Used lighting

M

mynameiswolf

Member
Hey all,

I currently work for a church and am responsible for the AV for our youth facility. I'm on a tight budget and stumbled upon usedlighting.com and solarisnetwork.com.

I am looking to buy some used automated lights. The warranty is only 2 days on the particular deal I am going for.

Has anybody ever bought from either of these sites? Did you have a positive or negative experience?

What is the lifespan of an automated light if it is well taken care of?

My budget is only $4200 US. If I buy new I will probably be limited to getting two lights which I don't feel I'll be able to do alot with, I would love to get 4-6 and that will only be possible buying used or slowly getting them over the next 3 years.

any advice\thoughts are appreciated.

Wolf
 
Welcome to the Booth!

Either of the sites listed would be the safest bet for getting a warranty. If you're comfortable with repairs, then you have more options.

The average life of a moving light depends drastically if its well maintained by a trained tech or not. I've seen good fixtures after 10 years if you take care of them. I've also seen fixtures DOA after 1 year of hanging in a club.

Whatever option you go with, try to find local deals you can pick up or that are only a few states away. Shipping moving lights is NOT cheap. Also make sure that whoever ships them insures them for whatever you pay for them.
 
usedlighting.com is operated by 4 Wall, one of the nation's top lighting rental houses. I've never bought anything through their web site, but can vouch for them as a company. Solaris is also a very popular place and well respected in the industry. Where are you located? Maybe someone knows of a local house looking to unload some gear. What in particular are you looking at purchasing?
 
gearsource is another. No experience with any of the three mentioned so far. 4 wall has a good reputation. there's also lightbroker.com I tried to buy something from them many years ago and at the time their communication was very slow, like 2 weeks to answer an e-mail.

There's also ebay, depending on what you want.
 
I have purchased from usedlighting.com. I have always felt that I got a good price, if not a super price. I have had much nicer service from the Las Vegas office than from the New Jersey location. The stuff that they sell that was rental equipment from 4 wall is very good. The stuff they broker is a crap shoot. You might get good stuff, and you might not. They don't have any quality control on the brokered stuff. Each item is listed with an identification of brokered or 4 wall owned. They are pretty good on the phone to tell you about the condition of the 4 wall owned stuff.
 
Thanks for all the quick responses.

To answer somebody's question about what my throw is. My grid is 18ft off my stage.

I was looking into possibly getting some High End Studio Spot 250s that are about 7 years old.

Warranty is only 2 days on them... so basically... take them out of the box and make sure they work.

Wolf
 
If well maintained, High End fixtures can be very reliable for a good amount of time. If I were to buy these with a 2-day warranty, you could bet the ranch that I would be running the tar out of them for those two days. Run them through the ringer (but don't abuse them). If there's a weakness, hopefully it would it would surface during this rigorous testing period.
 
I like real Warranties for equipment, especially equipment that i don't have the expertise to find/buy repair parts for and fix myself. My who light inventory right now is purchased from 4wall as "slightly used" Source 4's. Though I admit when i received them i thought they had made a mistake as they had all be freshly painted cleaned up and worked perfectly. Only inconsistancy was some variation in C-clap styles.

I've bought the odd fixtures from usedlighting.com every now and then to keep expanding. But i know how to fix these guys myself if something is screwy with them. I can't say te same for Smartlights. Just my 2 cents on buying used.
 
As an alternative I was also looking into some of Chauvets DJ series stuff. LED Qspots, Intimidator, and XYZ's. Anybody have any experience with these? How long is the lifespan? I can afford to buy these new, or I can go the route of getting older martins or HES used.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
Would you rather drive a brand new Kia, or a seven year-old Lexus?
 
a couple thoughts:
where will you be if you spend your entire budget on the HES fixtures, then you have lamps fail or other problems in short time? Will you have the funds to get them repaired or will your investment sit dormant in anticipation of future availability of funds?

are you able to scrape together a little more money? I would think a few hundred dollars more and a sympathetic dealer, and you could get four new Elation designspot 250s. Then you would have a full warranty and new lamps.
 
Also if your buying hes lights make sure you don't accidentally buy the old lightwave research ones, unless you have the proper controler.

Sent from my HTC Liberty
 
I can get 4 of the used HES studio spot 250s or 4 of the new chauvet fixtures and leave myself about 1k.

I'll check out the elation design spots.... do these come recommended?

wolf
 
looks like the design spot 250 has been discontinued. They now have a design spot 250 pro which will be out of my price range. Probably have to hunt down a dealer for the old 250s.

wolf
 
Before buying used, (or new, for that matter) make sure you have a dealer, etc with a decent repair tech. One of my theaters uses 4 Martin Mac 600s and 4 Studio Spot 575s. They're all good and useful lights, but at that age, we send one for a new motor, power supply, etc a few times a year. If you can replace lamp sockets yourself it will be a big help. Keep on on hand.
 
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