I take voice lessons with Luana. She makes it so much fun. Never thought I could sing before working with her.
The salesman was very informative and helpful
Excellent guitar setup and repair services. Good selection of instruments for sale.
Very competent. Your instruments are safe in their hands, but like many of the music shops around here they aren’t super responsive. If you can get in when they’re open they’re great.
Really great, great prices. Excellent collection of acoustics.
I take voice lessons here. Expect a bit of bleed from one practice room to the next. Nice display of instruments. Very friendly & knowledgeable proprietor.
Unfriendly customer service. wouldn’t let me try a amplifier, and told me if that if I had the $1500 then he would let me try it. I have never experienced this at any guitar store. I have shopped here in the past and it has always been a mediocre experience. the man who works behind the counter always has a mopey attitude and their products are usually priced over normal retail. Spend your money somewhere else (Sylvan Music, Midtown Guitar Company).
2. Seacliff Plaza Store
Address: 219 State Park Dr, Aptos, CA 95003 , Seacliff , California , United States
You can’t say nothing bad about this place. Old school everything ! Would hate to see someone try to upscale it.. It just wouldn’t fit like it does now.
Good service
Get your fishing bait here. Fresh nightcrawlers.
Pretty good local store conveniently located right up the street from the beach
This is a useful store. You can usually find what you need. Some of the employees are pretty cool.
I docked one star since they can’t seem to keep Phish Food in stock for DH.
I like soo visit please sea cliff plaza store thanks
Store is a rip off! Half & half as well as other dairy is usually bad, even if before the date. Avoid going here at all cost.
Don’t pay the “minimum” CC fee – you don’t have to…
This store has been essentially stealing small bits from customers using CCs without disclosing fee amounts up-front for some time now. They demand a minimum spend of 10$ (which is for the most part illegal in CA, and especially illegal when failing to post the fee amount; see civil code 1748.1) and then they often charge you WITHOUT telling you before the transaction – they also don’t disclose the amount to be charged. So, after ongoing instances where our family had even met the minimum and began notice these extra chargers appearing, and having a undisclosed fee happen today, I decided to confront them face-2-face, show the legal codes and share information asking them stop… Sadly, I can’t even imagine how many people have been hustled here.
FWIW, we all for our local business thriving amongst the challenges of having to navigate the blurry lines of ethical behaviors to do so, but there’s solid line between honesty and stealing, especially in transaction models where people that don’t spend “enough” get penalized…
Excerpts of legal code: “No retailer in any sales, service, or lease transaction with a consumer may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means.”
“if a merchant charges a credit or debit card surcharge or offers a cash discount, but does not fully disclose this to customers prior to their committing themselves to the goods or services, or if the merchant does not clearly explain its policies regarding debit and credit cards, the merchant may be violating California law.”
Good store- lame workers. I’ve gone at different times- different days and they’re all lame. Like, ok~ I’m not trying to be your “bestie”, but you could at least not make my existence feel like an inconvenience. Thanks.
Great park! Our favorite walking area. We’re going to try the fish and chips this weeken…Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5pm. There is a vendor that parks his catering truck next to the entrance of the cement ship.
Awesome visitor center with tons of interesting history of Seacliff and the nearby areas. Also has a great gift shop.
Visitor Center is great. You can watch video about S.S. Palo Alto and look at it through the telescope. Give shop is great too. People who work here are nice and helpful.
Great beach! Very easy access and kind rangers. When stacked up against the others in the area it’s a bit more run down but still very gorgeous. Clean water and plenty of space.
5. Union Grove Music
Address: 1574 Soquel Dr ste g, Santa Cruz, CA 95065 , Seacliff , California , United States
All the guys and gal is always friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Every time I go here they have been very helpful, resourceful, and honest. I’ve gone in a couple of times wanting one thing and asked them about it, but they recommend something that will work better for what I’m looking for and they’ve always be right about why the other item is better than the one I wanted.
Lovely folks there at UGM, now an online store only, who are ready to answer all your questions and help you with anything you may want to purchase from their web store. You can even set up an appointment to test out any of the many high end guitars they have for sale. Best place in town (and out) to get a Martin!
They’re really nice and knowledgeable. Got a mic stand for my Theremini and they throw in an adapter for nothing! Definitely will do my future purchases here, it’s local and it’s better than online shopping in every sense.
Very knowledgeable staff. The prices are a little higher than other stores around for the same item, but they also have more higher end items. Almost exclusively guitars, very little of any other instrument.
The kids loved it!
Staff is always friendly. Wish there was a little more selection.
