Lake Holiday: Overview of the top 20 music shops

I purchased my first ever boat from Parker at one of the winter shows. I had no place to park the boat initially. Lake Holiday offered to not only keep the boat for me until the weather broke, but took me out on Holiday Lake to show me how to handle the boat and some of the nuances and safety features. I’m

Since getting the boat home, I’ve had a couple of learning curve questions. Parker has been great, AND very patient. When I had a problem with the battery, Greg the service manager replaced it, a couple of tie downs on the cover, plus the winch which was slightly bent. All as part of the warranty and all in a really timely manner.

All the folks I’ve dealt with at Lake Holiday Marina are absolutely super, easy going and no-pressure folks.

I can’t say enough good things about Lake Holiday Marina and the folks that work there.

Place is awesome, has all the parts and stuff you could need.

These guys are great!

Easy access for boats. ability to obtain gas, repairs, snacks, supplies and repairs of watercraft

My husband and I hired Deena with Rhinestone Music for our wedding this past weekend and she was one of the biggest reasons why our wedding was such a huge success! Not only did she allow us the freedom to choose any songs we wanted played during the ceremony/cocktail hour/dinner/reception but she also mixed in a lot of songs she knew would keep people on the dance floor. Deena was such a pleasure to work with and was very organized making the day run as smooth as possible. After the wedding, we received so many compliments from our guests on the music choice and how much fun people had on the dance floor. I would recommend Deena to anyone hosting an event, we would use her again as our MC/DJ in a heartbeat!

Deena was the absolute best dj. She was easy to communicate with prior to the wedding. On the day of, she coordinated with all the other vendors to make sure everything went smoothl. The music was also on point. If you’re looking for a wedding dj, you will not go wrong with Deena.

Deena Dj’d my wedding and did such an incredible job! She never stopped playing music and kept the party on schedule and so fun! She was great to work with and made for an easy and stress free wedding. Would highly recommend

I have known Gene Liberty for over 30 years and he is the only person that has ever worked on any of my guitars. his workmanship is second to none. It’s hard to find people you trust to work on any instrument, but I can tell you with great confidence that if you go to see Gene, you will not be disappointed with his work. He’s always said if you’re not happy with what he’s done, he’s not happy. That is exactly the type of person you want working on your guitar. Five stars without question!!

I have Gene work on my Gibson Brydland where the frets were raised where the neck attaches to the body. It caused strings to buzz and required them to be elevated. He resurfaced that whole area from about the 8th fret on up and there is no buzzing and the sound was very clear. That guitar has never played that well before. Others have worked on it and never got all the frets correct. Gene is the best.

outstanding workmanship, very knowledgeable, Gene has built one guitar for me and is in the process of building another one for me. Just look at his craftsmanship it will speak for it self. Very glad I was referred to him by a dear friend. Recommend him to anyone for building a guitar and any kind of guitar repairs.

terrible, terrible,terrible stay away. contracted to build a guitar after a year and a half cut all my wood incorrectly and then told me I should maybe look for another luthier. during this time I had him do some work on a build I was doing and he cut the nut backwards and glued the neck at the wrong angle, Use this guy at your own risk! Cost me about 800 bucks in screw ups

Great store. Amazing guitar selection and knowledgeable staff.

Great store. Very nice people. I was surprised at how inexpensive their GHS bass strings were, as I hadn’t bought new ones for my bass for 15 years. Will recommend to friends.

I live right down the road and saw their store on my way home from work. Stopped in for some picks and to look around. They have a huge variety of stuff in stock for such a small shop, prices comparable to Amazon/Musicians Friend etc.. and both people there (wish I got the Lady and Gentleman’s name) were incredibly friendly. I will definitely go here the next time I need something. Support people like this!

Horrible experience. They don’t care about their customers. First, took 4-5 business days to ship. Then product was defective but they said it was fine. Returned the product and had to fight to get a refund and then they charged me for original shipping which was free in the first place. Never again.

I’m sure this place is great but I wish I didn’t have to make an appointment just to look around. Not a great business strategy in my opinion.

Seller has ghosted for several days when asked to refund. Instrument was sent off after I asked for refund due to instrument taking days to ship and when i saw it still did not ship (I ordered a different flute from different seller and I received that one fast-within a week) so I requested a refund. Well, the instrument was shipped AFTER requesting refund (meaning dont send it anymore just return money back to account). Instrument is now back in their hands after I asked seller to provide label (took days to get that label too). 3 days have passed. No communication, no flute, and no refund. Avoid this experience as it is not a pleasant one for me. One month fighting this horrible experience

Owner is a guitar fan and wants to help guitar players with great deals on products.

Get your butt to this place it rocks

Cute little hole in the ground

Got a Pig Hog padded bar stool and it shipped quick and looks great! Super easy to assemble.

