I don’t usually do reviews, but this one felt really necessary.
Every experience I’ve had with these folks has been great.
I’ve had my son’s sax repaired, my sax repaired.
Heck I even had one of my son’s classmate’s sax repaired.
I’ve come in there and shot the breeze and test played the horn(s) to make sure the repairs were completed – and they were done, and done right.
I’ve seen them busy, and I’ve seen them “dead”.
I’ve never seen them rude.
See ya real soon.
Friendly staff, really good music instructors
My son gets piano lessons here and they are very professional and friendly.
It looks like the best place in the county to shop for musical equipment. I’ve never seen such a wide selection and very well displayed.
My friend has taken his instruments in here for servicing and he’s only said good things about them.
Got the strings needed.Thanks for the services. Few music books are missed.
This is one of the best places you can go for music lessons, I took guitar,bass and voice lessons here and it was an awesome experience. They don’t have a good selection of quality american made instruments, I don’t even think they sell gibsons.
For the last school yeari rented a trumpet for my son’s music class. At that time the tech was very helpful explaining the workings of the instrument. On 6/26/22 I returned the instrument and the tech, who was not the same person I rented it from, inspected the trumpet I guess to make sure all the movable parts were there and in working condition. And inspected it and inspected it. I asked him what what exactly was he looking for and he said there was a part missing. He then consulted with the more experienced tech who left with the instrument and came back and told him that all the parts were there and everything was fine. The first tech continued to insist that something was missing and I told him I did not appreciate him standing in front if me trying to fabricate a reason to charge me extra, demanded a return receipt and left. The other tech never interjected. I will not return to that store.
trumpet. I demansed
Watched me play like a vulture and made me feel uncomfortable, didn’t allow me to unlock the nut and fix the tuning on a guitar with a Floyd rose, the Tremolo arms on the guitars were taken off and after asking would not allow me to use one with the guitars, and selection was limited. Overall: horrible experience. Might as well go to any other store that allows you to try out the guitars how you normally would before you purchase them. Do not spend your money there.
Took my teenage daughter whose been playing for 2 years in to look at a possible new guitar while visiting her grandparents. We were instructed to NOT touch any guitars but to ask an employee to hand us what we were interested in touching. They had almost no employees available to do this. Never been in such an unwelcoming shop in my life. There are plenty other shops to spend $500 – $600 bucks in.
5. Music Etc
Address: 6005 Miley Rd, Plant City, FL 33565 , Thonotosassa , Florida , United States
My husband and I absolutely love Ms. Elaina and her teaching techniques. Our son has been having lessons with her for over 3 yrs and his progress is impressive!
Great personality and communication definitely going back.
Elaina is an amazing piano teacher. She makes learning the piano SO fun for my 5 year old. I am blown away how much my daughter has learned in such a small amount of time. Her passion for playing the piano transcends through her teaching. She has the perfect balance of patience and gentleness when teaching her youngest clients. Highly recommend! You will not be disappointed!
8. Redbox
Address: 9940 Rockhill Rd, Thonotosassa, FL 33592 , Thonotosassa , Florida , United States
I cant begin to describe how wonderfully amazing this music store is. Juan the manager answered all my question and helped me purchase the best violin I’ve ever heard! I have to tell you whoever hired Juan, knew what they were doing because Juan is 1 in a Million! I’m never going to any other music store and I advise others to do the same.
Where do I begin?!? I just love this place, the vibe,the welcoming staff not to mention some of the best prices in the city. I went there for a meet and greet for my son to introduce him to guitar lessons and ended up adding lessons for myself! I’m so excited for us both!
Vey helpful and friendly staff, good prices, good inventory.
Good customer service
This is a great little place with friendly helpful staff. While the selection is somewhat limited the pricing is decent and they do have a good variety for the space they have. I would definitely do business with them again.
Nice, small music store, friendly staff with a variety of guitar options. The location of the store however is atrocious as Regency Square Mall is a very poorly designed store layout and to make the situation worse they design engineers created a mall with such poor means of entering and exiting the facility that the patrons get the privilege of sitting in long lines (usually 30-40 minutes) just to get to the 2 main exit roads so you can sit through multiple light changes before you can actually get out of this nightmare. Love the store, recommend moving to a better location.
While the staff is friendly, they are completely unprofessional. They cancel classes the day before and sometimes the day of your lesson. I was told that it was because hiring of one particular teachers was “honestly a bad hire”, while their honestly was good to hear, it did nothing to help. I could not get them to understand a student cannot improve if they are not receiving lessons consistently, never mind the fact it is irritating to receive last minute calls that the teacher isn’t going be in for your scheduled lesson. This place is a complete joke.
