Huntsville – Top 20 places for music shops20 recommended music shops in Huntsville

Tommy is the man to take your electric guitars to for setup or repairs in the Huntsville area. He’s been around for years, is knowledgeable, kind, and gives good advice. He has always done a perfect job with every project I’ve given him. The latest was a setup and fret recrowning on my Les Paul. I thought it needed a refret, but he assured me there was enough fret material there that a recrown would make me happy. He was right and I saved a lot of money. It plays like butter now.

New and used musical instruments and related equipment. The place to get repairs or have a custom guitar hand crafted.

Great price, honest work, and great service!

Great place for all you musical needs

Mr Shepard doesn’t seem to understand how to correctly repair tuning stability issues.

He may want to consider the fact that a new customer doesn’t always mean new player. He insulted me when I told him ‘guitar will not stay in tune’ I’d like it repaired’ His response was “you mean it won’t stay in tune or you can’t get it in tune?” Wow.

Sir, I’ve been playing for 38 years. Im a seasoned player. I love music. And I would have loved to find a small shop to do business with instead of that behemoth Guitar Center. Speaking of GC, I only turned to them because this same Mr Shepard was rude to me on the phone last December when I was in the market for a new rig…I mean I’ve bought a Marshall amp, a full complement of pedals, And an American Standard Strat, a Gibson Les Paul. So maybe you should reconsider to whom you are rude in the future. I gave you a chance to earn my business and you blew it. Since last December, I’ve spent over $3000 at GC,and guys like you whine about GC all the time yet you don’t seem to understand why your own business is stuck off in the boondocks, or you constantly have to move around.

Just not the place to buy music

T Shepard’s is a great shop, and Tom is a terrific, skilled, and knowledgeable guy.

The straps and strings and accouterments are top-notch.
And the selection of guitars for sale is interesting, diverse, and attractive.

Don’t be in a hurry, though, if you drop your guitar off for repairs.
And don’t expect a phone call or email to let you know about delays well past the implied pick-up date.
This is Mayberry, Andy.
Not Mount Pilot.

Lots of interesting cigar box guitars here

WONDERFUL experience. Players of all skill, or in my case, completely new to any stringed instrument. The class on Saturdays from 12-2 are so inclusive and incredible

Was in town visiting from PA, we heard music playing and stopped in. I was in awe because my husband makes cigar box ukes, and this store had me absolutely mesmerized! The owner & his wife were so warm & welcoming, he certainly knows his craft!!! I’ve been following them on-line since, and plan to bring a bigger piece of luggage next visit in order to take something home with me! Wish I was in town for the events. Everything sounds fascinating. I highly recommend, if you’re in the area, stop and check out the cool instruments!

It has a good selection!

Awesome place to buy and talk about music.

Great vinyl records

The owner is a true music lover and vinyl lover.

Alot of options but not well organized

Small space, very clean and fairly well organized. Vinyl and CDs available. Fair selection of vinyl – recommend hitting the ‘new arrival’ bins first as the sorted materials are very well picked through.

Got kicked out for no reason, I went him and the stronger looking guy told me to “go fetch”.

This is embarrassing

Danny is an incredible luthier with many years of experience and it shows. His eye for detail and choice of beautiful tonewoods and inlay/binding materials make for some stunning instruments. Not only do they look beautiful, but Danny’s many years (decades!) as an engineer at NASA help him fine tune every instrument to it’s full potential. His guitars produce a warm, rich, well balanced tone that can compliment any style of music from blues, jazz, country, folk and many more. Truly a hidden gem in Huntsville!

Fantastic venue to hear local music.

Will Kennedy was amazing!! And the atmosphere here was perfection!

Absolutely love the place! Friendly atmosphere with super neat unique decor. The musical talent was awesome! I had a great time! With more ac I would give it five stars.

