Second Song Musical Instruments

How a Small Business in Goshen is Opening Doors to the Music Industry

Words by Avery Martin; Photos provided by Second Song Musical Instruments

When you walk into Second Song in Goshen, it feels a little like stepping into another world. Instruments cover the walls and hang from the ceiling, filling every corner of the small shop. Accordions sit beside banjos, violins share space with tubas, and nearly every piece has a story waiting to be told. At the center of it all is owner Bill Landow, who always seems to have one of those stories ready.

For the past 14 years, Landow has been building one of Indiana's most unique music businesses: a resale shop dedicated almost entirely to secondhand instruments. Tucked inside the Old Bag Factory, Second Song buys, repairs, sells, and restores everything from accordions and piccolos to tubas, violins, banjos, and Celtic harps. At any given time, the shop holds around 500 instruments. Some are only a few years old, others have lived many musical lives.

"Every instrument type has its own story," Landow says. "Especially used ones. Selling 200-year-old violins is quite fascinating if you know the history of the thing."

That philosophy shapes his entire business. Landow doesn't consider scratches or dents flaws; he calls them signs of experience.

"Instruments have a heart," he says. "A lot of the instruments that came out of this area were made by hand through really skilled workmen, and they kind of have a soul."

That’s an idea that carries particular weight in northern Indiana, as the Elkhart and South Bend area is known as the “band instrument capital of the world”. However, Landow believes there is still a gap in that market. 

Many families simply cannot afford a new school band instrument that costs well over a thousand dollars. By purchasing used instruments, restoring them, and selling them at affordable prices, Second Song opens doors to creativity that might otherwise stay closed.

"If a band leader comes to me and shows me one of his students needs an instrument, but the parents can't afford it, I'll provide a free instrument for the first year," Landow explains. “If the student continues into a second year of band, the instrument becomes theirs to keep”.

Rather than competing directly with other retailers, Second Song has carved out a niche. Landow buys instruments that others overlook, repairs them, and gives them a second life. He jokes that every instrument in the shop is in "first scratch condition."

His approach is built on trust as much as affordability. Every instrument is serviced before it leaves the store, and every sale comes with a return policy that gives buyers confidence they are making the right investment.

"We really care about the child or the musician getting the right instrument," he says. "If I know it's the wrong instrument, I won't sell it to them."

Landow's vision extends beyond his own storefront. He believes Indiana's music economy can do more to keep talented musicians rooted in their communities. For him, thriving music infrastructure isn't built only through large venues or major investments. Instead, it’s built for one instrument, one student, and one musician at a time.

Second Song offers a different perspective: that an old instrument still has something to say, and the next generation of Indiana musicians may find their voice through something with a few scratches and a long history.

After all, that's what a Second Song is all about. The best instruments are not always the newest ones; sometimes, it's the ones with an old soul.