Exclusive selection: The top 7 music shops of Foresthill

Always friendly and helpful!! I love this little hardware store

Great staff !!

Excellent local hardware store.

Very helpful nice people

This family-run store is well-stocked, though they no longer cut lumber

Very helpful and curtious staff. A little bit more pricey then a franchise, but a good selection. The convenience of not having to make the 17 mile drive back to Auburn or Colfax more then makes up for the minutely inflated prices. Besides its good to support local mom&pop business. The only negative thing I have to say is I wish they would invest in a website to list inventory.

Expensive but it’s more of a small town convenience hardware store.

Very disappointed that the staff are still not taking the Covid 19 mask wearing recommendations seriously. Unless the employees are being regularly tested to be sure they are not infected, which I highly doubt, they are potentially exposing each customer as they enter the store. As much as I like to support them with my business I am appalled by this lack of consideration for customers and feel that Home Depot, for example, is doing a much better job in being considerate particularly for those of us in more vulnerable cohorts.

Good staff, nice atmosphere… enjoyed my conversation with everyone in the store. 🙂

Cameron and his team are extremely knowledgeable and have a healthy selection of instruments. The team are super friendly and accommodating. A+, highly recommended.

This place is awesome! Havent been in a music store this cool in over 25 years. Not a bunch of junk, quality over quantity.
Jean

Their music selection was a bit small but they had everything I needed at a very reasonable cost.

Did not have a kazoo

The line was crazy long and they were extremely under staffed.

I rented a sax that i can’t afford anymore, but my experience was good. They have a nice rent to buy program that I want to take advantage of in the future, and the voice lessons are something I’ve always wanted to invest in and learn.

Awesome store with great services and lessons. I took clarinet lessons for a few years and piano lessons as well. The teachers were effective and engaging.

Has amazing lessons from really nice and good teachers. Also sells a variety of instruments

Friendly staff and very helpful.

I rented a used violin for my son from the shop. They said the price was $199. The rental was $35 per month. after two months if you want to own the violin then they said they would deduct the rental amount from the original price. But when we want to buy the used violin they said the price is $299 which is hell more than a new violin. So would recommend not to rent or buy anything from this store.

More variety and better service than you can imagine

They answered all of my questions and I am currently working on trading instruments with them! Amazing customer service and a calming atmosphere. I reccomend this business to anyone looking to buy a new or used instrument or instrument parts.

These guys are definitely on par with the local music scene! Very knowledgeable and helpful. They offer reasonable instrument consignment sales as well.

great spot, great people. a bit overwhelming but take a min and its easily appreciable

A nice selection of instruments for the space, though the prices are on the high end.
With so much inventory, don’t expect them to have a handle on what they have in stock, especially if it’s parts or pieces or it isn’t on the floor.

While it may seem like a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, the store offers a plethora of instruments and other musical paraphernalia. Music lessons also offered!

Yeah not too sure about that place I feel robbed every time I go in there, yeah of course there’s a lot of good stuff there but overall there wasn’t a chance for no stars they can have one I guess

Owners are rude

Over priced

As far as I’m concerned Nicholson Music is the best guitar store in the entire Sacramento region. Norm took great care of me and is probably one of the best sales people I’ve ever encountered. He knew just how much information to give me and just how much time to give me alone with the instrument in order to make a solid decision on my next guitar.

This is what a local music store should be like. Andy looked into fixing my guitar instead of pushing me to buy a new one. I’ll probably buy a new one from them anyway. The other salesman was so knowledgeable about guitars my head was spinning. This is a great local business that should be supported.

Awesome doesn’t even begin to describe it! Mr Nicholson took a lot of time to answer all the questions I had and made me feel welcome to come back and ask more. They have grwat products, great knowledge, and increadibly friendly staff! I live 2hours away but I will be going back!

I haven’t been to this shop in years. Came in recently to look for a specific book. The staff was friendly. The layout of the place is a bit awkward. There is a back section with sheet music but it’s not very apparent at first. Ask anyone at the desk if you need to find it. The sheet music selection is very small.

They had a good collection of guitars, bases, and other stringed instruments. I didn’t see much in the way of brass or woodwinds. Its in a small shopping complex and parking was okay.

I’ve experienced a good customer service however all sales are final.

Large selection of guitars

The staff is very nice but the owner has very poor customer service skills. He does not know how to listen to customer needs nor he gives a choice. Even if you rent violin from him you do not have a choice. It will be whatever he gives you. He is very rude. I was trying to pick a violin for my child and he was very suspicious why we were looking for details on the violin. He sells violins with cracks for high prices. DO NOT SUGGEST BUYING OR RENTING VIOLIN from this place. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM OWNER.

I used to have my guitars worked on here; but I wouldn’t let them touch them now. Their luthiers literally talked me out of doing business with them ever again. They have a nice stock of instruments, so in that respect they are OK.