Been in a few times whoever attended to me didn’t take me seriously about wanting to purchase a guitar and moved on to the next person in before I could inquire

Danny has a great guitar shop in the Low Mill art district. If you enjoy music or guitars this is a must see destination. Danny puts great care and time into his craft and is happy to share his love of music with you. Be sure to stop by and say hello to him!

Quality, acoustic guitars that are constructed from various tone woods, have genuine sounds with true vibrations, that create rich tonalities; unmatched to any artificial laminated wood substitutes. Who would have imagined a Danny Davis guitar making me a better musician? I did flippantly and guess what … my dream came true.

Rick Bennet Wambsganss
Mountain Brook, Al

Very helpful and understanding

Wonderful customer service!!

Always great help

My wife and I went there on two separate occasions and both times the service was less than polite. It was like you were inconveniencing them for patronizing them, especially if you had to ask a question. It will not stop me from going there again, but they will not be the first store I go to to find what I need.

Not a big selection of stuff, but staff was friendly.

Good place of selection and curtios people. Plenty of room and parking

Don’t keep their promises with estimated time frames. I wasted my time driving there when I was told my guitar would be ready and restrung the next day at said time. Well I was there the next day and another man told me he doesn’t know what happened and that’s all he could do for me.

Had a clarinet re-padded and new cork. It cost $186
The finished product seems good.

Issue:
They said it would take two weeks. I called after three weeks and they hadn’t even started it. So you may need to call them every few days.

When they did finish it they didn’t call me to let me know. It wasn’t until I called again that I found out it was finished. Feels a bit unorganized.

After speaking with the man at the Huntsville store and verifying they would open until 6; I arrived at 5:30 to find the doors locked.

Be careful calling and asking about their stock. If their phone isn’t answered locally in Huntsville, then it transfers to Birmingham or Gadsden. I called earlier in the week to discuss a purchase ($3,000 +/-) and was very pleased with the service, until I drove over an hour and was told the instruments we wanted to look at were in another location.

These guys are awesome they’ve helped me a lot!

Very good prices and affordable studio time

You never know what all these guys do till you ask..

Friendly & knowledgeable

I want to come here but every time i come they’re closed

Friendly!

People that run the place, running 2 different businesses in one office(hustling). Very little parking….

Folks here are nice enough but they don’t have consistent business hours. Also Instrument repair is not efficient and they make it much harder than it should be.

Dropped off one wedding tape to get converted and was told it’ll be done by Monday for my parents anniversary since last week. There wasn’t any updates it calls to us and we had to keep continuously calling each day and the one or two guys supposedly were out of town and then when he got back was out and never showed up back to the office to take care of it with no edits. Was told too the day to drop it off next door to give to them since the worker was wherever. It’s now Wednesday and still wasn’t even touched or looked at. The lady who worked there everyday was SUPER nice but won’t be doing services with them again.

A great music shop!

I go to the shop 2 to 3 times a week to look at gear. They always answer my questions even though they see me all the time. They’re great guys and will let you play as much as you want on anything you want. I played an amp for hours today before I bought it. Always a pleasure.

Gentlemen was very helpful in helping me with selecting guitar strings.

So if you are reading these I bet you see the polarity of the reviews. People seem to love it or hate it. The difference is who you deal with there. I’ve always seen 3 guys and one young lady. There is a big guy with a goatee who isn’t friendly at all and you can tell he gets annoyed if you play with an instrument. Then there is a pretty generic looking guy that does most of the repair work. He is the embodiment of the a*hole guitar shop/ comic book store type guy. You’re beneath him and he makes sure you know it. If you can get past these two the young lady is very nice, and I’ve seen her make women more comfortable in what is usually a very male atmosphere. She also seems to know most of the store’s products equally so if you are looking for a dulcimer ask her. The last guy is the only reason I still shop there. Tall, skinny dude with a Rock a Billy haorcut. Hands down one of the nicest people I have ever met in a store. He could not care less if you came in there without a dollar to your name or a single chord to play. He loves music and wants to spread that around. If anyone there had the skill to warrant being haughty it would be him, but he is the last one there to do anything other than brighten your day. I take friends in there who have social anxiety etc. or are just nervous because they don’t play and he puts them right at ease. I would love to write this place off, but one great employee can make a difference. He doesn’t even know the difference he has made with some of my Army buddies that can barely handle being out of the house, but thanks to him there is one place they can go feel like a regular guy perusing a store. When my son is old enough he is who I want him to take lessons from. Truthfully he deserves a better place to work at.

