Premium music shops of Ridgemark: Our Top-13 selection

What a selection and thier programs for new students are great

They are awesome!

Always friendly staff. I’m able to find the products I need. I have a pianist and a saxophone player in the family. Great store!

I completely trust these guys with my guitars. Caleb has done incredible set up and repair work for me for years. I play aggressively and my guitars stay in tune perfectly. He’s a musician as well and understands how to make guitars perform at their best.

Has a huge stock of woodwind instruments and accessories. They have it all, and it makes shopping for all the things my kids need for their band instruments that much easier!

When dealing directly, the gentleman at the counter was cool. However, overall customer service could improve. I came into the store and stood second in line behind a customer who needed some repairs on 2 instruments. No big deal, that is what they do. I think though to be efficient they may want to ask if anyone in line has an item they want to pay for quickly and leave. Instead, the string replacement proceeds with folks in line. After that repair was done I walked up assuming to be next. Nope, instead another customer was motioned to go ahead of me because they were in the store first. Not in line first, but in the store browsing first. Never knew until now this is how it works. Come in and browse and when you are done you go ahead of any customer in line so long as you came into the store before them. On the positive note, large inventory and staff was very helpful retrieving and holding my book in front for easy pickup access.

I recently rented a flute for my son. My son tried the flute at the store and it seemed ok. My son came home and practiced it and it had problem. We went back and they tried to repair. My son went to the class and the Flute teacher said that the Flute is leaking and asked us to return it. I rented it on Sat. and returned it on Monday. The still charged even though we mentioned that the flute was bad.

DO NOT RENT FLUTE FROM HERE. Also they charge very high for repair charges. I compared our son’s flute for repair between their shop and another shop. They were expensive by $200.
I will neve go back there.

Look no further, Camille is your new piano teacher! She’s patient, kind and really responsive to any questions. In only a few lessons, she’s inspired me to practice and to learn how to be a better piano player. I recommend her 100% 🙂

I’d like to share how I feel about my daughter’s piano learning experience with Ms. Camille. Ms. Camille helped her to prepare for CM level 9 exam, and my daughter passed the exam and got the state horner! I really appreciate Ms. Camille’s patient, support and encouragement. My daughter can feel the music more, and learned the way to practice and play more. BTW, we were taking all piano classes remotely (on line) due to COVID in the past year. It worked, and provide us more flexibility. We like it!

My son has been taking Piano lessons from Ms. Camille for more than 5 Years.

Ms. Camille is very encouraging, patient, cheerful and extremely well-organized.
Her teaching style includes a fair amount of pieces, along with music theory and sight reading. I am amazed by her attention to details and playing techniques such as scales, chord progressions, and other exercises.

She is always looking for the best interests of my son. He now enjoys playing beautiful classical pieces.

I highly recommend Ms. Camille’s Piano lessons to anyone looking to receive excellent music education.

Thank you for firing the nut case. If I lived near you I would give you my business.

This place is special. I can’t rave about it enough. Every guitar in there from $150-$24k has been set up great and plays super nice. It’s clear they are passionate about what they do and do a top notch job at it.

One example of this is when I was trying out a guitar I liked and noticed some buzzing on one of the strings. I brought it to the counter, asked if there was anything they could do about it. They took it to the back to inspect the problem and try to fix it. Comparing this place to somewhere like guitar center is really night and day. They truly earned my business.

The employees are great. The guitars are great. The vibe is great. This shop is great. I love it.

Good job!

Needed a Martin repaired. Good diagnosis and explained options. Guitar delivered 3 weeks before promised. Fair price. Job well done. I recommend them.

Great selection and teachers

Good guitar repair.

Shouldn’t have to discuss politics in a place like this. The people you choose to employ may have an affect on you’re business.

Their employee Parker Mankey is very, very disrespectful.

had a women yell at me when i walked in wearing a MAGA hat was a worker

Riyaaz Music Shop is an amazing store. They’ve moved location to a larger space, and the new store is incredible. I’ve been in many times not only to make a purchase of a fabulous, high quality Tabla set, but also to take lessons with the owner Happy. He was kind, patient, and really generous with his time. He really wanted to make sure I left with something I loved and went above and beyond to make sure I tried every single possible Tabla. He also helped me tune up the Tabla set before I left and gave me a tuning lesson. The store is currently only by appointment, but having the one on one time helped me feel less rushed and able to focus on what I wanted to get. I highly recommend this store as they also have great quality harmoniums as well! Definitely planning on making another purchase there soon.

