Your Top-20 list of music shops in Tona

My company love you

I’m closer to the southington store,But because the tech there is gone and they currently don’t have one i called the orange store and explained to kyle the tech what issue i was having with a new american strat i purchased.The repair went great and he also helped with a few questions i had.I highly recommend him and this location.

I like the store, and playing the piano there as well.

Great place

Very attentive and helpful staff they did not have what I needed but one of their members referred me to another company that can hopefully suit my needs

Its good. They still let you play with the drums

Went in to buy a stacker cymbal. They were out, only one available was the floor model. Long story short, they tried to sell me the floor model @ full asking. Full asking? After everyone has played and beat on it? I didnt expect the manager to give a huge discount. ..just something, anything would of been sufficient. They lost my business. Found the item 10 bucks cheaper somewhere else, brand new. No concept of good customer service at all..

Took my son here for school band accessories. We wandered the store for quite some time while being ignored by the staff. Then treated poorly when paying for items. Will not return, nor do I recommend to anyone.

You would think that a company with a bad rep would open up a few minutes early. Just saying go back to being a store for musicians. Maybe have clinics at the smaller stores.
Just went in the store to check out the chapman guitars not a one in there. If your looking for a PRS only 3 of them. But you can see a lot of Gibson and fenders best wishes
I will do all my shopping on Reverb

Used to go to guitar center all the time till one day the worker wasn’t there, gave a chance over here and wasn’t disappointed! Gave me help on my Billie joe Armstrong replica by installing a new neck and saddles and I have to say this has to be the best set up I’ve ever played, I feel like I’m playing a custom shop on a squier! Such great help, friendly faces and now my go to for setups and help! Have a custom Strat there being worked on and I can’t tell you how tired there gonna get of me bringing in guitar after guitar to get setup in my collection one comes back to me and I give them another the same visit haha, thank you Scott, Jackson and Tyler!! Feels like a family and not business and that’s the best type!

– Michael

Very knowledgeable and friendly staff.

I’ve been doing business with Scott at the music shop for years, he knows about the needs of musicians and great on any repairs or just info on your current instrument. Will hopefully be doing many more years here.

Great place but website could be better such as pics of some used equipment. I’m a drummer and would like to see what they have for new and used cymbals,stands,drum kits etc. And prices. I have done business with them and always had a great experience the reason for three stars is the website doesn’t do the music shop justice. All and all great store great people.

The cellos were in not in good shape and we had to pay a luthiere to redo repairs that were poorly done when we received the instrument.

Keith has has done maintenance on my flutes several times and at a reasonable cost. Now all my flutes play much better. He is a flute player himself and very personable. I’m grateful for him and the lovely music shop.

Keith took great care of me! I’m a beginner guitar player and broke one of my strings, had no clue what to do. I purchased the strings there and he taught me how to put them on right in the store. He even tuned my guitar, and gave me some tips to keep it maintained. Service like that is RARELY found. TY Keith!!

Hello James louchen looking band together starting my own band made last add more songs looking music musicians each position play. Dums led ELC getdr keebord 3 Man two ladies like at one more bongls need your help changes this band songwriter add more purduers equipment management upgrade my dumset songwriter band manager back up singersEffects sounds E Yvet all call

This gentleman has everything you need to make the best of your music, especially the knowledge as a musician, great prices and friendly comfortable atmosphere, do not go anywhere else!

Matty’s has great service and was my first choice for lessons.

Matty’s has been my second home for the past 5 years, it’s a very accepting place to learn and it comes with good service. Always learn new things everytime I visit.

Great service.

Dirty, stuff everywhere, completely disorganized.

Great people, extremely helpful and friendly

The desk staff are welcoming, very nice, and patient.

My son meshes well with his piano teacher. She lets him play the kind of music he wants to play which I believe is important for helping to maintain interest and desire to play. His skill has improved greatly with her.

Rob has been fantastic helping me with my instrument rental and purchase. He was very attentive at listening to what I was looking for and researched several options to me to select from. He was very knowledgeable and was able to provide great insight and recommendations. He went far above and beyond my expectations and made the process so easy. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending working with Rob to anyone!