Wide variety of stringed instruments. Helpful but not pushy staff. Only saw one acoustic\electric bass. Good deals to be found from a local business but do your research.

This place don’t let you rock the hell out like I do so I feel unwelcome and very bored! Just let people rock out

Guy that kinda looks like Santa clause is so rude

I have never been in this shop without being made to feel like a second class citizen. Bought a defective Taylor here, the first three frets were lower than the rest. When I asked about the warranty I was told they weren’t qualified to make that repair. When pushed on the matter their final answer was, didn’t you play it before you bought it? If you’re in the right clique this might be a great store, if not, Buyer Beware!

Had a warranty repair done on my sons telecaster relating to the neck pickup. After waiting for about 45 days for the new pickup to arrive from finder I picked up the guitar without testing it at the store. When I got home I plugged it in to find out that it had a major ground issue. The hum was so intense it seemed as though I was summoning lightening. I returned to the store agitated because it was clear it wasn’t even tested after the repair & $56 dollar setup. David assured me it was normal noise a telecaster makes. He said he had a custom shop telecaster that was even worse. However I played the guitar a lot before the part failed and it didn’t have any loud feedback or 60 hertz hum. (4 gen noiseless) After a lot of back and forth and him calling fender to tell them that the customer is complaining of normal noise. I took the guitar to guitar center and compared it to other noiseless telecasters and even a squire tele and it was obviously way way worse, unbearable! So I sent the guitar back to sweetwater (These guys are awesome) were it was purchased and the guitar tech there told me what the issue was. David at the fret shop had soldered an additional ground on the front pickup and that that solder joint had made contact with or caused interference with the coil wrappings. So it was replaced and now works as it should. Once again the guitar sounds beautiful and clean. I had to pay to have this repair done plus a new pickup along with shipping because it was the result of an improper modified solder failure that I didn’t approve or authorize. I can only assume David is dishonest or hard of hearing and also I’m sure he is the most unprofessional person to deal with. All the time wasted for a $30 part I could have easily replaced myself SMH I thought well it’s covered by warranty. lol.. I try to shop local because we all should but I’ll never spend another of my hard earned dollars here. I was taking lessons here as well, the rooms upstairs are kind of musty smelling just FYI.

Yes of course I am leaving the review for the appropriate business! It is my sons guitar that his mother and I bought for him. 2018 MIM Telecaster thin line deluxe. It was repaired under his name so it wouldn’t cause confusion if he needed some other warranty work done in the future also the registration & the warranty card is in his name. FYI
I’m obviously wrong about your guitar techs name but it was the same guy that has done work on my guitars, my girlfriends guitars and my sons guitars. To my knowledge he is the only tech you have or had at that time.
I took a video of the unbelievable sound that it was making, I have the part that was causing it, I have documentation from the technician at Sweetwater that repaired it and I will be happy to share that with you if you actually care. I prefer and try to support local business but I will not be treated the way I was or lied to period! That guy (whatever his name is) has 0 credibility with me. One bad apple. Everyone else was very pleasant and Andy is awesome, its unfortunate.

The white wire is not factory and was not otherized. The solder has made contact with the coil and or melted the insulation on the factory wires. It literally sounded like it was summoning lightning. Instead of saying oops and fixing it he tried to convince me it was normal. The whole experience was remarkable!

Great place. Great music lessons. Great staff. It’s all great.

