Premium music shops of Hillsborough County: Our Top-20 selection

Ask for Miguel; he’s the best instructor!

Friendly people, great service and excellent selection of products!!!

poggers

This is one of the best places you can go for music lessons, I took guitar,bass and voice lessons here and it was an awesome experience. They don’t have a good selection of quality american made instruments, I don’t even think they sell gibsons.

Nice music store. Not the usual brands.music school and performance venue are all part of the business.

Got the strings needed.Thanks for the services. Few music books are missed.

Didn’t fix my instruments at all had to send back TWICE then they gaslighted me into saying it was fixed the first time when it was not please do better sent a bari and a tenor sax they both had to go back TWICE

The worse customer service, we had a trumpet and was missing parts, kept having the same issues with the trumpet, turned it in, they say they fixed it but kept having the same issues. Music & Arts off of 60 is way better. You get brand new instrument with the case, better insurance and a lot cheaper.

My first experience was the absolute worst customer service I’ve ever experienced in my life. I needed drumsticks the person behind the counter who didn’t even acknowledge when we came in refused to hand sticks out of the case and let me hold them and he stood over me like a vulture. I have tried several times to come to this place and was excited but will never ever spend a penny here these are the rudest worst customer service people I’ve ever experienced in my life

Muy buena atencion y muy confiables para enviar dinero a mi pais.

Muy completo la atención excelente

La atención es excelente y tiene el mejor cambio de envio de dinero a cualquier parte del y para cajas a Colombia

Great selection of guitars.

Charlie did an amazing job setting up an acoustic and an electric guitar I brought down to the shop.
If you need work done, take your guitars here. Down to earth and honest!

The staff is awesome – they have fantastic knowledge and experience. It is a no-pressure shopping experience and the selection of instruments and amplifiers is the best in all of South Florida to say the least – literally hundreds of top notch pro guitars and basses to choose from. The store came to Tampa out of left-field and blew everyone away; I highly recommend Replay Guitar Exchange for all of your music needs.

Nice instruments but prices a little high.

I’ve bought two guitars from this place and I still don’t feel very welcome there. It’s an odd feeling when I walk in. There’s always 3 guys standing by the door staring at me. I always feel like I’ve interrupted a conversation or something. Sales people are disingenuous.

Very nice guitar store on South Dale Mabry. Well stocked, even had nice high end guitars. Which you don’t see too many at Guitar Center anymore. Guitar Center even did away with its high end room. Not a lot a large of amps though. Decent selection of effects and effect pedals, definitely has all the gear to get you started or keep you going.

Not military friendly–will ship all over US, but wont consider shipping to military APO, even though it’s a domestic US address/rates. Strange policies from a business that services an area with a large local military population. Also strange to alienate the 450K active military serving overseas, approx 80% of which are males between the ages of 20-45–a significant overlap with the target demographic for electric guitars and basses…

Poor communication and a lack of transparency while neglecting to clearly state store policy. I bought a vintage guitar from them at the upper end of market value that was in “near-Mint” condition. When it arrived, it had some defects that weren’t disclosed, most notably a ding in the body. I was offered a partial refund. What they didn’t tell me was that if I accepted this partial refund, it nullified my ability to return the guitar which is a critical piece of information in any transaction. I was told by phone “don’t worry about it, we’re pretty lenient about the return window policy and will work with you”. Towards the end of the return window, I fell on hard times financially and was going to return the guitar as it had been sitting in the case but we had a Covid scare in the house. Out of respect for the health of the Replay employees, I waited until we had confirmation that there was no Covid so I didn’t ship them back a contaminated guitar. When I contacted them I was told “when you opted for the partial refund that offer was voided. I apologize that was not made clear to you”. They now insist that I pay for shipping and a “restocking” fee – which amounts to ¼ the price of the guitar! Small business owners complain that they can’t keep up with the big box stores, and this is a perfect example why: you have to treat your customers at least as well or better than they do, but definitely not worse. Even the oft-hated mega-corp Guitar Center was more lenient on their return policies during the Covid crisis than this place was.

I have now been twice to get two different guitars worked on. The first time I went one of the people who works there was making fun of the fact that I wanted to get my Alvarez fixed and said something to the effect of no point in fixing a guitar that is not worth anything. He did not know i was listening and heard everything he said. Then I was told they could not work on it and was sent away. The second time I dropped off a 20 year old epiphone Les Paul and asked for a quote before they fixed it. They said including the quoteIt would be ready to go within two weeks well two weeks came and went and no phone call. When I arrived back at the store and ask them about it they were very standoffish and the gentleman who works on guitars was extremely rude and irritated by the fact that I was upset that it had been two weeks and I still hadn’t received a phone call for a quote he never even touched my guitar I was once again asked to leave the store this place is garbage don’t go there

Knowledgeable staff. First visit with a lot of questions. Technician called with quotes, answers and updates as promised. Would recommend Sam Ash Music.

