Terms of service

Last updated: September 4, 2026. These terms apply to chordandcase.com, published by Fathom & Foundry. By using the site you agree to them. If you do not, please do not use the site.

What this site is

Chord & Case publishes buying guidance for beginner musical instruments, based on published manufacturer specifications and our own reasoning about what a beginner physically needs. Our method, including its limits, is set out on how we pick.

We do not sell instruments. We are not a retailer, a repairer, a valuer or a teacher. Every purchase you make is a transaction between you and the retailer, on their terms.

Content is guidance, not professional advice

Everything here is general information published in good faith. It is not a professional assessment of your situation, your instrument or your child, and it should not be treated as one.

We do not claim to have physically tested the instruments we recommend, and we say so on every page that recommends one. Our conclusions rest on published specifications and arithmetic, both of which we cite so you can check them.

A local shop or a teacher can tell you things we cannot — how an instrument feels in a particular pair of hands, whether a specific unit has a fault, what a repair should cost. Where those matter, use them.

Accuracy

We work from manufacturer documentation and cite it. Manufacturers revise products, change specifications without renaming models, and occasionally publish errors of their own. We re-check pages on the cadence described in our editorial policy, and the manufacturer’s current documentation is always more authoritative than ours.

If you find something wrong, please tell us — we would rather know. Corrections go to info@chordandcase.com or via the contact form.

Prices and availability

Prices shown are fetched from the retailer and stamped with the date they were checked. They change constantly and can be wrong by the time you read them. Where we have no current figure we say “check price” rather than showing an old one.

The retailer’s own page is always the authority on price, availability, specification, shipping and returns. We are not the seller and cannot honor or guarantee any price shown here.

Affiliate links

We earn a commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. This is disclosed on every page that carries one and in full on our affiliate disclosure page. It does not change which instruments we recommend or in what order.

External links

We link to manufacturer documentation, retailers and other sources. We do not control those sites, are not responsible for their content, and their inclusion is not an endorsement of everything on them.

Intellectual property

The written content, structure and original photography selection on this site belong to Fathom & Foundry. You are welcome to quote a reasonable extract with a link back to the page. Republishing pages wholesale, or using our content to train a commercial product without attribution, is not permitted.

Product images are supplied by the retailer’s catalog and remain the property of their respective owners. Brand names and model names belong to their manufacturers and are used here descriptively.

Acceptable use

Please do not attempt to disrupt the site, submit automated form spam, or scrape it in a way that degrades it for other readers. Our content is deliberately open to search and AI crawlers — see our robots file for what is permitted.

Limitation of liability

The site is provided as-is. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Fathom & Foundry is not liable for any loss arising from your use of this site or from a purchase you make after reading it, including where information here turns out to be inaccurate or out of date.

Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top of the page changes when we do, and continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Contact

Email info@chordandcase.com or use the contact form.