Came in with a fat wad of cash to by a new guitar and the older woman that is always there walked up to me and said, “If you aren’t going to buy anything you shouldn’t be in here.” My guess is she assumed that, based on my appearance, I was just another 20 something about to play all the guitars and leave. This is was not the first, but it was the last time I received bad service there as I have never returned.
Look, I get it. You’re right in the middle of downtown where all the vagrants pass through, but the attitude has got to go. I used to occasionally stop in here whenever I needed strings, picks, etc. And every time I felt like I wasn’t welcome. Avoid like the plague
I called asking to hold a guitar I really liked a lot until I could get there THAT SAME DAY…they said ok, no problem, it is on hold only for me. When I arrived THAT DAY a salesman said they sold it THAT MORNING. I felt very disappointed.
6. The Starving Musician – Santa Cruz
Address: 1003 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 , Seacliff , California , United States
Know Dave for years. Starving has always been cool.
My grandson found the guitar of his dreams here after months of looking in the bay area! Rock On!!!
Muy bien Instruments
Good selection, good prices, the only catch–and you might like this kind of thing–is that there were so many people in there trying out instruments that you could hardly hear.
Great music store you’ll never know what you’ll find here prices are great
Starving musicians can’t afford this place. Some cool things on the shelf.
Honestly, if you’re a starving artist, you are not welcome here. The staff makes it very clear that they don’t care about the artists at all. I wouldn’t recommended this place to my worst enemy.
Decent selection, knowledgeable folk, calm environment. However, when looking at the effects pedals, I overheard an employee trash talking (I’m censoring myself) another employee who wasn’t even there to defend himself to a customer. Personally, I won’t/don’t put up with that. If you have a problem with someone, take it to your manager, not the customers. Very unprofessional. Ended up going to Guitar Showcase instead and purchased my new player series there.
I won’t be back. I do not accept dealing with craptastic folk like that. I recommend training your employees properly rather.
Rasict employees mainly the guys the girl is cute and freindly
7. Sylvan Music
Address: 1521 Mission St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 , Seacliff , California , United States
Terrific shop for ukuleles, mandolins, and guitars — their vintage room has to be seen to be believed! Prices for instruments I’m knowledgeable about seemed very reasonable to me.
Great store. Been a musician for 25 years and can confirm this is a good store. Got my girlfriend a nice Martin that was the same price as guitar center and everywhere online. So, competitive pricing and nice stringed instruments and a helpful non pushy staff that answered all of my questions. I’ll go back for sure. They also threw in a few extra goodies because we got a decently expensive guitar.
This is one of the best music stores I have ever seen. Filled with beautiful production instruments as well as high-end Boutique instruments. They have a killer amp selection and a room full of vintage guitars that will make you drool. The staff are all intelligent helpful nice people. What’s not to like.
Super nice and my violin looks great with jts new strings
I rented a trombone here, it was a really nice name brand and worked very well. I never had to bring it in to repair, and over all an okay rental price. There was great customer service and I suggest going here.
It’s a music store
Not helpful with violin, violas, cellos. Not recommended for those looking for set ups or bow rehair.
The old guy with grey hair is RUDE and Stingy. T
I took my violin here for some repairs and was told that it would take about 2 weeks for the service. I agreed and waited an extra month, given the COVID issue. I did not receive a call so I called to check if it was ready. The owner who does the repair said that he hasn’t even gotten to my violin because he was working on other instruments. I asked why he did not call me to let me know of the delay. His response was, “If I had to call all the people to let them know, it would take the whole day!” and “Do you have a concert tomorrow that you need it?” This is just not acceptable and RUDE. The proper things to do was simply apologize and find a way to remedy your inability to complete the service you agreed to. I work in customer service and giving off excuses is the lamest and unprofessional thing to do. Sylvan made an agreement on an agreed upon time for the service to be done, and they did not fulfill that agreement. The fact that you don’t honor nor bother to call to update your customers, IS NOT RIGHT! The least you can do is apologize which you did not even bother to do.
overpriced instruments and bad service!
8. Bookmark Music
Address: 307 Forest Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 , Seacliff , California , United States
Nice and neat place.
The ladies were helpful and nice.
Spent time playing guitars with a friend. Staff was super kind and helpful, no problems at all. Will definitely be visiting again.
Bookmark is an actual small business run by by a real person, not a chain. It’s a lovely store and you’ll get the best and friendliest service possible. Tons of sheet music. Lots of expertise. I even found a clarinet Christmas tree ornament!
Great selection. Very friendly and helpful.
Great music selection for classical music. Friendly service.
Friendly place and, if you want a ukele, this is there placed to go.
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?
