Second-hand music & instruments in Edinburgh typically sells for £15 to £800 (about $20 to $1,100). Where and when it was built moves the figure enormously, and buyers pay close attention to the country stamped inside. A model still made today has its price capped by the new one, while a discontinued line answers to nothing but demand.
For sale now
Buying music & instruments in Edinburgh
Edinburgh is a university and finance city whose population swells enormously every August for the festival, and that single month does more to move second-hand goods here than any other part of the year. Outside it, the Old and New Town tenement stock means most people live in flats and buy furniture to fit them.
Anything with a soundboard hates being posted: temperature and knocks in transit undo a setup and can crack a body outright. Carrying it home yourself, in its case, is the safest journey it will make.
What to check in person
Leave it tuned and come back to it twenty minutes later, since an instrument that will not hold pitch has a problem at the pegs or the bridge. Look inside the soundhole with a light for loose bracing, and check the neck joint where it meets the body.
Collecting it in Edinburgh
It needs a car boot rather than a bag, so agree somewhere you can actually stop for a few minutes. That is easier away from the centre than in it.
The Old Town is steep, cobbled and awkward for vehicles, with restricted access on several streets, so anything heavy needs a conversation about where a van can actually stop. Trams and buses cover the rest of the city and handle small handovers fine.
Selling your music & instruments in Edinburgh free
August brings a large temporary population that arrives with things and leaves without them, and September brings the students. Between them the autumn is reliably the best time to buy here and a slower time to sell.
Fit a fresh set of strings or reeds before anybody comes to try it, since a tired set makes a good instrument sound dull. Have somewhere quiet to demonstrate it, and gather the case, stand, lead and any paperwork into one place beforehand. Lifts in September as lessons restart, and again after Christmas.
Most private sales settle by bank transfer or cash on collection. Faster Payments clear in seconds, which makes a transfer as safe as cash for the seller — wait for it to land before the item leaves your hands.
Music & Instruments worth listing in Edinburgh
Same region (Scotland)
If nothing in Edinburgh suits, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee each have their own music & instruments page, and a seller will often meet part of the way for something worth the trip.
More in Edinburgh: everything second hand in Edinburgh, or Music & Instruments across the United Kingdom.
Prices converted from sterling at the 2 August 2026 rate; sellers set their own price.