The 5 Best Musical Instrument Stores in Adelaide

If you’re looking for a place to purchase your guitar and amps, Southern Music is for you. They have the most extensive variety of guitars and basses available.

Apart from coming from trusted brands, their instruments are competitively priced and more accessible to a lot of aspiring musicians.

We found ourselves geeking over their scratch-and-dent bargains. 

While others might see flaws, we see character, and there’s nothing better than putting your hands on a genuine piece of musical history.

They also provide music tuition for beginners or advanced musicians looking to learn new instruments or expand their repertoire.

Their fantastic service for online orders completely blew us away. Despite having a minor problem with our order, they contacted us right away to help fix it.

Since all of the staff members are active musicians themselves, they are in a unique position to understand and meet the needs of their clientele.

However, we don’t like how unapproachable their staff can be. Instead of listening to the customer and developing rapport in order to help them make an informed decision, they prefer to lecture.

The selection of drum kits and pianos is limited too because guitars are the store’s primary focus.

In spite of this, we’re grateful that they provide options for interest-free financing, which helps to ease the financial burden on their customers.

Size Music is an Australian family-owned business that has been thriving in the music industry for more than four decades.

They are experts in selling, renting, and repairing high-end orchestral instruments. 

They have the most trusted and well-known brands of orchestral instruments, like Yamaha, Bach, Gliga, Hagen Weise, Heinrich Gill, Otto Jos. Klier, Stravinsky, and more.

Their procedure for getting brand-new instruments ready for the market left us impressed. The instrument underwent extensive testing, fine-tuning, and customization by their skilled technicians.

In this way, the instrument will be in top shape right out of the case, ready to be played.

In addition to this, their helpful instructions for setting up, stowing away, cleaning, and maintaining your instrument were major selling points for us. 

They offer ultrasonic cleaning if your instruments require thorough cleaning. It’s safe for the environment and completely eliminates the need for harsh acids and chemicals.

If you’re hoping to find a guitar or drum set there, you’ll be sorely disappointed to find that they only stock orchestral instruments.

Our dissatisfaction also stems from the fact that they don’t offer price matching and that all of their prices are set in stone. 

What keeps us positive is that their store is a one-stop shop for orchestral instrument purchase, cleaning, repair, and hire.

If you’re looking to purchase a piano, Winston Music is the way to go. They have everything from keyboards to digital pianos to acoustic uprights and grands. 

Of course, they also offer a variety of other instruments. Their store has a wonderful layout, and the displays are eye-catching.

We appreciate that they stock instruments from a wide range of reputable brands, so you can buy instruments with confidence in their reliability and longevity.

We also feel comfortable recommending this shop to parents looking to purchase their child’s first instrument.

Their customer service is top-notch; they asked us lots of pertinent questions to figure out what we needed and then recommended the ideal instrument.

The fact that they encourage you to test out their displays so that you can get a feel for their instruments is something that has won us over.

However, their drum kits and other drum gear are limited. The cheapest available kit will set you back a hefty AUD $899.

They’re slow to follow up with customers about new shipments of instruments, which can be inconvenient if the item you want is temporarily out of stock.

We also feel a bit iffy about their after-sales service. Customers have complained about the long wait times for repairs and warranty replacements that were promised after the sale.

Fortunately, their instruments come with a great warranty policy to give you peace of mind while you wait.

Derringers Music is an Adelaide-based company with good expertise and experience in the music industry.

Since the staff are musicians themselves serving other musicians, they can empathise with your situation and strive to give you the best possible musical instruments.

They are willing to negotiate on any of their listed prices and will do their best to meet or beat any online or counteroffer from their competitors.

This is relevant not only to domestic competitors in Australia but also to those in other countries.

In addition to this, they have financing options to prevent you from going over budget on your purchases.

Derringers Music is an authorised dealer in Australia for all major labels in the music business. All of the products they sell come with full manufacturer guarantees.

In addition, there’s a service centre for each brand they carry in each state, so if you need repairs, you can save money by not sending the item back to them.

Unfortunately, we have discovered that there are significant differences in service quality between different locations. 

Staff at the Adelaide City location were unhelpful and uninterested in meeting the needs of some customers, which left us feeling somewhat dissatisfied.

We also found our desired instruments out of stock in their online catalogue. Unfortunately, despite their assurances that they would get in touch with us again once they received a new shipment, we never heard from them again.

Nonetheless, they are a one-stop shop for all your music needs, so we recommend you give them a visit!

Billy Hyde, a true legend of Australian popular music, established Billy Hyde Music in the ’60s.

Their shelves and isles are well-stocked with quality brands, and all are covered by their great warranty policies.

We think it’s fantastic how they want to make creating music more accessible for everyone. Their prices are tough to beat in the market, so we encourage you to check out their website!

In addition, they have a tonne of instruments and accessories for sale at clearance prices that we dare call steals.

The store has a modern and stylish design. 

Remember the feeling you had as a kid when you entered that magical toy store? When we walked into Billy Hyde’s, we felt that.

We also enjoyed shopping there very much because their displays were meticulously maintained and were easy to try out.

However, it’s a bummer that they don’t warn you about the surcharges associated with using either debit or credit cards at checkout.

The drum section also seemed understaffed, and the staff members were unsure of themselves due to a lack of customer service training.

Don’t get us wrong; they employ some seriously talented musos, but we found our interactions with them to be awkward and drawn out because they lacked knowledge about the company’s policies and inventory.

Still, we have to give it to them because they are some of the friendliest staff we have had the pleasure to talk to in our search for the ideal instrument.