Exclusive selection: The top 19 music shops of Fresno

I brought my Martin HD-28 to Tom for some small repairs. He also noticed the badly pitted finish on the upper side of the body. I had been told by other repair places that it couldn’t be fixed without refinishing the entire guitar. Tom thought otherwise. I took a chance and had him go ahead with the finish work. He did a fantastic job — far better than I had hoped for and for a very reasonable price. I highly recommend Tom’s work.

Took a reissue Fender Deluxe Reverb in for some trouble shooting. Tom figured it all out and my amp sounds great, no more weird noises, nice and quiet! Price was better than fair. Unfortunately while I was in there,a Sonic Blue Mustang caught my eye and I ended up buying another guitar all expertly setup by Tom.

MM is the old school shop with built in funk. Take a 6 pack of beer and be ready to do some jamming.

They were very nice. I would have appreciated knowing the specialist tuning gjutars wasn’t there before the long bus drive with the guitar. He’ll be there Saturday.

Great service!! After being treated badly at Guitar Center we went to American Music. Bernie was awesome!! He ordered the power supply for our mixer that the other guys stated they don’t sell and we would have to order ourselves online. Then on top of that he made us a GREAT deal on a Peavey cordless microphone!! Thank you Bernie for making me feel like what I need matters. You have a customer for life!!!

Great service and a great collection of Fender guitars!

Excellent mom pop type atmosphere. Got my first guitar on layaway at a mom-and-pop in Oklahoma City this place was the same kind of atmosphere very helpful

Love this place, been around a long time. Good people

Pretty decent people in the business, and also they get a good supply of musical instruments. Good place.

It’s ok

I bought my first electric guitar from American Music 25 years ago. I bought my first synthesizer there. I’ve made all my major purchases there. Never again. Today, I went to pick up something for my work and left my phone on my desk. When I arrived, the door was locked with instructions to call for assistance. I look inside and see an old guy at the counter so I knock on the window and jingle the door (which has bells). As I’m trying to get his attention he ignores me and walks into a back room. Thankfully, a neighboring business called to ask for me to be let in. When she told him that I was trying to get in he told her, “I know. He needs to call.” She told him, ‘Well, he’s calling now. Can you let him in?’ I walk back over, the same old guy I saw lets me in, and I am so furious I show him what I need, I pay the $5.19, ask for my receipt, and leave. I will never spend another dime here so long as I live. I will never help American Music by referring another person to them since their employees can’t be bothered to answer the door for me. It’s a shame that our relationship of 25 years came to an end like this but I will not be disrespected just because I didn’t have a phone with me.

Uneducated people ,rude and the store smells like fish.

Terrible customer service! Won’t step foot in there again. Left without buying anything. Decided to go to Patrick’s where they were extremely helpful and considerate. Employee insisted that I was being sarcastic, which I wasn’t. He told me that masks make it easy for people to be sarcastic. All I asked is if they had guitar strings. He then said all they do is sell guitars and no strings. So idk who was being sarcastic. I asked an honest question since at first glance I didn’t notice any. Bad, bad, baaaad!!

Staff was friendly and very helpful!

Staff is always knowledgeable and helpful. Even helped me get my equipment into my car.

Ecxelentes precios y extenso surtido en guitarras empleados atentos y listos para ayudar

Good customer service they know what they’re talking about and usually have the thing you need

Un trabajador bilingüe y estaría perfecto

3 stars due to the following – Went into the store to return a microphone, however, the first sales rep, older gentleman, told me “I am not able to return”

Reason: Wrapper of the box was not there.

The older gentleman then persisted I can not return due to having the microphone exposed to possible mouth contact.

I told him to show me on the receipt where that’s in the policy and the manager who sold me the microphone said yes you can return items but there is a restocking fee if mic is not to liking.

Sales rep made it very obvious he did not want to handle the return or partake in the transaction giving redundant reasoning.

The issue was then solved by the manager who performed the return right away by stepping in, waiving the restocking fee, and sending me on my way.

I commend for that.

Reason for return: Went with a bluetooth mobile mic application.

Please make sure all employees are fully aware of the return policy and not giving different explanations of policy.

