yowhatsshakin wrote:I will just share my personal experience and how I went about this business. My wife and I own a house and as such we have a homeowners insurance which covers certain losses up to a certain cap stated in the policy. For the renters among us, the same would be true if you have taken out a (voluntary) renters insurance. As most of you know, I have a rather extensive (100+) guitar collection with many rare and unique G&Ls. And when Lacewood #1 was added it became time to seriously think about additional insurance.
So I compiled a list of the about 80 guitars collected up to that point in time. I started with the spreadsheet I keep in which I maintain several tables. One sheet contains a sales record for each instrument, how much I spent, taxes paid, followed by the price listed in the Bluebook and/or Vintage Guitar Price Guide. On another sheet I keep track of the model, year, serial number, description, what strings are on it, the DC-impedance values of the pups, date stamps. Starting with that tab, I singled out model, year, S/N, link to the instrument on my website (
yowhatsshakin.com), description, price paid, and the Blue Book/VG Price Guide price, put it into a separate spreadsheet and sent it off to my insurance agent. I got the message back that for any guitar over $5k an appraisal was needed, which were provided by Jay Boone of Emerald City Guitars at $50 per guitar. The result was a Personal Articles Policy, with the insured
value initially decided by the underwriter given the information provided. So for instance, my Nighthawk is insured for $1,149.
Now a year or 3 later, a few things have changed. The underwriter likes to see an appraisal for anything over $1k which now costs $75 per guitar but we have a good relationship in that (s)he trusts me in the values I quote. I still provide all the information like in the spreadsheet submitted with the original applications. Keep in mind that when you ask for an amendment to your policy because you want to add instruments, they will be insured from the moment of notification. At least, my insurance company provided a grace period between the notification and providing any supporting documentation to set the proper
value. This means that if something happens in the interim, there are clear rules on how any dispute on
value are supposed to be resolved.
If the above was TLDR, here some good practices:
- Keep something like a spreadsheet with all your instruments, amps, and effects. For G&L, the Registry is already helpful and a good start.
- Document as much as possible about it. Take pictures especially of salient features (date stamps, blemishes, etc.) and the serial number.
- Provide provenance and any other documentation (like sales receipts, copies from the price guides, etc.) if possible.
- Keep a website. Seriously! Your insurance agent will be grateful
- The underwriter will tell you what is needed for insurability. Rest assured that if getting an appraisal is too onerous (Do I really want to spend an extra $75 on a $1,100 guitar?), the article is still covered under your homeowners or renters insurance. It will just count towards your cap if any disaster occurs.
- For insurability, there is a huge difference between taking your instruments on the road versus keeping them at home or another secured place. If your a touring/gigging musicians, rules will be stricter and premiums higher.
- If you have some insurance policies with a certain company already, stick with them. You likely get a discount on your policy with them.
- Pay your annual premium in time. Don't forget to pay the additional ones that come in when the policy is amended.
Hope this helps,
- Jos
