Burbank: Overview of the top 20 music shops

This is a gem of a store. Always good vibes, great gear, kind/knowledgeable host (Dylan). I played the Gibson R9 CME spec through the TS1 and it still stands as the best guitar tone I’ve ever experienced. Recently tried out some Rutters guitars and magnatone amps.

Overall, one of the best stores to visit for guitar lovers.

Great store! First rate gear! Pros and aficionados are at home there!

Since more than 75% of LA is fully vaccinated, it feels great to be in a store where they require the vaccine according to LA County recommendations. You can relax and feel comfortable there!

Cheers guys! Well done!

Fabulous store. Clif is a really nice guy, and is always welcoming. He will do his best to make you happy.

great shop, VERY FRIENDLY SERVICE.

fast communication on Instagram.

Ironically not in LA, and mostly new and boutique gear.

gonna go back for a Benson amp when it is in stock!

Nice folks, awesome shop. Everything from vintage, artist-signed guitars to amps, drums, and more for the guitar aficionado.

08/05/2021

My cousin and I walked into what we thought it would be…a high end music store with an awesome selection, and it was exactly that. The minute we walk in we were greeted by an awesome Two Rock Amp and it felt like this is the place to be. Vintage guitars on the wall, high end boutique amps, and classic vintage amps as well.

My next encounter with this store was with an older gentleman behind the counter (I assume the owner) asking me if I had my vaccine. Odd question and none of his business, but I answered politely and said no. Keep in mind, our masks were fully on the second we walked in, in respect to Covid mandates in LA and the sign posted on the front door before you walk in. He then proceeds to ask me if I was being serious about not having it and I said yes. After I answer that question, he says out loud in front of his colleagues and my cousin, “you’ll be the last one to ever come in here without a vaccine” and gets up from behind the counter and walks in the back room away from the showroom.

I felt extremely uncomfortable by this time and really wanted to leave immediately. For my cousins sake, we browse their selection of inventory. After about 10 minutes I told my cousin we are leaving.

I won’t leave the part out about you apologizing as we are about to leave but your demeanor was unprofessional and your judgments to my personal choices are irrelevant to you and your establishment. Your questions were personal and unnecessary and I came in with the mindset of purchasing something, left with nothing but a write off to this place. I don’t ever plan on coming back and supporting your business with or without a vaccine. Unbelievable…

These guys are covid paranoid. Don’t shop there if you ain’t vaxxed. Sure let me go get 5 injections just so I can still get covid and shop at your store.
Type your dumb, Gavin Newsome response below tough guy

Require vaccine to enter a Small time dump of a shop. Typical Liberal loosers. The vaccine is causing the the virus to evolve faster in variants that’s why Israel and the UK are having a hard time controlling it now with the vaccine. The more people that get vaccinated the more the virus will evolve. 30 people are dying a day from the Virus due to allergies. Disgusting that people like this want to force a Vaccine that’s failing. He should just close up his shop and stay home if it’s so Scared

Best guitar shop(s) in the San Fernando Valley (and there are 2 locations in Burbank & Sherman Oaks). Super knowledgeable and fair. They have everything for beginners or experts. Stopped in today and got a new case for my Les Paul.

Imperial is the most friendly and straight shooting guitar shop in LA. Both locations are dope, and Shia is hilarious.

Unique and expansive selection of guitars and amps. Very friendly and knowledgeable staff!

Approachable, personable, patient staff, roomier than you’d think.

Pretty rad ’73 here.

A set of three shops, I’ve only been to two, but both of them had a great selection of gear and the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful

Like the other one in Sherman Oaks.. This shop is equally terrible. Save yourself the time and go elsewhere. Anywhere but here.

Dingy with all the character of a std clinic. The guitars look like they were once broken, then repaired, then painted. The guy working the floor is a major league gasbag and the prices for everything change by the minute. Their sales pitch consists mainly of insulting other music stores and players. I have never seen a music store so out of the loop as this one. Big ego’s, junk instruments, and bull crap….that’s some combo!

They misrepresented a guitar as being a valuable Martin collector guitar when it wasn’t. Deceptive and dishonest people.
After posting my review I got this message from the owner of Imperial Vintage Guitars “…We would strongly advise you to stop harassing our shop, or we will have to pull a restraint order and sue for slander. We have done it before, its an easy and efficiant way to get rid of germs like you”.
Do not do business with them.

I just needed my trumpet mouthpiece unjammed. Flawless execution.

John Pedersen is probably the most knowledgeable and certainly the most helpful brass dude in the known universe. Thanks again John for the great work on my old Benge trumpet 10 years ago (which is still playing well) and the great info today on my coast-to-coast call for help! 🙂

Big help with daughter’s instrument

**Update August 2019: The owner of Betrand’s Pedersen’s contacted me, and I didn’t realize that the people who are running the place now are not the current owners. The new owner Joel Bertrand called me after finding out about my experience and reached out to see how to make the situation better. I was very grateful that he was willing to contact me, and he reimbursed me for my flute repair and sent a gift card that I could use at the shop. He went above and beyond to make the situation right, and I will be giving them a second chance.**

Took my 1980s Armstrong open hole flute in for possible reconditioning so that my daughter could play it in middle school.