I whould l8ke to buy aking or yamaha euphonium

My son and daughter both took lessons here. They have outstanding teachers. They also sell and rent instruments

The people there are always very helpful

If you are looking for a great place for music lessons, instrument rentals or repairs check out JCMUSIC in Meriden. The staff there is amazing. They can answer all of your questions and trust me I have had a lot. Plus my kids love the teachers and the music director Sean is so patient and wonderful. Really I cant say enough good things about them

My grandson really enjoyed the music lessons and they are very professional and knowledgeable. Highly recommend them.

Would like to obtain some nice brushes and some type of top hat set used and very sturdy since I break percussion instruments all the time when I perform?

My son, Roberto Luis and Rosa live in Meriden. Are you far from the mall? I have spent a lot of time jamming in Puerto Rico to salsa, merengue, etc but my favorite is funk like Buddy Miles.

Completely disappointed. I placed an order in store on a instrument that was never placed with JC music. The customer service was poorly displayed and the options they gave us was not acceptable. I asked to speak to the owner several times and would not get on the phone and made his new employee talk to me. I ended up going somewhere else that was amazing

Never have any of the literature or instrument parts I’m looking for. Took 3 months to repair a trombone. I tried to return an item and they wouldn’t give me back the cash to go to another place. The owner has blatantly disrespected my mother on several occasions and doesn’t have much knowledge of much of anything outside of rock music. As far as i’m concerned, this is the worst music store i’ve ever set foot in and would not recommend to anybody.

This was a horrible expierence. They need to get their stuff together, they had already-sold instruments on shelf. They had an amazing guitar sale and when I went to buy, it was already sold! They got my hopes high and let it down and I will not give them my money any longer.

Good selection and great staff! I have been going to this store for a few years now and I’ve always had a great experience buying from them

Super great staff!

I usually find employees at Guitar Center to be quite stuffy and unaccommodating, but the guys here go out of their way to help you and get you EXACTLY what you’re looking for. Even if that means they don’t have it – they’ll point you in the right direction online.

Super great guys here and they’ll go out of their way to help you. I actually bought my first Gibson from a “major chain” because these guys were just SUCH a great help and really made me (and continue to make me) feel like I belong when I walk through the door!

You can’t buy that kind of customer service! Props to the management team.

nice people nice place

Nice place but not good on latest gear.

Finest music gear at very reasonable prices.

Always good and a lot of help and info around if you ask…and always a decent amount of selection…

Lazy

Terrible customer service. I ordered an item on January 26. I was told the item would ship to the store in a couple days. I waited for a week and a half and i heard nothing. I called the store today and the lady that helped me (on January 26) said she would call the other store to see what the update was then she would call me back. I waited an hour then called the store back. The guy on the phone told me that the lady went on break. I told him to tell her to call me back once she got off break. 4 hours later and I received no call back. I finally called the store and asked for a refund. In addition to this hassle; I never received a confirmation email for the item ordered. So, yeah terrible service. I’ll never come back.

Consistently the worst sales staff year over year. They are obviously just there to sell extended warranties. If they sniff out that you are an actual musician, they will hide so they don’t hurt their metrics (because no pro would buy “pro” coverage). They may as well be working at a donut shop for their lack of product knowledge, probably paid more, too. It must be a rule that all guitars be out of tune and poorly set up. They can’t go out of business soon enough so the REAL music stores can come back to their communities. Go support your local independent store for a much, much better experience. GC is the worst.

Great customer service

Excellent service every time I’m there

excellent service, with knowledge of even some more unusual instruments. I needed a heavy drone for a hurdy gurdy, and they knew exactly what size and type of string I needed! Even suggested a brand I found out later was what my instructor orders!