Very personable and experienced! Loved the demonstration on the purchase of the tabla, reasonable pricing and fast service thank you so much

Riyaaz is a great place for instruments in the Bay Area. I recently bought a dhol and then rented one when I needed a second one. Monika and Happy were exceptional in providing their services!

I was looking for a hard to find digital piano that was out of stock everywhere. B street sold it to me without any markup even though this is high demand product. Really couldn’t be happier with being connected to the musical instrument that I was looking for.

Cheaper than Amazon and much better service

I emailed Gary looking for a discontinued Guild bass. Like many other instrument shops, B Street did not have one in stock. Luckily, Gary went the extra step and found a used model from a different (big name) store for me. This shows Gary focused on what I, the customer wanted while not looking for a quick sale. That’s true customer service. Thanks, Gary!

tiny tiny shop. sad to see they downsized and the people renting musical instruments etc. has declined over the years.

Friendly and they know their stuff.

Decent selection of drums, guitars, accessories, with very fair prices and helpful service. I’ll be visiting here first before the usual chain outlets, much better value.

Chill atmosphere and great service.

Worker was very knowledgeable and helpful.

Great service

Great stuff!!!

It was ok. Bought some guitar picks as I was down to my last 2 that were half worn. Heard some guitarist that was struggling and anemic in skills. An epidemic of laziness where people rely on Apps, not real practice.

None

Overpriced used music store better off at a real pawn shop, they try to rob you if you sell to them and if you buy from them.

Decent selection… Never really feel welcome here.

Clancy and his staff are very friendly and helpful.

Fantastic music store. They have a repeat customer in me. I enjoyed the honesty and dedication I was shown when purchasing an instrument.

Customer service was great and patient to answer all my questions and I found the proper instrument my child was asking for and what was best, and also tuned it to the right cords. I recommend strongly if looking to purchase any musical item. They’ve everything you’re need’n. Thank you

As of August 2019
Mr. C’s in no longer here, it’s now Clancy’s Music
I had a wonderful experience here and I recommend it for your instrumental needs, great prices, great customer service, thank you Clancy Ferril for all your help.

A fairly basic music shop. I buy reeds and little accessories for my sax – it does the job. Sometimes they’re out of stock, but that’s to be expected. Guitar-wise, they have enough. Instrument-wise, it’s a pretty basic selection. Good prices, but you get what you pay for. Lots of beginner Yamaha, nothing outstanding. Decent selection of music. The current person fronting the store is helpful and friendly, but doesn’t go out of their way for the customer, in my experience. That is definitely something that sets apart a good shop from a great one, so there’s that. Overall though, it’s a place that will do.

I’ll give the store the benefit of the doubt. It’s a new store and the guy who runs it is knowledgeable and nice. The selection isn’t vast but the prices are fair. Has a grand opening coming up soon with reps from Ibanez and others. Hopefully that helps him stock up!

Guitar

I wouldn’t rent anything from MR CS and give them your debit card or credit card number to have on file tell he trains his employees right.
I had two issues with them pulling more money out then should have with no calls made to me Ron took it upon himself to handle without calling me.
This last time he did two withdrawals and claim it was his employees fault but yet he said he did the second transaction himself. He said he reversed it but bank is saying no if it’s not back come Monday my bank will be going after him for both charges because he over charged me.
His customer service isn’t all that great.

Horrible customer service.

Very pleased with my order from Music Go Round! I found a sweet deal on their website for a PRS Archon tube amp. They were extremely responsive to any questions I had by email and it gave me a lot of confidence about purchasing from them. Just received the amp today and I was beyond impressed with their packaging job for shipping across the country to over here in Washington, D.C. They put a lot of effort in making sure this thing would get here without a scratch. Absolutely satisfied with my purchase and I’m already checking the website for my next piece of gear! You guys rock, thanks so much!