They let me play the drums as loud as I can. #Openmicnights4life <3

Super, excelentes precios y muy bien servicio al cliente

The store seems a bit shabby. There are holes in the carpet and there’s tape over cracks in the floor where the tile has cracks. The area where you can try out acoustic guitars has only 3 stools to sit on and they are not great. The selection of music books is just O.K. The staff is mostly friendly. There’s one guy that can be a bit rude at times, which seems to be known to the other staff members, but he is tolerated because he’s pretty knowlegeable. I don’t ever let him wait on me anymore. Long story short, I had to get corporate involved because he was trying to get me to buy a guitar in the store that I tried and liked, but it had scratches all over it so I wanted to order one to be shipped to the store and I could pick it up when it came in. He said I couldn’t, which was not true.

Great

No

Friendly staff, laid back environment makes for a good experience.

While browsing an employee asked me “can I help you?”and I said no.
The idiot asked me again and I noded no.
He kept after me asking me the same question so I turned an confronted him. Now angry and asked him if he was alright. At this point seeing me angry he apologized and said he didn’t realize he was upsetting me. REALLY?
Great store psycho employee.

This store change too much after covid.. it just to be cleaner and organized.. with more products and better customer services. Now just looks like a Junk yard ..

Terrible customer service. They don’t back the instruments the sell.. how to you sell an interface but don’t have the cable to test it. Unbelievable!

I purchased a beautiful piano from Mr. Becker. He was very professional and he paid to have the piano tuned prior to my purchase. He also came to my home with the piano movers and ensured the piano was properly set up there. I am very pleased!!! Mr. Becker also a few years previously gave me piano lessons. Although I had never taken lessons before,, he was very encouraging and supportive and was a very good teacher to me!!! Thank you Mr. Becker!

You won’t be able to get in contact with Mr. Becker unless you leave a voicemail with a number to contact you back. He doesn’t have a wireless phone and nine times out of ten he’ll be tuning a piano or something. But he’s very good at responding toy your call within the hour. I’m taking piano classes with him and so far he’s been very good. Knows what he’s talking about and very nice. Doesn’t talk to you like you’re an incompetent because you don’t know your “C-scale”. If you don’t have any books to train with then he has more than enough to sell. Just so you can do your homework and practice. Great teacher and I recommend him. Not that I’m anyone special but if he can teach me, he can teach anyone. Great rates too!

I just want to rent a piano and saw ads about renting for cheap. It was really hard to make an appointment with them. The owner is usually not by the phone. Once you made the call, the owner always says, “just call me tomorrow to see if I have time”. Of course, if you called in tomorrow, no one picks up the phone again!

After dozens of phone calls, finally made an appointment. We settled a time at 6:00 pm. The traffic is a little bit heavy (I drove from Brandon so takes about 30 min drive). So before I got there, I called the store and left a voice message (no one picks up the phone). I reached their store around 6:05 pm. NO ONE IS IN THE STORE, the door is all locked! I waited for another 20 mins outside and felt no one would come. So I drove another 30 min back for nothing.

Maybe it is a very profitable business and very little competition in town, otherwise I wouldn’t expect these things happen. The owner seems not willing to do business….

Cheapest piano teacher in a bad way, a slumlord on his rental property’s and work was done for him and my business lost $ due to non payment. I’d steer clear of this person hes nothing but problems and will rip you off and not care a bit.

Their driver drove off the street onto the grass at a stop light. He almost hit me forcing me into oncoming traffic. I would not let this type of person near my house with such total disregard for property & the law.

I called in to get a instrument and they had it in stock ready to go .Paper work only took 5 minutes and payments were right in my budget . I Recommend this place to any beginning Musician to check out this place

Super friendly, knowledgeable, and easy to deal with.

Very nice and easy rental

Called to make sure they had an instrument, they said yes but it required I come in for a credit check then they ship it from Clearwater. Drove almost an hour to this place, filled out their form, gave them my social, unlocked my credit files and left only for them to call me 15 minutes later and say they never actually checked if the instrument was available and they had none to rent.

