The top 20 music shops in Thousand Oaks, United States

Very friendly guys over there with an awesome inventory.

I purchased a beautiful Gibson ES 175 from Lovies guitars sight unseen. When it arrived it was better than advertised. I had a few questions and Derick took the time to answer them all patiently. He is friendly, courteous, professional and really knows guitars. I will buy my next guitar from lobbies any chance I get.
Mark H.
Florida

I have purchased over 35 guitars in my 40 plus years of playing guitar! A majority of them were boutique built guitars in the $1800-4000 price range.

Derrick (Owner) of Lovie’s Guitars knocked it out of the park for me on my recent purchase of a gorgeous 2012 Gibson R7 Goldtop LP in a left-handed model! I had been wanting this very guitar for the better part of 30 years! This was the most satisfying experience I’ve had to date in purchasing a high-end custom shop guitar like the Gibson R7 Goldtop LP. Derrick is at the top of the “Food Chain” in his knowledge and reselling of Gibson Historic Reissue LP’s and he was awesome in every phase of this purchase from start to finish! Best packed “Guitar” I’ve ever seen and the whole shipping process was perfection from California to Alabama! I give “Lovie’s Guitars” my very highest recommendation to anyone looking for quality high-end guitars and musical gear and most definitely premium Gibson LP’s and the Historic Reissue’s!

Awful service

Ebay üzerinden bu satıcıdan gitar aldım. Gitarın tremolo kolu yok, açıklamalarda belirtmemiş. Fretler kötü bir tesviye görmüş bızlıyor. Minty diye sattığı gitarın durumu bu.

John and his crew are friendly, knowledgeable and extremely helpful. I always get the best price compared to the national chain stores. Stop by and check them out. You’ll be glad you did.

Bought a (beautiful!) Taylor from them via Reverb. They were super friendly and responsive during the whole sale process. And afterwards (meaning AFTER I had already written them a 5-star review on Reverb), they followed up with me and offered to register my purchase with Taylor to ensure I received full warranty coverage. That’s above and beyond in my book! I recommend Instrumental Music highly.

Great inventory, great staff!

Helpful staff

Can’t give a music store less than 4 stars because I appreciate them simply being in business, but I get the feeling that the people behind the counter are just trying to sell me things.

Always a pleasure & A REAL DEAL with John & the rest of the staff @ Instrumental MUSIC/ Thousand Oaks!

i liek there oboe reedd

Called in regarding repair of one of my synths and Wally put me in contact with a veteran synth repairman who’s been in the game since the beginning.
Meeting with him later these week.

Excellent customer service!
Thanks Wally!

They have a great selection.

I visited wally world music store today looking for a keyboard. Met Wally. Super nice man. Very helpful. Unfortunately he didn’t have what I was looking for but he did have some music books that I bought. He even gave me the names of some places to check out. I’m glad to have met him.

This is a wonderful place to go to explore musical interests. Kingsley led my daughter in a free, private introduction to musical instruments called “the petting zoo” – he is wonderful – and she is thrilled to be starting trumpet lessons with Marcus after her “meet and greet” with him! Felipe, Shannon, and their staff are courteous and helpful. Thank you, Music & Arts for bringing music to my daughter’s life.:-)

Our experience was wonderful. Kingsley helped us secure a rental credit towards a new cello and made sure we had a great experience. We want to thank everyone any this location for making sure everything went seamlessly

My daughter has been coming here for over a year for piano lessons with Tristan. She’s only 5 and as you probably know, has a short attention span. Tristan makes the lessons fun and engaging and she absolutely loves coming every week. As a mom who waits for her the waiting area, I love the staff! They are funny, kind, and caring. By sitting in the waiting room, I get to meet the other teachers and can see the love and passion they have for their craft and they’re fun to talk to!

2/4/19 -(got a response that I cannot “respond to” so I will post that here)
Music & Arts, I see your reply. The email address does not help unfortunately. I have have called and spoken to Corporate and gotten nowhere. I have an email from a school liaison so far nothing, and again at the store level nothing. So far all that has happened is I have had to repeat myself and my story numerous times and have yet to get any kind of resolution. Unfortunately giving me the generic email address to the corporate “customer service” group doesn’t help me at this point, I think we are way beyond that point.