Great customer service. I often spend at least an hour playing instruments I dont have at home.

la atención del personal es un poco pobre en verdad tienes que buscar tu mismo lo que deseas fui a preguntar por un micrófono él me dijo que no lo tenía y cuando yo revisó por la tienda ahí estaba el micrófono y en cantidades deben orientar un poco al personal para que puedan ayudar a los clientes

Good selection of musical instruments

My experience with Sam ash music was very bad there service down right sucks there staff is not business oriented what so ever they have no clue in what there looking at I would strongly recommend guitar center because they are the real deal located off RT 1 orange CT thank you

Used to be a great place to go browse.. now it’s like walking onto a used car lot.. within ten minutes I had 6 people asking if they could show me anything, one guy asking me twice.. I was only planning on buying a guitar stand, but was so annoyed I went elsewhere….

I was on hold FOREVER, and it was super annoying.

I got a great deal on a pre-owned Gibson that was being sold on consignment. Bobby took care of me and the guitar is in FANTASTIC condition, as described. I am very happy with my purchase. Thank you!

Bobby fixed a complicated BC Rich for me when other guitar repair shops scratched there heads.Hes real easy to get along with and I know from experience hes the best your gonna find.

Amazing store with an amazing selection and extremely helpful staff. very satisfied.

Good service, very nice staff and management!

Everyone was insanely helpful from who I spoke to on the phone for customer support, to the guy that helped me out when I came to pick up the amp in store. Giuliano’s Music takes care of its customers. Will definitely be returning for anything else I need in the future.

I went needing a pack of guitar strings to find out that they were closed. Their hours online say 12-4 on Saturday. Their door said the same. Lights off no one answered the phone. The time I went you ask? 3:25. EDIT:I have since gone back and they have been very nice and kind. Which has let me to update my rating.

Awesome place. I purchased my guitar here and take lessons. Dave, Eric, Eddy, Jay, and Jason are all incredible people.

Really helpful and friendly staff.

Lessons are awesome with even better teachers. Bought a real nice epiphone guitar here for a decent price.

An error in judgment when I decided to place an order for them to send out my two guitars I STILL to this day can’t string myself worth beans. Decent store for the most part but what really got me sore was the fact that the clerk said that they send their instruments out to a repair tech in E. Hartford but then found out that for whatever reason they have to send the guitars to a tech in BOSTON and the woodwind and brass instruments are the only instruments they ferry back and forth for repairs to EH. Misleading and wonder if it were intentional or whether or not someone else over there neglected to tell him that the different instruments get repaired at different locations. Not my fault I didn’t get the right info but certainly my fault I opted to not take my precious guitars back before the start of business last week so I could either try once again to string them myself or have someone else nearer to me I’d forgotten momentarily about do it for me instead. Ideally I’ll see if I can learn the proper way to string them from now on to save on the cost and also to not feel helpless and at the mercy of someone else whose repair shop happens to be out of state yet.

The rude little slug working there was too bothered with his piano concerto to help us. Apparently, going through a whole rigamarole online is now “easier” than just showing up and renting what you need. Yeah, we won’t be coming back. Thanks!

I really don’t like there! The drum teacher charged me for 3 times but only want to teach twice! The attitude of stuffs were not nice either! So horrible!

Dont try guitar lessons in this location.piano teacher may come for quitar lessons and teacher may change soon, we may work 3 months for refund.

The older guy really helped me with my guitar! He was so nice!

All of the staff, from folks at the register to the instructors to the director of music education, are professional and knowledgeable, with a warm welcome to boot!

My daughter loves her piano lessons at Creative Music Center.

Poor customer service.

Scheduled a guitar lesson here, spent $45, arrived on time, the teacher I was assigned to never showed up. At least they were nice enough to give me my money back the next day.

Terrible, definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone in this planet or another. I originally paid through Groupon just to see if the classes worked out for my son. I paid for 45 mins and they only gave me 30mins classes for my son ,that should of been the 1st red flag. But then they make you sign a paper and they ask you to put a credit card info even though I paid for the 1st month in full. So we tried that 1st month and decided it wasn’t for my son,he didn’t like it.so then I thought I was done with this establishment and they kept charging me even though I was done with them clearly, scammers.terrible customer service!

Knowledgable staff and an amazing stock of guitars. The most impressive set of archtops I’ve found anywhere!

