Where to find the best music shops in Gales Ferry? Top-20 options

Excellent work fair prices. The end.

As a person with much computer knowledge but lacking in the audio department, the team at 1428 has been EXCEPTIONAL with advising and consulting me in the right direction.

Many places will happily let you overspend for something you do not need and I am finding that to be the opposite here.

I’ve been in automotive sales since 2003 and can be very troublesome as a client, I am handled very well here.

Nobody has more attention to detail, and delivers such flawless results as Bill. I did all of my own luthiere work for many years before meeting bill and now I won’t let anybody but him touch my stringed instruments.

The owner is a scam artist. I would be very cautious about letting him work on any equipment that you have put money into.

CK Drum Shop is the best. I am in my mid 60s, and decided to learn drumming ‘late’ in life. I was anxious about finding the right instructor, but found exactly what I was looking for in the CK Drumshop owner. Chris is patient, highly knowledgeable, and is able to communicate complex musical ideas in theory and function, in an informative, non threatening and enjoyable environment. Highly recommended!

The owner of the Drum Shop , Chris, is friendly, knowledgeable and goes the length to helping you meet your personal needs. As a family run business it’s a welcome surprise that mom is working along side him . Every time I visit I learn something . The available inventory has never been an issue as everything can be ordered direct from quality suppliers . I’m looking forward to my next visit as I’m sure I’ll be welcomed and certainly never disappointed.

Chris is great! He is extremely knowledgeable, and goes out of his way to be helpful.

Enter at your own risk! Maybe the owner, Chris was having a bad day. But, I went there to by a bass drum hoop and I guess I asked one too many questions. He became visibly irritated, slammed down the claw hooks he had in his hands and said he didn’t know what to tell me with a major attitude. I calmly handed him back the bass drum hoop I was going to buy and got out of there. Scary dude! The place itself was tiny with no real inventory. Needless to say I’ll never go back.

They had plenty of instruments, books, and other things to browse through. The atmosphere was pleasant and the staff was friendly. I will definitely be returning for musical purchases I need to make in the future.

My brother bought a guitar here. While he was taking lessons they realized part of the guitar was defective, and exchanged it right on the spot even a few weeks later. Excellent service.

I went in to buy a ukulele. Margo was friendly and knowledgeable.

Music instructors are the best.

Good music instructors, great service and great staff.

This store usually has my sax needs.

they were nice and informative, but i returned something and they opted to send me a check. It’s been over a month and i still haven’t gotten my money back

I rented an instrument for my son there over a month ago. The instrument was supposed to be delivered directly to the school but never arrived. Over the coarse of 2 weeks I called 3 separate times to inquire when the instrument would be delivered and was told “I don’t know, we will call you back” every time. We never received a call back. When I called today, the woman told me that they ran out of the instrument I ordered and they have no idea when/if they will get more in. They didn’t call or email me to let me know the instrument was back ordered and THEY STILL CHARGED MY CREDIT CARD HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS for the rental that they didn’t/couldn’t fill. Their customer service and transparency needs alot of work.

No ukulele’s or song books for ukulele’s even thou they advertise that they have them.

I have purchased two basses from Upton Bass – a 1950’s German bass for sale on consignment and rebuilt Upton Professor (precursor of the Brescian) – and have nothing but good things to say about everyone in the shop. Both purchases were made after trying multiple instruments at Upton and at other shops in NYC. They couldn’t be more different in terms of their voice and character but I consider both of them to be exceptional value relative to the prices paid. Eric was extremely patient and helpful in guiding me through the process and recommended both instruments to me, even though I came to the shop with something else in mind.

The top, finger board and bridge of the rebuilt Professor had been damaged in an accident, purchased by Upton from the insurance company of the owner (who commissioned a new Upton) and rebuilt by Eric with a new Brescian top, which has given it a stunning sound across all registers. The bass has a deep, chocolatey lower register, projects sound with minimal effort, has a very full sound that is somehow rich and mellow at the same time across all strings, and is very easy to play. It is also extremely stable and stays in tune regardless of the season. These are wonderful characteristics that it shares with the Upton Brescian model. I purchased the instrument on Eric’s advice, while it was still in the process of being restored, and I could not be more thrilled.

Customer service has been exceptional. Upton has made numerous minor adjustments to both instruments over the years without charging me for the service. When they installed a new bridge on the older bass, the work was expertly done at a reasonable cost. When a relatively low end bow purchased from Upton had some issues, Eric remade sections of the frog and adjusted the hair at no cost.

