THE proprietors of a massively expanding York musical instrument shop are playing a fanfare to their new home – which is literally a sound investment.

Phil and Lynne O’Dea, of MOR Music, next door to the Blue Bell pub in Fossgate, are spending £80,000 on moving guitars, drums, amplifiers and accessories over the road, to premises more than three times as big in the former Smiles All Round estate agency building, adjacent to The Blue Bicycle restaurant.

On February 1, the O’Deas will open their doors to their new 3,250 sq ft HQ, and there will be a formal opening on February 5. The present store is to close once the new one is operating.

It opens the prospect of doubling MOR Music’s six staff within the next few years.

The move means that for the time being the couple will close their warehouse store in Nether Poppleton and move stock into the larger premises’ storage room.

It will still leave more than enough space to accommodate new brands, in addition those resulting from exclusive guitar dealerships with the likes of Fender, Marshall and Tanglewood, and it will speed up deliveries to the point of same-day despatch triggered by the launch just before Christmas of a new website, mormusic.co.uk Also continuing will be Mor Music’s repair workshop, and its well-known “gig poster wall” will still advertise local bands’ upcoming gigs. A new feature will be a room to be used for guitar tuition and workshops for novices or those wanting to improve their techniques.

Phil began his association with the shop doing work experience, then became a Saturday helper and finally bought the business two years ago. Since then he and Lynne have doubled turnover to £600,000 as demand has grown, with some people from Manchester, Newcastle and London bypassing their local music shops to travel to their store in York instead.

The firm became a supplier to the Government and to schools, both local and elsewhere, and staff levels rose.

Lynne said: “Ideally within the next few years we could have a dozen employees.” One big advantage of the new premises is disabled musicians will now have access to stock, which is upstairs in the existing shop.