How can you give negative stars! This store takes advantage of the schools that feed into it. Because of the amazing music program LCMS has kids need the ability to rent instruments. So we did over a year ago and have over $1000 in credit that we were told we could use towards a new one at “equal or greater” value in case we ever wanted to buy vs rent. I expected my son to quit but in fact he has excelled and is first chair, in the Jazz program and I want to reward him and use my credit. They are telling me I cannot use the credit towards the instrument he wants (which by the way is over $1000 more than the one they want me to buy) because the one he wants is “professional grade” and the credit only works towards “student” level instruments. What?? Why would I spend thousands on something he has grown out of and not something he can grow into? What is the logic? Let’s teach a child how to ride a bike with training wheels and when they are really good we will buy them a shiny new bike with another set of training wheels. That is the logic. I have called the store, the GM, corporate and have been told “sorry that’s our policy, that’s what’s in the agreement you signed”. The clerk at the store only told me I would get a discount and use my credit towards the equal or greater value they are local and get all the school business so why would they lie? So I signed the agreement I’m not a lawyer I trusted them plus I signed my son up for lessons. It is disgusting how I have been treated and the fact that my son suffers because I wanted so much to buy him this for his 13th birthday. I caution anyone please go to Nick Rail on Kanan, go anywhere else but this horrible place. They are too big and just take advantage of their fortunate position. I am going to the school board next.

What a goldmine. Loved it

My favorite record store! ✨

When I’m in the area working, I always make an effort to stop by the Record Outlet.

This is one of my favorite vinyl shops to pop into.

Always good finds and prices are fair.

It’s an okay record store. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole bunch to choose from. It could be organized a little better. Good luck if you looking for hard to find originals. This would be a good place to go if you’re looking for some filler records. I really wanted to like this place!!

Pretty decent place, they’ve got a good selection, and tons of obscure stuff but don’t expect them to have everything.

Prices are generally pretty honest and they buy collections too, which is why they have obscure records. They play weird music too.

Good place to hangout, although they could use an atmospheric overhaul and advertising to capitalize more on society’s current nostalgia trend.

Good record store with a solid collection and fair prices.

They are listed on the record store day website but they only had a very small selection of about 5 records that were released for record store day in a small crate. They said they did this so they could still be “independent.” How edgy…

Eh. I saw more new vinyl/reissues than original issues. Prices ranged from reasonable to crazy – selection was not great. What turned me off ultimately was pulling out a $7 lp that was thrashed.

Picked up 4 albums here today, 2 of which seem fine. They were a little beat up but play okay. The other two are pretty warped and skip a ton. They were dirt cheap, but it still is a little disappointing. Assumed anything on the shelves would be playable. Probably won’t go here again.

I had clarinet lessons with Brian in Thousand Oaks. He is a great teacher, works with structured teaching methods (which helped me a lot) and has lots of patience! I highly recommend him!

My piano lessons with Heidi Yost have been superb….completely exceeded all my expectations.

My 7th grader has been taking lessons with Brian for the past year, playing the tenor saxophone at Lindero middle school, and is extremely happy having him as a teacher. His studio in Thousand Oaks, Iced Pita, is very large and comfortable, easy to reach and close to the freeway, with plenty of parking and a nice waiting area.
We highly recommend Brian to anybody wanting to perfect their music skills!

Rented a Sax for a few months and took some lessons. Good experience and very fair pricing. The owner was knowledgeable and helpful.

I have had a terrible experience with repair of my cello. I cannot go into details because there are too many. Length of time of repair and quality were horrible. Our family was a client of this store for many years, but this experience soured everything. If you need your cello worked on, please go elsewhere.

Don’t bring your cello there they give you crummy strings/repairs

Makes My Blood Dance making history at this amazing studio. Team lead by Mikal Blue- we’ll be back. Incredible gear and talent to utilize it.

An amazing recording studio merging the 60’s & 70’s vibe with the latest in tech! Amazing group of award winning producers and crew that have produced multiple platinum records and albums. Simply mind-blowing!

Super beautiful rehearsal studios. I highly recommend.

No better place to locate the best sounding, highest quality vinyl out there. They are meticulous and professional at seeking out only the best records out there.

