Forès – Top 17 places for music shops17 recommended music shops in Forès

They have a range of teachers to learn music from! I’ve learned so much within the 2 years I’ve been there!

I brought in some guitars and amplifiers to sell on consignment. The staff has a high standard, is very professional, kind and polite. I’m very happy that the items I brought in have found homes.

Kevin and Paul have been great to work with! My daughter loves her lessons and is really becoming a self described “band geek.” It is especially wonderful that she has been able to take piano and baritone lessons back to back, thus helping this momma reduce the chauffeur duties!

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.

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.

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.

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

Great service! Nice friendly owner

My daughter’s piano teacher in East Hampton recommended this store for the purchase of a piano. Thank you Gil for your help selecting one of your pianos. We purchased our piano several days before Christmas as a gift for my daughter. As it can be challenging to find delivery at the holidays, the store owner went out of his way to deliver the piano personally on Christmas Eve. The piano sounds wonderful and my daughter was thrilled. Thanks for the excellent service, wonderful piano, and beautiful music that now fills my home.

The Music Score is now at 2315 and under new management. The store offers lessons for all instruments (including vocal), rentals and purchases on all instruments (including pianos.) The Music Score includes workshops and classes, like Music Together for toddlers, Music Fun Time for small children, and more. Jazz Band is held on Wednesday nights, Open Mic every last Friday. Other fun times are held, like Karaoke, Music Movie night, and Game night. Events are held about four times a year like The Frozen Spring Thaw, Open Houses, Christmas parties, recitals, new years for kids, and more. This store has a little of everything and caters to people from newborns to senior citizens. When you walk in the door you are part of the family and the teachers, associates, and owners take pride in caring and educating. A true mom and pop shop who are part of the community and helping it grow.

My daughter is signed up for lessons and her teacher is great (I hear the others are as well). Just try not to deal with the guy that owns it.

Very knowledgeable and friendly.

I tried to return my daughter’s Viola due to the school no longer providing classes. It was a total nightmare to get an answer in regards to my credit. They are very irresponsible and I am very disappointed by the lack of care towards my return which was even misplaced! Mom and dad are not helpful at all and he should really look at keeping them home, they make things worse!

Arrived at 10:00am (they open at 10am, but not today). I waited and they finally arrived. All I needed was guitar strings, but they had none. What a waste of time.

Why is a guy in Melbourne, Australia giving a music shop Southington, Connecticut a five star review? Well I grew up in nearby Bristol and got a number of the guitar books I still use from the Music Shop about 20 years ago. But the real reason I’m giving a high rating is for the help they’ve offered my mother. I left my Les Paul behind in Connecticut and during Melbourne’s Covid lockdown got back into guitar. I asked my mother if she could send me my LP, and, having no idea what to do, she went to the Guitar Shop. They helped her pack it up and told her exactly what to do to make sure it arrived safely, and it did! Then, a few months ago, while cleaning out my late grandmother’s basement, my mother found an old parlour guitar. She went back to the Music Shop and they gave her advice about whether it was worth fixing up and shipping. That guitar just arrived at my door today in great shape.
Thanks so much guys!

Very helpful staff and kids get to play the demo keyboards which only sparks their creativity and musicality and that’s a bonus in my book. They also offer lessons here and have a huge selection of guitars and instruments can be rented or purchased. Will be visiting again that’s for sure!!!!

I’ve taken several guitars and basses here for setup and parts installation. The work is always top notch and they stand by it if something happens to go wrong. I’ve known Scott since I first picked up a guitar when they were at Caldor plaza (now Walmart). He actually helped my mom and I pick it out. I took lessons at the shop with an instructor named Mark right after that purchase. I would not hesitate to recommend this place to anyone.

The cellos were in not in good shape and we had to pay a luthiere to redo repairs that were poorly done when we received the instrument.