First off, they charged me $10 just to look at my flute to tell me what repairs it needed.

Second, he told me it was an open hole flute and my daughter wouldn’t be able to play it easily. (I had corks in it when I learned to play it – so they should’ve been able to replace those.)

Third, he said it would cost almost $600 to repair it and almost $800 for a new flute. And that it would be $30/month if I wanted to rent one before buying it.

All that would’ve sounded good if I hadn’t already had a decent flute for my daughter to play. I left the shop feeling very disappointed.

I decided to go to Baxter-Northrup Music in Sherman Oaks to get a second opinion. Please read my review on Yelp for Baxter-Northrup. They are total life savers and I was really bummed with this Pedersen place. I won’t be returning here.

Great place for modular Great service

I love this place. All the instruments are laid out for you to demo. Staff is very helpful in educating you about their products.

I had the pleasure to speak with Wes via phone as I wanted advice regarding a synth purchase. I was trying to decide between 3 of them and Wes was very knowledgeable. So much so that I asked him some additional questions in regards to my midi setup and he helped me out immensely. He even said I can call him any time if I needed some help!

I made a purchase today all thanks to Wes. I also plan to make future purchases from Perfect Circuit thanks to Wes. Not only was he professional, but he was friendly as well. People buy from people they like and Wes is a perfect example of that.

Joel F.

There are precious few synthesizer stores where you can really get your hands on and try things out. This is particularly true of eurorack modular equipment. But perfectcircuitaudio is a great environment to try gear out and then pick it up to take home. They also do a great mail-order business.

nice team although you need to be there and observe the team explaining the products to other customers to be able to choose the one . bcz in this shop as i tried before . not all attendants are of same level of interest expertise or will to help. some have knowledge of brochure and some are players. pick and choose the adviser before the equipment. if you re a pro then it makes the whole thing very easy and the shop is very filled with wuality modules and great service .

Service was kind of mediocre with sort of an attitude, everything else was a+

Dont expect any attempt to go above and beyond to make a sell. I called around 1pm, knew what I wanted, and was ready to make a $1000+ purchase but needed the item to ship today for overnight delivery. They had absolutely no interest in even entertaining the request. Business must be good to turn down a $1000 buy. I was attempting to support brick and mortar but guess they didnt want the support. Amazon it is.

***Update to Perfect Circuit’s response***
I actually called on a Friday and asked for Saturday overnight delivery. I left my review on Saturday after purchasing from a more accommodating retailer.

Three of us came into Perfect Circuit while traveling from Europe. Some of the staff mocked our accents when they through we were not able to hear them. We paid cash for an expensive synth and they told us they would email the receipt. The receipt never came. We followed up with Perfect Circuit and they denied that we had ever purchased anything from them. They declined to verify our story with security footage.

Since this incident they have stalked us online using a fake account and made legal threats via 3rd party saying they will report us to the police as thieves.

One star because they ship with Fedex. Lost, Late, M.I.A. Every. Single.Time.

Leigh Ann was incredibly helpful and we love our piano!

Bought a beautiful upright with the help from Leigh! Definitely recommend this store if you’re looking for any kind of a piano

Great selection, friendly staff,

We came here for a piano recital. However, they have a large showroom with a wide selection and a very friendly staff.

They have a variety of options when it comes to new or newly refurbished pianos. I enjoy coming by to try out the pianos they have. The employees are very supportive and quick to answer any questions, maybe a little to much haha.

Unbuen lugar para los fanaticos de los pianos

Couldn’t give me a ballpark price on an upright digital piano over the phone “had to come in”. Not to mention we’re going through a pandemic when my time in public is valuable. Not very good business. I wanted to pay cash, but didn’t know how much to bring. Taking my business elsewhere

Obligatory social security requirement for the rental application IN ADDITION TO getting your home address, employer’s address, three references (with their phone number and address) and a copy of your driver’s license and credit card. And when I expressed my hesitation to provide my SSN after providing all the above info for a 3500 USD piano, the salesperson shoved the paperwork in our face and walked away.
It’s alright, we will take our business somewhere else!

Hollywood Piano is a shady establishment that serves as an insult to the wider piano community. In a blatant attempt at a cash grab, their general manager – Mr. Ric Overton offered a third of what a separate establishment offered us on our used piano. Another store offered us $4500 but Mr. Overton offered us a pathetic and paltry $1500, knowing full well that the piano could sell for $7,000 to $8,000. I have no problem with a business making some money but what Mr. Overton, and Hollywood Piano, offered us here was undeniably predatory.