For anyone looking to make a purchase, the shop has many basses on consignment in its showroom, across all price ranges, typically from musicians who have purchased an Upton bass. Eric, Gary and the other members of the team are constantly working to innovate and to refine the quality of their product. I experienced the benefits of this process first hand when Eric replaced the damaged top of my Professor with the top that is currently installed on the Brescian.

There is a reason why Upton instruments, from the more workmanlike plywood models to more high end custom built commissions, are so highly regarded and retain their value.

Always a pleasure dealing with these folks.

These people make beautiful Basses! I looked a long time for a bass that had all the attributes that I wanted; Full rich tone, ease of playing, both arco and pizzicato, and extended C tuning. The only thing that was missing was that I wanted my bass to be old and unique but once I played their basses I was hooked. I could see and feel these instruments were so well made and sounded and played so well.
The only thing that I didn’t like was that it took thirteen months to get my bass, probably some delays due to the pandemic, so I tried to be patient. I do wish that there would have been a bit more communication throughout the process ie. progress report or a picture once in a while. I know this takes time and Im sure the Luthiers were busy doing what they do best… man do they do a great job! I highly recommend these instruments.Thanks to everyone at Upton!

I purchased a ply bass that had issues out the door. The geometries where all wrong (e.g., the neck was too thin and was not pitched to the back of the bass) and it had a buzz coming from the fingerboard and bridge setup. They were unable to resolve the buzzing sound and I took it it to a local luthier to have the problem resolved. I ended up donating the bass our school district and purchasing a Shen.
Also do not purchase bows from Upton. I purchased a $2000+ bow made by J.R. Silva, Brazil, which developed a splinter just above the frog within 6 months and Upton would not warrant the bow. I now have a $2000+ paperweight.

Update, 10/28/2023:
… as to your reply, yes, I initially thought this was a great bass until I started using it for rehearsals and the buzzing appeared. I thought it was something I was doing or even due to the new bow. I drove 4 hours one way to your location to have your staff address the buzzing issue and they shaved a high spot on the fingerboard near first position and the buzzing did not appear while I was there. When I returned home and started using the bass again for rehearsals the buzzing reappeared. I wasn’t about to drive an other 8 hours to give your staff a second chance at addressing this. Instead, I took it to a local luthier who fixed the buzzing through a combination of reshaping both the fingerboard and bridge (the bridge was set up for jazz, even though I had told your staff that I play mostly orchestral music). While working on my bass, the luthier pointed out the other issues that I mentioned in my review. I am not a luthier, so I would not have necessarily recognized these issues except that through pro-longed use I might have developed muscular issues.

It also wasn’t until your staff responded last week that they could not help me with the issues with my bow that I decided to post this. I don’t like to post negative comments, but I wanted to warn other potential customers of my experience. Your staff could not even help with how I might get in touch with Mr. Silva. If you sell someone’s product, I would think you would have some form of contact information. I spent a lot of money on this bow ($2000+) and NO I DID NOT CAUSE THIS SPLINTER TO APPEAR. I do not appreciate you implying so by your comment. Had your staff handled things differently, I would not have posted this review.

You, as an owner, could have handled this differently as well. You *could* have contacted me by phone about this, instead of responding to my review in the manner that you did, and I might have considered removing this review. You could have even contacted me directly before I posted this review, as several days had lapsed between my speaking with your staff and my posting this review. At this point, based on the content of your reply, I will not remove this review.

Friendly and helpful.

Extremely helpful.

Very professional..very knowledgeable. Eric overhauled both my acoustics.. very happy with the work he did.

Employees try to sell you stuff they have no idea about

I was surprised to find how reasonably their guitars were priced. Friendly helpful service too. I’m considering taking lessons from them

Very expensive,but has great items

No one here tries to help. Lots of cheaply made guitars and prices that would make you think they were nice and sales staff that doesn’t seem to care the customer.

Don’t go there if you are a female musician. The employees are rude to women and a simple “do you have this item” question seemed super inconvenient (15 foot walk) to the employee doing basically nothing in a store with only 2 customers at the time.

I called about 3 weeks ago to ask about getting my guitar strings changed and the guy said “$20 a guitar and you can bring them in anytime”. I called today to double check that they had time to change the strings on my two guitars, and the guy said “I think it’s about $39 a guitar but it’s been so long since we’ve had a guitar tech that I couldnt even tell ya”. Bottom line he said they couldnt change the strings because they dont have a “tech”. You’re telling me there isnt one employee at GUITAR CENTER that knows how to change strings,
like the most braindead easy thing to do on a guitar? I’m convinced this dude basically told me their mcflurry machine was down.