I asked my son’s band director where to send my son for lessons, without hesitation he recommend Hallman’s Music. I asked other parents and had received the same answer. My son took lessons from Nancy Hallman and Phyllis Peterson over a period of seven years. Both instructors were excellent. He went from being a sub-par beginning musician to making district band in a few months and made superior ratings every year there after. It was an astonishing change.
I had a co-worked who had a junior in high school and she was at the bottom of the barrel musically, she was in the schools “C” band as the only upper class man. I called Nancy Hallman and handed my co-worker the phone and told her to set up lessons. She set up lessons and her daughter took lessons from Mr. Peterson, two months later she made district band. The next school year she made the school jazz band after 5 months of lessons. This young lady is now a music major at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Hallmans transformed this student that had no passion for music into a musician.
My son played the alto sax, I noticed year after year that 7 of the 8 sax players in district band members were Hallman’s students, both at the middle school level and high school levels. State honor bands were the same way, Hallman’s students. One of my son’s peers was awarded the top musician in the state his senior year in high school.
After reading some of the other reviews here I would make the following observations:
If you want to put a pacifier in your kid’s mouth buy a $50 instrument off Craig’s list and have your kids dissatisfied and frustrated from playing an unplayable instrument, then this is probably not the place for you.
If Hallmans replace additional pads, it was because they presumed that you wanted an instrument that could actually be played by a student. My experience is when you think a pad or two is leaking and you fix it, you will find the next pad leaking and it was not particularity identifiable until you fix the two pads with the more significant leak.
If you want to raise a kid with skilled music instruction and the self esteem from being a good musician, then you have found the right place. The instructors are phenomenal.
I was always treated fairly with the sales and service and I ended up with a highly skilled musician who I am very proud of.

Extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We purchased a saxophone from them. We’ve always been very helpful and they really do know their stuff

I appreciate that the owner works with a college student’s budget when tuning instruments.

We brought my daughter’s clarinet to have a few pads replaced. We were told that the instrument was generic brand and we should look into getting a nicer one. We purposely did not buy our daughter an expensive clarinet because she was in 6th grade and she’d never played before. I told.them to replace the few pads and we’d look into a better clarinet if she made the advanced band. They quoted me a price for the few pads and we could pick her instrument up in a few days. When we went to pick it up we were told the cost was over $200. Apparently they changed most of her pads and not just the few we’d talked about. They never called to ask if we wanted this much work done or to let us know the cost before taking it upon themselves to do it and expect us to pay the outrageous amount. It didn’t make any sense to me if they said the clarinet was off brand, etc. You’d think they’d ask if we wanted to spend that much to fix it. We only paid $50 for her new clarinet on Craigslist and would have put the $200 into buying her a nicer one instead of paying to fix the one she has. When I confronted them about not asking before doing such an expensive repair, they were non apologetic and basically pay the $200 or they keep her clarinet. We paid it, but will never go back again.

I HATE this place. They are very rude. When I came in they asked me things like “have you ever dropped your flute” in a very rude tone. I was tempted to just walk out of there and go to Southeastern. All they did was fix a leak and charged me about 60 dollars.When I picked up my flute they played it without my permission and basically told me I had a bad flute. The next time I needed a repair I took my flute to Southeastern and they did a wonderful job. Yes, both stores are a little over priced but Southeastern does a flawless job and is very polite.

This place is over rated and priced, PLEASE READ ALL FINE PRINT IN THE CONTRACT, THERE ARE NO REFUNDS ON RENTALS!!!!! I didn’t even have the instrument 18 hours never used and they would not refund me my money back. I feel tricked and scammed because of the fine print, please read and understand before you sign.

I had a very pleasant introductory meeting with Doug about making a recording. I am excited to get into the studio for the first time.

Very flexible space for recording groups of all sizes. Patient, careful, attentive producer.

Really nice laid back.

not bad not really good

Local recording studio has a secret … the World’s Largest Jukebox, featured on an outside wall. It’s motion sensitive, and plays an eclectic selection of songs recorded in North Alabama when someone walks by. Some of the artist names are misspelled … but it’s still fun, check it out!

