Exclusive selection: The top 20 music shops of Les

Cool little music store with a certain old-school, pawn-shop vibe. Found a cool, used Kustom powered monitor/mixer and a short mic stand, useful items at a great discount. Enjoyable experience, since the staff was cool and helpful, letting me borrow a mic and cable to test my purchase before buying.

Fred Pedemonti no longer works there,that is why the 5 stars. Fred is scum.

Very curtious and quick service went to fix guitar ❤

First, the employees were excellent; friendly and helpful. I was extremely disappointed in the store itself. This was basically a dark, messy pawn shop, not the store I was familiar with from years ago. My only reason to go back would be to pick through dusty items to find something I might be in search of, more of an adventure.

Was a dj for 30 years and bought and sold equipment all over Ct . I stopped in at lasalle music in east hartford it was a nightmare . Equipment from the seventies store a mess and the staff looked like a Grateful Dead fan with colored hair . So glad I moved on with my teaching at a high school

Total waste of my time

Sent me a different accordion with no straps and a case that should of been thrown out

A used guitar I recently purchased had a slight bow in the neck. Took it in to Sam Ash in New Haven to have adjusted.

John was the tech who worked on my guitar. I thought I would need to leave the guitar for a few days but John stated if I wanted to hang around a half hour he could get the guitar setup for me right then. Fantastic!!

As a beginner guitar player, what I appreciated more than the adjustment/setup on the guitar was John being more than happy to answer any of the questions I had on guitar maintenance, storage, etc.

Overall a great experience. Thanks John.

Simply love Sam ash! Always attentive without crowding me. They help you find what you need but you can browse for hours.

Great service

Lots of inventory, could use more staff to attend customers, but overall good location and parking

Costumer service depends on who attends to you. Other than that its a good musicians store

Good music store… They’ll have what you need.

Employees are not interested in serving customers.

No one greeted me and asked if I needed help.

Drove 25 minutes to the store only to find out it doesn’t open until noon. Utterly rudiculous! Just close your doors for good if you’re going to have such restrictive hours!

They don’t normally carry the highest end instruments, but they’re price competitive on all they carry, very helpful, and best of all honest and trustworthy. My son had guitar lessons for years and loved it. Repair work, mods and set ups are top notch.

We had a great experience at the music shop in Southington. We went in to buy a guitar for our son. Tyler was really helpful and answered all our questions patiently. Thank you Tyler!

Great Place.Awesome Teachers

The cellos were in not in good shape and we had to pay a luthiere to redo repairs that were poorly done when we received the instrument.

Great place but website could be better such as pics of some used equipment. I’m a drummer and would like to see what they have for new and used cymbals,stands,drum kits etc. And prices. I have done business with them and always had a great experience the reason for three stars is the website doesn’t do the music shop justice. All and all great store great people.

Martel has lots of effects including everything Strymon makes! Nice people.

I went to Martel Music for the first time today on search of new strings for my dulcimer. The one I have ball ends on them and store only had ones with loop ends. The person I spoke, did not get her name, went out of her way to find ball end strings. She measured the existing strings and made up 2 complete sets of strings for my dulcimer. I want to thank her for taking the time for doing that and the excellent customer service she provided. I left knowing that I will be back when I need strings and/or a new guitar. Thank you once again.

Best music store in CT and one of the best on the planet!

Interesting store with some interesting gear. They don’t seem to carry Fender or Gibson. They had a stomp box manufacturing class going on when I visited.

As one reviewer already stated. They have a terrible return policy especially with online purchases. Good store as long as you know you’re going to keep the item but who really knows, its musical gear, its hard to tell if your going to dig it or not until you play it with your rig. Returning a pedal (or probably anything) is just not worth it due the return fees. 2 stars because I received it pretty quickly but definitely wasn’t packed that well. Without a doubt this will be my last purchase from this store. There’s plenty of other great stores to choose from that won’t bend you over on return fees. **Edit for response to the owner** Yes you do clearly state your return fees online. “Small restocking fee” is a bit of an understatement…your restocking fee is 10%. If I pay $250 for a guitar pedal. Right off the bat you’re keeping $25 of my return. I couldn’t imagine purchasing a guitar online through your store.

