Universal Musical Instrument

Paul seems like a trustworthy, nice guy when you first meet him BUT BEWARE! NEVER buy an instrument from UNIVERSAL MUSIC. I thought (naively) that since we had rented from him for school, loyally for three years, he would consider us good customers. NO! Bought a used instrument believing all that he told us and went home to research, only to find that I got ripped off 100%. I can’t re-​sell the instrument in any noteworthy music store — and probably not even on ebay because it has virtually no value as is. I went to ask him about trading in value and he suggested I pay him more money and give him the instrument to get something else. OK — I’ve been had and I am angry about it.

You would never notice this place from the street. Ring the buzzer and go upstairs. It’s one huge room filled with instruments from guitars to clarinets to custom made percussion instruments like the aquaphone which you play with a bow (also sold here). Hear an aquaphone here:
Kazoos, sheet music, conducting batons, harmoniums, guitar strings, pitch pipes, reeds and rosin. And all of it piled up in a wild, beautiful mess and run by clarinetist Paul Tolchin who knows about all of it. You will not believe this place until you see it. I believe the hours he keeps are 9 – 1 so go early. He mostly rents instruments to schools — so rent something and learn it or buy a harmonium like I did and feel absurdly happy that this place exists.

Didnt really fix my banjo. On the other hand, they also didnt charge me. I think.
Just go someplace else…

I admire Kelly’s powers of observation and description, but see the characteristics she’s described as what make this place great if you are building or inventing your own musical instruments and need affordable parts. So often this place makes it possible to spend $ 10 on a part instead of $ 100. The proprietor often will let you browse, chaperoned, once he understands what you are there for.

Oh man, the first review I ever wrote was for this place (on another site). It was so bad that it turned me to the review-​writing genre.
This place is a dump. It is filthy and owned by a man who must have some kind of mental illness/​hoarding problem. The stack of old, disgusting papers on his desk is taller than most people and hundreds, if not thousands, of McDonalds bags and burger wrappers litter the floor. All the instruments are in broken piles all over the floor. You literally cannot walk into the space it has so much stuff in it, you just wait at the door for him to dig through his piles of stuff. There is no light in the room whatsoever. It is like shopping in a dumpster. The instrument I rented was broken and had to be repaired by my professor. It also smelled like broccoli for some strange reason. It was probably never cleaned.
I studied music at NYU and many of my friends rented from him as well, mostly because he was right next to the campus. However, he would charge everyone different prices for the same instrument. He doesn’t have standardized prices because he is not running a professional operation. Also, every single person that rented from him had serious instrument damage issues (cellos without endpins, violins with broken strings or fallen soundposts, etc.). Many of my professors flat-​out said to not get instruments for their classes from him.
Don’t go here. Period. There is absolutely no reason to when there are a million music stores in NYC.