I 100% recommend Crafted by Christoph for anyone with guitar needs & repairs. Professional, friendly, knowledgeable, and prices are reasonable I wouldn’t take my guitar anywhere else!
Cristopher has Joy, love and commitment to his craft.
I came in to have strings replaced.
With care that exceeds my own, he was able to solve problems I had no idea existed. Through his process
He meticulously documented and photographed his work, witch he shared with me every step.
After his thorough work.
I now have a guitar which I had no idea was so beautiful.
I am very grateful to have met Christopher, his services are worth more than he charges.
Very friendly Local guitar enthusiast as well as craftsman. You could tell that he enjoyed working on things. I look forward to seeing how well my guitar comes out !
3. San Diego County Music Exchange
Address: 985 Civic Center Dr #102, Vista, CA 92083 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
Very friendly, very helpful. Willing and patient. I walked in with 0 knowledge and they tooo time to educate me
We had a great experience at The Music Exchange as we were looking for and purchased a beginner Yamaha guitar for my grandson. The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly.
Muy amables cuando te atienden
Good service and knowledgeable staff.
Cool little store, friendly and helpful staff.
I have them 2 months with my saxophone and they did not check it out
4. Drum Flip
Address: 1031 S Santa Fe Ave h, Vista, CA 92083 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
The manager there was really helpful. They have great deals for great pieces of equipment. It is a nice clean location and the I found exactly what I needed and more for way under my original budget. I HIGHLY recommend this place. Far better than Guitar Center.
Drum Flip is a rare gem…a local drum shop with a wide variety of new and used gear run by the most friendly folks. I’ve snagged a whole lot of used gear over the past few years, and Ed has been helpful in getting me the new gear I most want, too! I’ve found my spot!
Relatively small shop but great customer service. Very friendly staff and they hold a good amount of events. Great place for beginners and the experienced who like custom created equipment.
Solo me gustó
Do not shop at DF. Owner was so unreasonable. I bought a 285.00 cymbal there and 7 days later, went to exchange it for a better tone. I was unsatisfied with its pitch. I found another cymbal for 280.00. Rather than offering an even exchange, the
owner charged me 86.00 to complete the exchange. I tried to reason with him but his answer was “NEXT TIME SHOP BETTER” as he refused to work with me. His policy is not flexible. He bought back my cymbal for 200 and charged me an additional 86 for the exchange, Unreal. People just don’t understand how to keep a regular customers happy. I’m done with this hustler and his business!
my trade.
My 14 year daughter saved her money and bought a drum set for 660. Used Yamaha and a mix of cymbals.
When we got home she noticed that one of the cymbals had a two inch crack. I called the store and the man in charge wanted to see the sticker on the cymbal that specified that it was cracked. There was no sticker, he flat out denied to replace the cymbal or work out some kind of exchange.
It was realy disappointing for my daughter first drum set.
If you are selling damaged equipment at least let us know.
This has been on my mind for a while. I had the one good experience ordering from Drum Flip. It was a Ride cymbal for a fair price but the packaging could have been better but nothing was damaged in shipping and it was good to go. I then saw a copper snare drum I wanted so I ordered it. it arrived damaged and Ed being the nice guy he is told me to fix it myself, and when I refused and wanted just a simple refund, Ed wouldn’t take responsibility for the damages and made me pay return shipping on this poorly packaged, damaged drum. He then made me wait on my refund after receiving the returned package to examine it himself and then passive agressivley made a weird video hitting it with a hammer to “fix” it. Such a great guy.
5. Vista Santa Rosa
Address: California 92274 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
6. Carlsbad Village Music
Address: 505 Carlsbad Village Dr, Carlsbad, CA 92008 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
Cool Shop! They have a great selection and very friendly staff.
It’s definitely the best music store around!! They have a friendly and knowledgeable crew that’s always extremely helpful and a very nice variety of ukuleles and guitars and lots of cute music related gifts and accessories! I love the vibe in this shop and i guarantee you will too!!
MamaLyn loves this music store!
The staff is knowledgeable and very helpful, especially Janine and Sarah. The store is attractive and well stocked.
I send all of my ukulele students there for ukes, other gear, and additional lessons.
They are the best!
