend's house. If the insurer realizes that you used it for a paid gig when something happened to it, they may claim that you're using it professionally, in which case you might find that it's not covered. Sure, you may be able to squeak by, but I wouldn't take too many of those chances...

For that reason, I took out a separate policy for professional use on some of the choice gear that I use on stage. The downside to that is that unless you have an "authority" like, say, Gruhn Guitars, submit valuations for your gear, you're left insuring for the amount you paid (assuming you have a receipt). As vintage prices keep rising you may need to bite the bullet and pay for valuations every few years to ensure that you get fair market value back in the event that something happened to your prized collection.

I'm obviously not an insurance agent or expert, just sharing what I've learned from spending a few hours of research and calls with my agent.

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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Maggieo » Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:42 am

mbene085 wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:47 pm

But my homeowners' insurance doesn't cover an instrument that's being used to perform for money - it does cover it if you're traveling with it, taking it to a friend's house, etc, but once you go to gig with it, it's no longer a personal effect and isn't covered.
I wonder how that would apply to guys who play in church? I assume those aren't paid gigs.
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Larry Mal » Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:46 am

Maggieo wrote:
Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:42 am
mbene085 wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:47 pm

But my homeowners' insurance doesn't cover an instrument that's being used to perform for money - it does cover it if you're traveling with it, taking it to a friend's house, etc, but once you go to gig with it, it's no longer a personal effect and isn't covered.
I wonder how that would apply to guys who play in church? I assume those aren't paid gigs.
You get paid by going go heaven, Maggie. That's not a good enough gig for you? Come on!
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Re: Vintage Musical Instrument Insurance

Post by Maggieo » Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:49 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:46 am
Maggieo wrote:
Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:42 am
mbene085 wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:47 pm

But my homeowners' insurance doesn't cover an instrument that's being used to perform for money - it does cover it if you're traveling with it, taking it to a friend's house, etc, but once you go to gig with it, it's no longer a personal effect and isn't covered.
I wonder how that would apply to guys who play in church? I assume those aren't paid gigs.
You get paid by going go heaven, Maggie. That's not a good enough gig for you? Come on!
Larry, we both know there's no heaven! ::insert rabbi emoji:: 🤷🏻
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