Great place but website could be better such as pics of some used equipment. I’m a drummer and would like to see what they have for new and used cymbals,stands,drum kits etc. And prices. I have done business with them and always had a great experience the reason for three stars is the website doesn’t do the music shop justice. All and all great store great people.

have been going there for Decades…
Smart people and great support.
Very helpful.

Extremely pleasant and knowledgeable staff took care of us. The guitar we bought is better than expected, and I will return to do more business.

It’s a great music store. Like how you can test out guitars to get a feel for them.staff is great too

Good music store… They’ll have what you need.

Could not get what we needed

We like Sam Ash. The people are usually helpful and friendly. The prices are pretty much the same as Guitar Center, but they do seem to have more basses to try, if that’s your thing. They also have orchestra stuff and pretty much anything else you may need, musically.

Terrible experience barely any guitars and they were dirty

I went to Sam Ash music New Haven, CT, looking to hopefully purchase a banjo or gain some valuable information I might need to move forward. An employee named ”John” (Guitar department) was helping me through this experience. However, when I declined to purchase a banjo there due to several reasons, mostly their poor selection, he instantly became very rude and snappy and hastly ripped the instrument from my hand. This is definitely do to the fact these employees make their money via-commision. Guess John was just acting nice to customers and is not truly a sincere helpful guy…

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!

Cool little music store with a certain old-school, pawn-shop vibe. Found a cool, used Kustom powered monitor/mixer and a short mic stand, useful items at a great discount. Enjoyable experience, since the staff was cool and helpful, letting me borrow a mic and cable to test my purchase before buying.

Fred Pedemonti no longer works there,that is why the 5 stars. Fred is scum.

Very curtious and quick service went to fix guitar ❤

First, the employees were excellent; friendly and helpful. I was extremely disappointed in the store itself. This was basically a dark, messy pawn shop, not the store I was familiar with from years ago. My only reason to go back would be to pick through dusty items to find something I might be in search of, more of an adventure.

Total waste of my time

Ordered lugs for my snare. They sent me receipts and invoices and never shipped my lugs. I called and emailed multiple times and never got a response back after leaving numerous messages. Been 2 months and I still don’t have my lugs and am out $60.

Closed even though the hours said it was open (3 pm on a Wednesday). The place looked like a hoarders attic. Absolute mess.

A hidden gem UPSTAIRS. Don’t miss it. Dave the owner is great, and talented. Patrick Gill is the PREMIER guitar TECH in the whole northwest CT region. He works miracles at a very fair price. Excellent teachers, Will for piano and keyboards and Mike for guitar and bass. Better check them out. I only trust my guitars to Dave and Patrick. Won’t go anywhere else. Seriously.

Woodbury Music is the best shop around of all of your instrument needs! The shop owner Dave, is both friendly & knowledgeable! I have gotten both common things done (fixing of saxophone keys) as well as unusual things done (fixing of a dulcimer bridge) and everyone has always been great! I have also taken lessons for almost three years now, and my teacher Mike is not only a dedicated teacher, but also a very talented professional. Stop by and check it out!

Great honest shop here. Had a great online interaction with Dave via email. Want to know why I trust them? Because they talked me out of a purchase. Ha! Thanks again!

Fantastic service, fast shipping, and competitive pricing.

I’ve never been more comfortable trying out guitars in a shop. I drove over an hour to get here and the customer service made it completely worth it. They have an incredible selection of great sounding instruments and went out of their way to make sure I found the guitar I wanted. Highly recommend this place.

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

Ken has been my go-to guy for setups for as long as I can remember. Always delivers quality service and super speedy turnaround.

These guys are amazing! I live in Memphis and bought a G&L Fallout Black w/ Tortishelle Pickguard from them!
Came exactly 5 days later from the time I bought it, just as it was scheduled.
It came with no scratches, no dents, but nearly IN TUNE, with a free strap and a few picks! These guys are A- Class!
Give Ken Johnson at ” A Sound Choice” a Call! He’ll get you set up with whatever you need!