Ron has a wealth of knowledge and takes time with each customer like they are family , always excellent inventory of music gear for all styles of playing

the best place around! no question about it amazing selection awesome environment.

We had great help at Ron’s guitars we will most definitely be going back

Excellent quality work and very friendly. Good price, and done in a timely manner. I went in to get my bridge adjusted and a few other things. My gear played great, and he even told me to come back if it needed to be tweaked, free of charge.
I’ll go here for any future work that I need done!

Called on Friday about a wiring issue, the issue was resolved early Monday morning cant beat it. I cant recommend them enough great honest work.

Quality work and service! Very pleased with the repairs I had done.

Randy and Jim provided excellent customer service and made my purchase easy and stress free.

Randy and Jim were very nice and helpful, they clearly love what they do. The store is amazing and has a ton of great gear. It is worth the trip!

Great selection of gear, very fair prices and superior service. Check here before going to other music stores.

Nice little music store. They had a decent selection of both acoustic and electric guitars and a really good selection of used Amplifiers (and a couple steals in there too). Hidden gem in my opinion

He is the best in the area

There is no better!

As a person who holds a degree in piano performance, to own a concert-quality grand piano has been a long-standing dream of mine. Due to space constraints and financial considerations, however, that dream went unfulfilled for years. I am very happy to report, though, that this all changed recently — and Caruso Piano Gallery was utterly (pardon the pun) *instrumental* in making it happen! I am now the proud owner of an absolutely stellar 7-foot grand that I initially saw on the Caruso website. I subsequently made the trek to Caruso’s New London showroom to try out the piano in question, and I am now sitting only a few feet away from it in my living room, as shown in the accompanying photo. I cannot overstate how helpful, knowledgeable, and easy to deal with the staff at Caruso were throughout the process. Rich was the specific person there who helped me, and his insights and assistance were invaluable in guiding my purchase. I wholeheartedly recommend Caruso Piano Gallery to anyone looking to buy a great piano. They offer an extensive inventory of well maintained, reasonably priced instruments and were able to offer lightning-fast, long-distance delivery on the piano that I chose. Five stars!

After 3 hours of piano shopping and driving, I didn’t have any high expectations for the last place, but wow… I was so very wrong. Immediately after walking in, I could tell that it was going to be the place, mostly because of the great selection! They had a huge selection of Steinways, and some Kawai, but they had an enormous amount of Yamaha U1s and U3s. It was hard to find a Yamaha I didn’t like! Finally, with some help from the owners, we decided on a U1, but the price still blew us away; it was considerably less than any other U1s we had found all day! The service was great, and with the huge selection, I just loved Caruso Piano Gallery.

I wanted to buy a Yamaha U1 piano but could not afford a new one. I went online and saw the website and YouTube channel for Caruso pianos. The company introduction by Larry and Richard put me at ease about shopping for a piano site unseen. I called and talked to Larry and he was very helpful and informative. I called back the next day about making a purchase and talked the the Sales Manager Brian. He took the time to make a video demonstrating a couple of pianos that I would be interested in. He took care of the details in making the order happen.
I have most recently been talking to Richard and he is amazing. He will do whatever necessary to create a satisfied customer. My piano took a little longer to be delivered due to snow in my area. I got frequent updates, always extremely friendly. When my piano arrived, it was beautiful and I could not be happier.
Thanks for providing a tremendous shopping experience!

UPDATE October 5 2018: Richard Caruso promptly called me the day after I posted the review below. He apologized again, and very willingly reimbursed me for my travel expenses. I feel this was the ethical and right thing to do, and am glad that he made things right with me.

Original review: I flew in from Chicago to try out a Steinway B I had on deposit. The staff knew of my travel plans, and were very hospitable and welcoming. The piano, however, was noticeably out of tune on my arrival. While more accomplished pianists might not have seen that as an issue, it completely stopped me from getting excited about the piano. No sale for them, no new Steinway for me.
They were apologetic and realized their mistake when I pointed this out, but were unable to get the piano tuned while I was there.
This is a shop with perhaps good intentions, but they completely dropped the ball in this instance. I’m writing this review because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.

I went to their store and also called them multiple times showing interest in one of their pianos. Despite the fact I showed interest and called/messaged multiple times on a piano, that piano was sold to an online buyer. There was no follow-up or a courtesy call to let me know that the product I was eyeing was gone or was about to be sold.

Nevertheless, I think that they have a good variety and a great knowledge base on pianos. I wish they were a little bit more responsive and courteous as buying a piano is a big purchase and takes time and thought.