Lyn
A nice little shop with friendly service and a smallish, but respectable selection of budget to pro instruments/amplifiers, as well as convenient store parking. Some guitars needed a setup or new strings, but many were unique, vibey choices, which I appreciated. I had fun talking shop with the manager and will be back, when in town.
More like Carlsbad Village IDIOTS!
Notice to drummers:DO NOT buy the “Carlsbad Village Music” brand stick! Just did, in an “emergency”. They couldn’t handle 15 minutes of playing. Ok on a pad, definitely not good on a kit!
I wanted to purchase something for my bass. Completely ignored me when I walked in, by two of the staff. Am I invisible? There were no other customers. Ignored me when I walked out as well. Will not be purchasing here in the future.
7. Guitar Center
Address: 712 Center Dr, San Marcos, CA 92069 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
I bought a new Fender electric amplifier the sales rep explained it’s features vs. other amps thus convincincing me the Fender was the best value for the money.
I know music stores can be intimidating sometimes, but everyone here is very friendly and willing to help.
Good place to get matching online prices and used guitars on sale.
Good place for for your musician, DJ, Sound, and Lighting needs the staff is very helpful and very informed. A lot of displays and good selection of equipment.
Good selection of guitars. Martin and Gibson.
Went into the Montrose store to buy a banjo. No customers were in the store but no one came to help me and just ignored me. I will never go there again. I think it was because I’m an older woman. I was ready to buy but they lost a sale and I went somewhere else and bought one the same day.
So I bought some stuff about a month ago, I’ve got 3 out of the four items I bought. I called to ask if I could get help in tracking my forth item, I was asked to wait for ops chief so I waited for sometime as expected cause of the Rona, then I ask the guy for help trying to figure out how or where I can track my fourth item and just hangs up on me.
Staff are cucks
8. Vista Music
Address: 745 Shadowridge Dr, Vista, CA 92083 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
My son went there for years noe my daughter’s going very friendly.and great teacher’s
Great teachers at an affordable price!
My son takes violin classes with Mimi. She very nice and patient. My son 1st has problem paying attention to the class, but the teacher so understand him, and handle him very well.
Make up class still one on one unlike some school that have to go with group.
I just took out a star for they don’t have many schedule. Mimi will be in the studio just Wednesday and Friday. The class time is just 30 minutes, then next student will wait right after. It means if you have something to discuss or can’t go over, you still have to go. Not flexible.
9. Heatwave Production Studios
Address: 82-777 Miles Ave, Indio, CA 92201 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
What an amazing place to rent an instrument! These people are so helpful and kind. We have had such great experiences with all of the instruments we’ve rented, and we wouldn’t go anywhere else.
The staff is so friendly and I absolutely love taking lessons here! Would 100% recommend!
So I’ve been searching for a 1/4 violin for my son and it seems like a lot of music stores just don’t have inventory. And if they had it, it was for rent only. Well, this store does! And its pretty much a one stop shop. I’ve been also looking for a shoulder rest for him and this store had exactly what I was looking for (and tons of them to be exact).
Their rental prices per month were also the cheapest around town. They have a “rent to own” type of thing where if you end up paying the price of the violin, you just get to keep it. Kinda cool. Also, this store pays attention to the small details. So many stores have untuned violins on display. Their violins on display are tuned!!! How refreshing.
Anyways, the store looks small, but is huge inside. We came around school band season and they had tons (and I mean tons) of instruments laying around for kids and their school bands.
Tons of selection for sheet music too. They had a Super mario songs book for piano which my kids gravitated towards. Anything to make them want to learn music. It’ll be my future music purchase once they can read notes.
They also offer lessons inside the store which is nice. We live a little too far for lessons, but if we lived closer, I would definitely be coming here for lessons.
Clean store, and super friendly staff who know their music and you can ask them questions about any instruments. David was super friendly and helpful!
Update 9/28 – Ryan called to apologize and made things right. In light of that I have upgraded the rating to 4 stars. Often times it’s not the mistake, but the reaction and I think Ryan did a good job resolving the issue.