Purchased a guitar for 750, now walking out with 637. Unfortunately I was not told about a very unfair and sneaky return exchange policy until I had asked after already completing the purchase. Also could not see clearly a visible sign inside that states anything about a return policy. When I asked where the sign was upon trying to return this guitar he pointed to have a corner and I still did not see the sign. I do believe that a return policy sign should be at the register for full disclosure. The law does state you are entitled to a full refund if you are not told about the refund policy during the time of the transaction, which I was not informed of that. Limited selection and unfortunately subject to a very steep restocking fee or store credit, if you are a serious musician make sure you know this first as you know that buying instruments is quite expensive and it is hard to want to get locked into something that you do not truly love.

Knowledgable staff and an amazing stock of guitars. The most impressive set of archtops I’ve found anywhere!

Excellent shop

Great place for quality guitars.

Had a guitar cable when I needed it.

Thé Owners are lousy business

No prices listed

Not many mandolins

Great establishment with a helpful staff and reasonable prices. I was here last week, and JC was very helpful walking me through all the options for a new set of coated strings for my acoustic guitar — they have a large selection of strings, so the guidance was useful. I hear the lessons here are high quality, and I plan to return here to get my violin ‘tuned’ up.

We have been looking all over for piano books and they had a fantastic collection all at reasonable prices. My daughter is playing from one of our purchases right now!

JC Music offers wide selection of products at very reasonable prices. They also have a great lesson program. Whether your a beginner or a more advanced student the teachers can tailor your lessons to that of your needs. I have been taking voice / guitar lessons at JC Music for a little over a year and could not be more satisfied. In addition to the lesson program they also rent instruments so that you can find what best suits you with out the expense of buying an instrument outright. Or if your looking to buy or sell any used instruments you can take advantage of their consignment program. Overall it is a great place with excellent products and a variety of services that are hard to find elsewhere.

My grandson really enjoyed the music lessons and they are very professional and knowledgeable. Highly recommend them.

Would like to obtain some nice brushes and some type of top hat set used and very sturdy since I break percussion instruments all the time when I perform?

My son, Roberto Luis and Rosa live in Meriden. Are you far from the mall? I have spent a lot of time jamming in Puerto Rico to salsa, merengue, etc but my favorite is funk like Buddy Miles.

This was a horrible expierence. They need to get their stuff together, they had already-sold instruments on shelf. They had an amazing guitar sale and when I went to buy, it was already sold! They got my hopes high and let it down and I will not give them my money any longer.

Never have any of the literature or instrument parts I’m looking for. Took 3 months to repair a trombone. I tried to return an item and they wouldn’t give me back the cash to go to another place. The owner has blatantly disrespected my mother on several occasions and doesn’t have much knowledge of much of anything outside of rock music. As far as i’m concerned, this is the worst music store i’ve ever set foot in and would not recommend to anybody.

Completely disappointed. I placed an order in store on a instrument that was never placed with JC music. The customer service was poorly displayed and the options they gave us was not acceptable. I asked to speak to the owner several times and would not get on the phone and made his new employee talk to me. I ended up going somewhere else that was amazing

A hidden gem UPSTAIRS. Don’t miss it. Dave the owner is great, and talented. Patrick Gill is the PREMIER guitar TECH in the whole northwest CT region. He works miracles at a very fair price. Excellent teachers, Will for piano and keyboards and Mike for guitar and bass. Better check them out. I only trust my guitars to Dave and Patrick. Won’t go anywhere else. Seriously.

