The UK’s largest specialist music shop

Fret King Eclat Standard

Nothing like a little spring cleaning to knock away those winter cobwebs and make the house feel sparkly and fresh and the instrument department is no exception. We’ve got a few electric guitars which, through no fault of their own, haven’t shifted and we think it’s time that they stretched their invisible, little guitar legs and moved on to pastures new; i.e. to the loving embrace of one of you fine people. To help facilitate and ease this difficult transition we’ve popped some rock bottom prices on them and will list them as follows:

Give us a call or drop us an email if you want to know any more about any of the instruments.

Kanile concert ukulele

We’ve just taken delivery of some rather fine new handcrafted solid wood ukuleles and wanted to share them with you. First off are the superb Kanile’a ukuleles which are handmade in Hawaii (the birthplace of the ukulele - but then you knew that) from koa (the traditional wood for ukuleles - but then you knew that too) and they are absolutely beautiful as you can see from the picture on the left. We have a soprano £549, a concert £579  and a tenor £649 in stock and they are, for the moment, one offs. So if you’re looking for a ukulele that’s more than a little bit special one of these might be for you.

As if that wasn’t enough! We have also taken delivery of an Asturias soprano ukulele. A handmade solid koa instrument from the workshops of the famed Japanese luthiers. It is a thing of great beauty and sings like a small, wooden angel. It retails for £995.

These gorgeous instruments and much more may be viewed here

Rickenbacker 4003 bass

The thing about Rickenbacker (well one of the many curious,  equally endearing and frustrating things about Rickenbacker) is their tendancy to make things in batches. It stands to reason really - nice, efficient way to work, but the annoying thing for us (and, as it turns out a very good thing for you) is that you wait ages (years in this instance) for a particular model to come along and then one does and it sells really quickly (as you knew it would) and you just ask the distributor on the off chance if they have another one available and then they do! So, I know I said we’d be lucky to see another bass any time soon but here another one is, just by the lucky hap that Rosetti recieved a few of them at the same time. Now if only Rickenbacker would hurry up and make a massive batch of jetglo 360s I’d be an even happier man…

However - on the desirable Rickenbacker model front - this is an excellent week as we’ve also just taken delivery of a Marr-tastic jetglo 330. Only one mind!

4003 mapleglo RRP £2079 Forsyth Price £1730
330 jetglo RRP £1936 Forsyth Price £1650

Forsyth’s staff are a talented lot.  Our piano sheet music specialist, Peter Smith, has just made a CD which is now available in the record department.  Called ‘A Gallery of Miniatures’ it’s a beautifully played selection of Russian and French piano miniatures, including music by Cui, Borodin, Hahn and Widor.  Peter plays recitals in Manchester but if you haven’t been fortunate enough to hear him here’s your opportunity to acquaint yourself with a really fine young pianist.  And if you come into the shop when he’s here he’ll probably autograph a copy for you.

Pianist Vladimir Horowitz left such a vast legacy of recordings that it would seem impossible for any new release of Horowitz material to add anything new to the picture.  Wrong!  Between 1945 and 1950 Mr Horowitz had many of his Carnegie Hall recitals recorded by a private company.  The discs were donated to Yale University not long before he died and there they have languished - until now.  (more…)

Danelectro DC59O-PSY. Limited Edition hand painted design!

The Danelectro rennaisance continues with a quartet of limited edition models faithfully recreating the double cutaway Danelectro model from 1959 probably most famously seen wielded by Jimmy Page with Led Zeppelin and the black DC59M-BLK is a pretty close copy of that guitar with modified Badass bridge. The other three models are all ‘original specification’ and available in Copper, White (with stylish gold hardware) and the far out, hand-painted psychadelic finish pictured left. All four are only being made in strictly limited numbers and yet still only retail for the extraordinary price of £349 a piece (a Les Paul like Jimmy’s is a tad more I believe) for the plain colours and £429 for the freak-fest pictured. Bargain. Drop us a line or get down here quick before they go.

