This is a one stop shop for all your musical instrument needs. It has separate rooms for music lessons. Oh, and the teachers are wonderful and patient. They have a great selection of band instrumental rentals. Very reasonably priced! And they have anything and everything under the sun. They also do instrument repairs too. We bought our clarinet in and the work they did was superb!
Very friendly and helpful staff.
I have been working with SD Music Studio for several years now. From the first time I walked in to rent a clarinet for 6th grade band for my daughter, to band lessons and workshops, clarinet purchase, Alto sax rental, instrument repairs, to lots of questions about anything and everything music related, EVERYONE has been amazing! Shout-outs to Jessica and David for their wonderful teaching styles and personal attention. Incredible people, superb customer service and a great music studio. Get your instrument here, you won’t be sorry!
Update 9/28 – Ryan called to apologize and made things right. In light of that I have upgraded the rating to 4 stars. Often times it’s not the mistake, but the reaction and I think Ryan did a good job resolving the issue.
The customer service for the rental is horrible. Bliss was terribly rude. I had an auto debit for a rental and I had that for a couple of years. The bank issued me a new card and it had lapsed. That happened in the past and they would call. This last time I got a new call saying it was two months past, but I never got a call for the first month, or an email, and she couldn’t do anything to waive the late fees, which were $15 for a $19 a month rental (79% of the rental cost). All because they couldn’t call or send and email. Sounds like their business model is to just make their money on the late fees rather than be reasonable.
We were looking to get a flute repaired and visited this location, having heard good experiences from others and being quoted a quick turnaround for the repair over the phone. Unfortunately, our service experience was rather disappointing. The staff present seemed inexperienced in working with customers. We were told they required a $20 for a same-day evaluation of the instrument, which we agreed to as the repair was urgent. However, the staff came back afterwards saying the instrument required “General Adjustments” (for which we were quoted a charge of $95), without explaining what was wrong with the instrument. The staff didn’t make much of an attempt to understand what was wrong with the instrument or provide clarification when we asked what exactly what was going to be fixed.
We came back a few days later when the instrument was ready for pick up, and the issue we were facing was not fixed! After this, we talked with one of the mechanics there and explained the issue, and they were able to identify the issue and repair the instrument, rather quickly in fact! Had we been able to do this from the beginning, we could have saved a lot of time and headache.
We will not be returning to this location for future repairs.
2. ReedsForLess
Address: 423 S Las Posas Rd, San Marcos, CA 92078 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
I’m so grateful I found Leading notes in our community. My daughter has attended this last year, and I’ve noticed a difference in her confidence level and her ability to feel positive and happy about herself after every lesson.
My daughter is very excited about summer camps this June/July. She’s looking forward to the producing /singing camp and Rock Band.
Best music school around! They make you feel like family and the teachers are so kind and encouraging. I thought I would be nervous but they made me feel right at home!
Wonderful staff that really make my daughter excited to go to lessons
4. DarbukaPlanet
Address: 215 S Pacific St #111b, San Marcos, CA 92078 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
Got an amazing and gorgeous drum for a great price. It was hard to pick with the huge selection of designs they have.
I bought my darbuka $480 (US dollars)
Shipping less than 10 days in Canada.
The percussion is very beautiful, but the logo was removed, I don’t know how.
If you’re NOT buying from USA, you need to know the tax are very expensive. I paid an 140$CA.
I highly recommend Bertrand’s for instrument rental. I rented a cello for a child and they were very communicative, helpful and prompt. The rental price was reasonable, the cello is beautiful and the associates texted and called me to help me along the way. I rarely post online reviews but they really went out of their way to help my family!
They did a great job cleaning and repairing an old silver trumpet.
Great service! They helped me & my son find everything he needed for beginning band. They were very friendly and knowledgeable! They made it so easy for us, as we knew very little and just had the list from the teacher. They did mention that their main store in Rancho Penisquitos has more selection, but they were still able to get us everything we needed. I highly recommend Bertrand’s.
Very skilled.
Quick and capable but prices for repair were really high. We don’t have the money for the repairs so will have to pass, wish they were more economical.
7. Guitar Center
Address: 712 Center Dr, San Marcos, CA 92069 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
Enjoyed the store. They have a huge selection of electric and acoustic guitars. Lots of nice used items and lots of nice guitars on clearance when I went. The acoustic rooms were clean and quiet with ample selections available. I wish they had more cases for acoustic guitars available. Overall, I enjoyed this store and the staff who rung me up was very helpful.
Crazy guitar
great selection, just what you’d expect from a guitar center.
Good new and used guitars, amps, basses. Prices are reasonable, service is generally good.
They need to pay attention to all merchandise and make sure instruments are worth the money I played a couple I’d never pay for cuz of fret njzz
Awesome selection
Legit WORST selection of Fender Guitars i have ever seen at a GC…
No
They don’t seem to have any values like customer experience. Entered the store before 25 minutes of closing asked for help. Waited for 15 minutes and asked another associate to help and got the response that with 10 minutes remaining they won’t be able to help. Still waited patiently and finally the second associate came saying the store is closed – asking what do want to buy. On saying that I have been in the store for last 25 minutes, the response was that I came to know about it 10 minutes ago. I can understand things could be busy but the style of communication was rude with no intent to help.
8. Center Stage
Address: 120 N Pacific St, San Marcos, CA 92069 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
Great selection, Art is very knowledgeable and a great guy. Highly recommended.
Art and Tyler are knowledgeable and nice people. I did not feel any sales pressure when I visited their store and tried their pianos. They have a good selection for all levels of piano players.
Art is fantastic, so helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly. Was not pushy in the least and seemed genuinely interested in getting us the piano that was right for us.
Does not know how to sell a piano. If you want to sell something that is all ready over priced, don’t lie or B.S. the customer. You never know who is listening or who you may be actually talking to. I would never buy an instrument from this place.
10. Super Sound Music
Address: 215 S Pacific St STE 108, San Marcos, CA 92078 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
This place is great! With many high end guitars and amps and people who really know their stuff.
This is a great shop, the kind that’s real hard to find. Awesome people, and love just hanging out and drooling over the various amps, guitars and boutique pedals.
Highly recommend
Small shop with a lot of knowledge. Super friendly staff and they can do just about anything to any piece of equipment. Fair prices.
11. Bosendorfer
Address: San Marcos, CA 92078 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
I could not believe the sound quality of the reed and ease of blowing. I wish I changed my reed to Fibracell years ago. Throwing away 100’s of reeds over the years and putting up with the inconsistency of the cane reed was my biggest headache in life which led me to think on bad days to stop playing and take up the guitar instead. If you imagine that finding a good cane reed is the most important aspect of playing the saxophone and I truly believe is the reason why we don’t have many sax players in comparison to guitarists and pianists.
If the best ever cane reed in the world was scored at 10 and the reeds that made you happy were scored at 8 and 9, then I would say that Fibracell scores 8. This means you can always get a great reed every time straight out of the box and never have to worry about reeds ever again. For me its like playing the piano or guitar where I know the sound will always be there for me.
Lets see if Fibracell can improve the sound to a big 10 in the years to come, that for me would be awesome. One last point, the reed maker could start to think about developing reeds for bright, mellow, velvet, dark, quiet, loud or what ever they could invent to offer a range of sounds. Thanks anyway for helping my day to day playing and solving my biggest problem, it truly is a miracle.
13. String Masters Custom Shop #111
Address: 120 N Pacific St, San Marcos, CA 92069 , Lake San Marcos , California , United States
