Spent time playing guitars with a friend. Staff was super kind and helpful, no problems at all. Will definitely be visiting again.
Nice and neat place.
The ladies were helpful and nice.
They were very knowledgeable and helpful. I highly recommend them for all of your musical needs!
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.
Great selection. Very friendly and helpful.
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?
2. Monarch Music
Address: 568 Lighthouse Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Pacific Grove , California , United States
Assessment: ★★★★★
5/5 based on 1 evaluations.
Reviews
Michaela is a wonderful teacher and I would recommend her to anyone trying to learn piano!
3. Vinyl Revolution
Address: 309 B, 309 Forest Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Pacific Grove , California , United States
I love to come visit this shop each time I come down to Monterey. I can usually find something of interest every time I come.
Great selection
Very good selection of jazz, soundtracks, classic rock. Prices are very reasonable, especially considering it is right in Cannery Row. I try and stop here whenever I’m in the area.
I really am indifferent to this place. They have a lot of great records but it’s not as organized as I’d like and as big as the jazz section is you would think they would have a more varied collection of genres but it’s pretty bland. The person behind the counter was as indifferent to me as i was to the store. I walked out without spending any money because it just didn’t seem worth it. Their DVDs were pushed into a corner and not organized at all.
Small but well curated offerings.
Good selection, but Overpriced in my opinion.
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.
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.
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.
5. Dominic Camany Music Academy
Address: 705 Lighthouse Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Pacific Grove , California , United States
I took guitar lessons with Brian and he was the best! He was super easy to learn from and I had a great time working with him!
Both my son and daughter have had great experiences at Dominic Camany Music Academy. My daughter a few years ago with guitar lessons and more recently, my son with Jeremy teaching him piano. Jeremy is an excellent teacher. Clearly a brilliant pianist himself, he is also very approachable. Understanding of the challenges of beginner students but quickly recognizes where his students need his help and where they shine. My son has picked up music and piano quickly thanks to Jeremy.
We love Jeremy, my son’s piano teacher. My son is a “non-traditional” student with some learning challenges but also has a lot of music talent. Jeremy has been flexible while still helping him master difficult passages and pieces. We feel so fortunate to have found someone who understands that forcing a type of instruction or music on some students is *not* teaching. Thanks to Dominic and Jeremy!
6. Emma Bartlett Music Studio
Address: 215 Grand Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Pacific Grove , California , United States
Emma is a fantastic piano teacher. She does a great job encouraging her students to advance their skills while making it fun and age appropriate. We are very thankful for her instruction and the community she creates with her students.
We tried four different piano teachers over two years, with my daughter making very slow and sporadic process. Then we found Emma Bartlett, and immediately my daughter was motivated to practice and learning technique and theory at a phenomenal pace. We only wish we’d found her sooner!
I feel that I am in good hands with Emma. She is highly professional and pays close attention to detail. As I’m learning to play the piano, she is patiently coaching me on all of the correct fundamentals.
The staff here are great and really helpful, there’s also an incredibly sweet poodle mix therapy dog you can go in and visit named Austin who is an absolute treat. I bought an electric guitar from them and they knocked a decent amount of money off the asking price and threw on some extras that made it such an amazing experience. Don’t miss out on this gem. At least go in to see Austin and then decide if you need new instruments or some gear!
The best music store in Monterey County.
John helped me out in a pinch! Great guy, prime location, VERY nice equipment in stock. And Harry’s a good dog. 🙂
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.
Not huge array for piano/keyboard. But great guitar selection.
Great atmosphere in the store, but I felt like I shouldn’t have had to pay $22 for guitar strings…
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.
Sells used guitars for new price. Very rude owner, not just to me but other customers/coworkers as well. He isn’t always at the shop and doesn’t trust his employees to make sound selling and buying decisions when he’s not there, so doing business with them is difficult. Ragged on my guitar saying it wouldn’t go for $800 but when I took it off consignment the price tag read $949. I got an angry call about taking it off consignment.
Owner left a really sour taste even before the angry call. Not coming back.
Cool guitars though!
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.
10. Jonathon Lee Music
Address: 930 Heacock Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Pacific Grove , California , United States
I just walked in and was welcomed by Kurt, would love to spend more time and a few drinks w this gentleman.
He’s very intelligent on making instruments play their best and adapting them to do so.
Kurt did a great job of overhauling the Selmer Series 9 clarinet I purchased on eBay. I had gotten a great deal on the horn, but it had been terribly neglected by the previous owner, and arrived in an unplayable state. I had hoped to at least be able to get a note out of it to see if it had a decent tone, so I could decide if it would be worth the money to fix it. Unfortunately, the horn was in such bad shape it wouldn’t even stay together. Since I’d had Kurt work on another clarinet in the past, and he’d done a good job, I decided to take a leap of faith and see if he could do anything with this one. I suspect he fixed it better than it was when new because at one point he’d completed most of it, and asked me to give it a try. It sounded fine, but he thought he could improve the tone by making some adjustments to the tone holes. He asked for my approval for the procedure since this wasn’t something we’d talked about beforehand, and he would need to physically remove a small amount of the wood to do this. When I returned to pick it up after he completed the procedure, the tone had improved significantly, and I didn’t need to blow as hard to achieve it. This was several years ago, and he’s fixed a few minor issues since at very reasonable cost- usually while I wait. I’m writing this review now because I only just found it was possible to write a review.
I’d like to add that Kurt and I play in band together. I knew he was a good player, but last semester I found out how good. He ordinarily plays bari sax in band, but last semester he was a featured soloist on alto sax. The kind of piece where the soloist plays at the front of the stage, and the band is merely the accompaniment. I told him after the concert that it was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard from a saxophone.
We loved this shop. The owner was very helpful and knowledgeable about many kinds of music. An accomplished flutist, he also gave our daughter a tutorial lesson on the flute. We bought our daughter’s latest flute from this shop.
Kurt is flute knowledgeable and that is remarkable. His experience lies in Saxophones as he is an experienced player.
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.
Don’t get trapped in a 2 hour conversation you won’t want to have.
