Dave Kouri has built a steady business selling and renting instruments at Uptempo Music in Beaverdale.

He started the business eight years ago after he failed to find a suitable tenant for a building he had purchased at 2714 Beaver Ave.

Kouri is one of the few music store owners in the area who is not a player. Along with his brother, Steve, Kouri had operated Solar Loan and Sales Co. in Des Moines, and had experience selling musical instruments.

Uptempo Music rents stringed instruments, woodwinds, drums and any other music maker desired by instructors at Greater Des Moines schools. Prices start at $20 per month, with payments deducted from the cost of the instrument if students or parents decide to purchase them.

Over the years, he has upgraded the quality of the instruments he rents.

Guitars that he offers for sale rarely breach the $600 price point, and many cost much less, including an almost unheard-of price of about $350 for a guitar made of solid hardwoods. Typically, guitars in that price range might have a solid top with plywood back and sides. Higher-end guitars are made of all solid woods, such as mahogany, maple, spruce and cedar.

Kouri and other music shop owners point out that the overall quality of instruments is improving, particularly those manufactured in China, the source of more than 76 percent of instruments rented by U.S. students, according to Music Trades magazine.

Uptempo Music has about 120 people taking lessons every week from instructors who have been with the store four or five years. They learn how to play guitar, drums, bass, ukelele, banjo, mandolin, piano and all of the band instruments, Kouri said.

The weak economy hasn’t put much of a dent in sales or demand.

“We’re ordering stuff every day,” Kouri said.

Uptempo Music is featuring a $99 guitar sale, which helps get people in the store, Kouri said, as do the handful of high-end guitars that he sells on consignment.

But the rental program, with its discounts and interest-free payments, are a big draw that can lead to future sales.

“Renters become buyers,” he said.