Woodbury Music is the best shop around of all of your instrument needs! The shop owner Dave, is both friendly & knowledgeable! I have gotten both common things done (fixing of saxophone keys) as well as unusual things done (fixing of a dulcimer bridge) and everyone has always been great! I have also taken lessons for almost three years now, and my teacher Mike is not only a dedicated teacher, but also a very talented professional. Stop by and check it out!

Great honest shop here. Had a great online interaction with Dave via email. Want to know why I trust them? Because they talked me out of a purchase. Ha! Thanks again!

Friendly, knowledgeable staff. Great for helping kiddos when mom and dad are not musically inclined. Highly recommend.

This place is amazing. The people working there today were super helpful and professional. From the phone call inquiring about an instrument to actually renting it. The whole process was super easy and fast. I will definitely recommend them to anyone looking to rent an instrument.

Where else? Where else in the Danbury/Bethel area can you get all the music, Muzak, musique y musica Stuff and Expertise at all levels and for all genres that you may need?! Where, I ask you. Go ahead, try and tell me. But don’t try to tell me you’ll find nicer, more helpful staff than Sarah and Sophia and Juan and… Don’t even.

Good info from employees

Instrument rentals are great for their prices

Just stopped by quick. Had a great hour. They are the best

The Music Angel in the Pandemic.

The pandemic just started. We left New York City to find space in Connecticut. Everything was closed and we were in a new town My son’s cello string pops. What to do now when you need a cello string in a pinch. I called a number of places either no answer, we can’t do it or we can do it for a big price. Businesses taking the opportunity to gouge at the onset did not sit right with me. I left a voicemail at one store my last try. Next thing I know I receive a text from Joe at Greenwich Music asking for my address. He will have his distributor drop ship it to me. Done. No questions. Seamless. We can’t wait to give Greenwich Music more business. They deserve it. Thank you Joe. You are a class act.

A fantastic environment all around with great employees to teach of all levels. Would recommend them every time!

Nice Music coming out of MiAnus

It’s a nice place! It’s a bit small but otherwise it’s nice.

We were kindly helped in the store, but we were buying a guitar for our son and we don’t live in the US. We were having problems with internet so we couldn’t research correctly at the moment, but they assured that the amp could be used in 220 current. We arrived home and we connected the amp and it didn’t work. So the amp was burned. Apart from that the price was a bit higher than the same thing in other stores, it’s not nice to pay 50 dollars more, but that is just business and anyone can charge what they want. It was our fault that we didn’t do a good research before buying. But the very kind person that assured us that it would work because he used to be an electrician, and it only needed a basic adapter, was totally wrong and now we are home and we lost an amp, so we paid extra for the set and it didn’t work. You were very kind indeed, but please if you are not sure about something, don’t sell it. Because we lost money and we can’t go back because we don’t live there.

Their hours aren’t very convenient and I was having a guitar strung and I dropped it off and I didn’t get a call before the store closed and then they were closed the next day Sunday so I didn’t get my guitar until Monday and that was extremely inconvenient. They also have a very small selection of basses.Update, they aren’t even open a couple hours on the 4th of July so I won’t get my guitar till Tuesday I am very upset with this store.

Rudest customer service I have ever encountered. The man I spoke to on the phone yelled and hung up on me. When my daughter went in person to drop off the instrument for repair at the agreed upon time, he remained upset and kicked my daughter out of the store. Strongly encourage anyone looking to have their instruments fixed to look elsewhere. Disappointing experience to say the least.

Terrible customer service. Called and said I would be by in 10 minutes for an emergency repair. Guy was nice on the phone. When I arrived 5 minutes early they had closed up and locked. Super helpful…

If you love playing instruments this is the place for you, i swing by too to bring my niece and nephew to play the drums. They have top of the line music software and guitars, amps, acoustic and electric, drums, mics, this is the playland for grown ups, if it was possible id buy the play just to have jam sessions,

The customer service rep at this store was great . Ty so much .

