Aliman: Overview of the top 15 music shops

Went to sign my son up for lessons they are very friendly,helpful and took time to help us understand how they operate.

An adult learner, I have been taking weekly guitar lessons with George for the past 7 months. George (co-owner and one of the guitar teachers, an expert jazz guitarist) is a great, interesting teacher–very patient with beginners and also able to challenge them to reach further than they thought they could. I came here for lessons because my son took a year of guitar lessons here when he was 10, about seven year ago, and that was a positive experience for him and me. The store is in a charming barn-like building and while a little cramped, I have found it a comfortable environment in summer, fall, and winter. Paula is a very pleasant partner to George, keeping the shop and schedule running smoothly and always accommodating if I need to adjust my lesson time. If you are interested in music lessons (they teach several instruments and voice, I believe), take a set of 4 lessons as a reduced introductory price and see if All Things Musical is for you, as it has been for me and my family.

Best music school in the area!

Never been here i wanted to write a review for no reason

The guy in the brass section has gone above and beyond ti help my little trumpet player.

The best place for buying an instrument or an accessory for your instrument

I took a digital piano that we bought from them years ago to see if they would buy it back. They were very professional and quickly assessed that it was in excellent shape and still worth something. They paid me a very reasonable amount and the whole process went very well and smoothly.

Could not get what we needed

Went into store to get music stand for table top. Metal with grippers on feet to stand music upright upon table top None available. Have knowledgeable staff and very helpful.

As a drummer they have alot of different name brands in stock and the staff actually know what they are talking about

Bien

Drove 25 minutes to the store only to find out it doesn’t open until noon. Utterly rudiculous! Just close your doors for good if you’re going to have such restrictive hours!

I called to find out if they had a certain amplifier. The salesperson told me everything “but” what I asked for. Lost a $1,000 sale.

This is a wonderful resource for excellent quality guitars and other stringed instruments. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable.

It’s a no brainer, seriously. I’ve been going here since since I was 16, and used to annoy George with my Stephen Stills impressions. He was patient with me, lol. Anyway, this place is and has always been much more than a guitar shop. Yes, it’s a big part of who they are, but make no mistake, it’s also a place to be inspired, and be around people who truly love the instrument. They are the ONLY place I send folks.

Fabulous concerts in intimate surroundings. Guitar lovers’ heaven.

Had a guitar cable when I needed it.

No prices listed

Not many mandolins

Thé Owners are lousy business

Matty and his staff provide personalized service at good prices. This is a really good local business, doing good things in the community.

Matty shares his knowledge of guitar repair to the extent of being fair about what he can actually do and not do to help you. He is honorable to share what you can do yourself to facilitate the repair.
Please support locally owned businesses.

When my 10 yr old wanted to start an instrument, I only thought of Matty’s Music, and my daughter is so happy. I was unable to take her to look into the Baritone Horn, so my mother did. She explained how Matt was beyond helpful and informative in making making the right decision about the instrument. My mother is a hard one to be patient with, but Matt answered all of her questions and concerns. Even the ones my daughter said were silly! Thank you Matt!

Great service.

Dirty, stuff everywhere, completely disorganized.

Great store with really professional and knowledgeable employees.

The seller was nice and did a generous discount for us. Guitar prices are good compared to online sources.

Customer Service. Period. Chris, Alex & staff are dedicated and attentive. Prefer this place to others because of personal feel/vibe. They are knowledgeable and not forceful. Great stuff here.

Limited retail space, but the staff is helpful and knowledgeable. Music lessons are offered on site.

I have condensed my original rant down to the following- we really like our children’s teachers- but the front desk needs saving

Yeah it’s good!

When ever I place an order for a left handed Guitar it takes like 6 weeks for it to get to me horrible ordering process

JUST HIT BACKSPACE ON YOUR BROWSER AND PICK ANOTHER COMPANY. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Called your West Hartford CT store early today, after calling around to several other of your stores, to see if the had a certain string for my cello and if they could fix the one string today. Was told yes on both. My husband drove 25 min there to find out they did not have the string. Drove to the nearest store that had this string (which was an additional 15 min out from my house) and they had no one to help with the cello. My husband ended up purchasing the string. Had I talked to him I would have told him not to make the purchase. Now every place is closed so tomorrow I have to go to another store to get this string put on. We needed the cello for tomorrow so you guys were literally no help. I will be returning the string and doing my business elsewhere. I should have listened to the other bad reviews. First time customer turned into last time customer.

Make sure you ask questions. I signed my son up for instrument lessons over the phone and the woman asked me if I preferred West Hartford or East Hartford. I chose the one closest to my home, on the day of the first lesson, I brought my son to the store for the lesson and they tell me its an online lesson. An ONLINE lesson? No one ever said a thing about an online lesson and why would you ask me which store Id like to go to if the lesson was online!?

