A blast from the past - even better than wispas! (Stylophone Original Pocket Synthesiser)

Member Name: Donnabroom

Product:	Stylophone Original Pocket Synthesiser
Date:	17/01/08 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, easy to play

Disadvantages: None!

The other half is a bit nerdy, (well a lot nerdy, but don't tell him I said so), and he loves all things gadgety and retro so when I saw that they had re-released the "Stylophone", I knew I had to get him one for Christmas. (I ended up getting one for a friend too).
After he unwrapped it Christmas day, (he LOVED it by the way), I realised just how cool they are and wanted to share with all you lovely people.

~~~*~~~ What is a Stylophone? ~~~*~~~
I expect a lot of you will know exactly what a Stylophone is remembering them from the "first time round" back in the 1960s/70s. Stylophones were made popular by Rolf Harris and David Bowie who used them for songs such as "Two Little Boys" and "Space Oddity". (It's actually amazing now to think that Rolf Harris could make anything popular).

For those of you who don't know what a Stylophone is I will endeavour to explain without waffling too much, (for those of you who want to know more, check out wikipedia).
A Stylophone is a musical instrument designed by Brian Jarvis in 1967; it has a speaker built in and presumably some kind of amplifier and a metal key-pad that you play using a metal tipped stylus. The sound is pretty hard to describe but my best attempt would be, "kind of haunting, quite shrill and very weird". Sorry if that isn't much help.

The one I am reviewing is the 2007 re-model made by re:creation, (www.originalstylophone.com), I should say that the stylophone should be called the "Dubreq" Stylophone as Dubreq own the rights to it.
~~~*~~~ So tell us about it then ~~~*~~~

The new version has a VERY similar appearance to the original version and was made with the help of the original designer's son. (The picture Dooyoo have added is exactly what it looks like). The plastic it is made out of is really thick and very rigid which gives it a really nice "retro" feel.
In the box, (which is only a tiny bit bigger than the stuff it contains which is nice seeing as how so many companies use masses of un-necessary packaging), you get the Stylophone itself with the stylus attached, (it fits inside a little grove on the Stylophone body), a cable to connect the Stylophone to an MP3 player and a booklet which contains the instructions to play "Silent Night" and "The Londonderry Air" as well as all the stuff you would expect like care instructions etc.

The Stylophone take 3 AA batteries which aren't included, (we put ours in Christmas day and have play with this a lot - even using it as speaker a few times - and they are still going). It is safe to use rechargeable in it though as long as you don't mix rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries.
The original features of the Stylophone were a "vibrato" control which allows you to make the sound more haunting, a hand tuning knob to allow you to tune the Stylophone to fit with other music/instruments and headphone sockets, (so you can practice without driving other people to commit murder).

I find the vibrato particularly cool as it really does allow you to make the weirdest noise known to man kind. (It was the vibrato in combination with the tuning knob that allowed David to create the effects in "Space Oddity" - if you haven't heard it you should, if only once). The tuning knob is obviously useful especially with one of the new features, (MP3 input).
The new features are volume control, 2 new sounds, (achieved with the tuning control), and the previously mentioned MP3 input. It goes without saying that the volume control is very useful and the new sounds are cool enough but the MP3 input is undoubtedly my favourite feature.

It allows you to play along with your favourite songs and even use the Stylophone and a reasonably good speaker and amplifier for your MP3 player. This is particularly useful when someone wants to play you a song they have stored on their phone, (I cannot stand the quality of sound that phone speakers produce). You would have to spend a fair bit of cash to get a better portable speaker.
The Stylophone is quite small measuring about 6"x4"x1½". Despite this the stylus is nice and chunky which makes it easier to use.

I really want to make the point that you don't have to have ANY musical skill to play the stylophone. The keys are numbered and the music written for it simply lists the numbers you have to play in order. After about half and hour of messing about with it I was banging out pop songs a plenty with very little effort. I admit that to manipulate the tuner to make the kind of noises that Bowie and Rolf did would take a bit more practice.
I love how rewarding it is to be able to play an instrument with so little skill. I have little latent musical ability so I find being able to play this amazing! You can find popular songs that have been transcribed for the Stylophone really easily by typing "stylophone music" into a search engine so you don't have to fork out on music books either.

~~~*~~~ I want one; I want one, where can I get it? ~~~*~~~
Firebox.com has them for £14.95 and I have seen them in Debenhams for £14.99 and Littlewoods for £19.99. A quick search on EBay discovered the 2007 versions for a couple of quid boxed and brand new. I also found them on a site called Otherland Toys, (www.otherlandtoys.co.uk), £14.98.

~~~*~~~ So would you recommend it and who to? ~~~*~~~
I would definitely recommend this especially to those who remember them fondly, people into "retro" stuff, musicians and kids, but I think most people would enjoy playing with these as they are so easy to master. Purely based on the fact that they work as a half decent speaker for MP3 players, (all be it mono), makes them worth £15 in my opinion and you get a musical instrument as a bonus. 10/10!

Summary: A brilliant piece of kit!