It’s always good to visit

I think this store is cool don’t have a problem. Everything goes good unles David Smith is in the store. I think he’s one of the worst supervisors in the store.

I prefer Sam Ash. Better selection of guitars.

Great staff and used products as well, Rick there in guitar sales is great!

How can you have employees that don’t know what a Mandolin is or if you have any in stock?

This place is a mess. It’s in total disarray. They really need to clean the place up.

Won’t pick up the phone I called 9 times

Quality music school with a professional and trustworthy staff.

I have been taking piano lessons with Gil Flores @ The Music Score studio for the past 2 years and have had an excellent experience. Gil brings a wealth of musical experience and teaches in a very understandable, nonthreatening manner with reasonable expectations and positive feedback. Relates well to all age groups.

The Music Score is now at 2315 and under new management. The store offers lessons for all instruments (including vocal), rentals and purchases on all instruments (including pianos.) The Music Score includes workshops and classes, like Music Together for toddlers, Music Fun Time for small children, and more. Jazz Band is held on Wednesday nights, Open Mic every last Friday. Other fun times are held, like Karaoke, Music Movie night, and Game night. Events are held about four times a year like The Frozen Spring Thaw, Open Houses, Christmas parties, recitals, new years for kids, and more. This store has a little of everything and caters to people from newborns to senior citizens. When you walk in the door you are part of the family and the teachers, associates, and owners take pride in caring and educating. A true mom and pop shop who are part of the community and helping it grow.

My daughter is signed up for lessons and her teacher is great (I hear the others are as well). Just try not to deal with the guy that owns it.

Very knowledgeable and friendly.

I tried to return my daughter’s Viola due to the school no longer providing classes. It was a total nightmare to get an answer in regards to my credit. They are very irresponsible and I am very disappointed by the lack of care towards my return which was even misplaced! Mom and dad are not helpful at all and he should really look at keeping them home, they make things worse!

Arrived at 10:00am (they open at 10am, but not today). I waited and they finally arrived. All I needed was guitar strings, but they had none. What a waste of time.

Was super helpful and welcoming

I am writing a review for Emmet, not the store. After a ton of hassle with an online back order issue which the store had nothing to do with, and talking to 6 different people at GC customer service (not this store) this was the first person to actually seem like they cared and he went above and beyond to help me and get my order straightened out and shipped. I live in NH so I cannot speak for anyone else at the store. I hope they are as good as he is. I buy from GC all the time, their service/ support usually sucks and sadly I expect that after being a customer for so long. But stars for Emmet!

Me enknta encuentro todo en un solo lugar

Friendly and helpful.

Subtract one star for the most generic selection of acoustic instruments.

Helpful but not very stocked on equipment

Gamestop for guitars. Sold mine, gave me 25% of orginal cost. RIP off.

Please be careful ordering items online from this store without checking wit them in advance They might misadvertise their item. I bought used guitar with description saying bag included. Received guitar with no bag, but the store manager Steven refused to honor his ad and did not offer bag or credit. I had to call to GC headquarters and they were kind enough to take responsibility for store misleading ad and shipped my the bag.

Por

Rob has been fantastic helping me with my instrument rental and purchase. He was very attentive at listening to what I was looking for and researched several options to me to select from. He was very knowledgeable and was able to provide great insight and recommendations. He went far above and beyond my expectations and made the process so easy. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending working with Rob to anyone!

The artists who work here are very helpful and patient my partner and I will be back for sure and special thanks to the sweetie with Pink hair and the curly cutie for all your help

The desk staff are welcoming, very nice, and patient.

My son meshes well with his piano teacher. She lets him play the kind of music he wants to play which I believe is important for helping to maintain interest and desire to play. His skill has improved greatly with her.

I whould l8ke to buy aking or yamaha euphonium

Great music store, helpful staff & if they don’t have it in stock, they can get it for you. It’s nice to have access to local shops versus Big box stores.