During this Virus Lock Down and sitting home in NJ playing guitar, I decided to buy a new guitar. I searched for the dealer’s carrying the guitar I wanted and came upon “A Sound Choice”. How lucky I was to come upon such a wonderful experience. Working with Ken, the store’s owner was a pleasure. Ken was what a retailer should be. The price and service were excellent. I received the guitar 24 hours later via UPS. “A Sound Choice” should be your choice.

Ordered a guitar on Reverb and Ken always answered the phone and was very helpful throughout the process. I ordered a Larrivee OM-40 and it was listed as brand new but definitely had a dent and 2 scratches which was disappointing but overall a good experience with the process.

The guitar however has a terrible extreme buzzing noice, especially when playing on the first 7 frets of the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings…even when playing a single note and strum lightly…a terrible buzz. I can’t seem to figure out where it is coming from. I will have to take to a luthier which is unfortunate given that it is a brand new guitar. He did say he sanded the saddle down before shipping to lower the action, suspicious that is the problem.

Update: Took it into a luthier. The saddle had been sanded down, action too low, poor job with the setup. Had to build me a new saddle. New strings, and adjusted trust rod as well. Buzzing gone. Sounds and plays like a dream!

Cool little music shop. Worth going and especially if you need a setup on your instrument.

When I can I prefer to spend my money at mom -n- pop businesses and A Sound Choice is a great guitar shop. Knowledgeable and they have a great selection of music making products. The corporate guitar stores don’t always hire staff that even know what a treble clef is so my advice is spend your money here.

Matty is knowledgable and always willing to help. This is also a great place to take lessons on your instrument of choice, whether you’re just starting out or already have some experience.

My son has learned alot from Matty. He loves going to play music with him.

I was looking for music classes for our daughter and somebody had recommended Matty’s music. I gave them a call and got the owner on the phone. He was so nice he explained everything, so knowledgeable, and we set up a time to bring in my daughter. I’ll be very honest when I first saw the place I was hesitant but don’t judge a book by its cover! Maddie is so great! He gives the kids a safe space to be themselves while learning all about music and reading and playing, and it has quickly become such a special place to our daughter that now she’s brought her friends there and they too have found the absolute warmth and amazing place that Matty has here in town. Also the prices he charges are unbelievably fair.

Great service.

Dirty, stuff everywhere, completely disorganized.

This place is great. Their instructors are knowledgeable, funny. It’s a warm, active place. My boyfriend has had guitar lessons with Phil (owner), and been taking singing lessons from Pat for years. His kids have been taking guitar and drum lessons from Phil and Gary for at least 10 years. I take singing lessons from Pat periodically.

The review by “A google user” that starts out “I called the store” and ends with “Go see East Coast Music’ was likely written by an East Coast employee – note it was written FIVE years ago. And by the way, they went out of business…..while Route 7 has thrived.

Great experience- Guitar lessons have been informative and I am progressing faster than I thought possible . Top notch teachers!

Very happy with the customer service and staff at Route 7 Music. They are a great bunch of guys, and our daughter has learned so much from Gary on drums. She loves the lessons, looks forward to them and actually likes practicing. Thanks for making learning an instrument a positive, fun experience!

Do not follow hours on door or website, very dissapointing 🙁

Omar was an amazing help with everything I needed to get regarding an Electronic Drum Kit. Very knowledgeable and professional, would highly recommend Omar with ANYTHING you shop for at this Guitar Center!

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

Great service

Although as I understand it they’ve been having financial issues across the company at least I see a continuous striving and attempt to make changes and find an alternative business model that will work. Usually the workers here are very helpful and engaging when necessary but not overbearing and helicopter-ish. I like it.

Friendly sales people.tidy store

Very very small selection of guitars! I was expecting a lot more from a big guitar chain store.

I purchased an Epiphone Les Paul Special I P90, however, for some reason the in store price is $30 higher than the online price for the exact same model. I called the store before driving there and was told that they did not have that model, hence preventing me from doing an online purchase at the lower price. I drove to the store and purchased the exact same model for $30 more. The price hike does not bother me as much as the unethical nature of the transaction, so buyers be wary of the guitar center at Orange, Ct.

