Between September 30 and October 23, 2026, the price of 2,196 of the 38,576 listings we track at Thomann moved by at least 0.5%. More went down than up, and the rises split into two very different kinds: prices climbing above anything we had recorded since August, and prices going back up after a September sale.
October in four numbers
| What happened | Listings | Median change |
|---|---|---|
| Real cuts: a new low since August, after at least 14 days at the old price | 1,067 | −3.7% |
| Other cuts: a price that held only briefly, or not a new low | 168 | |
| Real rises: higher than any price since August 17 | 520 | +5.3% |
| Back up after a September sale, fully or in part | 441 |
That sale started on September 9. 292 of the 441 listings had been cut that day, and 298 went back up on October 1: 205 of the 441 returned to their old price, the other 236 only part of the way. Most were guitars and basses from Fender, Gibson, Harley Benton, Höfner and Music Man; Universal Audio's UAFX pedals followed a day later.
By department
| Department | Real cuts | Real rises | Back after the sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guitars and basses | 465 | 147 | 398 |
| Drums and percussion | 201 | 110 | 3 |
| Keys | 114 | 32 | 8 |
| Microphones | 77 | 60 | 12 |
| Studio and recording | 76 | 46 | 12 |
| PA | 71 | 53 | 2 |
| Wind instruments | 7 | 42 | 0 |
Keys had the best month for buyers, with more than three real cuts for every rise, helped by Arturia's 46 cuts and Yamaha's Arius pianos. Wind instruments went the other way: 42 rises against 7 cuts, and 25 of the rises were on Schagerl brass.
Brands that moved one way
- Ibanez cut 85 prices and raised none. 68 of the cuts were real, most of them small, with a median of 2%.
- Gretsch Drums made 20 real cuts and Meinl 14 on cymbals, with no rises.
- Allen & Heath raised 33 prices and cut none. Its CQ, SQ and Qu digital mixers went up 3 to 14%, the AR2412 stage box 20%.
- Schagerl set 25 new highs on trumpets and trombones against 2 cuts, and Zultan, Thomann's own cymbal brand, 25 against 7.
Brands that did both
Fender cut and raised in the same month. Its 66 real cuts were led by the Player II Stratocaster and Telecaster, now $862 (€769) in 16 versions; most of its 27 real rises hit the American Ultra II series, up about 5%. DW repriced on October 1: PDP kits, snares and the 9000 pedal got cheaper by as much as 21%, while Collector's Series kits went up 6 to 11%. DrumCraft made its Series 6 kits about 4% cheaper and its Series 3 kits about 9% dearer.
The biggest cuts
Roland TD-713 V-Drums Kit, $5,258
The biggest cut of the month in money: down from $6,721 (€5,998) on October 17, 22% less. #5 of 83 electronic drumkits.
Gibson SJ-200 Standard, $6,379
Gibson's flagship jumbo lost $616 on October 1, and the Custom Shop 1957 SJ-200 fell by $840 on October 17. #1 of 51 jumbo acoustic guitars.
Yamaha FG820, $329
Yamaha's best-known budget dreadnought fell from $425 (€379) in two steps, on October 1 and October 21: 22% in all. #94 of 284 dreadnought acoustic guitars.
The steepest cuts in percent were D'Angelico's Excel semi-hollow guitars, down 47%, covered in this week's drops.
Questions
Is October a good time to buy at Thomann?
For most gear, yes: real cuts outnumber real rises in every big department except wind instruments. Black Friday is still ahead, so before buying, check whether the price you see is a real low or just a sale price that comes and goes.
Why did so many prices go up on October 1?
Mostly because a sale ended. 298 listings went back up after a sale that began on September 9: the end of a promotion, not a price increase. Many of them still cost less than in August.
How we measured. Euro prices from Thomann's partner feed, recorded every night. We compared each listing's price on September 30 and October 23, 2026, and counted changes of at least 0.5%. A real cut means the old price had held for at least 14 days and the new one is the lowest we have recorded since August 17, 2026; a real rise means a price above any we recorded since then. Dollar prices use the European Central Bank rate. Cards show today's price and rank.
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Denis Kataev runs AudioFu. Every night the site records the prices of more than 38,000 instruments and studio tools at Thomann, and he writes about what those numbers show: what got cheaper, what just arrived, and which discounts are real.
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