Free shipping was a nice bonus. Definitely recommend getting any of your music equipment from them!

Excellent little shop. Took my acoustic in to get the neck straightened and the action lowered – they did a superb job at a very affordable price. They have all sorts of used and new equipment, do open mics, have lessons. I’ll definitely be going back.

Fun

Great place. Friendly and knowledgeable. I love bluegrass music, and owner went college where you can get a degree in bluegrass, the same one i attended for art. Go visit them

They did a great job of fixing my guitar. My ax was really messed up and they got her back up and playable. Thanks guys.

The gentleman working there was extremely knowledgeable, and very informative and helpful. They have a vast assortment of strings and picks available, lessons and an ample variety of guitars available to purchase.

Very helpful great service

They did a amazing job fixing my guitar and bass. And they did it quickly too.

A total gem of a business. So blessed to have Nate’s shop in Oswego. Super professional, knowledgeable and efficient. Highly recommend this shop!

Amazing repair on my guitar and very friendly customer service!

I was there the morning right after it caught on fire, hard to review this place since it was being cleaned up. Just to be fair i gave it 4 stars

Only gave a star review because I was busy at the time. Now that I have time, *clears throat*…

Nice little store tucked away in a place nobody would ever think a guitar shop would be. It is full of vintage and newly made (Guyatone) guitars, basses and amps. They have so many guitars for sale! If you can afford vintage prices, do shop here! (They also have a Reverb page, iirc)

Very unprofessional. Nate seems to act like a know it all, but could use a few lessons.

Made my first purchase, but unfortunately it turned out the item had been listed with an incorrect price. Was disappointed, but I was notified and the refund was issued quickly at least.

Update: Had a representative reach out a week later attempting to buy off my review with an undisclosed discount. When I explained that I could not in good morals accept that as the review was fair and the time to do the right thing had come and pass they explained that they could not afford to honor the mistake ($50 difference), all the while offering a discount which could well add up to the same amount, or more at the end of the day making the explanation somewhat nonsensical in that case. It’s an unfortunate circumstance to be sure as the mistakes keep snowballing and I very much enjoyed everything I had read and seen from them prior to this.

1st: The guitar tech only charged for the exact length of time he worked on my 2 guitars (which was 45 mins. each) instead of a full hour. 2nd: He was willing to let me pay the invoice for one of my guitars plus a new input cable I needed and let me take both guitars home, and then let me come back the following week to pay the second invoice for my acoustic because my funds were tight. I have never had a music shop do anything like this for me before. Highly recommend coming here, They’ve earned this 5 star review!

Great Music Store here The owner and employees are some of the best people you could meetI had to return something and it was no problem at all. I Highly recommend checking them out and see what they have to offer. They also have In house made Guitars too … If they don’t have it they can get it most likely. give them a try .An all around 100% Great Place in downtown DeKalb IL. Thanks For setting up A shop here Guys

I had a setup and some minor repairs done. They turned it around incredibly fast and the price was extremely reasonable. Lots of cool gear to look at and it looks like they’re setting up a section in the back for records too. This will be the go-to place from now on. Thanks guys.

Knowledgeable, helpful, patient and friendly

Small grassroots business and I am always happy to go there. I have bought several instruments there and always come home happy.

I love this place. I needed music therapy in my life and I began with Ukulele lessons here and moved on to the guitar. Quentin is my teacher and he is fantastic. I also buy all my equipment here and the owner and his staff have been wonderful.

I liked it! I went in with a broken bass we bought there and he let me trade it out for another that wasn’t broken. I think the owners nice and helpful. 4 stars definetly!

Went in looking to trade in two instruments, one of which had never been played worth at least 200 dollars and the other at least 300 and he offers me 200 for both. Do not expect to get anything in terms of reasonable amounts of money because this was a joke.

made a deal with me on craigslist then sold it before we got there. This guy is the lowest of the low. Don’t do business here.

I bought a trumpet here a few weeks ago. I tried negotiating on a few trumpets and he said he was ” firm on his prices “. That’s a reasonable answer, so I stopped questioning his prices. I was naive to look up the trumpet I had purchased AFTER my two hour ride home. To my surprise this man made a 100% profit. Yes, he sold it to me for twice its worth as a a new one. That’s IF he bought it new, but he mostly likely bought it off someone for a few hundred dollars and created a bigger profit for himself. He has no shame in selling it to me and ripping me off as he was all smiles when I left the store with the instrument. Horrible place to shop. If you do shop here, look up the instrument you are getting.

Great place for instruments, lessons, and parts

Very unique place… So far so good droped off daughters new fiddle to be tuned up to play. Awaiting the call back to pick up

Always quick, friendly service!
We love having them in the neighborhood!