Daft staff told me an instrument was in stock and 30 minutes later when I arrived it was not

Thanks to the two associates who assisted me this evening and took a look at my guitar. As a novice to the instrument, it was great to have their support. Found a nice capo with their help. This store always has great customer service.

Great staff!! I would highly recommend John for guitar lessons. He has helped my daughter tremendously with her lessons. Everyone has really showed a genuine interest in my childs progression.

My daughter start her guitar classes and I can’t be more happier. Her teacher is very professional and patient. Also we feel welcome from staff members, always with a friendly smile…. oh and great prices on instruments. I highly recommend it!

Nice, small music store, friendly staff with a variety of guitar options. The location of the store however is atrocious as Regency Square Mall is a very poorly designed store layout and to make the situation worse they design engineers created a mall with such poor means of entering and exiting the facility that the patrons get the privilege of sitting in long lines (usually 30-40 minutes) just to get to the 2 main exit roads so you can sit through multiple light changes before you can actually get out of this nightmare. Love the store, recommend moving to a better location.

This is a great little place with friendly helpful staff. While the selection is somewhat limited the pricing is decent and they do have a good variety for the space they have. I would definitely do business with them again.

Good customer service

The store’s products are fine, but its current management is mind-numbingly incompetent. My saga started off when I ordered a curved head joint for a flute that I already owned, with the challenge being that I needed to find one that fit the flute body. I talked with the store manager over the phone and had the head joint delivered to the store. The head joint arrived earlier than expected, and I brought my flute to the store on Monday, Nov. 12. The head joint was slightly too small, so I left my flute with the manager so that the head joint could be expanded. I was told that it would be ready the next day, and that he would call me. So far, so good – a 5 star review.
At this point, however, things began going seriously off the rails. Having not received any phone call from the manager, I returned on Wed. Nov. 14 to collect the headjoint. When I arrived, I was informed by an associate that the head joint was ready, but that it and my flute were in the manager’s car, and he had just left for at least an hour. Rather than my waiting, they offered to ship it to me, free of charge, with an arrival date of that coming Friday. While I wasn’t thrilled, I accepted and returned home.
Well, the package never arrived, and I called on Sunday to see if someone could let me know when I could expect it. The manager was not at the store that day, but I was told that the flute had been shipped out on Friday (not Wednesday as promised), and that the manager would call me. He didn’t.
Believing that the package had been sent out on that Friday, I patiently waited for a week until the next Friday (Nov. 23) rolled around. Still no package. So I called the store again, and spoke with the manager. He said that it had been mailed out on the Thursday (a day earlier than I had previously been told) and he would find the UPS tracking number and call me back. He didn’t. I called multiple times that weekend, and kept getting the same response (either from the manager or an associate) – the manager needed to locate the tracking number and would get back to me. He never called.
On Sunday evening, the manager said that he needed to reach out to the UPS rep to get the tracking number, but he would call me by 10am the next day (Monday, Nov. 26). He never called. Instead, I called him several times that day, and several more on Tuesday. Each time I got the same response – he needed to find the tracking number and call me back.
Finally, Tuesday at around 5pm, I called one last time and spoke with an associate. After a brief hold, she informed me that the package had somehow “been returned” by UPS and was in the store. IN. THE. STORE. They tried to send it “again”, but instead I drove to the store and picked it up before UPS could collect it.
I have no idea on what day the package was mailed to me, or if it was ever sent at all. I also have no idea why the manager decided to keep MY flute and MY headjoint in his car when left the store that day. Cars do get broken into, and musical instruments would appear to be exactly the sort of thing that someone might want to pawn off to make a quick buck. Finally, it is mystifying that no one realized that the flute and headjoint were at the store until I called at least 15-20 times.
But what really steams me most about all of this is that, having called over and over and over, I never once received a call back from the manager. NOT ONCE. If I was the manager, I would have personally delivered the package to my door, or done something to atone for everything. I didn’t even get the courtesy of a single phone call. Incompetence is one thing – apathy from a manager is another.
When, as a courtesy before writing this review, I called the corporate number for Music and Arts, the only response I receive was that they would forward my concern to the manager. I know exactly how well that will work! In the future, I will shop somewhere else.

While the staff is friendly, they are completely unprofessional. They cancel classes the day before and sometimes the day of your lesson. I was told that it was because hiring of one particular teachers was “honestly a bad hire”, while their honestly was good to hear, it did nothing to help. I could not get them to understand a student cannot improve if they are not receiving lessons consistently, never mind the fact it is irritating to receive last minute calls that the teacher isn’t going be in for your scheduled lesson. This place is a complete joke.