Wonderful place!!!! Totally solved my need. Walked away with TWO guitars…. both were just what I wanted (and needed)!!! Shop LOCAL!!!! You won’t be disappointed.

Excellent service, invaluable local resource!

Nice shop

If you’re not looking to go too far to get musical instruments. Look no further. Expensive though. But if you don’t care about prices, go for it. Not much of a selection though.

Meh

This place is just awful. The owner is so rude to us that i will never go back. We rented an instrument from him because our normal music store didnt have the instrument and when the instrument broke he said it was our fault and that it wasnt covered and then bad mouthed our local music store.

After going to this place; I must say I will never go back there again. The owner is so rude and disrespectful. Its not even funny. The owner needs get off his anthropocentric state of mind.

That was likely the most pleasant guitar buying experience I have ever had. I could not recommend patronizing this amazing store more. Thank you so much!!

Phenomenal shop that really personifies customer service! Pete is a great guy to deal and talk shop with. My guitar arrived safe, secure AND quickly. I can’t recommend DuBaldo enough, just give them a call or stop by already!

Great store! Love the selection of Ernie Ball Music Man instruments.

Great service

The sales staff is warm and friendly-very knowledgeable about their products and options. I will definitely be back!

Great store and affordable items

The staff was extremely helpful, patient, and knowledgeable, and I will definitely be coming back to them.

Limited retail space, but the staff is helpful and knowledgeable. Music lessons are offered on site.

I have condensed my original rant down to the following- we really like our children’s teachers- but the front desk needs saving

Yeah it’s good!

When ever I place an order for a left handed Guitar it takes like 6 weeks for it to get to me horrible ordering process

Absolutely horrible service by the staff. Our son took lessons for two years and store failed to call when teacher couldn’t make it to lesson and even refused to acknowledge that his instrument had been returned when it was sitting in front of them. Sadly, these small shops are disappearing and so it is hard to walk away from one but the staff and management is really just that bad.

JUST HIT BACKSPACE ON YOUR BROWSER AND PICK ANOTHER COMPANY. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Called your West Hartford CT store early today, after calling around to several other of your stores, to see if the had a certain string for my cello and if they could fix the one string today. Was told yes on both. My husband drove 25 min there to find out they did not have the string. Drove to the nearest store that had this string (which was an additional 15 min out from my house) and they had no one to help with the cello. My husband ended up purchasing the string. Had I talked to him I would have told him not to make the purchase. Now every place is closed so tomorrow I have to go to another store to get this string put on. We needed the cello for tomorrow so you guys were literally no help. I will be returning the string and doing my business elsewhere. I should have listened to the other bad reviews. First time customer turned into last time customer.

Mike, owner, is knowledgeable, professional and friendly. Instruments, music sheets and lessons at affordable prices. Repairs also done in house. Drop in to day hi and take a look around.

I’ve been utilizing Westbury music for rentals or over 10 years. They are knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. They are no more costly than any other instrument rental company around. They have always been there to suggest options for my children and their interests.

Honest people work here and they do a good job repairing or maintaining gear. Inexpensive as well.

excellent store, good Fender Selection, nice acoustics, lessons, and school instruments.

Ordered instrument for my son, was told to pick up the next day, went the following day to pick it up and it wasn’t there. Also bought a box of reefs for the instrument and was given the wrong kind. The gentleman that waited on us was polite, although he didn’t recognize us even though we had just been in the day before!

Staff is very friendly and knowledgable.

Very nice place.

Great service – they fixed my instrument while I waited, gave clear instructions on follow up care, and I was all set for my gig that night.

I had a last-minute emergency repair needed for my flute right before a performance, and the staff at Middlesex Music Academy were all so kind and helpful. They fixed my flute in record time, and walked me through the whole process with the highest of professionalism. Thank you so much!