Highest quality guitars, sold by a great staff at very competitive prices!

I stopped in to play some of the nicer acoustics on my journey to buying a better guitar to age with. I also brought my Taylor, which needed a slight adjustment. My guitar and I were both treated with the utmost care and respect. The gentleman even made a point to wash his hands before touching my guitar and left me to peacefully play some of the superb and rather expensive instruments in the shop while he adjusted my Taylor’s neck. If I were ready to spring on a purchase, I would feel 100% at ease to shop here and make an afternoon of playing everything until I was confident in my choice. Superb shop, superb service, superb care for the customer. 5 stars. Once I’ve tried some of the other guitars I need to cross of my list, I will come back here for a Collings or Martin if those guitars win the next spot in my studio.

Had a guitar cable when I needed it.

Thé Owners are lousy business

No prices listed

Not many mandolins

Friendly, knowledgeable staff. Great for helping kiddos when mom and dad are not musically inclined. Highly recommend.

Competitively priced, a wide variety of sheet music, and great lessons.

Very nice staff. Helped with my wife’s flute!

Instrument rentals are great for their prices

Just stopped by quick. Had a great hour. They are the best

Good info from employees

Good music..all the time

Right near the park and always a good price

One stop shop for music movies and apparel.

They got what you need

Got what I needed in traveling music n more…

Everything you need in one spot

Service was amazing. My son plays contrabass and I don’t know much about the needs. The manager was really knowledgeable and helped us choose mid cost strings and a new bow suitable for a young but not brand new player. I appreciate that they didn’t do a hard sell with more cost than I was comfortable with right now. The things came in promptly. When we came in C. handled changing the strings and helping my son with the new bow. He was fantastic. I will continue to use their store! Really happy!

Went in just to look around and the guy working ended up teaching me a ton about what to look for when buying a piano and was super fun to talk to. Shoutout to whoever that was!

We are new to the area and we’re pleased to have found this music store just around the corner. The customer service by telephone and in person was excellent; I spoke to a Chris and a Ruben, both of whom were gracious and helpful.

I had my 40-year-old folk guitar re-strung and re-conditioned for $25! To boot, Ruben was kind enough to tune my guitar on my way out of the store.

It’s rare to find a Music store these days. It’s even more rare to find a store whose staff provide such professional customer service. Will definitely bring our other two guitars in for servicing.

Yeah it’s good!

Limited retail space, but the staff is helpful and knowledgeable. Music lessons are offered on site.

I have condensed my original rant down to the following- we really like our children’s teachers- but the front desk needs saving

My child joined band program at her school in West Hartford. Using their online system, I placed an order for instrument rental and a book for the program. The date I placed my order, they charged my credit card.

However, they never delivered the instrument until I called and confirm the status. The book was never delivered with the instrument. A week later, I called them to confirm about the book. They told me that it was back ordered. Since the book was available in Amazon for next day delivery, I asked Music & Arts to cancel my book order.

After few weeks, I still did not have my credit back for the book. I called them to ask for the refund, and the customer service told me that I have to return the book (which was never delivered!) in order to get the refund and hang up on me. I used the chat function on their website to explain the situation. Here, the customer service told me that they would never charge the credit card unless the item is delivered, and conversation did not go anywhere. (Again, my credit card was charged on the date I placed order!) Not knowing what to do, I called the store in West Hartford, left my phone number with an employee so the manager can call me back. No one called me back. I sent polite email to the manager, and also emailed the customer service. No response from anyone.

I will NOT order anything from this business in the future.

JUST HIT BACKSPACE ON YOUR BROWSER AND PICK ANOTHER COMPANY. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Called your West Hartford CT store early today, after calling around to several other of your stores, to see if the had a certain string for my cello and if they could fix the one string today. Was told yes on both. My husband drove 25 min there to find out they did not have the string. Drove to the nearest store that had this string (which was an additional 15 min out from my house) and they had no one to help with the cello. My husband ended up purchasing the string. Had I talked to him I would have told him not to make the purchase. Now every place is closed so tomorrow I have to go to another store to get this string put on. We needed the cello for tomorrow so you guys were literally no help. I will be returning the string and doing my business elsewhere. I should have listened to the other bad reviews. First time customer turned into last time customer.

