Danche is old school but he is a true artist and Master Craftsman. He understands musicians and how important their instrument is to them. He can fix almost anything with strings and wood, and turns repairs around in record time. His shoppe has a nice selection of guitars, amps and other related gear and you can take guitar and eukelele lessons here too. Every time I go in I am greeted by his golden retriever and some days his cat makes an appearance too. All in all Danche is cool, so be cool while you’re at Danche.
Best guitar store, awesome selection!! Very nice and helpful staff
Wonderful shop with a personal touch
This was just a tragic experience… The gentleman was very nice and said my guitar would be ready by Saturday/Sunday. I said I’d love it if it were ready on Saturday because I was singing kids songs in the morning Sunday. I’m sure it WAS ready Saturday, but unfortunately the woman responsible for calling me did not do so correctly, as I received no message or missed calls. When I checked in on Wednesday, the woman over the phone said that she did call me and that I didn’t check my messages. I informed her that I did check, but there was no message. Rather than apologizing or taking responsibility for misdialing or simply forgetting, she responded annoyed, “check again, because I did call and you do have a message.” I hung up and went ahead to check all of my missed calls and messages… Nothing. When I arrived shortly after in the store, there was no mention of it and no attempt at responsibility.
My kids enjoyed the friendly dog and my guitar is fixed by the nice gentlemen. Unfortunately, I won’t be coming back to this store because the woman was unnecessarily condescending and stubborn.
what he lacks in person to person customer service skills, he makes up for with quality work. this man can bring dead guitars back to life. he can fix ANY stringed instrument.
prices reasonable to high, but worth it.
friendly and cute dog too!
I paid $65 to have a brand new Squire Telecaster set up. This is a fair price and he did a great job. It was ready when he said it would be.
Can’t rate the store because I couldn’t get in. My friend had late bday plans and wanted to get him a present so I wanted to come here. Got here at 6:20 and the door was locked. Drove back past it and saw the guy so bennifit of the doubt he went to the bathroom but no sign or anything. Very frustrating.
The man that runs this store is incredibly rude. I went in there on the phone with my fiance because I was planning on getting her a guitar possibly and I enjoy helping local businesses and he came up to me saying “oh you just gonna finish your call in here?” and I replied with “well I’m on the phone and looking at guitars and thinking about maybe getting one” and he then said how would I like it if he came in my HOME and finished a call and I honestly was so taken aback by how absolutely rude and disrespectful he was being to me as someone who literally just said I was looking into buying a guitar and wasn’t being in any way loud or disruptive on my phone. I came back during one of my breaks because I work across the street from him and I said how I didn’t appreciate how rude he was being to me over being on the phone and he went on a whole tirade about how it was disrespectful to be on the phone in his store…not even being loud on the phone in his store…he said it was disrespectful to just be ON THE PHONE in his store. I told him how ridiculous that was that no other store on this street cares about you being on the phone some even let you bring your dog into the store. He had no signs posted that said anything about not being on your phone in the store and was BEYOND rude and I will never give him any business again and encourage everyone who reads this to not give him business either.
Chill dudes but….I got a terrible set up on my bass. Literally didn’t set it up as I asked them to and I couldn’t get it back to my proper tuning afterwards. Also for some reason it was like 50% more expensive than quoted? I am kind of a guitar noob and don’t know much about these things so I didn’t understand why my bass sounded so bad afterwards and wasn’t bold enough to demand a refund/rework 🙁
Know your stuff if you’re coming in here cause they don’t go out of their way to help/communicate.
3. Kagan and Gaines Music Co., Inc
Address: 7655 Roosevelt Rd, Forest Park, IL 60130 , River Forest , Illinois , United States
top notch repair, great customer service. they treat your guitar like it’s your baby. and they treat their customers with respect.
Beautiful store and friendly staff, fixed my guitar immediately!!
The place to go in the area as an upright bass player, or really any musician in general. It’s very clear that they genuinely care about their customers and will go out of their way to make sure you are happy. I was on a tight budget for a midrange bass and they went out of their way to make sure I was getting exactly what I wanted at an extremely fair price, including setting up multiple basses with my preferred string and letting me keep one at home for awhile before paying. They also let me take it back a few times to make adjustments to make sure the setup perfectly tailored my needs. I expected to just get a decent plywood but ended up with a caved top romanian bass I love due to their helpfulness and flexibility.
Don’t go to Guitar Center or play russian roulette buying online, go support this local shop. I’m 45 minutes out and it’s well worth it.
