Music gear shops in NYC

Dano writes: "Hello, I read your blog all the time. I'll be visiting NYC for the first time soon & wondered if you knew of any cool music gear stores there. Thanks!" I don't know anywhere myself, unless he can zip 3,000 miles west to Analogue Haven. Can anyone help?


Comments:
If you are into stompboxes, guitars, amps and the like try 30th Street Guitars www.30thstreetguitars. com. Also www.southsideguitars.com in Brooklyn.
For exotic and cool percussion I like Drummers World of 46th Street.

I personally would feel right about suggesting any of the well known places for used electronic gear since I haven't had too many "good" exchanges with them since the late 80's early 90's and with the Ebay thing taking it's share of the market deals are harder to find.

Hope that helps and you enjoy our fair city.
 
I know that there are several music shops on 48th Street in Manhattan including Mannys, Sam Ash, 48th Street Guitars and Rudys. Here is a pic...

http://www.michaelallsup.com/ny48th_street_music.htm
 
you want to be going to -
Main Drag in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
just get on the L train to brooklyn and get of at the Bedford stop. great selection of vintage gear and boutique pedals, including the wonderful Schumann.
 
http://roguemusic.com/

they got goodies
 
I don't particularly like Rogue, but they do have a lot of used and sometimes odd gear, as good of a "gear tourism" spot as any.
http://www.roguemusic.com/

If Dr. Sound is still around, they used to have a lot of synth gear, and cool old stuff. Even modulars at one point, if I remember correctly.
Dr. Sound 25 Mercer St 212-334-5478 NY New York

Dannys 23rd street chelsea guitars is.. mostly guitars, surprise. But hey have really really really nice vintage stuff, and is an all around cool place to spend a few minutes, totally unique within the NYC music world, IMHO.
http://www.chelseaguitars.com/
 
Oh.. and do not under any circumstances go to East Village Music.
 
Dr. Sound has moved twice and changed its name to Two Lines music. It's now up on 48th with the rest. I don't know what inventory they carry these days, though.
 
Dr Sound (which is huge in Japan I found out) hasnt been on Mercer Street for a few years and their large new store on Lower Broadway closed recently too BUT they did have a small but mouth-watering selection of vintage synths at their obligatory 48th St location next to Sam Ash but the name was changed so its not called Dr Sound anymore. I'm sure Dr Sound or its new version will reemerge as soon as they find someplace in Manhattan with affordable rent to showcase their tremendous collection of vintage keyboards. But is that likely knowing NYC rents?

BTW, theres a cryptic and unmarked store right next to Rogue on 30th St whichm if open the day you arrive, harbors vast, imean VAST amounts of keyobards and old rack gear inside. Look for the polymoog and Oberheim Expander in the ground floor window on the north side of 30th st.
 
Last time I checked, Two Lines on 48th street had closed. I heard from the owner that they were moving to NJ.
 
Sadly, Two Lines Music (at least in New York City) has closed. Their storefront on Broadway is for rent and the space they had on 48th Street has been converted into some sort of Tarot Card establishment.

I agree with the earlier post about checking out 30th Street Custom Guitars, though. They've got Richard Llyod's Echoplex on sale for $900! I know it isn't Kraftwerk's vocoder, but still...
 
I remember a freaking cool vintage gear shop called Armens.. god knows where it was, as NY grid road system confuses the fuck out of me. I seem to remember that it wasn't far from Broadway.

Amongst other things, they had custom hack 'n' rack jobs of the SH101 and Emu SP1200. Tasty!
 
>>>I remember a freaking cool vintage gear shop called Armens.. god knows where it was, >>>

Armen's is the one mentioned earlier:

>>BTW, theres a cryptic and unmarked store right next to Rogue on 30th St whichm if open the day you arrive, harbors vast, imean VAST amounts of keyobards and old rack gear inside. Look for the polymoog and Oberheim Expander in the ground floor window on the north side of 30th st.>>>

It's basically on the ground floor to the right of the door to the building which contains Rogue Music.

It might also be worth mentioning that if you're looking for Rogue, you won't find a shop front, it's on the tenth floor!

Take the subway to penn station, head for madison square garden. Turn right onto 30th and Rogue is about halfway down on the right hand side.