Complete garbage

Thanks, Doti and Terry, for allowing me into your world to jam at your music store (Vibe) on Tuesday night with Mario, Madison, Steel Steve and the Myriad of musicians that played showed up to listen or just hung out. I’ll tell you I never learnt so much had such a good time especially with selling my house and having to make a major life-changing decision! I’m not going to say good-bye. I am forever grateful for the friendship. I still need a mic and a band but everything in good time…I am confident that somewhere some other musicians will appreciate my composition of my songs and harmonica playing Happy Trails
…Love and like David Essex said “Rock On”…

Thanks Lori

The best music store around, south of the Mason Dixson line to buy a harmonica as well as jam !

Nice people, good vibe. My kids are playing piano beautifully bc of Justin…highly recommended

Personable, helpful, good vibes for sure!

Doti and Terry are wonderful! I love family friendly small businesses.

We have left three voicemails in the last week to see about music lessons for my child and not once have they returned a call. No one ever answers the phone. Doubtful they can stay in business with these practices. We won’t be calling again.

turned away because i refused to wear a face diaper. when you want to return to reality, I’ll happily come in for a guitar lesson. Thanks.

Been there 3 times at a normal hr after work at around 3-4 pm. Every time door was locked 2 times saw someone inside who did not come to the door. I was ready to purchase a new guitar with. Cash in hand each time. Also get my drum kit repaired. So willing to spend quite a bit of cash. So disappointed. Closest store to me. My money went elsewhere.i will not step foot in this place if the doors are open.

Everything!!! Customer Service, Safety with the Pandemic, Great prices on everything from the new guitar for our Son for Christmas to the tuner to the guitar pick… this is a One Stop Shop with a Family feel that I will recommend to anyone looking for a Premier music experience 🙂

Great friendly service and had exactly what we needed. They changed out my sons guitar strings on the spot. Super knowledgeable!

Many instruments, equipment, cables, amps and other gear instock. I picked up some strings, a new capo and a small part all for a good price. I will be back to look at G&L basses when I’m ready for a new one.

I had the pleasure of checking out this really cool little shop located in beautiful historic down town Plant City. The owner was the nicest man. There is a woman who displays and sells some AMAZING artwork there, being an artist myself the owner and I talked for what felt like forever about art and the uniqueness of this particular artists style. I stopped there for guitar strings but stayed longer for the artwork and the wonderful conversation. I highly recommend this place. I will be a returning customer for sure!!

Excellent service, knowledgeable staff, love that they play Christian music in the store. Great group of people.

Do you sell violas

Wasn’t at all like the pictures online. Only a handful of guitars, some cables, strings, and picks. They did say they were going through a remodel but it looked like it was more geared to other art and not so much music. The staff on hand were very friendly though.

Friendly and helpful staff… take music lessons, the store has music and equipment

It’s good what can I say there’s always somthing in there to do or see

I drove two and half hours to support a small business only to realize they had the wrong listing on their site. I called before I left to make sure they had it. The owner was very rude and tried to sell me a used floor model for over what the listing was. Amazon is not the problem its small business owners not caring to connect with customers.

currently in dispute with them over music lessons, and billing. My wife had to threaten with criminal fraud charges to get a call back from the manager. They picked up and moved in the middle of the night from one side of town to the other no notice not sign in window just gone. I did not find out till several weeks later what the new address was when they TEXT me about changing the lesson time.
The manager in talking with my wife said we show her signed in 6 times in January, she only went on Tuesdays and last i check there was only 4 in the month, so he is confused or some one is bad at book keeping.

First off someone has been deleting any negative reviews here. Second I was very dissatisfied with their knowledge and the instruments I purchased to put it in a simple statement I basically got ripped off by them. I would not recommend them under any circumstances. I have been a musician for over 40 years this is the only music store that I have ever put a negative review on that should be telling you something there. They do not have the knowledge needed to do any repairs a good chunk of their instruments or substandard they are also selling instruments new that are actually shop seconds in other words stuff that could be sold normally as new because of manufacturer problems. And if you happen to get one of these you’re tough out of luck and that was exactly what happened with me I have been majorly screwed over by this store and I’m speaking this from a very experienced musician

Very friendly and patient

Bon Jovi

Very helpful and knowledgeable with guitar repairs.

Very small store, but the lady behind he counter was very friendly and helpful.

Small store, large selection of music equipment also lots of drum hardware. Staff is friendly. I always go there for the little things… connectors/ converters, Picks , etc.