Orders taken only online, but if you are local and have exceptional LPs, they do purchase, but only if meets the cut, and by appointment only.

If you are an audiophile and vinyl aficionado, this is the only place to find the absolute best sounding records, guaranteed.

The BEST inventory of the best sound/listening quality vinyl in the USA! Hands down! Owner, Tom Port, is a bonafide connoisseur, expert, guru, master of this market!

This is an ONLINE store ONLY, but don’t let that deter you! Their vinyl is the best money can buy. They have already done all the work for you in finding the best quality ones. Although a somewhat hefty price tag compared to a traditional record store, it is worth it. Their website is user-friendly and offers a wide variety of vinyl. They make listening to great music even better with their “hot stampers.”

Was looking for a local record store and found this on google maps. It’s not a store…just someone’s house in a neighborhood. I guess it’s an online store only. Very deceiving.

Paris is the real deal! He is beyond talented and super patient. If you have kiddos looking to learn a new instrument, call Paris! Super reasonably priced and quality lessons. During Covid he’s been doing virtual lessons and is still great as an extra activity for teens to not just be on their phones all day.

As an adult learner who’s never taken music lessons of any sort, I feel I was very lucky to find Chris to teach me piano. Not only are our lessons focused and efficient–targeting progression over repetition–he’s always been extremely communicative over text whenever I’ve had questions!

Some of my favorite things, here:
– Chris has obvious ability and knowledge, but is very good at speaking to my level, and understanding the challenges I face as a clumsy-handed singer-by-hobby.
– He’s a kind, easygoing person!
– As someone who’s interested in the why of everything, I appreciate Chris’s knowledge of music theory, and his ability to make that knowledge comprehensible; inevitably, I start getting curious, and prodding him about the theory behind what we’re doing, and he’s always patient, and puts things into words I can understand.
– His approach to the material is very flexible: he prioritizes my goals and interests, and gives me plenty of opportunities to center our study around music I prefer.
– I like to make stupid jokes during our lessons. For some reason, he laughs. I like that.

But, yeah, seriously folks. I’ve loved the (9 or so?) months I’ve been learning here, and am excited to keep going. I’d absolutely recommend Enjoy Music Lessons to anyone who wants to try piano.

My oldest child has been taking lessons with Chris for seven years, and my youngest ones for almost two years with Sarah. My younger children were unable to be with Chris because of scheduling conflicts; but that ended up not being a problem because Sarah is very warm and welcoming, which made her the perfect teacher for my younger children.

Both teachers are very patient and accommodating. They have the best prices in the area, and they are phenomenal teachers. I was impressed to see my little one playing a song on the piano accurately and with ease within a few weeks, even though she was only six years old.

The best thing is that piano has helped my children learn other instruments faster than other kids in their classes because they were already able to read music. My oldest, in fact, made the advanced strings group at her school after the first year, and was selected to the Chamber group after only three years of playing (one of which was a COVID year), which will make her one of the youngest musicians in the group.

What my kids enjoy the most is being able to choose songs to play (i.e., songs not in the book that they wish to learn); that gives them autonomy and keeps them motivated.

I have recommended Chris and Sarah to some friends, and they’re all very happy. The fact that their children are still with them years later is a testament of their satisfaction.

All in all, I am extremely happy with Enjoy Music Lessons and I am very lucky to have found them.

Chris is a great music teacher. Both my boys, 7 and 11 years old, are taking piano lessons with him. My older one has started his first piano lesson with Chris at age of 5, and younger one started two yearsago. Chis is patient, kind, and yet firm and persistent on the technique. His teaching method is fun, engaging and effective. Other than the songs in the book, he also let the kids pick some songs they like to play from time to time, and also includes improving and composing into the lesson.
For my older one, the lessons with Chris really built a great foundation for his music education and the love for music. Now he joins school band and also plays cello. For both instruments, it took him minimum time to start playing. It’s all thanks to the music lessons Chris has provided all theses years!