The customer service for the rental is horrible. Bliss was terribly rude. I had an auto debit for a rental and I had that for a couple of years. The bank issued me a new card and it had lapsed. That happened in the past and they would call. This last time I got a new call saying it was two months past, but I never got a call for the first month, or an email, and she couldn’t do anything to waive the late fees, which were $15 for a $19 a month rental (79% of the rental cost). All because they couldn’t call or send and email. Sounds like their business model is to just make their money on the late fees rather than be reasonable.
We were looking to get a flute repaired and visited this location, having heard good experiences from others and being quoted a quick turnaround for the repair over the phone. Unfortunately, our service experience was rather disappointing. The staff present seemed inexperienced in working with customers. We were told they required a $20 for a same-day evaluation of the instrument, which we agreed to as the repair was urgent. However, the staff came back afterwards saying the instrument required “General Adjustments” (for which we were quoted a charge of $95), without explaining what was wrong with the instrument. The staff didn’t make much of an attempt to understand what was wrong with the instrument or provide clarification when we asked what exactly what was going to be fixed.
We came back a few days later when the instrument was ready for pick up, and the issue we were facing was not fixed! After this, we talked with one of the mechanics there and explained the issue, and they were able to identify the issue and repair the instrument, rather quickly in fact! Had we been able to do this from the beginning, we could have saved a lot of time and headache.
We will not be returning to this location for future repairs.
All four of my kids have been taking guitar lessons with Jasmine for years and I could not be happier with their progress. She’s incredibly talented, as a teacher and performer, and our family adores her. Thank you and highly recommend!
My wife had found a free (HaHa) left handed guitar for my granddaughter.
We stopped at B&H to get a case for it. Joseph noticed it had the incorrect strings on it. Understanding as a former musician, I had him restring the guitar. He also suggested a capo, so my very short granddaughter could learn to play.
Arriving at my son’s house, we were treated by my grandson and granddaughter spontaneously practicing together.
Thank you again Joseph, and B&H Music, for how you do business.
Great customer service and a huge music selection! Love it here!
Small shop with loads of customer service! I like shops where you can ask anything and not feel you need to be an expert on the subject.
Items were not priced but service was fast. Manager had to look up the price for the music stand.
I bought a Fender beginner guitar with case from Joseph for a very fair price. He carries some B stock guitars which are perfectly fine quality except for some minor blemish. Perfect for a beginner.
I later bought a beginner Cordoba classical which was also B stock bargain and was what I needed for my class at Palomar College.
Good, knowledgeable people. I always like supporting the local Escondido businesses.
They also have a rent to buy plan.
not playing with a full deck here last year I had some work done on a guitar and the bald guy told me it needed a special tuner — No I am not off the boat and been doing this for 40 years any way when I checked the manufactures statistics it said any tuner would be fine…NOT PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK…
Not a good music store. They have guitars and ukuleles and those parts, but hardly anything for band instruments. I asked for replacement parts for a trumpet and they never got them. They don’t carry much for flutes either. Maybe they’re just better for stringed instruments, but they certainly shouldn’t be called a general music store if they don’t carry supplies for a variety of instruments. They have a few maintenance supplies for trumpet, but they really aren’t for band instruments.
13. Mariachi Nuestra Tradicion, Mariachi in Coachella
Highly Recommended!!
You want to get them for your next special event !!
The best Mariachi You’ll find
Muy buen Grupo de Mariachi aqui en Coachella. Cuentan conmigo para otro evento los volveré a contratar. muchas gracias!!
No son professionales en su travajo no lo toman enserio no contestan tus llamadas oh mensajes un dia antes de mi evento le mande a decir que manana es mi evento y la direccion exacta y me salio con que no iba a venir porque los musicos se habian enfermado entiendo eso pero porque esperar hasta el ultimo dia para avisar me yo opino que el me tuvo que aver avisado desde cuando el supo de la situacion y lo unico que me dijo es lo siento miy mal de su parte jamas vuelvo a considerarlos para un evento
Our daughter has been taking piano lessons here at Giacolleti Music for almost 5 years now and she loves it. Mrs. Polino and her staff are great with the children and they communicate well with the parents. The studio is a great learning environment for the children.
The recitals are a great learning experience for the children also. Helps them to get over their fear of being in front of crowd of people.
