I can’t say anything bad about this place I love it and John is such a nice and helpful person.
I went in to get rosin for my son’s cello and ask if they could tape the strings (I know nothing about cellos etc). The lady was SUPER kind and helpful. I would and will return.
I just had the best experience at The Monterey Music Store. I purchased a guitar, amplifier and all of the accessories at a great price. I was really quite impressed with the high quality of the instruments on hand and the helpfulness of Carlos and John. They have instruments for all levels of buyers. I will absolutely be back for more. Very Happy.
Not huge array for piano/keyboard. But great guitar selection.
The store is nice, local and is very friendly. When I was in there, it seemed like a very classic guitar store but had some decent extra vibe to it. I actually saw signatures on specific guitars and thought that was pretty cool.
Service is fine and friendly. Prices are reasonable. Place is an absolute dive… So much potential to have a home, trendy music shop downtown. Really depressing to go there.
Scam place. Tried to sell me a $7 Snark tuner for $30
Smallest and worst music store I’ve ever been too. I went for cables once and all he had was demo cables. He needs to sell to someone interested in the business. More than half the store is closed off and empty. They have literally no strings. The guy can’t set up a guitar. He doesn’t have the right tools to work on guitars. He just seems lazy. Absolutely ridiculous experience there. Ill never get anything there again.
All they have is budget instruments at collector prices.
Stay away if you want something well made with a decent price, this place is a rip off.
3. KurtHeisig Music
Address: 512 Polk St, Monterey, CA 93940 , Monterey County , California , United States
Really good person, gives plenty of tips and best reeds.
Wow! Monterey, are you EVER lucky to have Heisig Music! I am a music teacher formerly from Santa Cruz (now in WA State). Kurt rubs shoulders with people who SOLO with major symphonies. Steve Adelstein is perhaps the finest oboe player of all time, major symphony soloist, auditioned the Fullbright Scholars, Professor Emeritus of Berkeley College of Music, etc. Well, Steve called Kurt, “The greatest music teacher in the America, perhaps the world.” Kurt had my fifth grade students playing college-level etudes! After only a few weeks on the clarinet, one of my college band mates called me ‘amazing!’ Kurt’s instruments and lessons are a bit more pricey (not much), but he is entirely worth it!
I find this to be a gem of the Bay Area. The owner is extremely personable, knowledgeable and is a business I have no problem supporting by patronage.
Kurt is flute knowledgeable and that is remarkable. His experience lies in Saxophones as he is an experienced player.
Don’t get trapped in a 2 hour conversation you won’t want to have.
4. Bookmark Music
Address: 307 Forest Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Monterey County , California , United States
Very helpful lady I wanted 2 songs for my daughter and she got them within 5 minutes amazing job
This place is great. Super, super helpful. Came in to get nylon strings for a steel string guitar (because I have no clue on guitars) and they explaned why you can’t do that. They had recommendations for all sorts of teachers (guitar, cello) and were generally just super nice.
Helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. It was a pleasure to visit.
Great selection. Very friendly and helpful.
Friendly place and, if you want a ukele, this is there placed to go.
Good selection. The customer service may be poor at times, so I would recommend having an idea or a list of items to support your search efforts. The sheet music is very disorganized, so I would plan to spend a few extra minutes searching for genre labels.
Required to sanitize my hands before entering her shop. I did not enter her shop! ( Had my vaccine, both.)4/12/23 No one wearing a mask in shop. There was no greeting hello etc just pointing to a bottle of sanitizer and saying you need to sanitize your hands first. I have been playing for 30 years and never handle someone else’s guitar or musical equipment unless my hands are washed. Just flat out rude. Seemed more concerned with flirting with the person at the counter. This is why more and more people are ordering on line. I always give locals in Pacific Grove first shot at my business and if a bad experience like with you , I order on line. Because of on line business, store ownes should be going above and beyond. On line is providing better prices, service and slection. Will be going to Amazon for my musical needs. As I was leaving your store I found a bag of marbles just outside of your door? Look familiar?
Absolutely wonderful staff. Very knowledgeable! And fantastic prices on everything. Been coming here since I was a kid and never had a bad experience.
Friendly, helpful staff and good prices.
This is the best music store ever I went in to get a cheap mini guitar tuned because I’m starting guitar and apparently it was a toy guitar but they GAVE me one that no one has touched or come to collect so now I have a guitar to get started with and learn how to play.
Wise music? More like Wises strat store!!!! Come on Pete! People would love to see a bit more versatile starter guitars, and not copy+paste strats, you gotta pull the curtain back in a way that makes sense so that people can be more intrigued with guitars and have them be more appealing to those who want to pick up guitar, overall World class store!
Friendly, knowledgeable staff and great prices.
Great selection of vinyl
Sad place. Seems like they’re a bad store on purpose as they don’t have immediate competition close by.