Our experience with Sarah was not a positive one. Soon after beginning lessons I felt something was a bit off. From the start Sarah did not display a warm or welcoming attitude. The next concern came when my child asked to use the restroom and Sarah claimed there wasn’t one in the house. COVID protocol is one thing, but why blatantly lie? After a few more lessons, it was clear that Sarah’s patience was lacking and she even rolled her eyes in response when I asked how the lesson had gone. Each time we felt very rushed to leave so she could begin her next lesson. Sarah uses a tablet with piano games during her lessons to engage young students, but this was proving to be ineffective. Soon after we switched to another music school and the results have been remarkable. The chemistry with the teacher and the progress made in a short period of time are beyond our expectations. Ultimately Sarah just wasn’t the right fit for us.

These two brothers are extremely knowledgeable about violins , they are very courtious and friendly, answer all your questions and concerns politely and in a professional manner. Iam glad to be one of their customers.

I am a concert violinist, violist and a violin/viola teacher in Boston, Massachusetts . Several of my students bought violins and violas from Rezvani brothers. I can’t price the sound and the workmanship high enough! The best modern instruments one can wish! Very recently I bought a 16″ viola for myself, and already performed on it. People where so impressed by the sound! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

Needed some quick help with my viola, and these guys saved the day!! Just over in Thousand Oaks and they got me taken care of in less than a day, for a great price and awesome quality!!!

This experience was so unbelievable that my closest friends had to ask if it was real. I told them I didn’t believe it either, but I have to now as I’m looking right at it. Hands down the best experience I’ve had with any merchant online or otherwise. From start to finish, Kevin kept me up to date on what was going on with my purchase. The guitar arrived with a remarkable setup. The fret work was well-beyond the price point, the intonation was set up flawlessly. I was trying to find something wrong as this seemed to good to be true, but simply couldn’t. I’ve told my closest friends about this experience and like I said they all questioned if I was putting them on. Just a great deal on all fronts. Service was phenomenal and product was beyond the price point. I don’t want this to sound like a paid testimonial, but I seriously have nothing bad to say. I’m a real buyer, spent my real money, no sponsorship of any sort. Just a great experience and a happy customer.
Thank you,
Tim

Update: It has been 3 months with this guitar and I’m still just as happy as I was when I received it. I’m actually eyeballing a couple more on their site because of this experience. It is in the top 3 of my favorite guitars in my collection, right up there with a Fender and a Korean Squier. When I have shown off my collection to friends, or friends of friends, I bring this one out with pride…the customer service experience has become part of the story I tell when I show it off. My story usually ends with, “…if you ever get the chance to own one, do it…here try mine out.”

Very fast service. Very helpful. Communicated with me quickly. Will pretty a review of the product when it arrives.

Really exemplary customer service. The Chromacast stuff they sell is the equivalent of pricier brands. Love their gig bags. Once, I ordered 2 and got 1. When I let them know that I was missing 1, they sent me 2 more! A definite favorite company to order from. Huge half off sale going on there now too.

Common theme here is that shipping is an issue. Mine took 2 weeks to ship out. But once it shipped out, it arrived at my door over the weekend. I ordered two guitars. Both looked like they were given some care … tuned up and strings in tune. I’m contemplating placing another order.

I’m impressed.

Worst experience buying anything in my life. A month to ship. Lie after lie and no return of messages. When it finally did arrive it was broken badly and I was then promised a replacement. Almost a month later and nothing . Fly by nights.

I ordered an Orange MicroTerror on September 3rd from GoDpsMusic, paid my $152, contacted them about how excited I was to buy it, and got an immediate response that it was going out the next day. Then…crickets. Nothing at all in the way of a response to my daily messages. And I mean I’ve been asking (politely pleading) a lot. Finally, I timidly requested a refund on 9/14, but still noted that if he shipped it I would retract my refund request. I’m a pretty reasonable dude.

Now I read these reviews and see that I was dealing with thieves. Truth is, I’m not even mad. These guys gotta look themselves in the mirror every day and know that they are hurting musicians (who have been hurting so much already recently). I feel sorry for them and hope they can find peace somehow. Enjoy my money, guys. I hope it serves you well.