45 dollars for an on the spot (30 min) electric guitar restring, minus the price for the strings, is a little steep, folks. I appreciate the good work, but I can get the same treatment for a lot less at A Sound Education off Ogden.
I gave this place a bad review after dealing with a younger employee But when the manager was alerted to the situation (A few days later) it was dealt with fairly. Kagan and Gains has a long time reputation in their neighborhood of being the first choice for musical lessons of any instrument and Fair pricing on instruments and accessories. It may not be the best place to shop for a new guitar But they can handle all your needs afterwords. I recommend them for all your strings, Guitar cases, Band instruments, ect. You will find all of them are of good quality and pricing.
I have had great success with Kagan.& Gaines..
Since my daughter started Violin back in 2006
They were able to help me with a 1/2 size , a 3/4 violin and now my daughter is in a full size French made violin.
Excellent service and knowledge of violins.
They have helped my daughter become the great young violinist she is, as this is where it all started for my Alexis.
Having a great selection of violins to choose from.
I hate to agree with the user below who complained of a dishonest experience, but we are going through the same. I’ve read all of the other 5 star reviews and notice a pattern: it seems that for violin and stringed instruments, this is a great place. For renting brass/woodwind instruments via their monopoly with the school districts, they are subpar and dishonest. We should have just purchase a used instrument which would have resulted in us obtaining a superior instrument at, I am not exaggerating, 1/4 the total cost. We just had to call them to stop processing our credit card when we noticed we had been paying an abnormally long time on my daughter’s VERY USED, VERY DENTED saxophone (4 years!). We were “reassured” that, coincidentally, they were just going to call us as well as our payments happened to be completed. Yet they have no records of all the payments that we made, and are asking us to provide payment records going back to 2017 to “prove” how much we have paid in total. Luckily for us, we can easily provide them as they have all been made on the same credit card for years. We are also disputing the amount owed as our daughter’s original “nicer” model saxophone broke, was taken in for repairs, and she was given a loaner, student-model, older and dented sax. Her other one was never repaired and instead she’s just had this one forever. We were told at the time it would be “worked out.” Now they want us to pay the same amount as they were going to charge for the initial instrument to keep this replacement instrument permanently, as they also claim to have NO record that any switch was ever made or that the original saxophone was ever brought in for repairs. Typically, I endeavor to support neighborhood shops, but not when their record keeping is straight out of Mayberry. This is taking a lot of our time and energy to sort out, and we’ve ultimately laid out over $2300 to own an instrument that I have found at multiple music stores online for around $600 and under. We understand that renting the own is typically more expensive, but this feels like being swindled in every way. Extremely disappointed. My husband has been playing music for over 40 years – he also used to play saxophone – and his mother is a professional classical musician. He is used to dealing with all sorts of music shops and has never had an experience like this one.
4. TR Music & Voice Lessons
Address: 118 Forest Ave, River Forest, IL 60305 , River Forest , Illinois , United States
Miss Olivia is a delight! My son and I really look forward to each class, which combines what is recently learned and ways to build on it. You will love the variety of music and instruments. Prepare to participate with whatever voice you have and enjoy the ride!
My sons love Ms. Olivia’s class! I even hear my 1yo singing tonal patterns from class throughout the week!
My family has been attending music classes with Ms. Olivia for about 5 years, and we couldn’t recommend her more highly. Joyful Noise offers an opportunity to introduce your little one to music, get out of the house and play, and socialize with other families. The format is fun, engaging, and hands-on. My kids love experimenting with new instruments, “bubble time”, and seeing their friends each week. Ms. Olivia’s love for music and children really shines through – seeing her smiling face is a highlight of our week! There are so many kids’ activities in our area and it can be hard to pick, but if you only sign your baby or toddler up for one thing, this should be it. My family will always be grateful to Ms. Olivia for encouraging our kids to love and appreciate music!
I decided to take piano at age 49! Bella Angel is proof you can do it at any age. Ellen is a patient, talented, and very knowledgeable instructor! I highly recommend lessons with Bella Angel!
Ms.Ellen is a great teacher!! Definitely recommend for anyone wanting to learn music.
I’ve been taking lessons from Ellen at Bella Angel for years. Not only does she have a wealth of knowledge but she’s also so kind and encouraging. I would recommend Bella Angel no matter your experience level.
7. Austin Music Center
Address: 6815 W North Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302 , River Forest , Illinois , United States
Friendly staff, convenient hours, and good inventory!