Money well spent I would say. We will continue taking lessons here fir the foreseeable future, probably until our daughter graduates.
They also have lessons for adults. Highly recommend to anyone looking into playing music.
Very very awesome to have a pleasant easy visit to get some Christmas presents for the kids!!
The employees at the shops are pretty friendly. Been here twice and it’s never to busy. Came in once to buy new strings for my friends uke to fix a problem. They helped us find out the root of the problem and went above and beyond to help us out. This is my new local shop now
We took a guitar in to be restrung and it was done in five days. Seems to be working well.
Only thing wrong is that they don’t have many guitars in stock, but the ones they do have are a GREAT value, the people are great and this is a really good store if you looking for the necessities, and most of the time good conversation.
One star is one too many. Stay away from this place. “Rude owner” is an understatement. Way more interested in keeping his guitars on the wall and tuned to “e” than having potential buyers actually play the instruments (mid-level instruments, at best). He is he opposite of affable. He actually came to where I was playing and made sure that I wasn’t leaving sweat on the guitar. A first. On my way out, he asked if I had had re-tuned the guitar to e. “Yes” was my reply but I regret not saying more. Needless to say, I’ll never go back. To the owner, I suggest taking a business class, learning how to say “hi” to customers, and taking one or two classes at the local community college for some socialization. He gives the Mom-and-Pop Music Store a black eye and gave this patron the notion to speed to the nearest Guitar Center.
Very unwelcoming, one of the workers was so rude. Looks like I’ll continue shopping at guitar center.
Alright so i had violin lessons here for a month, and whenever it was my time to have the lesson, the teacher stayed overtime with their other students and then when before our lesson finished they would rush me out, i felt extremely unwelcomed and the teacher jumped around from subject to subject on what we were playing that i couldnt focus on improving anything. Overall i was discouraged from practicing for a while but now i found an amazing teacher elsewhere who ACTUALLY teaches me and i feel so much welcomed else where.
your right i also got scammed luckily it was for less $$$ but still never responded to my text and kept my deposit be aware of this guy Misael the head of group the very last minute also got canceled will never never do business with this guy.
Do not please do not give a deposit to this guys you will get ripped off at the last minute he will cancel you and will not give you a refund he will not answer Text or phone calls they are fake please stay away from them look for another one I lost $900 still waiting for refund night mare I will not recommend anybody mariachi international Del Valle save their name do not get scammed
I thought I was the only one unfortunately same thing happened to me I wish I would have known I didn’t check the reviews here he mess up my party and took my deposit never showed up bad guys be on the look out.
18. Little Street Music Hall / Encore Coffee
Address: 82-707 Miles Ave, Indio, CA 92201 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
Great customer service, great drinks, great music! Family friendly, chill atmosphere, and quick service. Been here to just grab a cup of coffee/tea before work and for their music night. Looking forward to seeing them grow! Recommend for everyone to stop on by and try for themselves.
19. James Hood Guitar Repair
Address: 2750 Auto Park Way Suite 19, Escondido, CA 92029 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
Great experience! I bought a used guitar and had them set it up. Sounds amazing, highly recommend this shop !
No matter how many youtube videos you watch, you won’t be able to set up your guitar as good as these guys!
My old Martin guitar was long overdue for a neck reset and some work on the binding. I asked around the group of guitar players I knew and the name that came up most was James’. They were right. My guitar feels and plays like a completely restored instrument. I would recommend James Hood Guitar to anyone I know for quality guitar repair.
What I like most about James and Nigel and his staff is if he overlooks something he will admit he’s made a mistake and then just as important..fix it. It’s hard for me to trust people who never apologize or..admit they may have made a mistake. Seems to me it would be hard to satisfy some of us picky pickers.
Thanks for everything James.
Professional service, completed in the time frame originally quoted. Reasonable prices.
James is a wonderfully confident guy who convinced me to spend more than my guitar cost to get more out of it. Original cost for my Ibanez electric–$150. I spent another $150 with James promising to fix the scratchy pots and amplifier hum and set the guitar to play faster/better.
I was there 3 times for this. First time, the pots still scratchy. Second time, I had to wait 20 minutes, while he attended to other customers. And I regret letting him talk me into more work.