When ever I place an order for a left handed Guitar it takes like 6 weeks for it to get to me horrible ordering process

Great store! Love the selection of Ernie Ball Music Man instruments.

I’m not sure how long this review will be, but I will say upfront that buying a guitar from DuBaldo Music was a great experience, from day one until I took delivery of my instrument, and beyond!

I ordered an Alvarez-Yairi Honduran series (FYM66HD) guitar from Pete at DuBaldo music in April 2021.

For those reading this review in the somewhat distant future, allow me to set the scene a bit:

There was a LOT going on in the world during this time. The COVID Pandemic was still raging, and supply chains were snarled at every turn.

Ports were closed, dock workers and truckers were striking or working limited hours under delayed timelines. Parts availability was questionable at best, etc.

VERY long story short: The guitar had to be hand built in Japan, then shipped to the west coast, then shipped to St.Louis, MO, then shipped to DuBaldo Music in CT before I could take delivery. All the while, considering the conditions of the world as described above.

Pete, Lisa and everyone else at DuBaldo music helped me along at every stage, kept me updated, empathized with and tolerated my frequent calls for updates, contacted the distributor in St. Louis on my behalf, and were generally very pleasant to work with over a period of just over one full year.

I will not pretend that I wasn’t itching to receive my guitar, or that the extended delay didn’t bother me. It was a maddening wait!

But I want to make it crystal clear:

DuBaldo music did their absolute best to get it to me as quickly as possible, considering the extremely challenging circumstances. I can’t say enough about their customer service. It was exceptional at every stage!

When I made my order over the phone, Pete answered all my questions and made sure I was comfortable with what I was ordering as far as the specs were concerned. We made a deal on a VERY good price, and the wait began.

I won’t bore with the details, but between Japan and Connecticut there were numerous significant delays. Mostly unavoidable and one or two caused by decisions that St.Louis Music made, and/or failed to communicate ahead of time.

Pete and Lisa worked through all of this for me deftly, and professionally.

I am not local to the store. I live in DC, about 6 hours away. When the guitar finally arrived, there were 3 in the order, and Pete and Lisa let me know that I could have my pick of the three. Instead of having Pete play them for me over the phone and choosing from pictures, I decided to drive up and try them out in person, and drive it home myself.

Lisa and Nick were more than accommodating, and I was made to feel very comfortable while taking my time to decide. All 3 guitars were incredible instruments and it was a tough decision. Nick provided periodic feedback and assistance as I tried them over a period of about 3 hours. I never felt rushed, bothered, or unimportant. They made sure I was attended to but was not hovered over.

They knew exactly how to help a musician pick an instrument, and it is clear that they wanted to make sure I was equipped to make the right choice, and leave satisfied.

On the way out, as they knew I was a visitor, they even provided local restaurant recommendations, since I had mentioned that I was making my best effort to eat at great places while I was on the road.

I was, and am still, very happy with the decision I made, and with the entire experience of buying from DuBaldo music.

I cannot recommend them highly enough!

My only disappointment was that after a year of talking to him several times a month on the phone, I didn’t get to meet Pete in person, since he was out sick the day I visited.

Hopefully he’s feeling better now, and if I’m ever back in CT, I’ll be sure to stop in and thank him personally!

Thanks again to Lisa, Nick, Pete, and everyone at DuBaldo for a trying, long lasting,, but ultimately completely satisfying experience! The guitar is utterly amazing and will be with me forever, as will the experience of shopping with you.

Finally got to visit after doing some business over the phone 18 years ago with Pete. Great inventory, selection and people. One of the very best examples of why we need to support local businesses and how great a family can run them!

Great service

Dennis there helps me out often. I’ve recently purchased three Roland products. Over the years I’ve bought guitars and amps there plus tons of accessories and service. Catalog prices on great gear close by!

Best place around for any of your musical needs. I have been coming here for 20 years now. Wouldn’t go anywhere else!