Went and felt rushed by the engineer . Seems like he had something else to do

Took kids to pick out piano sheet music. They had a great selection which allowed for my kids to select some classical, ragtime and Disney music. I’m so glad they’re still there– they’ve been there since my childhood!

They had a few Yamaha P115 and P225 on display, but no Yamaha DGX. If it’s your first time there, follow the signs to the back door.

Helpful and they have a good selection, pianos and electric pianos, keyboards.

This a piano shop and a music school with the friendliest of people. They do vocal lessons and i believe insturmental lessons.

Polite enough, but not interested in my business.

Good variety of music and pianos. Not much else there though.

This review is for my experience *consigning* with A B Stephens. If you are a buyer, just know that as a customer myself, I have no complaints.

I consigned my piano with them in February of 2020. The pickup process was quick and easy and they were pleasant to work with. The piano sold in about 5 months.

Fast forward to now, and I’ve only just received my check for the sale, over a year later. I reached out to them multiple times prior to the sale for an update without any substantive response, and they failed to notify me of the sale to coordinate sending the check (I had recently moved) until I remembered to ask them again. To their credit, they were quick to solve the problem and Laurin was responsive and considerate given the circumstances. You’ll see her comment below reacting to my original review, which I’ve edited to reflect the conclusion of this situation.

If you consign with them and call regularly for updates, you will have no problems. If you expect them to have your information on hand and reach out proactively, you might have problems.

To A B Stephens – I support your business and I recognize that there was no ill intent. You expose yourself to a lot of risk when this happens, and I encourage you to improve your documentation tools to avoid it happening again. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is more accessible than ever; it’ll make your lives easier, your customers happier, and your business more resilient.

Worst customer service with regard to a player piano purchase. No help from AB Stevens agent or Tech they recommended. Do not return calls for assistance

I bought a guitar for my hubby to play again after years of being too busy & work and such. The young man that helped me was thoughtful about recommending options since this was a gift. I am not very knowledgeable about guitars. I didn’t feel rushed or “undervalued” since I’m not a guitar player & wasn’t spending thousands. I appreciated that. I only spent around $1300 total – not what I suspect many of their buyers spend. I would recommend trying this store. Respectful. Helpful. Polite.

Good store

Great local place to but any instrument. Friendly knowledgeable people. The repair shop does a good job as well.

The staff is very cool here. Nice store with a pretty good selection.

I’m not much of an instrument guy, but I went with some friends to browse the store & look at drums and guitars. Seemed to be nice folks working there who were helpful without being intrusive. But the store definitely needs some TLC. We had to double-check when walking into the drum area that we weren’t going into a back room! Junk was all over the floor & it was dirty, boxes everywhere, merch strewn about and stacked in random piles, etc. Wasn’t an entirely pleasant shopping experience.

The drum section is frequently unstaffed. Many of the cymbals are unpriced.

No GC Pro sales?. Really?
Then old stock items not even in the system which you’re still trying to sell it for “full price” & then want to write up a imprinted card ticket? No wonder it’s still on the shelf. Disappointed.

As a person that has bought many guitars and basses from GC in different areas of the country, I must say this is by far the worst GC I’ve been to, several times I’ve gone it’s been nearly impossible to get any help, I went in Friday to get 2 packs of strings and a tuner, got my strings went to the register another gentleman was there too, guy who was sitting there playing guitar behind the register saw us coming and disappeared and was never seen from again (must be some kind of vortex in the acoustic room that transported him to another dimension). So after waiting we go to another checkout the kind gentleman there get to us very quickly goes to get my tuner I ask for, then proceeds to check out other people at that register, walked out went to the local mom and pop and gave them my money. I understand it was Friday night but the 3 guys in the mangers office probably could’ve helped. This is the second time I’ve walked out of GC

Ive spent over $3000 in the Huntsville store in the past year. I really see no appreciation for customer loyalty at all at this store. A few of the clerks seem seem to think they are really professional musicians and are annoyed when they have to take a customer’s money because it keeps them from stroking their fellow clerks narcisstic egos. And I guess it would hurt them too much to tune a guitar every now and then. The guitars for sale are NEVER in tune. What a joke this place really is.

