Editorial policy
What we promise about accuracy, what we do when we get something wrong, and the standards every page has to clear.
By Sawyer V. · Published · Last updated
Independence
Commercial relationships never determine which instruments we recommend or in what order. Picks are selected against the published framework on how we pick, using manufacturer specifications and arithmetic against what a beginner physically needs. Commission rate is not an input.
We accept no free products and no sponsored placements. No manufacturer has any say over what appears here. The full commercial arrangement is on the disclosure page.
Accuracy standards
Five rules govern what can appear on a page.
Every specification traces to published documentation. A manufacturer’s spec sheet, manual or product page. Each one is linked from the product card and the page’s sources section. Remembered specifications, approximated weights and “typically around” figures are not permitted.
No fabricated numbers of any kind. No invented ratings, no invented review counts, no invented prices, no invented test results.
No claim of hands-on testing. We have not played these instruments, and every roundup says so. This is the claim that would be easiest to make and hardest for you to check, which is exactly why we do not make it.
No invented credentials. The byline is an enthusiast who reads specifications. There is no music degree, no certification, no teaching history and no panel of experts, and none will be implied.
Where evidence is thin, the page says so. “We could not find a published figure for this” is a trust signal, not a weakness.
Update cadence
| What | How often |
|---|---|
| Price data | Daily, automated, with a visible check date |
| Availability and discontinuation | As detected |
| Specification changes on a recommended model | As detected |
| Full roundup re-read against current specs | At least every 6 months |
| Guide re-read | At least every 12 months |
| Trust pages re-read for accuracy of claims | At least every 12 months |
What the last-updated date means
The date on a page reflects a real content change: a pick added, removed or re-evaluated, a specification corrected, a section rewritten.
A price refresh does not bump it. Prices update daily and that is not a content change. Marking a page as freshly updated because a number moved would teach you — correctly — to stop trusting our dates. The same discipline applies to the sitemap: last-modified values come from real content dates rather than from whenever the site was last rebuilt.
What gets a recommendation dropped
Any one of these is sufficient.
A specification change. Manufacturers revise models without renaming them. If a revision moves an instrument out of its band — a nut material changes, touch response disappears, a scale length changes — the pick is re-evaluated against the current specification.
Discontinuation or sustained unavailability. A recommendation you cannot buy is not a recommendation.
A price that leaves its band. If an instrument’s price rises to where a materially better one sits, it stops being the right answer at that band even if nothing about the instrument changed.
A pattern of owner-reported failures. A pattern, not a bad review. Where we use owner reports we describe them as exactly that — aggregate reports from owners — and never as our own testing.
Corrections
If something on this site is wrong, email info@chordandcase.com or use the contact form.
What happens next: we check the claim against the manufacturer’s current published documentation. If it is wrong we correct it on the page, update the page’s modified date, and where the correction changes a recommendation we say so in the text rather than silently editing it. Where a correction is material we note what changed and when.
We would rather receive a correction than not. Specifications change, manufacturers revise models quietly, and a site that publishes a hundred numbers will eventually get one wrong.
Who writes this
Everything on Chord & Case is written by Sawyer V.. There is no editorial staff, no contributor network and no outsourced content. Where the byline says one person wrote it, one person wrote it.
Chord & Case is published by Fathom & Foundry.