We didn’t realize it was a music night so the music was so loud that we couldn’t talk to each other. The service was great but the prime rib was lousy.

Teachers are great, the customer service is great. What’s not to love.

Helpful, friendly, knowledgable❤️

Best staff on the planet! Incredibly helpful and really take the intimate time to describe an instrument.

Nice, small town feel when you are in the store. Prices are a bit on the high side, but that is to be expected for a mom and pop kind of store. Helpful service.

Cool

Friendly, knowledgeable, helpful. Street parking is iffy. Rear parking and entrance is unmarked.

Went in and there was a class going on with 20+ people crammed into a tiny space, not one of them wearing a mask. Only one other person in the entire store had one on, none of the staff. Fully 1/3rd of Sac Co. is completely unvaccinated. I’m immune compromised [along with some 7,000,000 other American citizens] & disabled. The ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM of decency and community protection is apparently an outrageous expectation. They also had some absurd overpricing. I vastly prefer non-corporate local stores, but they can F right off if they’re not going to do even the simplest, most pitifully minor actions to do their part in not further spreading a wildly uncontrolled global pandemic that has killed nearly a million U.S. humans, and is far from over. Still averaging a quarter million cases a day, and over 2,000 deaths [more than any time since last winter, still]. They don’t even REQUEST that people wear some kind of face covering. Reprehensible madness, and unless this changes I will not support or recommend them to my musician friends. Please be better, nobody should be forced to exclude themselves from society JUST because of laziness or ignorance and non-measures that throw disabled folks under the bus.

I originally came in to get a new nut cut for my Gibson SG. The repair took longer and cost more than originally advertised, and the repair man left several issues that I had to fix myself (buzzing on A and low E, new tuning problems due to roughness of nut slots, high action, used strings other than the ones I’d left for him and specifically asked for him to use). Fortunately, however, when I brought this up with the shop, out of the $50 that I was charged, I was refunded $40 labor cost. (Still on the hook for $10 though).

EDIT: The manager for the Strum Shop started hassling me over text message after I posted this review. LOL.

I brought a guitar to adjust the action. Dan did not place the parts I asked for saying he did not have it on stock. Inaccurate repair job with replacing the guitar nut. Honestly I could adjust my guitar better than this “professional repair master” “Doctor” Dan. Waisted $80. Very unsatisfied. I would not recommend any repairs in this shop/store.

A magical place!

So blessed for music in my household. My self playing baby grand really stirs the magic around the Christmas Tree and takes edge off of a screaming toddler. I have never been so happy with a purchase as I am with my Plano. Thank you Ben! You and your whole organization have been a pleasure to work with.

I’m a professional pianist. This is a store run by someone who truly loves and knows pianos. I have purchased a couple of digital pianos from the store for professional use. As well I like to peruse the selection of fine grand pianos always in stock. Ben’s love of pianos is matched by first rate customer service. The company I ordered instruments from had some difficulties and Ben’s diligent follow through got instruments to me on time despite tremendous machinations to do so. He will bend over backwards to make sure one gets the best service possible.

I’ve been looking for pianos for awhile and was satisfied with the selection here, but I felt like the person working there was a little pushy and rude which led to me wanting to leave. I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable coming here again.

Reply: My point is that my experience here was very uncomfortable. It was difficult to look for pianos in peace, yet I’d understand why you’d feel the need to be persistent with asking questions in an attempt to help out. My dad isn’t from the US and doesn’t exactly communicate well, so I became anxious when you told him, “People usually don’t just walk in” as he was taking a look around; this made me feel as if we were unwelcome. I tried to elaborate his vague response by telling you that we have indeed been looking for a piano for awhile; this was in no way defensive although I didn’t get the chance to fully explain myself since you quickly cut me off by saying, “Yeah, I know”. I willfully admit that what you said to my dad slightly irritated me, which is why I blatantly answered the question you asked me and continued to browse around the shop (considering the reason we visited was to look around, obviously). I just recently turned 18 (which you know since I answered when you asked) and would consider myself a sociable person, so the reason of me seeming “rude and standoff to the max” is only the outcome of feeling like our visit was bothersome for you. I was antsy the entire time and it was disappointing since I’ve been meaning to visit for awhile. And I understand that maybe you weren’t having the best day, but my review is an honest recap of my PERSONAL experience, and isn’t being said to bash your business. No one is “trampling” you Ben – I’d greatly appreciate it if you considered what I’m stating rather than argue.

Very rude walked into the store ready to spend upwards of $20000 on a piano the employees were very rude and didnt feel like answering questions and they would watch every move u made made me and my cousin very uncomfortable how am I supposed to spend lots of money on a piano when i can’t test it due to them being on the phone all the time them not having a back office where they can take phone calls is very unprofessional i was in there for about 10 minutes until i couldn’t take the constant questions them watching everywhere i go i would not recommend this place for anyone who wants piece and quiet to shop for a piano

No, he doesn’t buy pianos.