Good guitar, greater price and fast delivery. What more could you want?

Lots of cool gear.

Cool concept, kind of a high-end pawn shop for music equipment. Great selection of guitars and amplifiers. The staff was friendly and helpful. I look forward to returning

Nice store with plenty of selection

Got an amp.today can we test it

I purchased a casio keyboard for my son birthday last month! The keyboard did not last a month! Very disappointed it stopped working! I went into the store to let them know what happened and all they can say is sorry! Don’t ever purchase anything from them..

You know it was an awesome store when it first opened owners gotten greedy prices are too high now they’re marked up at least 30% more than what the normal prices used to be yep the owners got greedy I know he’s picking them squires up bulk dirt cheap and he’s selling them for about 50 away from full price and beware buyer beware all their used fenders are stamped they say used they stamped the head stocks with a metal stamp

Called to get shipping price on an amp and was told that they don’t like to ship amps and it’s in store pick up only. Really??? You won’t hear Sam Ash or Guitar Center say that. They are happy to ship and take my money.

Friendly and courteous!

Great selection of almost every instrument and accessories, from vintage guitars to modern midi controllers. The staff are super friendly and knowledgeable; special thanks to Sean as I begin my journey at drum lessons.

Very nice, helpful, staff who helped me to find what I was looking for.

Nice people good selection of items.

Limited selection. Stuck with a salesman I could barely understand.

Great little music shop. Lots of electric guitars, sheet music. Knowledgeable and friendly staff.

They’d rather make $50 or so than lose a customer and get a negative feedback. Not sure that’s a winning business strategy in the long run, but best of luck.

So, I’ve been in here twice since I’ve moved from East Bay to Rohnert Park last year. On both separate occasions the staff watches me like I’m going to steal every item in the store somehow. Very, very, very uncomfortable to look up and have every worker in the store staring at you from across the room, yet not one word of helpfulness or a ‘hi’ or anything. I wont be stepping foot in ‘this boy’s club again’.

Always happy with the service we receive

Friendly and helpful

The staff here at this establishment are very cordial and quick to help a customer in need. Very good business to go 4 any type of musical needs. Well at least instruments and fixing them as well.

Muy bonito

I have been going to White’s off and on for maybe 20 years? Some long-time staff are cool and extremely helpful, and I have also walked out when I was ready to lay down 7 to 800 bucks on a guitar because of the rude sales clerk they had at that time. They are the last of the local “mom & pop” music stores we’ve had in town over the years. I avoid Guitar Center with a passion and prefer to go to White’s when I can but, similar to Wal-Mart & Lowe’s compared to Ace hardware & your local department store (which there are few left), it’s hard to pay 5 bucks for an item you can get for 2 at the mega box store. Overall I like White’s but I have had a few bad experiences there (however the people who were rude seem to pass through, Guitar Center is almost ALWAYS rude as if it is corporate policy) in my experience.

Very knowledgeable. Direct!

Low inventory. Cluttered. Go to guitar center.

Be careful of the instrument rental contracts here, very shady. There are many other options to rent instruments from places nearby, and I would recommend going with a place like Guitar Center over this one if you want an honest and straightforward agreement. We were told by the owner, Robert, at a rental night that we pay monthly on the balance until the value of the instrument is paid off. When automatic payments stopped getting charged, we assumed it was because the instrument was paid off. After a year, we got a notice from a collections agency saying we owed almost $1000 in rental charges, without any prior notification from Whites music that there was still any kind of balance on the account. Whites music claimed that the reason charges had stopped was that the expiration date on the card expired, and that we would have needed to go in and state that we wanted to own the instrument or we would continue to be charged for renting. The owner, Robert, was very rude to us on the phone and hung up on us when we asked questions about the music contracts. Other workers there said the person in charge of sending out notifications of the account being past due had recently been fired and refused to say anything else about the notifications not being sent out. One worker, Joseph, stated, “Are you in the habit of not reading the fine print on contracts?” in response to inquiries. If you rent from this company, you need to read carefully and keep careful records. Their contracts are set up in a way to take advantage of people, with a stipulation in fine print saying that you have to take additional measures then what is told to you on first signing. Furthermore, they are not afraid to lie about their services or speak unkindly to customers. It is apparent that Robert sees his business as a way to make money and that is all. He does not care about his customers, and he doesn’t care to run an honest business.