Prompt and professional! Recently purchased an SBMM Majesty guitar online and it came in perfect condition with Dubaldo only upgrades, Will definitely recommend them and will be making more purchases in the future. Thanks Dubaldo team!!

That was likely the most pleasant guitar buying experience I have ever had. I could not recommend patronizing this amazing store more. Thank you so much!!

I’m not sure how long this review will be, but I will say upfront that buying a guitar from DuBaldo Music was a great experience, from day one until I took delivery of my instrument, and beyond!

I ordered an Alvarez-Yairi Honduran series (FYM66HD) guitar from Pete at DuBaldo music in April 2021.

For those reading this review in the somewhat distant future, allow me to set the scene a bit:

There was a LOT going on in the world during this time. The COVID Pandemic was still raging, and supply chains were snarled at every turn.

Ports were closed, dock workers and truckers were striking or working limited hours under delayed timelines. Parts availability was questionable at best, etc.

VERY long story short: The guitar had to be hand built in Japan, then shipped to the west coast, then shipped to St.Louis, MO, then shipped to DuBaldo Music in CT before I could take delivery. All the while, considering the conditions of the world as described above.

Pete, Lisa and everyone else at DuBaldo music helped me along at every stage, kept me updated, empathized with and tolerated my frequent calls for updates, contacted the distributor in St. Louis on my behalf, and were generally very pleasant to work with over a period of just over one full year.

I will not pretend that I wasn’t itching to receive my guitar, or that the extended delay didn’t bother me. It was a maddening wait!

But I want to make it crystal clear:

DuBaldo music did their absolute best to get it to me as quickly as possible, considering the extremely challenging circumstances. I can’t say enough about their customer service. It was exceptional at every stage!

When I made my order over the phone, Pete answered all my questions and made sure I was comfortable with what I was ordering as far as the specs were concerned. We made a deal on a VERY good price, and the wait began.

I won’t bore with the details, but between Japan and Connecticut there were numerous significant delays. Mostly unavoidable and one or two caused by decisions that St.Louis Music made, and/or failed to communicate ahead of time.

Pete and Lisa worked through all of this for me deftly, and professionally.

I am not local to the store. I live in DC, about 6 hours away. When the guitar finally arrived, there were 3 in the order, and Pete and Lisa let me know that I could have my pick of the three. Instead of having Pete play them for me over the phone and choosing from pictures, I decided to drive up and try them out in person, and drive it home myself.

Lisa and Nick were more than accommodating, and I was made to feel very comfortable while taking my time to decide. All 3 guitars were incredible instruments and it was a tough decision. Nick provided periodic feedback and assistance as I tried them over a period of about 3 hours. I never felt rushed, bothered, or unimportant. They made sure I was attended to but was not hovered over.

They knew exactly how to help a musician pick an instrument, and it is clear that they wanted to make sure I was equipped to make the right choice, and leave satisfied.

On the way out, as they knew I was a visitor, they even provided local restaurant recommendations, since I had mentioned that I was making my best effort to eat at great places while I was on the road.

I was, and am still, very happy with the decision I made, and with the entire experience of buying from DuBaldo music.

I cannot recommend them highly enough!

My only disappointment was that after a year of talking to him several times a month on the phone, I didn’t get to meet Pete in person, since he was out sick the day I visited.

Hopefully he’s feeling better now, and if I’m ever back in CT, I’ll be sure to stop in and thank him personally!

Thanks again to Lisa, Nick, Pete, and everyone at DuBaldo for a trying, long lasting,, but ultimately completely satisfying experience! The guitar is utterly amazing and will be with me forever, as will the experience of shopping with you.

Great service

Knowledgeable people

They were very friendly and had great prices. This will be my regular music shop from now on!

Keith was very open and helpful during his purchase of my son’s used drum set. He explained everything clearly and followed through on his statements. Courteous and respectful throughout, he helped make the transaction pleasant. I would definitely return to his shop.

We had a great rental experience!

The staff are so nice here. I take guitar lessons weekly with Anthony. Great place to learn to play an instrument and buy one as well.

Very helpful customer service and good guitar teacher

I had a dispute regarding an instrument repair. The tech did a great job with the repair, but there was a miscommunication with the store concerning the scope of work to be performed. Jed Weeks at corporate resolved the issue with speed and grace.

This store is a good place to get music books for several instruments especially classical instruments that you can’t find many stores for. I have a violin and go here occasionally to buy books for cool songs. 🙂

Small space but with limited music supply stores in the area it’s good to see places like this still up

The in-store representatives are great and nice. But I am very much disappointed with the customer service representative and the supervisors. All of them showed rude behavior. I signed up for 10 months contract and during Covid situation there was delay in returning the instrument to the store at the end of contract period. But Music and Arts still charged me for 2 months on higher cost. Way above my 10 months contract. When I called the customer service, they were very rude and not showing any flexibility and care for customers. I wanted to do business with them for the next school year. But with these behaviors I will NEVER do business with them. I could not find anything lower than 1 star rating…

All they need is customers’ money… No care for customers… even in this COVID situations…

As a former employee I felt it to be a very welcoming environment. There were times that it did get busy but we did our best to help every customer that that entered and greeted them as they entered. It’s nice that it was a small store that way it could provide more interaction with customers which lead to some very fun conversation.