Customer service is awful at best

Been here 5 times in years!…alway came out disappointed with the service. Just now I stood over 20 minutes waiting to buy just a microphone. Service is worst than a fast food restaurant. I just want to buy a microphone!!! Is it that hard? Shut down as a business because obviously customer service is not a priority. Stick to McDonald’s.

Drove 45 miles to look for and purchase acoustic guitar amp. Don’t have. Looking for certain Les Paul, don’t have. Either have extremely high end or bottom end guitars. Selection sucks, not one associate asked if i needed assistance.

Helpful customer service!!

Outstanding work. The best–period!

This is an awesome little Boutique amp repair shop. The owner is very friendly and very helpful I’m so glad I found this place

Set a price for a guitar then sold it to someone else. Blamed me. Bad business.
You guys have been helping me with guitar issues since I started playing. I am thankful for your services. I put a bid in for that guitar on several occasions and was told to wait for a response. I would have come sooner if you would have let me know I needed to. It seems you sold it to a person who walked in but made me wait then told me I waited too long and that you thought I’d come in sooner. Guitars come and go. Your word is what matters to me. I’m not mad and don’t be sorry. I will find that style guitar somehow if I really want it.

Seems like a cool little shop. Even though they didn’t have what I was looking for the person at the counter was helpful.

I would call this place more of a menace than a repair/music shop. I have had interactions with these people for well over a decade, starting at their previous location on Blackstone.

Other peers and I first interacted with this shop for amp service/repairs and most of our stuff took absurd amounts of time to return and we were always charged a premium price for these services, yet the work was never done correctly. Most of the time our gear would be returned in the same condition upon arrival, or worse if you can believe that.

The other capacity I have dealt with them is through Craigslist. They regularly list items for sale, and I cannot count how many times I have been burned by the owner. As I am typing this review, I can see in my closet a Dunlop wah I bought nearly 7 years ago that never worked.

I support local businesses and hope all hardworking and honest people are rewarded in their endeavors, however, there have been too many incidences to chalk up to coincidence. Not to mention the parallel experiences across peers, and local musicians alike.

I’m not trying to go out of my way to be malicious, nor come off spiteful as I have steered clear from them for a good while, but rather share my experience as a fair warning to others.

Took keyboard in for repair, left it for 3 weeks, drive back to pick it up, several things still not working correctly. Had to take it back again and leave it for 3 more weeks to finally get it fixed. Still not working perfectly, but tired of waiting!

Awesome teachers

My daughters have been attending for 3 months now (piano and voice lessons), very professional music instructors and great energy!

Best Music Store in town! Affordable lessons and professional team of teachers! Great place to buy a music instrument!

Patrick the owner is a great guy. He knows the various schools and school districts in the Fresno area and he knows how to size your child up with the right instrument for the school district they are in.

Great staff greeted me once I came in the door.

they don’t answer the phone

I’ve never had a problem with any guitar I’ve taken to Ted. He also makes me feel comfortable enough if I did have a problem he would remedy any issues I had so that would be happy.

Ted is my main guitar tech! I trust him he worked on my guitars from the past and also great guy to talk.!

While Ted does build custom guitars, I went to him for his Luthier service so he could set up one of my guitars. He’s highly recommended amongst guitar players in the valley and I was very pleased with the service he provided. He’s meticulous in his work and he worked around my busy schedule. He will certainly be my go to guy for my setups.

Always great service from staff as well as awesome vinyl always in stock. Can never leave empty handed from Ragin!

Best vinyl shop in town, period. Paul and his employees know music top to bottom. The only place to go if you love great music. They specialize in Punk and Hardcore but also have a good amount of nearly everything else. Hip Hop, Alt, Metal, Indy, 50’s 60’s 70’s 80’s Rock. If they don’t have it, they can find it!

Great staff and inventory!

Awesome selection of punk vinyl

Great selections

They had a nice selection of new and used vinyl. A bit too pricey for my tastes though. For a $34.99 vinyl I can get the C.D counterpart for $5.99 on Amazon. Sorry, although I prefer vinyl in some cases there isn’t that much difference in sound sonically to justify the price hike.