Everyone is pretty nice, but I don’t like that you can’t reschedule the lessons after 10am

Friendly staff that answered all my questions

Never again buying from this shop.

Here’s the story: I purchased a guitar through Reverb. It arrived while I was out of town, and when I finally got home and plugged it in to play, I found that only the bottom pick up works. I cleaned it up a bit, bought a new cord, and tried again. Still no luck.

I brought it to my local tech to do a tune up, thinking maybe it was just some dust or dirt from shipping. I got it back and it’s still not playing other than the bottom pickup. The tech even said he took out the input jack and that the wiring there was fine, so it must be something within the wiring of the guitar/pick ups. Nothing in the description mentioned anything wrong with the pickups or the guitar. “100% ready to play!”

Considering I travel for work and my tech isn’t the fastest guy in the world, this whole ordeal took place over a few weeks. I’m not out playing every night or anything like that. Admittedly, this was a little long, but I didn’t think it was crazy to address this issue. Even clothing stores have 60 day policies. BUT when I contacted the shop they just said “too bad, we sent it to you several weeks ago.” So now I’m left with a guitar with one functioning pick up. Terrible customer service from a small business.

Extremely heartless employee named Janet and horrible cancellation policy. In short, my daughter developed a 104 fever and all we wanted was to make up the missed class. The owner told me she didn’t care, which is heartbreaking to hear when my 7 year old is sick and suffering. I am all for policies but when a child gets sick at 4pm it is unacceptable?! Kids have to be sick by 10am-with our current world many would appreciate keeping a sick child at home. All I wanted was a chance to explain and share my point but she cut me off and raised her voice and said she simply didn’t care. We have been attending the Music Barn for over a year with great attendance so it was unfortunate to hear the disregard for my child.

My instructor Jim was outstanding I would learn with him anywhere, anytime. The school itself is a different story. After my last lesson I told the owner I would call to schedule my next lessons. Unfortunately health issues prevented me from calling. The owner still charged me $180 for two lessons. I called and asked why I was charged and she said too bad, that’s your time slot and you missed your lessons. Not a very good way of doing business, especially for a veteran owned business. I will never leave my credit card on file again.

Mr. Choin,
Please do not address my behavior, I have acted in a most honorable manor for a person who had $180 dollars stolen from them. I am afraid you have been given miss information from an “employee” who I can only guess is your mother. I respect you for taking family’s word over that of a stranger, but that is where my respect ends.

If you had played a particularly great USO show in the Army and your commanding officer approached you with praise stating he was going to put up for a commendation or a promotion, but you did not hear anything for a month. Would you assume you were promoted and wear the higher insignia? I think not.

This situation is no different. The last time I was there I told Janet “I would call to schedule my next lesson”. When I did not call there is no lesson scheduled, not implied, not intimated, not suggested. Jim was not there specifically for me, he has had lessons before I was there for my lesson and he had a student immediately after my lesson. When I did not schedule a lesson with him, that time was free-time for him. He could have left and gone for coffee.

The partial refund of $60 by Janet, when I called and very respectfully requested a full refund, indicated that she knew she was wrong for charging me in the first place. Your reviews are very clear, this is a pattern with her of taking money with out rendering services and this practice must stop.

I thank you for your service to our country but obviously the Army band did not prepare you to serve the country or community honorably. For that I am sorry

The staff here are amazing and the store is wonderful and has a wide selection of quality products. The employees here have consistently been extremely helpful for me!

Michael was friendly and knowledgeable. Instruments are taken very good care of, and they help fix many issues.

You will not find a better place for customer service! The staff members are the nicest people around, will do just about anything to help you – 1st class!, and are super professional. I can’t say enough about this company & the people it hires. I wish every company took the pride and care that this place does!

Went to my daughter’s school for “band info” night. Even with Covid, they had the kids trying out wind instruments (I REALLY hope they cleaned them properly between kids). She liked the flute and I was presented with an “agreement” for 4 month trial of $72 (reasonable) and then $40/mo for 2.5 YEARS. The guy (who never even introduced himself) tried to put an “agreement” in front of me; told me it wasn’t a purchase contract (really, then what would it be with a total price of over $1,000 on it? That price and my signature makes it a …contract…).

I hit the brakes; no way am I paying a thousand dollars for anything my kid needs to keep safe, clean and protected… He actually got an attitude, huffing and ripping up the paper. This is thru the school so shame on them too but I walked in for a 10yo to try an instrument so she could join band with her friends and found myself with a washed-up-car-salesman-trying-to-sell-me-a-timeshare feeling. Oh, and lets not forget the “book”, “music stand” and “cleaning cloth” that were…you guessed it…EXTRA $!

I LMAO all the way to the car.

