How to Upgrade Your Equipment Affordably with Used Gear

by | Gear, Production

Every church in America has the same shame closet. No one has talked about it, so for decades gear has quietly accumulated in church closets across America. In 2020, Toby Walters founded ChurchGear with a mission to serve church techs’ unmet needs. The biggest need he found at the start was that churches had a massive build-up of production gear with no way to get rid of it. 

You could throw it away, but you would be throwing away thousands of dollars that could be going back into your ministry. The church techs could sell it themselves, but who has the time to add packing, shipping, and answering customer questions to their to-do list? Church techs are already overworked and undersupplied as it is. 

Now, church techs just make a list of their gear, ChurchGear makes them an offer and then the church gets their storage space back along with immediate payment. In 2021, ChurchGear paid over one million dollars to churches for their gear. Suddenly, those shame closets are turning into new ministry dollars. Some say it’s the eighth wonder of the world. 

Guaranteed quality

While ChurchGear helps churches with too much gear, they also help churches save thousands with Certified Church Owned gear. ChurchGear tests every piece of gear they buy and all Certified Church Owned gear comes with a 6-month warranty. ChurchGear is the only source for used gear that comes with a warranty. Furthermore, their gear always comes from a church. The reason used gear has a bad reputation is the typical source of used gear. Most used gear comes off a tour, is dumped online, and then shipped out carelessly. When you get Certified Church Owned gear, your gear has sat in a climate-controlled building and has only been used a few times a week. That is a big difference from gear that goes on tour and is loaded and unloaded week after week. Not to mention, most of that gear is used outdoors. 

Make money, save money

Now, let’s look at a cost comparison for how churches can save money with ChurchGear:

  • Mixing Console
    • ChurchGear X32 Mixing Console: 1999.99
    • New X32 Mixing Console: 2499.99
  • Speakers
    • ChurchGear Speakers, Pair of JBL VRX: 2299.99
    • New Speakers, Pair of JBL VRX: 3378.99
  • Mics
    • ChurchGear Shure KSM137: 219.99 
    • New Shure KSM137: 349.99
  • Total savings: $1,709.00

If you have been looking to make the upgrade from your analog audio console, you can get an X32 Digital Mixer in great condition from ChurchGear. A digital mixer will help your team with consistency as you save settings, apply on-board compression, apply and save EQ settings, and re-patch inputs on the fly. Everyone benefits from this upgrade: Your worship leader is able to save his in-ear mix and re-call it each week. Your Pastor knows that his mic EQ setting is saved and ready to go. Your congregation gets a better live mix by employing onboard FX and other mixing tools. You as the audio tech get to save your digital mixing file each week and recall that file the next time you mix! 

Do you have wireless mics that are no longer usable due to new FCC regulations? ChurchGear has plenty of wireless transmitters and receivers to choose from. They might even be able to give you an offer for your used gear. By taking gear and giving it new life, ChurchGear hopes to equip church techs with the gear they need to serve churches. 

If you’d like to connect with ChurchGear to upgrade your setup, check them out at churchgear.com. If you’d like to reach out to them for some gear guidance, reach out to their Head of Sales to Churches, Drew Hester at drew@churchgear.com. You can further connect with them on their podcast by searching ChurchGear wherever you get your podcasts.

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