Great help and knowledgable staff

Nice shop

If you’re not looking to go too far to get musical instruments. Look no further. Expensive though. But if you don’t care about prices, go for it. Not much of a selection though.

Meh

This place is just awful. The owner is so rude to us that i will never go back. We rented an instrument from him because our normal music store didnt have the instrument and when the instrument broke he said it was our fault and that it wasnt covered and then bad mouthed our local music store.

After going to this place; I must say I will never go back there again. The owner is so rude and disrespectful. Its not even funny. The owner needs get off his anthropocentric state of mind.

I like this place. They rented us a sax as my son started and had the sax we bought tuned up at a fair rate. The musicians in the store are helpful resources. It’s great to have this place so close to home.

In general, I was very impressed with the quality of service that I received from this institution. I want to highlight the two instructors that I worked with, Marcus- piano instructor and Paul- guitar instructor. Thank you so much!

Very nice selection. Their inventory covers the spectrum of all things musical. I went there for strings for my 6 string bass, they understandably only had sets for a 5 string.

The prices are ok. The parking can be tough. The person working the desk was dismissive of my questions. Not a lot of inventory on display. They seem more about instruction.

Thank you for your service n attention. Thank guys for helping me to pick the perfect gift for my wife.

Sales staff were not super knowledgable. We rented our son’s violin for school through them and billing was always an issue even though it was on monthly automatic payment. Glad the saga is over.

Don’t rent any instrument from this place. People are very rude. Calling customer service takes forever to get someone on the phone. Unfriendly customer service, supervisors don’t want to talk to customers. Find another place to rent instruments for your children.

Very bad and rude customer service, hang up my phone.

WARNING! WARNING TO PARENTS!! DO NOT USE THIS SHOP FOR RENTALS! Should be ZERO stars.

We rented from here for 5 years, the first 4 went off without a hitch. This year has been an absolute nightmare. We rented two instruments, same address, same name, same payment. ONE account had no issues, the other the local store put in the wrong address (where we have never lived). Over the last 4 months I have called their headquarters, left messages, emails, etc. trying to get a paper bill MAILED so that I could pay whatever was owed. They were incapable of sending this, and every time I called in could not even find the right account or would tell me everything was fine and they did not know why I was being contacted. When asked why they could not have looked at our other rental account for the correct information they were stunned into silence. Absolute incompetency from the sales staff all the way up to the billing department supervisor who assigned our missing “account” to a collections agency and then gave us the WRONG agency. Save yourself the trouble and stay far, far away from here.

Very curtious and quick service went to fix guitar ❤

Fred Pedemonti no longer works there,that is why the 5 stars. Fred is scum.

Great service.

First, the employees were excellent; friendly and helpful. I was extremely disappointed in the store itself. This was basically a dark, messy pawn shop, not the store I was familiar with from years ago. My only reason to go back would be to pick through dusty items to find something I might be in search of, more of an adventure.

Sent me a different accordion with no straps and a case that should of been thrown out

Closed even though the hours said it was open (3 pm on a Wednesday). The place looked like a hoarders attic. Absolute mess.

Ordered lugs for my snare. They sent me receipts and invoices and never shipped my lugs. I called and emailed multiple times and never got a response back after leaving numerous messages. Been 2 months and I still don’t have my lugs and am out $60.

Thank you turnpike music garage your the best we can always count on you got my baby girls cello for the orchestra right on time. Amazing place.

I have taken my guitar and bass here to be setup a few times. I was very happy with the time it took and the results. It averaged about a week for the turnaround and the playability was great. I can’t speak for the lessons or major repair work, but for simple things this guitar/music shop is perfect.

Friendly staff and good price for instrument rentals.

A little hard to find, but owner was very helpful in my search for a solid-woods Classical guitar. Looked at a very nice A/Yari. Has some nice guitars, but he is limited by space constraints. If the f-ups in Washington and the greedy sob’s on Wall St would all drop dead, this store would have a good chance of growing.

Had an excellent selection of strings. Plan on visiting again soon.

I got My sons cello at this store and the bridge was broken and the stand