Very bad experience with one of the music teachers named Donny Mayer, he start making fun of me on my 2nd class, very unprofessional calling me names like “Judas” and telling that I never going to learn how to play guitar, after I decided to try with someone else… they also make me pay $50 more to be able to cancel and stop my classes, of course classes that I never take and I never get my $ back, What a Waist of money! ☹️
Charged insurance for item for months, but when need minor repair they have no one in the state. Even lied about shipping label to return item. Don’t do it!
Everything!!! Customer Service, Safety with the Pandemic, Great prices on everything from the new guitar for our Son for Christmas to the tuner to the guitar pick… this is a One Stop Shop with a Family feel that I will recommend to anyone looking for a Premier music experience 🙂
Great friendly service and had exactly what we needed. They changed out my sons guitar strings on the spot. Super knowledgeable!
Many instruments, equipment, cables, amps and other gear instock. I picked up some strings, a new capo and a small part all for a good price. I will be back to look at G&L basses when I’m ready for a new one.
13. Redbox
Address: 9535 E Fowler Ave, Thonotosassa, FL 33592 , Thonotosassa , Florida , United States
A great place to be, full on positivity, absolutely has YOUR best interest in mind, and absolutely knows what they are doing to make your dreams happen.
Of course, I’d like to add why, but before that, I’d like to say this: THERE IS NO “INSTANT ROCKSTAR” BUTTON!!!!
If you want to be good at an instrument, it is on YOU to make that happen, and blaming a lack of skill on the products of this place is not going to get you where you want to go. That said, I cannot validate the quality of lessons provided here, but I will update this review to reflect how that goes down the line.
This place has tremendous customer service, I cannot speak for everyone, but these guys will support you like you’re family, they are fully aware of what you are there for, where you need to go for it, they absolutely will do their best to get you there, and they will make the trip worth your while. For example, I got a guitar for Christmas, and on the first day, THE VERY FIRST DAY, a string broke, literally the day before the only guy available, (who’s name I happen to forget, sorry bro) was supposed to go on Christmas vacation out of state.
HE RESPONDED ON MESSENGER, and had me come in the next day, get my guitar restringed. To give you an idea of how much of a life save that was, I called two different guitar centers, and a same ash. I DIDNT EVEN GET A VOICEMAIL! This man straight up delayed his own break, to open a shop that wasn’t even supposed to be open, to do a job he wasn’t even payed for, And even threw in a a tuner that belonged to a store, (I bought one but it was out of stock so he lent me the stores tuner until it came in)
This next part is in an “in development” stage so I will update this later.
So now I have his number and he has been texting me about when my orders are in, for example, I have a bunch of acrylic guitar picks that he is holding for when I get back from a family vacation. Another use is that I am planning on having a guitar kit assembled by the store within the next year (Firebird style reverse offset) so I enquired about the price, and indicated that I am not committing to the purchase for a very long time, so tomorrow he is going to be talking with their guitar tech about the price.
I can not recommend this store enough off of customer service alone, seriously, check them out.
Love it there! I go all the time!
Nice place great people
It’s good what can I say there’s always somthing in there to do or see
Friendly and helpful staff… take music lessons, the store has music and equipment
Wasn’t at all like the pictures online. Only a handful of guitars, some cables, strings, and picks. They did say they were going through a remodel but it looked like it was more geared to other art and not so much music. The staff on hand were very friendly though.
First off someone has been deleting any negative reviews here. Second I was very dissatisfied with their knowledge and the instruments I purchased to put it in a simple statement I basically got ripped off by them. I would not recommend them under any circumstances. I have been a musician for over 40 years this is the only music store that I have ever put a negative review on that should be telling you something there. They do not have the knowledge needed to do any repairs a good chunk of their instruments or substandard they are also selling instruments new that are actually shop seconds in other words stuff that could be sold normally as new because of manufacturer problems. And if you happen to get one of these you’re tough out of luck and that was exactly what happened with me I have been majorly screwed over by this store and I’m speaking this from a very experienced musician
I drove two and half hours to support a small business only to realize they had the wrong listing on their site. I called before I left to make sure they had it. The owner was very rude and tried to sell me a used floor model for over what the listing was. Amazon is not the problem its small business owners not caring to connect with customers.
currently in dispute with them over music lessons, and billing. My wife had to threaten with criminal fraud charges to get a call back from the manager. They picked up and moved in the middle of the night from one side of town to the other no notice not sign in window just gone. I did not find out till several weeks later what the new address was when they TEXT me about changing the lesson time.
The manager in talking with my wife said we show her signed in 6 times in January, she only went on Tuesdays and last i check there was only 4 in the month, so he is confused or some one is bad at book keeping.
