How to Finance a Guitar (the basics)

While you can go through other credit cards and financing organizations, I'd recommend financing directly with Sweetwater. Guitar Center offers this too, though I'm a bit more familiar with the Sweetwater card, and several of my friends have used it.

Here are the details of the Sweetwater financing, pulled directly from their financing informational page:

• No interest for up to 48 months on qualifying purchases. Up to 48 equal monthly payments required. Promotional financing options available and offer period vary by brand.
• Choose promotional financing or earn 5% back in Bonus Bucks on qualifying purchases of $99 or more when you use your Sweetwater Credit Card.
• Hundreds of participating music brands.
• Quick & easy to apply.
• See if you prequalify with no impact to your credit bureau score.

Payoff Length

If possible, I'd recommend trying to pay off a guitar within 12 months, because that guarantees you won't be paying any interest. The 48 month 0 interest setup will depend on which guitar you're purchasing and the brand you're targeting. 

But 12 months is pretty doable.

For a $2000 guitar, paid over a 12-month period, you'll pay roughly $166 a month. In most cases, I'd say that's a good place to settle, and that's what my friends opted for.

Obviously the 48 month arrangement would be a lot lower, about $41.

Brands that Participate

And that will just depend on which brands and models are available. There are two things that need to happen:

1. The brand needs to be participating in the offer
2. The model you want needs to be a qualifying purchase

For example, Gibson was one of the featured brands when we published this piece.

So you need to look for qualifying purchases, or the "select models" that are being offered for the 48 month period. 

Take the Gibson Les Paul Standard '60s model, for example.

Dates and length of offer

Also note that the special financing ends on a particular date.

These deals come and go, and it's hard to tell what brands and models will be available. In other words, you can't just go on and finance whatever guitar you want. You sort of have to play the hand you're dealt. 

However, there are typically a lot of brands that are participating. Ibanez, G&L, Kramer, and PRS are just a few examples we spotted. 

So you'll definitely have some options.

Depending on the brand, some will drop to 24 month financing. When I was researching this, PRS was offering 24 months and Gibson was offering 48.

Both are pretty good deals, in my opinion.

Questions

If you have questions about financing a guitar, or some other piece of gear, feel free to get in touch via the comments section below.

I can put you in touch with some people at Sweetwater if need be.

Thanks for reading and trusting our content.

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