Employees were very friendly but don’t sell stuff there they rip you off

Staff was borderline rude, insinuating that I was stupid for asking about a product that he didn’t think was useful or that they should carry. If you see a big, fat, black dude working in the Mic department avoid it like the plague.

All ways the best

My son has been taking guitar lessons with Don. He has been introduced to many artists and looks forward to his lessons. We chose the Music Garage because we wanted our son to learn the basics and build a foundation for playing guitar.

I have taken my guitar and bass here to be setup a few times. I was very happy with the time it took and the results. It averaged about a week for the turnaround and the playability was great. I can’t speak for the lessons or major repair work, but for simple things this guitar/music shop is perfect.

A little hard to find, but owner was very helpful in my search for a solid-woods Classical guitar. Looked at a very nice A/Yari. Has some nice guitars, but he is limited by space constraints. If the f-ups in Washington and the greedy sob’s on Wall St would all drop dead, this store would have a good chance of growing.

Had an excellent selection of strings. Plan on visiting again soon.

I got My sons cello at this store and the bridge was broken and the stand

Love this place

Very good experience, first time there and impressed!!!

These guys are fantastic. They always have the stuff and knowledge I’m looking for whenever I go in

Great place

While I’m sure other people have had decent experiences, mine was a bit off…I went in to buy an item (digital turntable) and they didnt have it in stock which was to be sold for 99$. They sold me the display one for the discounted price of 130$. I tried to explain how it didnt make sense, but in the end I just bought it because I had driven from New Haven to get it. Not very happy with that experience and will probably just not go to that location any more.

Great local music shop

Everything is technically used at brand new prices. Anyone can come in, handle, and abuse instruments with out any control or supervision. Nice place to look at a wide array of gear then buy or order from a reputable dealer.

Cannot get off their email list.

Great store, great people, corporate on the other hand. (I’ve personally spent thousands over the years) But buyer beware, as the closer to the holiday, the higher the prices climb. Buy early or pay more.

Very helpful

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

I took lessons here and Rob is a great teacher/mentor not only for guitar but for plenty of other aspects of my life. His teachings have helped me improve exponentially and he always makes each lesson as fun and engaging as possible!

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.

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

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.

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.

There’s the place that has a right equipment for professionals.

I’m not a customer yet, but after my experience today I definitely will be. I arrived about a half hour to closing time and I was still greeted with kindness and an eagerness to help. Dennis really made my whole experience with looking to purchase a guitar and he went above and beyond my expectations. Unfortunately my expectations were set by experiencing being a woman in a Guitar Center, but Dennis showed me nothing but respect and he is very passionate about music and encouraging others to learn. If you’re looking for a comfortable and fun shopping experience, I couldn’t recommend this shop enough.

Great store. Knowledgeable staff!

Meh

If you’re not looking to go too far to get musical instruments. Look no further. Expensive though. But if you don’t care about prices, go for it. Not much of a selection though.

Nice shop

This place is just awful. The owner is so rude to us that i will never go back. We rented an instrument from him because our normal music store didnt have the instrument and when the instrument broke he said it was our fault and that it wasnt covered and then bad mouthed our local music store.

After going to this place; I must say I will never go back there again. The owner is so rude and disrespectful. Its not even funny. The owner needs get off his anthropocentric state of mind.

Excellent service from Peter. I need to return!

Quality store, professional staff, and especially helpful with younger students. Good programs for renting instruments, and they host lessons as well.

nice music instruments

Yeah it’s good!

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

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.

Being a Deaf mother of hearing 9 years old child that has no knowledge in music, I asked if this is drumsticks is good for him. This man just gave me a cold look and said I don’t know it’s fine. He was rude. Definitely not a Deaf friendly store for those Deaf parents with hearing child who wants to join the band.

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!?