My husband and I truly enjoyed ourselves. We went in looking for specific items for my birthday shoot and the salesperson came out and patiently took his time directing us around the store as well provided great alternatives.

Great selection and if they don’t have what you’re looking for, they’ll take your name and let you know if it comes in!!

Quality owners. Quality wax at affordable pricing in a great vintage space.

Cool place!

One of the best music stores in North Alabama.

Great place to spend a little time being nostalgic.

Came for record store day! The management was absolutely terrible and people who have been here since 3 am got thrown in the back of a line compared to people who got here an hour ago!

There’s a lot of records in this store but that’s all you can really say about it. Collecting vintage vinyls is about quality not quantity. Besides that this store has their records organized alphabetically and not separated specifically by genre making it difficult to find anything. There are also dividers in the records with names of bands that would interest most people with no records of those artists behind the dividers which feels deceiving.

Often times in record stores the good finds will be in new release bins but those told the same story as the rest of the shop.

Bottom line is there’s a lot of variety in the store but not much really worth having which is fine if you’re a candy store, but not for something as niche as a record store where most serious customers know what they want before they walk in.

Handled RSD 2023 very poorly, got turned away at the gate and they were letting people in after me and I got there before them. One person in line got here at 12 AM and is in the very back, what? RSD should be a fun FAIR experience and the organization of the line made it very much not so.

Great service, great people! Highly trusted with all level of instruments.

Great place for instrument repairs. They are wonderful. Reasonable prices and they were able to get the repairs done quickly. A+ in my book.

I went in this morning for emergency repairs on three instruments after they fell on the ground last night when I have three performances in the next two days. Some valves and tubing were bent on my instruments. I went in right at opening, they took care of me right away, kept me posted throughout the process, and were finished within an hour for a very reasonable price!
They did great work on my instruments and they feel better than they did before. I can’t recommend these guys enough!

Very informative staff of what’s New in music technology

Sent my Holton tr181 bass trombone for budget cleaning and relaquiring looks great and everything else looked great

The only place in town that would touch an antique clarinet. Did solid work. I’d use them again and recommend them.

Took my son’s trumpet to get serviced and paid $110 for a ultrasonic cleaning that didn’t fix the issue!!!! The guy at the shop told me the trumpet had a manufacturer defect but they performed the $110 service anyway!!! No call to ask me if I wanted to proceed, just a bill and a smile followed by your problem is not fixed. Horrible customer care!!!!

Communication is poor and my trombone slide came out gritty in much worse condition than when it went in. Plus, when I asked about the grit, I was told to wash it out! I just paid you around $200 to have the thing cleaned, is washing it out too much more to ask? Really dissatisfied as it used to be better.

Victoria is a truly gifted harpist. I would highly recommend her for any event. She played flawlessly for our wedding and reception.

My daughter recently was married and I had the privilege of having Victoria play at her wedding. Walking down the isle I heard the most beautiful music playing, softly as if you were in heaven.. Her list of music is among top choices, especially in her wedding repertoire. After the wedding was o we I had so many people come up and ask me about the harpist playing and I told them I found her online under the Huntsville Harpist . They couldn’t stop bragging on her playing and choices of music. She played so beautifully and worked with me so well. Very quick to respond, very professional and very detailed, so that you know exactly what to expect and what is included with your payment.. I highly recommend Victoria to play for any event you need special music and I will definitely be using her again in my sons wedding next year!! Thank you again Victoria for making my daughters wedding so special!!

Sincerely,
Angie Gauldin

I like to play in the backyard sometimes.

Awesome