Their business practices reek of blatant avarice and are a reflection of an institutionalized disregard for their customers needs. If they are this willing to rip off someone selling a used piano, imagine how comfortable they must be with ripping off new customers walking in to buy a piano from them. Beware.

Rob, Eli and Caesar are the BEST!
I trusted Rosen Sound with my MemoryMoog Plus to rebuild due to some annoying conditions due to age.
Damn!
It is now as clean (no noise) as any modern synth while having Stereo outs, improved keybed touch and overall stability.
As an experienced MemoryMoog owner (I had 2 of these beasts in the 80’s), THIS MemoryMoog now plays and sounds wayyyyy better than either of my original two.
Thank you Rob, Eli and Caesar!!!

Brought in a Jupiter 6 and very pleased with how it came back. Went in with a few keys not responsive and some controls behaving erratically. When I brought it in Rob tested the unit with me and explained to me aspects of the synth I wouldn’t have even thought to have checked. 2 1/2 weeks later I got it back at a fair price. Highly recommended for old synths.

I have a Memorymoog synth which is one of the most complex synths ever to work on. I had previously sent it across the country to get it “repaired” by a company who are suppose to be the best. A year and a half later it was returned to me but unfortunately, within a month it was broken again.
I found Rosen Sound locally and brought it over. It was returned to me in a fraction of the time and at a reasonable price. So far, I’m super happy with the repair. It’s like a new synth.
People need to realize that this is a specialized business and you won’t get your instrument back within a week. Relax, and just be thankful you found these guys.

Shipped a Matrix 1000 to this business for a check over and restoration. They had the unit for months (before COVID started). He requests email contact only. After several emails and phone call, and after months more of waiting, I finally got a call from them stating, the unit was complete and they were going to ship it back, no additional charge because of the time involved in the repair. They had the unit for over a year.
I received the unit back in good physical condition but after powering it on,
I noticed that patches 000-199 were blank. It appears that the battery may have been replaced without a patch back-up prior. I don’t know, because no post service paperwork was provided.
My experience with this business was very frustrating and disappointing in every way. For these reasons, I could never recommend this business and will not be using them in the future.

Your review response was a half truth. I paid a $100 deposit plus shipping cost to get it to you. So your service wasn’t free, Just half-baked. If you were unable to complete the job in a timely and thorough manor, you should have passed and returned the unit. Your job is not to question if it had been worked on in the past, your job is to fix what customers send you. You didn’t even bother to offer to send the missing patch SysEx files for me to load. In my opinion, you deserved the review that you got.

I took my Maxikorg Univox synthesizer to Rosen Sound this past March 2015. After 21 days (he never reached out to me, I had to visit his “studio” twice to get word from him) they almost fixed the noisy oscillator (for $374), but not completely; so I made the mistake of taking it back for further repair. Almost two months later (now into June), Rob somehow made the synthesizer worse, it now has a constant droning “D” note. He would not even give a partial refund after sabotaging the synth . He wrote long emails about his righteousness and played up the role of the patronizing “expert” speaking to the lowly “user”.

In lieu of using creative expletives, the bottom line is this: he does not own an analog synthesizer and should not be advertising as an expert in the field. I would look further, much further, if you have something rare and special.

They dont fix your mixer because you are not famous only rich people that’s sad for them not for me thank you

The legends are true. Must go if you get the chance

Amazing place. Great customer service. The best equipment and solid consultation from the staff. Bravo!

Great showroom, gear, and customer focus. Dave was wonderful to work with!

Gave me a good price on a preamp I sold them, was the best price around at the time.
Customer service is ok ok not really great, it really depends on whom you’re dealing with…

Can’t go inside the shop, so boo for that, but picked up my new interface and monitors (still on backorder) from their curbside pick up option. Wish I could go in, but the playground is off limits during this crazy time.

Experience is key for pro audio and the people at Vintage Kings have big experience. Most audio stores just try to sell you on whatever they can get their hands on. They can get their hands on whatever piece of equipment you need so that’s not an issue here. Give them a call they’re easy to talk to. (Missing 1 star because their people are busy busy)

Ordered a pair of BareFoot Footprint 01 one week ago. As soon as I noticed that only one of the two boxes were picked up by the courier, I contacted the customer service, expecting a prompt action. The reply was “the courier picked up both boxes, it looks like a glitch in the system”.
Guess what? Today I received ONLY one speaker, the other one is still in “Shipment info sent to FedEx”.
It is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE that after having paid 4500$, getting this kind of service.
So please, steer away from these people and buy your sound equipment elsewhere.

Vintage king charged me for 2nd-day delivery but, was not delivered as paid. I reached out to them instead of refunding the money for 2nd-day delivery they refused. Then emailed me to say because it was ordered on a Friday the shipping was correct. The fact that this incorrect and you’re making an excuse to keep my money is unacceptable. The order was done on Thursday and not Friday. I’ll never go business with them again. The money is no longer the issue. The idea of not displaying integrity speaks volumes. The idea of lying about an order for the money leaves me speechless.