Every time my daughter needs her violin tuned this is the place to go. Chris was very nice and we were in and out of there in no time. Great service!!

It is good music store with little cheap prices. I bought Yamaha piano two weeks ago and it is wonderful.

Sales staff were not super knowledgable. We rented our son’s violin for school through them and billing was always an issue even though it was on monthly automatic payment. Glad the saga is over.

The prices are ok. The parking can be tough. The person working the desk was dismissive of my questions. Not a lot of inventory on display. They seem more about instruction.

Thank you for your service n attention. Thank guys for helping me to pick the perfect gift for my wife.

Very bad and rude customer service, hang up my phone.

Don’t rent any instrument from this place. People are very rude. Calling customer service takes forever to get someone on the phone. Unfriendly customer service, supervisors don’t want to talk to customers. Find another place to rent instruments for your children.

WARNING! WARNING TO PARENTS!! DO NOT USE THIS SHOP FOR RENTALS! Should be ZERO stars.

We rented from here for 5 years, the first 4 went off without a hitch. This year has been an absolute nightmare. We rented two instruments, same address, same name, same payment. ONE account had no issues, the other the local store put in the wrong address (where we have never lived). Over the last 4 months I have called their headquarters, left messages, emails, etc. trying to get a paper bill MAILED so that I could pay whatever was owed. They were incapable of sending this, and every time I called in could not even find the right account or would tell me everything was fine and they did not know why I was being contacted. When asked why they could not have looked at our other rental account for the correct information they were stunned into silence. Absolute incompetency from the sales staff all the way up to the billing department supervisor who assigned our missing “account” to a collections agency and then gave us the WRONG agency. Save yourself the trouble and stay far, far away from here.

great teachers and staff

My 10 year old daughter has been taking piano here for over a year and she loves it. The lessons are affordable and her instructor is well qualified and pleasant.

Great teacher and staff.

Drop off kids guitar for new string and the service was fast and cheap

It’s a cool place to buy accessories for your musical instruments but when I wanted to fix an instrument it took me a while to get it back.

Real nice place to learn music

On vacation and needed a bit of guitar time. Everyone was friendly.

Una excelente experiencia además compre un timbal lo matador buen precio ok grasias y tranki ❤️

My go-to store when I need something quick. The staff are knowledgeable and have helped me with many of the questions I’ve had.

As musician it is like my second home!

Nice place

Friendly sales people.tidy store

Absolutely the worst service. Staff was rude and condescending. They were verbally nasty and actively worked to discourage me from making a purchase.

Took my son here for school band accessories. We wandered the store for quite some time while being ignored by the staff. Then treated poorly when paying for items. Will not return, nor do I recommend to anyone.

Not helpful anymore. The employees would rather chat and play with the instruments than help the customer

Love the staff and selections of instruments. I’ve gotten repairs done there with my old drums and my guitars and they have the best expertise when it comes to repairing instruments. Bought my first guitar since 2009 from there and I absolutely loved the feel and playing it. Matt and Jim are awesome.

Great place for music lessons and to try out instruments! Has recently been expanded to accommodate more students.

Yesterday we went in to rent an instrument for my 4th grader starting band and I can’t speak enough on how smooth and easy the process was! When we walked in we were greeted by Jim, who immediately knew everything we needed and even our band teacher by name (impressive!). Our son can tend to be a bit shy but the charm of this place seemed to make him feel right at home! If I had to I would say the whole interaction took all of about 10 minutes and we were on our way. Definitely recommending this place to anyone I know looking for help with an instrument, thanks again!

The sales team made it possible for me to afford a piano for my son

I signed up for a piano lesson trial online. Their site is very confusing and it’s not clear if the lesson is in-person and online. I called them, left a message but they never called me back. In the day/time of the lesson, I called them 3 times because I was having problems to contact the teacher. The guy who works there, Jim, clearly doesn’t have any customer service skills. He was rude and unpleasant. He didn’t make any effort to help me, told me a was confused and nobody else had problems. I just canceled the future lessons there. It’s easier just hire a private piano teacher. Hopefully I will never have to deal with this guy again.

