I think London, UK needs a synthesizer store. It used to be that I could go to Rubadub, or London Modular and play around with the synths, ask questions, with knowledgeable people. The best place I can go to in London now is Juno… and they have a small showroom, but doesn’t feel as “open” as it could be.
I think we need a Patchwerks style of store. Lot of gear, knowledgeable staff, events, gear demos, etc. What kind of store would make you want to travel to London to experience it? Keen to hear your ideas!
I’d like a “hub” - like good guitar shops (I’m thinking of GAK in Brighton). Instruments to play, musicians amongst the staff; perhaps a space for performances and gatherings, like Rough Trade East has; classes on synthesis and performance techniques; consumables like cables, PSUs, memory cards, cable ties.
Different from the synth areas in Denmark Street’s music shops: not being in a basement; actual stock; variety and staff who care.
there is westend dj … though it looks like the synth store is no more (not mentioned on the website)… i havent been since before covid but they had elektron/roland/novation last timei visited.
Honestly I’m happy doing my own research and ordering online. I spent many years enjoying going to my local stores chatting with staff and checking new gear but it’s just a different market now.
I have a local music tech store and I’ll give it business but also love the availability and price if stuff online. It’s just the way it is
I kinda agree. When I need something quickly I buy online from a local store. If I’m happy to wait it’s probably cheaper overseas. I know it’s not as lucrative but I like what MESS has done in Melbourne. It’s a synth museum of sorts where you pay a yearly subscription and can go in to play all manner of donated, loaned and bought synths. Might be worth looking at something like that?
I really liked Elevator Sound in Bristol when I visited last year. It’s small but for playing modular (and some desktop gear) it’s fantastic, the staff are super into modular and they run events in the city too. Could be worth a visit to get ideas for your London synth store
Roland has a nice store in Tottenham court road. Apart from the synth corner, it even has a great section with pedals with guitars attached to them so you can basically try out the whole boss pedal line. There’s also a room with digital grand pianos and digital drums.
I’ve been the other day and they even has S1 tweak to play with AND even had in stock. So if you’re in London and waiting for music shops to stock up, you can actually get one right now.
I honestly think this type of store is now a non-starter and anyone opening one must either be crazy or risk averse/not concerned about losing money (or both).
The reason guitar stores, like GAK, can still ‘just about’ survive is that they are propped up by online sales, and, guitars are very inconsistent by nature, which means a large portion of guitar sales still happen in person… synths kind of eliminate that need because they are consistent and you can get a really good idea of their sound prior to purchasing.
Smaller niche/boutique synth/modular stores are slightly more viable because the amount of permutations is so high with modular. But, even these stores have to heavily subsidise their physical costs with online sales and other ways of paying the rent in the space itself.
Thanks for feedback all. I’ve visited all stores – and my big issues are around limited items on display, smaller, less concentrated selection (synths not the main event), no modular, and things just plain not plugged in… requiring staff assistance.
It would be awesome to have something like a “synth wonderland”. A nice sized space, synths all around the perimeter, everything plugged in and instantly playable, specialist staff assistance, lots of peripheral items in stock, and regular events (gear demos, manufacturer presentations, DIY sessions, etc).
I am not certain this is financially viable. It would need to be supported by strong online sales. But when I see ALM Busy Circuits have a line around the block when they launched their popup store… and the general growth and breadth of products in the space I feel like we’re just getting started.
Does UK have that many great music stores full stop? A handful?
I know for sure Scotland has literally fuck all. Guitar guitar in Edinburgh probably only decent one (but no synths). All the music stores here only geared to “my first guitar/drums/piano” and strings - fuck all selection, handful of the same boring pedals, same pick of guitars, fuck all amps, usual Casio elec pianos zzz. Find them all depressing, as I go in each time in hope and it’s always the same stuff. I’d happily pay abit more for gear in stores if the shop was actually exciting to visit but they aren’t. I usually find pawn shops have far more exciting music gear…
In summary, yes please, open it in Scotland tho, thanks in advance.
In the heydays of Charing Cross Rd./Denmark St. music shops the staff were the worst kind of grumpy sod failed musician stereotype.
GAK is also staffed by unhelpful wallies.
Of the current shops in London, PMT is OK. They had a decent synth section downstairs last time I was there (over three years ago). But the staff suffer the same bug-up-their-arse syndrome and take the absolute piss sometimes. They tried to charge me postage to order (in person, at the till) something from their warehouse for collection in-store.
Looks like the drums & keyboard Wunjo is gone, which is for the best considering how condescending the staff were when I went in to try out the Digitakt years ago. Seems their guitar shop is still going, currently being run by The Allman Brothers:
Seriously though, its going to be hard for anywhere to hold enough stock for browsing and trying out synths on a large scale, messaging somewhere like Elevator Sounds with the synth/module you want to try out before turning up is probably the best idea, maybe one day RDJ will donate his collection to the nation and we will all be happy!
Rubadub is great, but tiny! Of the little space available it’s mainly vinyl, though they still manage to squeeze in a fair bit of gear ready to demo around the sides. Nice vibe and staff though. Something like that x4 size would be amazing.
Signal Sounds has been in a funny state of ‘sort of open but not really’ - haven’t been in yet but hear good things. Anyone actually been in and know if it’s properly open? During lockdown and at old location you could essentially email/ask to attend but not open to casual passers by. Odd to even type about.
Yea I’m with you on this - although I see the appeal of demo spaces and trying gear before you buy this kind of brick-and-mortar feels like a bit of a dead horse. The stores that do exist are just shopfronts to online retailers, and that space is already quite saturated in the UK in my opinion, so you’d be taking a pretty thin slice of the pizza.
Even if you live within the M25 it’d probably cost you more to get to a store and try the gear than to buy from an online retailer and return it if you don’t like it, and unlike browsing TV’s you probably know what you want already, so you’re not going to be trying a bunch of stuff out. It’s a fairly narrow audience.
Andertons, though in Reading Guildford not too far from London, has a lot of synths on the floor. I don’t know if they are all plugged in, and don’t know how their staff behave.
Edit: you can take a virtual tour of the shop. Synths are at the back somewhere from what I remember the one time I looked. They had a bunch of them, including expensive ones like OB-X8, the kind of stuff you may not want to order before trying it out. Don’t think they had modular though.
Elevator Sound seem to be the only shop that’s thriving (and to be honest, I’ve no idea how profitable/fiscally sustainable their business is), but that’s probably mostly to do with their website.
I’ve never been to their shop, but I’ve bought a bunch of shit off them over the years. I’d imagine that website is probably paying for the shop space, but they do seem to have done a really good job of building a little community around themselves, but that’s only going to be successful if you’re somewhere like Stokes Croft, I can’t see it working pretty much anywhere else, not even London.