15. BRANDON GUITAR GALLERY
Address: 902 W Robertson St B, Brandon, FL 33511 , Thonotosassa , Florida , United States
This place has worked on my son’s bass guitar twice.. they do great work, they are very knowledgeable, and fairly priced.. highly recommend for guitar repairs..
Brandon Guitar is very helpful for a new to guitar player.
Very friendly and patient
Small store, large selection of music equipment also lots of drum hardware. Staff is friendly. I always go there for the little things… connectors/ converters, Picks , etc.
Very small store, but the lady behind he counter was very friendly and helpful.
Woman who worked was rude to us
Ditto to Sara’s review. I’m looking to buy a new nylon string acoustic so I thought I would check out this shop. The lady ignored me. She probably knows nothing about guitars since half the shop is dedicated to picture framing. Still no reason to diss a potential customer. They had some cool guitars, but so does Guitar Center. Guess who will be getting my money.
They sell frames and guitar lessons. Their gallery of five guitars that appear to be the same is pitiful. Really nice frames though. It’s a gallery of frames.
16. Brass & Woodwind Shop Inc
Address: 24140 FL-54 #102, Lutz, FL 33559 , Thonotosassa , Florida , United States
I’ve been taking my saxophones to Steve since I was a teenager. Now I play for fun as an adult and continue to bring my saxes to him. Very knowledgeable and the repair is great on all instruments! I just got a beat up baritone saxophone on auction and would look no further than here to get it worked on.
Honest prices and quick repairs
Friendly, fair pricing, great experience.
Very knowledgeable and honest with this assessment of what needs to be done and give options including external solutions
I bought my flute from then back in 1986 . I have brought it in the them for a complete overall so my daughter can use it for her first instrument.
Did not repair two flutes left for over a year. Went back to collect them and they were initially lost .
Finally picked them up after I was notified that they found them.
Will take them to a more organized repair shop and not this hole-in-the-wall.
The manager, salespeople and products were the best!!! Great experience!
Sydney,the sales associate, was professional & caring towards us with regards to buying my husband’s ( he can no longer play them) musical instruments.
Took my 14-year old son in to Tampa Sam Ash yesterday. We were on a mission to find a part for his squire strat – Chris handled the request and after looking for this elusive part, he opted to go hunting and came back with the exact piece of the puzzle (non-US made saddle screw!). Super nice guy and great vibe as we went on to buy strings, guitar stand and capo – all more than reasonably priced. My son said it was one of the best days of his life! The Sam Ash experience was a big part of his grand day out. Oh, and love me a mom and pop shop! Thanks Chris!
Sam Ash has great stuff but I am giving a 3 star because some staff, although eager to help, sometimes, seems kind of immature and dont really seem “all there.” I called to reserve some equipment and when I got there they had sold it to someone else. I get it but it took me 1 hour to get there. Also, another time, a girl was trying to help me with disco lights and she was rambling about how she couldn’t close the boxes. Another time I went to get piano books and the guy at the cashier never looked at me in the eye. Its just weird. Not very good customer service.
Good store, good selection. Prices okay. Customer service has been hit or miss over the years
I love going to Sam’s Ash music it’s a great place to try out musical instruments. The people there are very friendly.
Pro Audio reps felt like used car salesmen. Tried to upsell me to stuff I didn’t need and didn’t meet the description of what I asked for. I’ve been an Audio Engineer for 15+ years and most the “advice” sounded like marketing material was being read off by someone who hadn’t actually used the equipment.
Then they PUSHED the extended warranty HARD! After telling them I wasn’t interested they discounted my product to try and get me to buy the warranty and lied about how much they had discounted the product. Then it took even more time to remove the discounts they added when I said I still wouldn’t pay that much for a warranty service that was so poorly rated (I checked online to make my decision and all the review sites had 1 star ratings for the company they use).
I gave two stars since its nice to pick up products immediately but do yourself a favor and shop somewhere with honest reps or online where you can get better prices.
So, everytime i enter this store, they check package, today i walk behind a caucasian couple and kids, and they did not check there package, also I waited 20 minutes before anybody approached me and family. On my way out the store, my receipt was check and sign, again a caucasian young couple standing at the same counter was not. “And that’s all I have to said about that”
as a store, they offer a good variety with knowledgeable sales staff, as a repair service, they fail. took in my strat to have it serviced. 130 bucks later, the problem was still there, and quite noticeable. i wont give them a chance to redeem themselves, they had the opportunity to do what was right when the guitar was in the shop. they’ve lost a customer for good, i’m afraid.
buy your stuff there if you want, but find yourself an independent luthier for repairs.
i really, really wanted to trust these people.
