5 Incredible Synthesizer Museums: Where to See the Rarest Synths in the World
Fabulous synths on display in America, Germany, Japan, and more.
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Find out where you can see – and even play! – the world’s rarest synths at these amazing synthesizer museums.
Synthesizer Museums: The Rarest Synths in the World
YouTube demo videos can only take you so far. While an amazing service, no video is going to compare to seeing and playing classic and rare synthesizers for yourself. The problem is where to do it. Unless you’re fabulously wealthy with a fleet of rare synth gems hidden away in a home studio, you’re going to have a hard time getting your hands on instruments like the Roland Jupiter-8, Yamaha CS-80, or EMS VCS3. That’s where synthesizer museums come in.
Much like regular museums, synthesizer museums assemble rare and coveted synths, drum machines, and other gear under one roof, often with educational material to supplement the instruments themselves. While not every museum will let you get hands-on with the synthesizers, many do – or at least in some capacity. But seeing and not playing is better than never seeing at all, so even if your closest museum won’t let you play, don’t let that stop you from paying it a visit.
Here then are five synthesizer museums, all with some pretty rare instruments in their collections. Did someone say roadtrip?
Synthesizer Museums: Vintage Synthesizer Museum
Located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, you probably won’t find the Vintage Synthesizer Museum unless you’re looking for it. It’s worth the effort, though, as the museum houses a mind-bogglingly impressive collection of instruments.
You can see a list for yourself on the museum’s website, but some highlights include an EMS Synthi AKS, ARP 2600 with 3620 keyboard, Korg PS-3100, Steiner-Parker Synthacon, and DK Synergy. Modern instruments include Buchla Music Easel and Synthesizers.com 55U system. They also have effects, with lots of classic Korg, Roland, and Maestro gear.
Although the word ‘museum’ is in the name, the Vintage Synthesizer Museum is primarily a recording studio. Attendance is by hourly reservation only: $60/hour gives you access to the collection to play and explore, while $75/hour also includes recording capabilities. You can pay more to include a house engineer. Visit the website (below) for more information.
- Vintage Synthesizer Museum homepage
Synthesizer Museums: Swiss Museum and Centre for Electronic Music Instruments (SMEM)
The Swiss Museum and Centre for Electronic Music Instruments – better known as the SMEM – began in 2016 with a private collection and now has grown to more than 5000 pieces, including synthesizers, drum machines, effects, and other studio gear.
Located in Fribourg, Switzerland, the SMEM is jam-packed with gear and looks more like a warehouse than a traditional museum, with instruments towering from floor to ceiling on shelves. You can see the collection for yourself on the homepage. Taking a quick look around, I found a Jen SX1000, Kawai SX-240, and Sequential Circuits Prophet VS (keyboard and rack versions!). While most gear is unavailable to try, the SMEM has a rotating selection of instruments in its Playroom to play and record.
Visitors need to book a tour in advance. Public guided tours are offered on Saturday afternoons for CHF 10.00 per person (around $11 USD). Playroom access is CHF 50.00 and includes a tour.
- SMEM homepage
Synthesizer Museums: Synthesizer Museum Berlin
The newest museum on this list, Synthesizer Museum Berlin recently opened in the German capital but it’s already making a name for itself with a number of high-profile events featuring artists like Alan Oldham and Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream.
The exhibit features more than 50 pieces, and while there doesn’t appear to be a collection list on the homepage, an Instagram post from keyboardist Renee Brandt shows a Roland Jupiter-8, Moog Source, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Yamaha CS-80, and a massive Roland System-700 modular system.
Entrance to the museum is available by appointment. It costs €12 for two hours. You can play and record the instruments.
- Synthesizer Museum Berlin homepage
Synthesizer Museums: Moogseum
The Moogseum is the hallmark project of the Bob Moog Foundation. Located in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, it’s an immersive and interactive museum that uses the life and instruments of Bob Moog as a starting point to teach about synthesis and the science of sound.
If you love Moog, you’ll get a kick out of the different exhibits they have on offer, including a hands-on opportunity to patch sounds on a modular synth, an interactive section on theremins, including some of Bob’s earliest hand-built models, and a recreation of Bob’s workbench and exhibit on modular synthesis including a legendary Moog modular that includes prototype modules from the late ’60s.
Admission to the Moogseum is $11.75 per person.
- Moogseum homepage
Synthesizer Museums: Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments
If you find yourself in Japan, a visit to Hamamatsu is definitely in order. I’ve talked about the city of Hamamatsu before, but it’s the home of both Roland and Yamaha and includes the Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments.
Not strictly a synthesizer museum, the Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments covers all kinds of instruments from all over the world, from Indonesian gamelans to historical European pianos to, yes, synthesizers. Being Japan, it has a nice focus on Japanese instruments, including (for me anyway) the most impressive piece, Korg’s Prototype 1, the first synthesizer made in Japan. They also have an original miniKORG 700, the company’s first official synth.
Admission to the museum is ¥800, or about $5.30 USD.
- Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments homepage
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8 responses to “5 Incredible Synthesizer Museums: Where to See the Rarest Synths in the World”
What about this museum is not obsolete?
Where is the http://www.nmc.ca on the list?
Studio Bell – National Music Center, Calgary, Alberta. Massive working collection including the famous TONTO synth..
dont forget about this:
https://www.museodelsynth.org/
There is https://mim.org/ as well.
i found mini moog in concert with hamond b 2 a cosmic journey in my improvised performance during the solo act of the floyd show aus.,74
a musical treasure
I can’t believe that the Electronic Music Education And Preservation Project in Harleysville, PA isn’t on this list! Amazing space, incredibly knowledgeable staff and curators, and free!
If in Switzerland you should visit the Synthorama in Lutherbach instead of the warehouse style SMEM. At the Synthorama every synth is playable, you can collect your own samples if you want; there are a lot of treasures along the huge collection like an ARP 2500, all ARP 2600 models from the Grey Marvin up to the orange black, a lot of Moog Modular’s, all Korg PS models, Oberheim Four Voice and the while OB range and and and. All major brands have a own room. There are a lot of Drumcomputers too.
And Martin (the owner) is a really nice guy.
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