Stylophone - Does Rolf Harris still play??? (Stylophone Original Pocket Synthesiser)

Member Name: dove3066

Product:	Stylophone Original Pocket Synthesiser
Date:	02/03/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small, fun, batteries last for ages

Disadvantages: Bit tinny sounding, batteries last for ages!!

I remember the Stylophone from my youth as being the one thing on swap shop that people seemed to want to swap more than anything else. I came to the conclusion that it everyone wanted to get rid of them then they weren't that good or that much fun.

I was really surprised then when they made a return to the shops a couple of years ago. I was constantly hassled by my husband every christmas and birthday to get him one - because he had never had one as a child and so felt he was deprived obviously!!!

Well this year I eventually caved in and bought him one - I bought this one from hawkins for about £15 but there may be cheaper places on the net. I was quite surprised at how small it was - only about 6-7 inches. It has a real retro feel because of the chunky black plastic and silver speaker but it has been given abit of an update as it now has an MP3 connection - but why you would use this I really don't know because you need to buy a special lead and the speakers are only mono - I think you would be better off buying a dedicated set of speakers if you want to play your Mp3.

There are only 20 notes available but you do have a sliding octave scale of the back so that does give you a reasonable spread of notes. There is also a vibrato switch so you can distort the sound a bit if you want. I find the sound a bit tinny - there are some tunes shown in the instruction manual so you can attempt to play something tuneful!

I must admit it doesn't really capture my imagination but everyone else in the house seems to have fun playing it - but I would say that it tends to be in short bursts.

I'm not sure how long the wire joining the stylus to the main part is going to last because the design has it folded in half and then the stylus clips over it - so we tend to only clip the end of the stylus in to avoid excessive wear on the wire.

Summary: A piece of retro that has no purpose just fun