Woman who worked was rude to us

Ditto to Sara’s review. I’m looking to buy a new nylon string acoustic so I thought I would check out this shop. The lady ignored me. She probably knows nothing about guitars since half the shop is dedicated to picture framing. Still no reason to diss a potential customer. They had some cool guitars, but so does Guitar Center. Guess who will be getting my money.

They sell frames and guitar lessons. Their gallery of five guitars that appear to be the same is pitiful. Really nice frames though. It’s a gallery of frames.

Nice Teachers

Great place for children and adults to learn or fine-tune their musical talent.

Love my teacher Karen. She is patient and teaches well. Thank you !!

Karen is a helpful piano teacher and is well aware of my level of piano playing. She is also very understanding of me, since I am legally blind and have difficulty with my fingers while playing a song. I’m a satisfied student at Pianorama.

Margie is a fun piano teacher. Reading for the first time at 71 years old is very difficult..

Is good with long distance customers and knows how to sell at discounted prices. Will be back for more Dean Products

Very nice shop, Josie and Dean were very helpful, knowledgeable and had what I wanted.

So awesome!!! The hospitality and survive is phenomenal and the prices are so fair. It has now become my go to place.

Good music store for lessons and most musical needs. However, seems there is always an item or two they do not have.

Great place to visit and if they don’t have it can find it the only problem for me it’s there is no hours of operation in the web site or Google.

Small shop couple of nice guitars strings that I needed

Went there to try out three different basses they had listed on Reverb. When I arrived they called there warehouse and someone brought over one of them. I asked about the other two and he went a looked at the computer for a couple minutes and told me he could order them. A disappointing experience after driving over an hour to get there. Save your time and money a just buy online.

Buyers beware! This guy is a scam artist. purchased guitar online and had it shipped and was unaware of extra fees that needed to be paid to have it released from customs which were way to much so informed seller of this and that it would be returned and I’d need a refund which he seemed fine about when I informed him … only to have him not reply or inform me at all that he had received item back once it was back in he’s possession. He did this deliberately to keep my money and to gain guitar back. I would strongly advise anyone not to do business with this untrustworthy person

I will never order a guitar to be Fed Ex’ed from Dean Johnsons music again. 2 WEEKS ago I ordered the guitar of my dreams from this store. I live in La. After a week went by I was called and informed that my guitar arrived at Deans Johnson with a damaged neck so they were gonna have to order another one. I was told the new one would be shipped on a Friday. Well its the Tuesday after and still no guitar. I thought they would’ve had consideration enough to overnight it to me since it’s so late already, but I guess not. Hope I get this guitar sometime this week. Sincerely, Pacing and Chomping at the bit.

Thomas and Alejandro are the most knowledgeable
violin experts in my 45 years experience around this instrument. I was lucky to have the guys at Sam Ash Music direct me to Violin Shop in Sarasota…violin got just the TLC it was looking for, and sounds fantastic!
Well done gentlemen!
Tim Finley
Anna Maria Island, FL

I love this little shop. Do you play a violin, viola, cello or bass? This is the place for you if you live in the Tampa Bay Area. The people here are really friendly and they are very knowledgeable. They want to help you find the right instrument and will even play for you so you can hear differences between instruments. They have everything you need. They have instruments ranging from student beginners (~$200) to professional (~$15,000+) quality, depending on inventory, as it constantly cycles especially on the lower end. This also goes for the bows. You can find all the necessary accessories here as well. You can also bring your instrument here to be worked on or repaired, and they have the prices for this on the website. Overall very pleasant place to go for a classical string player.

Not my first visit to this little gem of a shop in South Tampa. However this time I was hoping to upgrade my bow. There was a large selection of bows to try at varying price ranges.
Madeline and entire staff were knowledgeable and helpful and no high pressure sales. I was given plenty of time and opportunity to try out several bows. I was given the option to take a few bows home to try out but opted not to do that and ended up choosing my bow. If you play anything strings (viola, violin, cello, bass etc) at any level, need supplies (strings, rosin, fine tuner etc) this place is for you.
In past, I have visited this shop for small repairs and I believe there are luthiers that make violins there.

The ladies at the shop where very helpful and caring.

Folks are very professional and knowledgeable. Recommended.

Really knowledgable

The expert who was supposed to be there was not there inspite of calling ahead and being told they would be there. The Viola was not tuned and no one bothered to check it. We traded in a smaller one for a larger one and no finger tape was put on to match the one we turned in. In short it was a very disappointing experience.