EDIT: After my initial review, Caruso Piano contacted me and let me know that they have not reached out to me due to not getting a piano that was comparable to what I was looking for. Which is understandable. I truly appreciate them reaching out to me. I have to write that I learned a whole lot about piano buying from them when I first went to their store. I wish them good luck and hope they continue to be successful as a local business.

I purchased a used U1 3 years ago from Carusos.

Please be aware: these are GREY MARKET pianos. They were originally built and sold in the Asian market. You will have proof when you remove the knee board and see the holder for the lease agreement. And due to that fact, the wood of the pianos is dried to standards for Asia. Not the U.S. or Northeast U.S.

I do like the piano, BUT I and my piano technician are having a heck of a time keeping the damper pedal from squeaking BADLY.

I had the piano saver system installed almost immediately. It has helped the piano hold tune very well.

But because this instrument was not built to the specifications of an American instrument (or North America) it is expanding very badly from the humidity.

I have a dehumidifier in the room with the piano, no heat or doors or windows near it. And I have my technition here AGAIN trying to shave down the knee board to try and eliminate this terrible groan/squeek.

My opinion? Buy a piano through a local piano tuner/technition or through a referral from a tuner tech. If you are going to purchase one of these grey market instruments bring your tuner with you. Pay them for their time and have them tune the instrument you choose BEFORE you give Carusos your money.

This shop is an acoustic guitar player’s paradise. They have an incredible selection of guitars and truly exceptional customer service. Corey is one of a kind and the reason I’ve purchased 5 guitars from a shop located 2.5 hrs from my home in NYC. Needless to say, I highly recommend Spindrift.

Phenomenal customer service. They know their stuff. Special shout out to Corey

The “Genesee Qua”of Music Stores.
As a Navy boy, I felt at home visiting from Raleigh NC. The guys here are over the top! They have all the skills & advise you need. This is badly needed in the industry today.
Thanks to the Bossman and the Tech.

They really know their guitars.

Shop owner very helpful with advice on adjusting the action on my mandolin. It is specifically a guitar shop.

An amazing shop, beautiful selection of instruments and very helpful folks.

I brought in vintage Gibson Les Paul custom for a Re fret and they completely ruined it there was surface scratches ,chips in the fret board the frets were un even and buzzed. After 4 attempts bringing the guitar back to the store with the problems only half way fixed every time or even new problems I just cut my loses and brought my guitar to a real professional if you want it done right I do not recommend bringing your guitar here for major repairs

Love the workers and huge selection of vynals of almost everyday genre

Extensive selection to browse and very reasonable prices. The owner was great and outgoing. Look forward to going back!

Old as vinyl

Good selection, not all main artist albums, but ok overall

Fair selection, owner is a breed of his own.

Awesome place, really nice owner, great selection

Place opens at 11am, yet owner is barely ever there on time. Waited out in the cold and in nearby shops for around 30 minutes for nothing. Heard from locals that this happens a lot.

I can’t actually give a star cause the shop wasn’t open. It was supposed to be open but they didn’t ( maybe something happened I don’t know)and neighbors say he comes in when he chooses . So I went to the telegraph in new london.

One morning my wife and I were walking around Mystic on our day off. We happened to stumble upon Mystic Disc which we have never been before. Being a huge Pink Floyd fan, we were searching for that selection. We actually found 6 records that I do not own. I was in such a great mood, finding these felt like I struck gold. Well Dan just opened the shop and we were the first customers in the store. So jokingly I walked up to the counter and said “Any discounts for a first time customer buying more than 5 records?” Clearly it was a joke as I was laughing and chuckling. Dan started getting defensive saying that he had a customer the other day that spent $239 (roughly) and another that spent a $100 and something. Then Dan gets very standoffish and begins a lecture explaining that if I ask for a discount and he says no, then I would think he’s an ***hole, but if he gives me a discount and there are other customers in the store, and they heard he gave me a discount, they would expect a discount as well. I then again told him that I was kidding and we don’t need a discount however, he made it apparent that he was going to because I asked. Dan made the experience for both my wife and I very uncomfortable. He also insinuated that we did not work in retail to understand his justification (there is around 25 years between my wife and I). First off, I would have to know someone well enough to know if they are worthy of the title ***hole. I don’t appreciate Dan making that kind of an assumption, being that he doesn’t know me. I also don’t appreciate that Dan pointed out other customers who have spent more money than what we were going to purchase. That made us feel belittled and not appreciated as a customer. This is not the customer experience I would provide to my customers and we most certainly don’t need to be taught the etiquette of being a customer. Unfortunately we will no longer return to Mystic Disc. We have other record stores that we can shop at that has a kinder atmosphere. It’s too bad it took this one/first experience to shop elsewhere.