I would give Middlesex Music Academy a 0 if I was able to. I called to inquire about a $150 charge when I haven‘t been confirmed by John the guitar teacher. I made a request to Matt that Tuesday was my preference but John was booked so he scheduled Thursday at 6pm. I received a text and email from John yesterday that he had a conflict for Thursday and offered Friday. I responded via text/email that would not work and inquired if this was temporary or permanent to which I did not receive a response. I let John know this may not be a good fit then. I called today to have the charge refunded and Jim proceeded to call me names, saying I was yelling & screaming over the phone and I was being rude. No need to go into the dramatics but Jim needs a lesson in manners, telling the truth and understanding that being a manager does not give him the authority to behave poorly. Never once did I raise my voice but did correct Jim several times throughout the conversation all because i asked for a refund. Extremely unprofessional and a bad look for Middlesex Music all around. I will be taking my business elsewhere. Inexcusable & theater worthy performance by Jim today folks!!!

I paid $80 for a setup on a guitar and got it back with the strings a mile off of the neck and the floyd rose studs so high out of the body I could park a car under it. The bridge pickup was raised until it was practically touching the strings and the neck pickup was lowered to below the pickup ring. The tech then told me that 10-52 strings don’t exist. They’re light top heavy bottom and aren’t even uncommon strings. Every time I go there they give bad advice and clearly don’t know what they’re talking about. My friend tried to buy a tubescreamer (basic overdrive) and they tried to sell him a phaser instead (completely different thing).

They got my elec. piano working again with a quick turn around and updated me throughout the process. Pro the whole way!

This is a really good local music store friendly and professional!!!

I brought a saxophone that wasn’t being used anymore to JC Music to sell on consignment. The gentleman who waited on me was very welcoming and took his time patiently explaining how the process worked. Although it did not sell within the first 6 months it was there, when I called they explained that they felt it would and to not worry. Within a few months I was pleasantly surprised to receive a decent check in the mail with a nice letter attached from Shawn. Thank you for your kindness, professionalism and service.

Would like to obtain some nice brushes and some type of top hat set used and very sturdy since I break percussion instruments all the time when I perform?

My son, Roberto Luis and Rosa live in Meriden. Are you far from the mall? I have spent a lot of time jamming in Puerto Rico to salsa, merengue, etc but my favorite is funk like Buddy Miles.

My grandson really enjoyed the music lessons and they are very professional and knowledgeable. Highly recommend them.

Completely disappointed. I placed an order in store on a instrument that was never placed with JC music. The customer service was poorly displayed and the options they gave us was not acceptable. I asked to speak to the owner several times and would not get on the phone and made his new employee talk to me. I ended up going somewhere else that was amazing

Never have any of the literature or instrument parts I’m looking for. Took 3 months to repair a trombone. I tried to return an item and they wouldn’t give me back the cash to go to another place. The owner has blatantly disrespected my mother on several occasions and doesn’t have much knowledge of much of anything outside of rock music. As far as i’m concerned, this is the worst music store i’ve ever set foot in and would not recommend to anybody.

This was a horrible expierence. They need to get their stuff together, they had already-sold instruments on shelf. They had an amazing guitar sale and when I went to buy, it was already sold! They got my hopes high and let it down and I will not give them my money any longer.

Very friendly fast and efficient service! I love shopping local

Excellent Quality of both service and instruments.

Very helpful.

Fast and friendly service

STAY AWAY from this company! I rented a cello early 2019. We returned the cello in Aug 2019 and are still getting billed for it! I’ve called and left messages since no one picks up the phone in the Milford office where I rented and returned the instrument. No call back and monthly payments for the cello are still getting charged off my bank card. Had to file a complaint with my bank to stop payments. Terrible terrible business practice!

We rented a viola from Rayburn. The first viola wasn’t put together right (something to do with the bridge). after switching to another viola we realized the bow doesn’t quite fit with the viola.
we rented from the music store in the center and it was a great experience but pricier. though Rayburn isn’t cheap either
they will be replacing the viola once more, lets see how it goes this time…

trying to reach the store for the past 5 months. they are not responding to email or phone call. The phone service is also disconnected now.
we are left with no response and no refund.

Bobby fixed a complicated BC Rich for me when other guitar repair shops scratched there heads.Hes real easy to get along with and I know from experience hes the best your gonna find.

Had maintenance work done on my guitar here and Bobby did a fantastic job. Can’t recommend the place more for any guitar work.

Bobby is a wonderful person. He acts a guide not business man.

He give you best advise taking your interest in mind not his.

Everyone was insanely helpful from who I spoke to on the phone for customer support, to the guy that helped me out when I came to pick up the amp in store. Giuliano’s Music takes care of its customers. Will definitely be returning for anything else I need in the future.

I went needing a pack of guitar strings to find out that they were closed. Their hours online say 12-4 on Saturday. Their door said the same. Lights off no one answered the phone. The time I went you ask? 3:25. EDIT:I have since gone back and they have been very nice and kind. Which has let me to update my rating.

Good service, very nice staff and management!