As others have said, might as well go to Guitar Center now.
Such a shame as Pete is such a nice guy
Poca selección y precios altos
Went to Wise Music about a month ago
Pretty good inventory but the people working there don’t know much about their products. Very difficult to choose new strings kid behind the counter didn’t know what I was talking about
I decided to go to Music 123 across town
Oh well I guess. 2 stars for decent selection of products
7. Recycled Records
Address: 604 Lighthouse Ave, Monterey, CA 93940 , Monterey County , California , United States
Sean, the owner is a very cool dude. He seems a bit stand off in the begging, but opens up once he gets a sense that you appreciate the store. He appears to be a one man show, so I have much respect for that. If you like records stores that done have the feel of genuine records from a man who is passionate about what he does, well, this is not your store. The owner was kind enough to let me place some bookmarks out for customers and even offered space on his window if I had posters. So cool!
This place has an amazing selection of used records. Great selection for ones who like to collect. Not much on new records. Still, an amazing selection of hard to find records. Apparently it’s going up for sale! If I could, I’d buy it. Highly recommend this place. Tiny store but packed with amazing selection. I purchased SINATRA AT THE SANDS in great condition. And a hard to find, the Beatles at the Hollywood bowl. Excellent condition for and amazing price!
This was my first time in and it was a digging paradise. The music that was playing was great and I feel that the experience was amazing. Found some records that were def on my wanted list. Will go back for more….
Nice staff. Good collection.
Right off of Lighthouse Ave, a good sized vinyl and cd selection. Picked up a few obscure NiN singles for $7 each. Pleasant staff and decent prices, definitely will be on my list to go back to when I am in town next.
Good selection and organization (even the artists within the letters were alphabetized) but the overall condition of the records and sleeves were a bit rough. The prices ran the gambit but overall we’re a bit inflated for my liking. Owner was helpful, but could be a bit more selective with the stock.
Nice old style used record store. They do have a few new issues but it is first and foremost a used retailer. Records are not in sleeves for the most part so many have wear from shoppers thumbing through them. Prices are ok. Some good bargains and some a bit over priced. If your looking for some lost treasure you might want to check it out.
Store is very messy and used records are usually pretty beat with laughable asking prices. Owner has a major attitude like people owe him something for existing. He has no sense of building community and is kind of a jerk. I try to spend money here but dealing with the owner is not worth it. If you’re gonna support a local record store I’d advise checking out Bob at Vinyl Revolution so you can talk to someone that is actually passionate about music and knows his records.
I guess it depends on what you’re looking for but this place doesn’t hit it for me. Prices are high – especially on the “collectible” records. Which BTW are kept separately from the jackets so if you want to look at something, you have to ask. They seem nice enough but it doesn’t wow me.
If it weren’t for the fact that I traveled more than 2 hours to visit Monterey and then spent 2 hours looking through the store, I wouldn’t have given a dime of my money to this shop. I have never encountered another human being with such a lack of common decency as the owner of this record store.
8. Music Zone
Address: 3112 Del Monte Blvd, Marina, CA 93933 , Monterey County , California , United States
It was nice! Music Zone use to be really great back in the 90s it had great punk rock CDs in the year 2000 .
always like coming here as the store has good variety. also, really nice and helps me out when I would like to make a request.
They have eryyything here
This store has a wide variety of CD’s, cassettes, and vinyl records to choose from. And while the selection is great, I felt as if me and my aunt were ignored by the owners and/or workers in this store. It felt as if they didn’t even know we were even there and did not even mention anything as simple as a hello or anything. They were simply too busy talking with others about other things. It confuses me since others who entered the store were greeted upon entering, but me and my aunt were not acknowledged at all. Me and my aunt ended up leaving without buying anything, but that shouldn’t prevent you from checking out their store, there is a great selection of music there, I just did not like the experience that we had.
Cool Hand Luke is the best. Patience and an eye for detail and many years of musicianship has given him a vast range of experience and knowledge. check him out for sure.
Great tech! Fast response, quick turnaround. Great cat to know!
Luke is awesome!!!
He has done extensive work on all three of my basses.
Practically built the gold bass for me. Setting the neck. Installing pups, pots, wiring, sheilding, tuners, bridge and everything else to make it THUMP.
Took my 2010 Fender American Deluxe from a 18v preamp to a passive V/V/T setup along with Nordstrand pups. Had a little touch of a buzz at the 14th fret on the D & G strings that was barely noticeable. It really bothered Luke so much that he was determined to fix it. He fixed it by realizing that the strings I was using were (45-105) a tad too light for the neck. Fender specs confirmed this and the buzz is gone with a 50-110 set installed.
My #1 has had new pups, pots and just about everything else done to it by Luke.
All three are killer!!!
Thanks Luke!!!!
10. Jonathon Lee Music
Address: 930 Heacock Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Monterey County , California , United States