Fylde Leonardo - the newest model in the range and still great value

It’s the inevitable time of year again when our suppliers start putting their prices up and this year it looks a bit worse than it is because of the VAT increase on top. So anyway, Fylde have just sent us their ammended price list and it takes immediate effect. Actually the increases are very reasonable given the ever increasing costs of timber, lacquer and the rest and they still represent excellent value for money for an English handmade instrument. Do have a look on the Fylde page or come into the shop to try one out.

The vinyl revival continues apace around the world with more classic titles from the LP era appearing in their original vinyl formats.  Whether you’re an audiophile convinced that analogue is king or someone nostalgic for the days of album covers and liner notes that you could actually read (!) then we may have something for you. 

We’ve just taken delivery of a first batch of classic jazz on 180 gram vinyl from Jazz Wax records.  There are several classics here  including J.J Johnson’s ‘First Place’, the most consistent first place winner in jazz polls throughout the world.  Other standout titles include ‘The Atomic Mr Basie’ one of the most successful LP’s by the Basie band, ‘Jazz Red Hot and Cool’ by the Dave Brubeck Quartet and ‘Everybody Digs Bill Evans’ .  All come complete with original covers and album notes.

On the 2nd floor we’ve just received some brand new models of digital pianos from Roland, Korg and Kawai.  They’re all ready for you to come and try out in the shop along with our unbeatable range of the best digital pianos available to suit all budgets.

If you’ve been thinking about a digital piano,  take a look at the whole range in store or at our digital pianos page.  Our expert staff are more than happy to help you find the right model for you.

Electric Violin Demo Day

Saturday 30th January

Forsyths Instrument Department

• Clinic with the Bridge violin team
• Performances by Green Hot Clover and fiddle virtuoso Richard Sanderson
• Expert advice on all aspects of electric violins, cellos pickups and amplifiers

Event runs from 11am - 5pm

Performances from 1pm - 4pm

Forsyth Instrument Department 2nd Floor

Jewels is an album of superb violin music highlighting the work of British composers of the late 20th century.
It contains a beautiful selection of 6 never before published violin miniatures, ranging from about grade 5-8 in standard, along with short accompanying biographies of the composers.

Containing works by Alan Rawsthorne, Elis Pehkonen, Peter Crossley-Holland, Roger Cann, David Benger and Stephen Wilkinson, this is one not to be missed!

At £9.95 this is must-have repertoire for any British music enthusiast.

Modern day crooner Michael Bublé has done it again with his long awaited album Crazy Love, now available on Pocket Songs for the first time.

The title track Crazy Love written by Van Morrison, sets the tone for the whole album, demonstrating Bublé’s admiration for the greats, scintillating style and versatility.

Now you can be inspired!

Pre Order your copy now at Forsyth’s for only £15.95!

If you would rather play in the snow than come into Manchester why not let us post your music, strings and other accessories to you.  Either give us a ring on 0161 834 3281 or email us with what you need and we can send it out to you today!

We’re all well aware, no doubt, that the Goverment raised the level of VAT back to 17.5% on January 1st, but here in the timeless land of Forsyths where everything takes a while to change we’re not raising our prices by a single penny during the month of January! Aren’t we kind. As if that wasn’t enough we have the following extra special price REDUCTIONS:

On ALL British made instruments (Fylde, Lowden, Moon, Atkin, Gordon Smith) we’ll give you an extra 10% off the pre-VAT increase price during January.

On ALL Ukuleles we’ll give you an extra 10% off

On any previously unreduced Spanish Classical guitar we’ll give you a whopping extra 15% off.

These discounts will be applied at the counter in the shop but the final discounted price is as shown on the website (ie - don’t ask us for any more off).

Happy New Year to you all.

Love, the instrument department.

Nearly every new piano is reduced in our New Year Sale. 

All other departments have extensive Sales too. 

Please contact us for details