I dont even think they are worth one star but had to rate them before i left a review.
I ordered my son a guitar for Christmas thru amazon prime website with this company. The next day the godpsmusic sent me a tracking number and said it shipped, i was excited for the item to arrive on December 5 but that item never came. I got another delivery date of the 5th thru the 10 but again never came. I reached out to this company and was always told to be patient. I called them many times but always got voicemail with no return call ever. I called USPS and gave them the tracking number only to be told they have no record of said item. I reached back out to godpsmusic via email & phone calls with no response for a refund. The only positive thing is amazon prime will be refunding my money and investigation will be done in reference to this poor company. I would tell anyone dont chance buying anything from this so called business and look into buying local around your area.SCAM SCAM

Shane

I was buying a very high end PRS anniversary guitar, and Dan was the salesman helping me. I ran into numerous obstacles due to me being from another state, and having store credit transferred to their store to help with this purchase, along with my GC Gear card. Chris the store manager, and Dan, not only talked my local GC manager thru this process of getting my funds available to the westlake store, but also with synchrony bank because my card got locked due to being used in another state. After all these little issues that seem to be mounting i was ready to give up on this deal, but both these guys worked above and beyond to help me, and in the end i got an amazing guitar!! Chris threw in expedited shipping to just make the customer service that much better. I know a lot of times people think of these box stores as the guys that look at you and give you no service, and act like your wasting their time, BUT if you call this store and deal with Dan or Chris i would bet you will have a great experience.

Travis and Mike are awesome and helped me get exactly the bass guitar for me.

Great staff. Very knowledgeable and helpful. Selection is a bit limited compared to some of GC’s larger stores but this is very convenient if you’re in the T.O. area.

Must visit

Good customer service, but knowledge of products were lacking. A great place to buy strings and pick up a guitar for beginners, but not to get detailed advice about gear.

Lot of items for DJ services

I had some downtime to check out the Guitar Center in Westlake Village, and wow. Just wow. Here’s my experience with this specific Guitar Center:
-No greeting until I was in the store 20 minutes playing a guitar
-Bad selection of guitars. Disappointed in the ratio of crap guitars to nice ones. Little variety in amps.
-Equipment in bad shape. The electronic drum kits hardly worked. Every guitar I played was in horribly bad tuning, and the action on each was absolutely astounding. I played the same PRS I played at Instrumental Music in TO and it made me not want to buy a PRS. A PRS GUITAR. How does this company expect to sell anything??
-Not many guitars. For a guitar shop, there weren’t nearly as many guitars as there was DJ equipment, speakers, pianos, and drums. The guitars were shoved to the back of the store behind all the aforementioned crap.
-Pricing was…meh. Nothing too pricey, but nothing too cheap.

I usually go to the Guitar Center in Northridge and I like it. This one was so underwhelming…

They need self checkout. I just wanted to buy some guitar strings. But the two customers in front of me being helped by the sales staff were purchasing instruments. And of course the staff was trying to upsell them everything from a case, to insurance, lessons, etc…. I just needed a $10 pair of strings. I stood at the counter for 10-15 minutes with my card in hand, with none of the staff able or willing to check me out, so I left the strings on the counter and walked out.

SUMMARY: BASICALLY SCAMMERS DO NOT COME HERE FOR TECHNICIAN SERVICE
I came here as a brand new guitarist with my brother’s old guitar for a tune up, and the technician told me its a little more complex type and that I have to pay a little more. I was a little disappointed but I was willing to pay. I asked how much and he said $79.99. I told him I got quoted via telephone at $64.99, and that was the price I was expecting. He agreed to $70.00 with the cleaning service added on, and he said 1 week. It took 5 days until I got the call, and I went in to pick it up. I’m all exited for my guitar as I go in, greet him and see the guitar. I get to paying and he told me it was $107.something (don’t remember). I was shocked. I asked why it is so high when we agreed on $70. He said we never agreed on it and that I asked for the platinum package. I was so ashamed of this store since I used to come here for other instruments. He ended up bringing it down to near $100 but still, not cool. I rated 2 star instead of one because I broke a string shortly after and a different tech changed it for free. But all in all, take your stuff somewhere else cause they lie here. If y’all see this I hope your ashamed for scamming a broke teen idc if it was only $30, not cool.

Loved it. Sweet helpful staff.

This store is so cute! Need any K-pop stuff? This place is a good bet!!

It has the potential to be a great store because it’s very large, however it’s almost just a BTS store. It’s 95% bts and bt21 merch which is frustrating and the album selections aren’t very many. Hopefully one day they can expand to other groups and artists more.

Great place to buy you favorite kpop band.