Very disappointed in the customer service. I received incorrect information from Quinlan & Fabish at Crone Middle School and they won’t honor what was told to me. Very over priced. Do yourself a favor and shop around.
Edit: They ended up honoring the verbal price I was quoted.

Bob and his crew paint planes everyday but, he went above and beyond when he agreed to paint my 1977 GMC STEPSIDE PICKUP! Bob was so helpful, and helped me pick the perfect color. The job was done in a very professional and timely manner, and it turned out better than I could have imagined! If Bob and his crew can paint a truck this well, imagine what the planes he paints must look like when they are finished with them. THANKS AGAIN FOR A JOB VERY WELL DONE, DAVE & MARY!

Food was delicious…music was a little loud. Made it hard to have conversations. Drinks were strong. Would go back on a weekday when there was no music.

Bob and his staff did a top quality job on our Cessna 182G. Total strip and paint. Their attention to detail and the pride that they put into their work is outstanding. They sent pictures of the process, stayed within our budget (and their estimate) and made sure we were on top of the process from start to finish. We are so fortunate to have a paint shop doing quality work here in the upper midwest. We highly recommend them to anyone looking for quality paintwork.

The employees and manager at this business are very helpful and professional. I appreciate that they are taking extra precautions to keep everything clean and safe.

Love the variety of products and services lots of choices great people energetic willingness to teach you how to make yourself feel like a rockstar!

Walked out with a digital piano. Never felt any better.

Kid takes lessons

Cool little music store with the two most friendly ladies there to help

I needed oboe reeds and some practice booklets. They had what I needed and have a small variety of instruments available: clarinet, various saxophones, flutes and piccolos, and some stringed instruments.

Not bad and I’m pretty sure they have a website too with a large inventory.

Highway robbery. None of the music stores charge security deposit except this place. And it has been more than a month I am trying to get my security deposit back. Every call they have different story. And you have to wait long time to get customer service representative. Very shady company. It is like you buy something from TV commercial and trying to reach them after you return the item. I don’t suggest this place at all. Check other music stores and go there afterwards.

School closed due to COVID 19 , but they charge money from credit card every month and no way to make this cancel.

After 2 weeks of waiting for 2 masks that I ordered for our horn player, I finally called to get the status. I was told it was still being processed! I told them that was unacceptable after 2 weeks and that the order should have been after 2 weeks. I told them to cancel. The first CSR told me that she would cancel it. I asked for a confirmation number or email. Could not provide it. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She said there were none available She hung up on me. Called back again. This CSR told me he would cancel (proves the first request was not made). He also said that he could not provide a confirmation but would have an email sent. Very rude people and non helpful. Do not order from them!

Nice day to fly and discover.

Private Lake just outside of Sandwich Illinois. Great place to live would be a great place to raise kids as well. a lot of retired people are there

The beaches are fun, great fireworks and we gor to live in lake holiday because we are dead

Great place to live

Just stopped by to visit a friend who lives there.

Sucked

They’ve got great instruments and equipment of every sort, and when it’s not at the location, they can easily find a way to get what you need shipped over.

Nice.

Incredible people
Mike the technician is an amazing fella who respects its customer and music lovers

Friendly staff. Great selection.

Good service!

Good selection.

Very disreputable. They sold an amp I’d already paid for before I could come get it. They sent me no updates about my order and basically sold it out from under me. Customer service is a joke. No attempt was made to resolve the matter beyond sending my money back. Then they had the nerve to send me an email saying “sorry you cancelled your order.” Never once apologized. Very disappointing.

Two stars for selection.

I was looking to purchase a digital piano today. After 15 minutes of looking and playing, still no one had talked to or acknowledged me. Not even a hello on the way in or a goodbye on the way out.

I would say it’s a fluke but three guys got help upon walking in. It sucks because I was ready to buy, now I will be spending $600 somewhere else. Customer service is important, especially when they are helping people just browsing and messing with guitars but ignore other customers who are ready to buy.

Terrible service. Not once was I asked if I needed help finding a guitar. I was here for 40 minutes trying to get their attention but they preferred to help the blonde lady and acted as if I was a ghost

Allow yourself a good 3-4 hours to go thru all of the vendors here. Staff are super helpful and very friendly. They have everything from furniture to knickknacks to kitchenware, collectibles, art and so much more.

Nice place

Nice antique store good prices and lots to choose from

Very expensive $$$$ spent 3 hours here and walked out with nothing.

Huge place with tons of goodies but very over priced.

Lots of stuff

Everything was priced so high, too high.
They had someone follow us ???
I’ll never be back.

Outlandishly overpriced items I know and I didn’t feel comfortable felt like I didn’t belong in there

The lady working here kept following us around like she thought we were stealing when in fact we’ve never stolen anything in our lives and are honest people.