This store is to pricey

Now my review is not based on cleanliness, or content based but on return policy. I bought a record for my wife in December for a Christmas gift. It was an older Blondie album and when I got home I went through my wife’s records and she already had it. So I called and asked if I can return it and they told me yes. Now when I went back later in the week who I think was the owner told me that record did not come from his store as it had scratches on it. I told him yes it did and we argued. Eventually he gave me a return but it wasn’t the full amount. He wouldn’t explain why. I would rather have kept the album if that was the case. He was rude and I will not spend my time or money in that store again. I do have to say his employee was super cool and he helped me locate all the blondie albums in the store.

It was a terrible experience rude customer service and the owner cussed at me and threatened me because I had my mask under my nose.

RIP Papa…I love u

Joe is the best there is at what he does, bar none! I drive over 200 miles to bring my gear to him for service (C-3, Motif8, rack gear, etc.)

The best professional in the Calkey for many decades.

good

WiFi iffy no Netflix

Cool

Truly, the finest in workmanship. All of my instruments have never played better.

Good friendly people here. Brought my daughter’s flute to get checked on and the gentleman there fixed it in about 10 minutes. No charge at all, but I still left them some money for coffee for their help today. I think they are very knowledgeable with music pieces. I would go back for their very friendly service again.

The Horn Shop guys were great to work with. They have a wide variety of horns in stock to try before you buy.

Great location for instruments, repair, parts & service. Extremely knowledgeable & helpful.

They are knowledgeable and seem fair about pricing. Get the person’s name you speak with if you call, as they have a few guys working there and then you won’t have to repeat everything and get a different opinion.

Bought some reeds for a clarinet fair price quick service.

This place kinda blows ( pun intended) lol

Any music store to get instruments and be a musician and you could do anything which you wanted to do those guitars, piano and more you would be appreciated with you will be getting ready to play, I would give this a five out of 10 this is a good music store everybody should be shopping in the store!

Knowledgeable and friendly. I went there for instrument repair.

The customer service here is pretty good.

Very helpful. Product wise. Very expedient. Everything went very smooth. The deliverer were excellent. I only tell the truth anyway!!!

Reasonable selection, fantastic staff.

We came in during a sales event. The guys took the time to educate us on the instruments and to let our budding prodigy experience all of the models.

We agreed on an upright and the financing options were clearly explained and very reasonable (although we ultimately decided to buy outright).

Delivery was two days later and I was honestly surprised by how quick they were. I take longer to bring my groceries in some weeks.

A+ for service
A++ for delivery

I was visiting family in Fresno and decided to check out the piano stores in town. I had been shopping for an upright and wanted to check out a few brands not available in my area. I was very glad I did. I wanted to try out the Pearl River brands. I discussed what I was looking for with the manager (Nick), and he led me right to the piano I eventually purchased. It was a great recommendation. I was able to play a variety of different brands and models to compare. They were very accommodating. After thinking about it overnight, I went back and purchased my piano. They worked with me to arrange great financing, and worked with me to come up with a fair delivery charge since I don’t live in Fresno. They texted me regularly with updates on the piano delivery, and their delivery staff was top notch. An all around great experience.

They tried to be helpful, and they had some very nice pianos (mostly Yamaha). However, they failed to read info I provided in writing regarding my needs. Also the nice person who tried to help me knew very little about pianos, and did not appear to know how to play piano well. I had an issue with the playing feel of some of their digital offerings, and the sales representative made no attempt to address that issue by demonstrating the feature of their pianos on sale designed to adjust the hardness or softness of the keyboard “touch.” The absence of knowledgeable help (which listened to my needs and preferences, and attempted to show how their stock on offer might be able to meet my needs) led me to purchase a piano from a more knowledgeable dealer in Fresno.
A final note, their lack of ability/willingness to listen to, and to respond to my needs cannot be explained by attractive low prices. I had quotes from online sources that were much lower than the prices quoted by Gottschalk Piano. So if I wanted the best price (without knowledgeable help) I would have gone to an online store, rather than buying from Gottschalk Piano.

Great selection, takes the time to clean the records before selling them. Very friendly service.