The sales team made it possible for me to afford a piano for my son

I signed up for a piano lesson trial online. Their site is very confusing and it’s not clear if the lesson is in-person and online. I called them, left a message but they never called me back. In the day/time of the lesson, I called them 3 times because I was having problems to contact the teacher. The guy who works there, Jim, clearly doesn’t have any customer service skills. He was rude and unpleasant. He didn’t make any effort to help me, told me a was confused and nobody else had problems. I just canceled the future lessons there. It’s easier just hire a private piano teacher. Hopefully I will never have to deal with this guy again.

I would give Middlesex Music Academy a 0 if I was able to. I called to inquire about a $150 charge when I haven‘t been confirmed by John the guitar teacher. I made a request to Matt that Tuesday was my preference but John was booked so he scheduled Thursday at 6pm. I received a text and email from John yesterday that he had a conflict for Thursday and offered Friday. I responded via text/email that would not work and inquired if this was temporary or permanent to which I did not receive a response. I let John know this may not be a good fit then. I called today to have the charge refunded and Jim proceeded to call me names, saying I was yelling & screaming over the phone and I was being rude. No need to go into the dramatics but Jim needs a lesson in manners, telling the truth and understanding that being a manager does not give him the authority to behave poorly. Never once did I raise my voice but did correct Jim several times throughout the conversation all because i asked for a refund. Extremely unprofessional and a bad look for Middlesex Music all around. I will be taking my business elsewhere. Inexcusable & theater worthy performance by Jim today folks!!!

I paid $80 for a setup on a guitar and got it back with the strings a mile off of the neck and the floyd rose studs so high out of the body I could park a car under it. The bridge pickup was raised until it was practically touching the strings and the neck pickup was lowered to below the pickup ring. The tech then told me that 10-52 strings don’t exist. They’re light top heavy bottom and aren’t even uncommon strings. Every time I go there they give bad advice and clearly don’t know what they’re talking about. My friend tried to buy a tubescreamer (basic overdrive) and they tried to sell him a phaser instead (completely different thing).

Salesman (Joe) was very helpful and friendly. Thank you

Notta lotta lefty guitar stuff, but we still had fun.

Very good

great selection and friendly staff!

Drum department is very limited.

Great place to be, all guitar center stores an personal are excellent

Used to come here alot to get my strings, stopped carrying alot of the Dunlop branded acousitc and electric strings along with anything that has a bottom 6th string with anything larger then a .13. barely any hardware to repair guitars with that’s worth the money. seems they have shifted more towards selling gig gear for club and dance setups. Whatever happened to the analog musician? Will be going to Alto music from here on out it seems

I went into guitar center to purchase a PA, Mic and mixer. I was there for about 15 minutes walked around the entire store. Not one person talked to me the entire time I was there. I went there to ask advice about what I should purchase but instead left because the options were confusing. Yeah I know I could have went up to the counter and asked for help but I figured eventually someone would ask if needed anything. I even fooled around on a sit down electric keyboard for a few minutes. I guess I’ll just watch some YouTube videos on what people recommend purchasing.

I’ve purchased 3 guitars from here and the latest 2 purchases were a nightmare in customer experience and service. They had the guitar shipped to the store and had the amp in stock but wouldn’t give it to us since we ordered the amp online and it hadn’t arrived yet. When the amp did arrive they didn’t give us the cables that were part of the bundle. Wasted 3 hours in driving to this place. Completely inflexible customer experience

Friendly staff and good price for instrument rentals.

Hi Donny

My son has been taking guitar lessons with Don. He has been introduced to many artists and looks forward to his lessons. We chose the Music Garage because we wanted our son to learn the basics and build a foundation for playing guitar.

A little hard to find, but owner was very helpful in my search for a solid-woods Classical guitar. Looked at a very nice A/Yari. Has some nice guitars, but he is limited by space constraints. If the f-ups in Washington and the greedy sob’s on Wall St would all drop dead, this store would have a good chance of growing.

Had an excellent selection of strings. Plan on visiting again soon.

I got My sons cello at this store and the bridge was broken and the stand