They worked on two of my mandolins and two of my bass guitars and did a fabulous job. The prices were very reasonable. I highly recommend checking them out.
John the best.
Superb spot for the hard to find string instrument or the impossible to find.
Great local music store. Got my first guitar from their old store when I was 13. Comfortable layout and helpful service. Ask John to fix your violin or if you’re looking to take up Uke/banjo.
4. Strawberry Hill Music
Address: 14 Commercial Blvd # 115, Novato, CA 94949 , Strawberry , California , United States
Wonderful place to buy a guitar! I was helped by Jason and he was adorable! Super bright and helpful.
Classic guitars and tube anps
Really cool place with a family-business-vibe. The people that run the shop are knowledgeable, fair and polite. I’ve been seeing these guys for years and they’ve always had a good selection of used instruments.
ギター大好きなリペアマンさんが親切に応対してくれます。おいてあるギターも面白い。今度は何か買おう！
Bad business ethics
6. Bananas At Large
Address: 1654 Second St, San Rafael, CA 94901 , Strawberry , California , United States
Great shop and they always help you out! One of the best music shops where they help you find exactly what you need, varied in quality and can fit in anyone’s preference and budget. Defenitlly even worth a window shop if your thinking of buying something for a loved one or looking into picking up an instrument for yourself.
Great customer service and selections on instruments is amazing. Keep up the good work!
I went to Bananas to pick up a ride cymbal and, potentially, a hi-hat stand for my Roland set. The staff said that I should bring in my hi-hat pedal and took my name and number for the cymbal. I haven’t heard anything from them since. Had fun playing on their display sets, but that wasn’t the reason I was there.
A bit pricey, but the staff is knowledgeable and willing to help.
As a loyal customer and collector for nearly 25 years I prefer to support smaller independent guitar shop whenever possible.
They stand behind every guitar and amp they sell. They price match as well. Why not 5 stars? They are not prompt on paying you for selling used gear. Or notifying you of status of one’s used gear.
Friendly, knowledgeable and helpful sales folks!!
Nick at Santa Rosa Bananas is most accommodating
Gone are the days of meeting up at a music store, talking shop, testing out gear, making connections. The experience I had has turned me off to ever come back. I’ve heard that the Santa Rosa location is a bit more friendly, but I don’t know if it’s worth the drive.
Pretty cool location (although parking is terrible) with a medium-large inventory. However, the staff comes across as arrogant and elitist, which was confusing as they weren’t able to answer a few basic questions.
The biggest bummer was they had a couple of items that I would have picked up (including a cab and a boutique pedal), but the attitude of the sales staff immediately changed my mind.
Long story short, if you’re thinking of stopping by, just go to Guitar Center. You’ll get the same level of service and ineptitude.
Edit:
First off, I was the seller, not the buyer. I wanted them to feel safe with the transaction, so I told them to find a local music store. Neither of us had been to Banana’s before. I looked online, and it seemed like a cool shop, and the site said all the right things. Even looked at the inventory to see if there was anything that caught my eye. I’ve done transactions as both seller and buyer, plenty of small music stores around the Bay Area have been accommodating. Most of them know we’re there for 5-10min, and the most important part, we learn about a new shop that supports local musicians.
At the time I came in, there were at 3 staff members standing behind registers doing nothing, not to mention 2 more sitting up in what I believe was the keyboard section. When we first came in, my buyer purchased 2 cables, we had already discussed purchasing items to support Bananas. At no point did the staff recommend we come back later, The attitude from what I assume was a Manger, was uncalled-for, as was the “joke” about taking 30% of the sale. Times are incredibly rough, especially for working musicians. I don’t consign my gear because I can’t afford to lose a 30% cut to another greedy business.
You also neglect to mention that after the transaction in the parking lot, the buyer and I went back into Banana’s to take a look at the inventory. Strange move for someone who was only “here to test this amp” and “ran outside to write” my review. The fact that you say you reviewed footage, but neglect to mention that we both came back into the store, and walked around for at least 15 min. It’s weird and disturbing you’re exhausting so much energy tearing down another person.
The reason we came back in was the buyer had a few questions while we had our transaction, so I wanted to show him a few things. I did have questions about a guitar cab, and a staff member came over. It was a unique piece, I was curious. Your “professional working musicians and producers” salesman had no idea, and did not spend more than 1 min with us before just walking away. (I looked it up, and it is a pretty cool little cab, it’s a pity your staff can’t do 5 min of research) The fact that you need to gush about your “over $2.5 million in inventory”, when I stated in my review that you have a “medium-large inventory”, sounds a bit braggadocio. You have a wide variety of stuff, that’s cool. What’s not cool is shunning the musical communities that keep you in business.
The last item I pointed out to the buyer was in the used pedal display. I had just gushed over how great they were when used in a signal chain, and the only thing your staff added was “yeah, we’ve got a lot of used pedals”. Didn’t ask if we wanted to test it out, didn’t pull it out to show us, didn’t let us know if it had a cool history, or even the price. I had pushed the buyer that if he saw one, he should pick it up, but at that point the damage was done. Your response oozes of elitism and condescension, I can see where your staff gets it from.
On the parking, there were not 30 spots in the area I parked. If you have additional parking, I did not see or know about it (again first time here) but if you do, I apologize for that.
Terrible store if you play drums. Very little stock, super disorganized. They can always order things, but might as well use Amazon at that point.
Edit: the store sends out a text if you make a transaction to leave a review. Apparently if you aren’t happy with your experience they will attack you and your own place of business. Classy guys. You solicit my opinion and then get aggressive because you didn’t like my answer. Bummer that those 5 transactions we really small, because they’ll definitely be the last ones you get from me.
while the service was nice and merch was amazing, i left feeling fustrated and overwhelmed. the salesman i worked with damaged a $375 pedal by plugging in the wrong cable. pedal worked fine before my visit … in fact before he touched it (while at the store) it worked fine. he gave me a deer in headlights expression when he and i noticed that the pedal no longer worked. literally within10 min. i was testing the strymon big sky and el cap and their power supplies … long story short beware guys.
7. Frisco Bay Music
Address: 617 Spring St, Sausalito, CA 94965 , Strawberry , California , United States