Great people
great rentals! easy to get what you need, and they repair your rental for free if it’s not a huge issue. big thumbs up 🙂
Great deals
Austin Music Center is a great neighborhood music store. It’s like the
Old school ma&pa stores of years gone
by. It has all things musical rite n our
Neighborhood. U no convenience ha ha
And real friendly people 2 accommodate your needs,musically that is. Go check it
Out 4 urself, don’t just take my word 4 it.
Althought u could; my word is better than
Gold Pepople!!! just kiddin. The corner of
Austin&North Ave is where u’ll find this
jewel. Peace b wit y’all. Bye
I have had some good service from them in the past, but recently I have had a few problems, but nothing to big. I found cheaper ways to get the same thing I get from here but I still come for them for repairs and such.
Cheap instruments, overpriced in my opinion.
8. The Old School Records
Address: 413 Des Plaines Ave, Forest Park, IL 60130 , River Forest , Illinois , United States
This really is what old school record shops were like. Peter is my guy, he’s got a great range of product and the best clearance rack in Chicago.
Great record shop. Friendly staff and a diverse selection of records. They also keep up with new releases well.
Good selection, but some records that were labeled “very fine” were definitely not very fine. While I was there, I found a dog bite affecting the first four tracks on a used LP by The Police. They were asking full price, as if the dog bite didn’t affect playback or the value of the record.
Yesss, I Like This Place With Old School Music!
We drove 30 miles for 43.00 bucks.
Awful
Okay selections but not a friendly experience. I spoke when entering but wasn’t greeted back. Wasn’t asked if I needed help or if I was looking for a certain record. Also I stood in line waiting to be acknowledged but the cashier was carrying a conversation with a person that had already made a purchase didn’t acknowledge me at all so I sat down my records and left. Glad to see others had a better experience
⛔️WARNING ⛔️Steer clear..The guy who runs the place is not well. Stuff all over the place broken 45s on the floor. It smells bad in there . Also he can’t find anything in his own store.. ⛔️WARNING ⛔️
Fretless Music was hands down the best vendor of our entire wedding. We hired a trio for our wedding day (ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner-party reception) and couldn’t have been more impressed. SO many guests told us they were thrilled to have live music. Stephanie was extremely communicative leading up to the wedding and just one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. The musicians were professional, prepared, and they executed the wedding day flawlessly for us. I would recommend these musicians to anyone and everyone.
I hired Fretless (string quartet) for my wedding ceremony, and they were amazing! As a musician, it was so important to me to set the tone with a live string ensemble and they delivered. Stephanie was incredibly responsive, thorough, and easy to work with. 10/10.
As a wedding planner, I can say that Fretless is a fantastic vendor!
My couples love working with Stephanie, she ALWAYS glides into a wedding day with a smile, audio gear & instrument in hand ; before I know it, she is set up, the rest of the musicians arrive and music fills the air.
Fretless is one of my top rated vendors by couples as well when we have our post wedding wrap up calls/meetings.
As an adult returning to music lessons after all this years ,I’m having such an amazing experience , rediscovering how healing music is to my busy life . The staff very professional ,encouraging . I specially enjoy attending the adult recitals.
I’ve been taking lessons as an adult student here for the last three months and it’s been a fantastic experience. Props to my teacher Natalia Bazzi. She’s wonderful. Highly recommended.
They never answered my phone calls or call me back again. I left a voicemail in the machine 8 months ago and I’m still waiting..!!
16. Boulevard Studio
Address: 1033 South Blvd, Oak Park, IL 60302 , River Forest , Illinois , United States
I am impressed with the quality of work done on a very neglected tenor sax. This instrument had rust and mold on it, the bell was flattened on one side and it needed full pads. The tech did a fantastic job in getting it cleaned up, reshaped and overhauled. Thank you!
These folks are dedicated to the community and to providing quality music education along with everything else.
Flatts and Sharpe has been an amazing experience for our daughter! The recent concert was amazing! We are so proud of her and thankful to the entire staff! Ricky you ROCK!!!
20. Smeltekop Repair
Address: 6920 Roosevelt Rd, Oak Park, IL 60304 , River Forest , Illinois , United States
I’ve lived in Berwyn my entire life, 62 of them and never went in this store until a few days ago.
I was walking by and this gentleman out front, I said to him I’ve been here my whole life and never came in here. He invited me in, gave me a tour and is full of knowledge. I was truly impressed and literally lost time.
I don’t play an instrument but hung on every word he said. A true professional. I’ve been back to say hi for now I’m glad I met him, I’ll consider Duane my new friend.
I just went service was great even for someone like me that don’t know about an instrument.
Love this cool local joint. Got a fair price for strings and restringing my guitar (I’m new). Cash only, but I’m good with that for local gems like Smeltekops.