Update: After reading the owner’s reply, you should know that they did not lose money on this deal. This is a shady comment in itself, because they are referring to a small fee that was paid to the collections agency for them taking on the account. White’s Music received a payment in rental fees of over $400 from myself and the trumpet was returned to account for the other fees. They made hundreds of dollars as a result of this deal, not including the value of the trumpet which they can now rent out again. The owner also mentions the contract continuously as a reason why it is okay to behave the way they did. My dilemma has, and continues to be, that I received no notification of any late fees before being sent to collections. This dilemma was never responded to and the owner did not make up for this oversight. This company did not go out of it’s way to help me with this matter. They took a lot of money from me and did it in a dishonest way. If you notice, the owner makes no mention of hanging up on me, being rude, or the comment made by the employee about how I should have read the fine print on the contract more carefully. This business believes that it is established and it’s long-standing history with the community can make up for poor practices, and that as long as something is written into a binding contract, they can swindle people however they want. Just because this company once had an honest reputation in years past does not mean it continues to be that way.

I ordered a piano book from this store and was told it would be there in two days. When I called to see if it was in I was told to call back. Well it’s been about 10 days and no book. when I called to ask about it the guy said still not in,.when I said do I need to go somewhere else to get it, the jerk says sure we’ll just cancel your order. Thanks a lot for wasting ten days of my life and now my granddaughter has to go to piano practice two weeks in a row without the supplies she needs!

I have received excellent customer services and a beautiful top line digital piano from this store. Thanks to Bozkurt’s knowledge and patience, i decided on the beautiful Kawai CA 99 with the store promotion price! I am very grateful and excited, can’t wait to start my piano journey!

I visited this wonderful piano store in San Jose. I was helped by Mr. Li. I really enjoyed my experience as he was very knowledgeable and the store was beautifully organized. I was originally looking for a Kawai upright piano, but they had a good deal on a Kawai baby grand.
Kudos !

My coworker at Google purchased a Kawai CA-98 hybrid piano from this store. He recommended me to visit them when I was searching for a piano. I purchased a Kawai NV-10 Novus from Ming Li who made my experience vey pleasant.

Has pianos and lessons.

Limited selection of piano and the staff was not rushing customer out even with appointment.

Not a happy place. After visiting another store, these guys were not as bad as I first thought.

Bozkurt switched a customer’s Brand NEW piano for a used Floor Model piano and told me “DELIVER IT TO THE COSTUMER AND DONT SAY ANYTHING”… While I was working there as a Delivery Driver I noticed his tricks to get over on customer’s a save money. When ever you buy a piano MAKE A REQUEST FOR THE NEW PIANO SERIAL NUMBER. Dont get Ripped Off.

Didn’t get to go here as much as I would have liked, but they were nice when we did. Moved down to gilroy for the remodel.

Closed as of 10/31/2015
No clue where they went

Typical overpriced local Music Store. Punk, head banger kids working there, who could care less about waiting on customers. SInce they are moving to Gilroy and have to compete with Guitar Center they won’t last. So I won’t have to go there anymore in desperation.

Sad to see they are going out of business.

brien is the best tech ever…he set up three of my guitars and each one now has perfect touch and is so easy to play…thanks..bill ropple ,north highlands

Always been a great location with plenty of parking. Staff is always helpful and knowledgeable. I’ve come here for myself many times and now I visit for my kids. It’s a really great place to have around.

Staff are very helpful and friendly. I bought a viola from online, but the school music teacher does not know how to tape it. (use tape to label the notes at neck) so I called around. A lady from Northridge Music spent 20 minutes to tape and tune my viola for free even I bought from somewhere else. I also called the store a couple of times, they always pick up the phone quickly and answer my questions.

This store is a small business, so they need use the spaces well. So with that, the score “very good” really means best in their situation.

It’s OK. Not a huge selection of instruments and the lessons are pricy. I had high hopes for this place because there isn’t a great music store in the close area and this place is missing the opportunity to be great.