I used to work at Rogue when I lived in NYC and had a great time there. Armen (from Armenia) was the tech guy there at that time. An EXCELLENT tech, a little bit grouchy but basically a good guy.

Apparently there was a falling out between Armen and Rogue and hence Armen now has his own place.
 
Holy fuck, please do not say anything good about Armen. He ripped off more people than I can even remember. A classic Armen move was pricing repairs up way too high after evaluating your broken synth that you had submitted to him for a quote and then offering to buy the broken synth from you. that's probably where all his gear came from!
 
Armen's is a great place with TONS of equipment to drool over. He's fixed some synths for me before when I was in a pinch and did not rip me off. So I guess "anonymous" had a bad experience, but I just wanted to show some love...
 
Wow.....

I stopped by Rogue on the way home today, and was mildly impressed with the selection of gear they had for sale. A bunch of high-quality MIDI controllers, a decent selection of Roland gear, a Novation X-Station, and lots of full-sized 70s vintage stuff. Prices ranged from reasonably good to excellent. If their selection were bigger, I'd be all over this place.

I walked by, but didn't stop in Armen's (had a train to catch). Definitely a sketchy-looking place, although I was impressed by the polymoog in the front window. Still..... not the type of place I felt comfortable walking into alone.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
Don't go to Armen's!

The man is greedy and ready to do anything to rip you off. Besides, he is selling used equipment at very expensive prices without even checking out if it works.

You'd better go to Rogue on the 10th floor of the same building, they are way more serious.
 
Hi there guys!
I am selling a clean, mint condition Access Virus Indigo 1. Works 100% perfect- no deffects! Comes with manuals and power cord.
Asking $950

I'm located in the new york tri state area.

Thanks

Peter
 
Armen when he has spare time, stands in front of his store to catch people on their way up to rogue so he can steal the equipment away. If you need a repair, he will try and price it so high you wind up selling it to him for "parts" then watch it a week later on eBay. If you are selling something, he looks up the going price on eBay to make sure he can turn a profit, so why don't you sell it on eBay yourself? He violates MAP policies of Akai, Alesis, Avalon, Rane and Clavia on eBay. He does not collect sales tax or give receipts when he buys gear, has no problem buying stolen gear, offers to let you buy back your equipment in a short period of time, something only a licensed pawn shop is allowed to do, doesn't collect sales tax as a rule, which means he doesn't pay it to the state. So however you feel about things like map rules, sales tax, and ethics, make a note that he violates all of this, and this is the type of person you are dealing with.
 
Armen when he has spare time, stands in front of his store to catch people on their way up to rogue so he can steal the equipment away. If you need a repair, he will try and price it so high you wind up selling it to him for "parts" then watch it a week later on eBay. If you are selling something, he looks up the going price on eBay to make sure he can turn a profit, so why don't you sell it on eBay yourself? He violates MAP policies of Akai, Alesis, Avalon, Rane and Clavia on eBay. He does not collect sales tax or give receipts when he buys gear, has no problem buying stolen gear, offers to let you buy back your equipment in a short period of time, something only a licensed pawn shop is allowed to do, doesn't collect sales tax as a rule, which means he doesn't pay it to the state. So however you feel about things like map rules, sales tax, and ethics, make a note that he violates all of this, and this is the type of person you are dealing with.
 
I was just at Armen's today, and, although the place is for all intensive a synth museum, but I would never buy anything there...

He has all these wonderful synths and drum machines messily stacked on top of each other like sardines, and doesn't give a rat's ass about giving you a good deal...He just looks up someone's 'Buy it Now' on ebay and won't budge...

I'd love to rob the place of all the insanely cool stuff they have though ;)
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
Music Thing on Twitter
    follow MT on Twitter

    Music Thing Hits:
    Music Thing Heroes:
    Music Thing Friends:
    My music gear for sale
    DIY Modular Synth
    Matrix Synth
    Create Digital Music
    Analog Industries
    Boing Boing Gadgets
    London Video Production
    Oddstrument
    Wire to the Ear
    Palm Sounds
    Noise Addicts
    Retro Thing
    Analogue Haven
    Music Thing Massive
    About Music Thing:
    Send tips to Music Thing
    About this site
    Music Thing Massive
    RSS Feeds


    Problem with the ads?
    Please let me know