Cool vibes, a few fun vintage items and good conversation with staff. Love it!

This store is amazing!!!! Fantastic selection of records with a small vintage clothing selection. Last night I was pouring through records when a concert assembled and performed, to my surprise. They rocked it, the music was free and the kids had a great time. I love supporting local music and this record shop!!

I like the shirts that help me rep my home neighborhood…tower district.

Honestly…I loved my experience there. I’m new to records and what I would call “old stuff” but, they had a wide selection of records which I loved. Everything is fair priced. I would gladly come here again!! Oh yeah before I forget very nice people.

Love this place. Nice, relaxing atmosphere. Great records & friendly service!

Awful staff, very rude.

This place gets my order wrong most of the time and forgets items a lot but other than that it’s good. One time they didn’t put any meat in my crunch wrap

Came to this place looking for some good metal vinyl and couldn’t find anything. If your looking for metal don’t make the trip.

I have been coming to this drum shop for over 15 years. Always great service and stock on hand, whether you need heads, sticks or a complete kit. Dana and his staff will assist you in getting the items that you are looking for at very competitive prices. Great for custom orders also, again at great prices. Really no need to shop anywhere else, they have it all!

Took lessons here in 2002 when it was next to the liquor store on shields. 22 years later I still get all of my kits, sticks, cymbals, heads, and misc. Parts. Bentleys is the absolute best. This place keeps me gigging. Shout out to Dana and staff!

This drum shop is top notch!

Fast friendly service and had what i needed. Thanks Bentlys

Dana was very knowledgeable and very helpful when I inquired about hang drums.

Great selection, friendly staff, AC not on or on low because we were perspiring! We’d have stayed longer but it was uncomfortable! We were ready to shop!

Never seen a professional drum shop as frugal as Bentley’s Drum Shop.

I purchased a cymbal from them and had retuned it still under the store warranty for a replacement due to a few small cracks. It took them almost a year to get the cymbal replaced. I was wondering why it took so long after 5 months. So I made a call. The owner claimed that I already came in to pick it up. I told him to check his paper work on his end. He called back and said yes it’s still processing and didn’t even apologize. Wow after 5 months and still processing? Just got a call today to go pick up the cymbal. And they want to charge me for shipping. Again it was still under store warranty. They should of just replaced it with no questions asked.

Always supported them. But after this experience of how the shop owner handled this. Im no longer supporting this drum shop any more.

I ride a bike skateboard on occasion. This place doesn’t accommodate. They actually kicked me out and refused service

Unfortunately you can’t go in the store if you have a bike or a skateboard. ‍♂️

This is an aeesome place that sells used dvds and cds for great prices

Every time I visit Fresno I come to rasputin so many titles used and new I only buy under $3.95 and I always walk out with 2-3 CDs

Very helpful employees whenever I asked for a cd and its the only place to get what your looking for.

“Meh”.

Good place to go if you’re looking for an old movie or one that isn’t well-known. Honestly target or walmart would be a better option for new releases. It’s a little musky in there and there’s no real “help” from sales associates. Kind of disorganized but you can definitely find some gems here if you feel like hunting.

Esta padre

It ok get movies there…

Bought a record brand new and was all scratched up and they wouldn’t trade it

Not as good as it used to be.

Was in on saturday afternoon 8-6-22 and the white chick at the register was so angry with me for some reason, mean mugging and all, i did nothing, but step up to pay for my items, customer service wasn’t in this store the other day, seemed like a racial issue there.

Great place to be at.

Amazing selection and excellent service. Clifford and his shop dog, Rex, were super friendly and Clifford’s knowledge of instruments was extensive. Bought a wonderful bass ukulele for a great price, and the uke sounds beautiful. Great quality, and a v friendly owner. Highly recommend 🙂

Knowledgeable guys and solid equipment. I bought a Yamaha Stage custom drum set that I have fallen in love with.

Majestic is a great shop with equally great customer service. Cliff helped me out today and will certainly be the reason I return.

It just a fun place to go look,and maybe try out a few instruments , they a very helpful

Very friendly

This is my grandfather’s business he’s owned for over 20 years!

Awesome

Art is the one left who knows how to work on Gretch guitars