Had to leave my axe for a total of 3 weeks. Sad to say, not only is the amp hum worse, the strings buzz and the pots are not Ibanez originals, but what James had on hand. He forced the original knobs on and I can’t get them off.
Really hate what he did to my guitar. This was a nightmare.
I don’t normally write reviews. Never complain. I would never take any guitar to him. I don’t care what other people say. This was the worst experience I’ve ever had. I had to fix the guitar myself. Lesson learned. Never again.
James Hood stole $3600 from the sale he made on my late husband’s consigned guitar. The money was to be used for my daughter’s college tuition. Mr. Hood knew that I was desperate to collect the funds, as financial debt resulting from my husband’s death left our family in dire straits. Six months after the sale was made (which he failed to notify me of) I discovered that his business, Buffalo Guitars, went out of business and he declared bankruptcy. Today, James Hood is in business again, but has made no attempt to pay me the money he made from the sale. I have taken this to small claims court; however, his BK filing prevented any small claims from affecting him. As a result, the next step will be taken to complaint of consumer fraud. This was unethical and criminal. My husband passed from pancreatic cancer, which left four kids and a widow with tremendous debt. It was difficult to part with his treasured guitars, but even worse to be taken advantage of by someone we trusted.
So I have taken at least 3 guitars to JHG repair throughout the years. My first one was an installation of a Seymour Duncan Blackout mod. When I got it back they had reversed the 3 way switch and didn’t bother telling me about it. I figured no big deal. I got used to it. The second time I used JHG, I took a my BC Rich Mockingbird that was having fret issues and got it back with the exact same fret issues. I believe that was $150 and over a week worth of work and in the end the guitar had the same exact dead frets I paid them to fix. That one really bothered me. So I didn’t use JHG for years afterwards. I used guitar center and San Diego Music exchange. Who both did great work with literally no issues. The 3rd and final guitar was a cheap 8 string Harley Benton that I wanted to upgrade. I asked them to install Tosin Abasi Fishman’s. First issue was that it took much longer than they said it would. I kept having to message to get an update. The second issue I got a call from the tech saying it was gonna be more work and they wanted to charge me up to $300 more. I had initially had them diagnose the work and charge me accordingly. So I was pretty upset they now wanted to charge me more and I had already waited longer than they said it would take. At this point I was wanting to be done with them. But the Tech to his credit “took care of me at the time.” They did not charge me extra. However when I got the guitar back the tech explained there was a 60 cycle hum coming from the voice 3 push pull pot on the bridge position. He promised to research the issue with Fishman and get back to me. Unfortunately, that never happened. He had almost made up for the bad experiences I had with JHG. He theorized it was the cheap 3 way switch that caused the issue. Turned out he was mostly wrong. I figured out it was actually the bridge ground wire that was mostly causing the buzz. JHG through their lack of communication and absent customer service inspired me to do something I always wanted to do: learn to do my own repairs and wiring. Since then, I have fixed every issue including the issue with the reversed switch with the blackout mod. I have sense done over 30 installs of pickups and push pull pots. Everything from installing an HS Fishman set with a Modern Fluence Alnico and a single width SSA into a Jackson DKAS Pro with a sustainiac (there is literally no wiring diagram for this kind of install, I had to combine wiring diagrams) to a PMT tech HCP push pull pot mixed with a Seymour Duncan Black out Mod (another impossible mod that has no diagram). Turns out feeling slighted by JHG was a motive that lead to me fixing all my guitars and upgrading them and learning to solder seemingly impossible modifications. I would thank JHG, but it was their lack of follow through and my 3 not so good experiences that gave me that final push to become my own luthier and wiring wiz. I literally write this today as I redo the wiring JHG did on my Harley Benton. Their wiring was good. It just their customer service and follow through that leaves something to be desired. I will likely never need JHG for an install, repair or modification ever again. Because I now know how to do it myself now. If I do come across a situation that requires more expertise than I have, I will use the many other guitar repair shops in the area.
20. American Music Store
Address: 1279 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas, CA 92024 , Vista Santa Rosa , California , United States
Great service! Bud is awesome! I’ve taken four guitars to him for setup and restring. Quality work. Quick turnaround.
Can’t say enough good things about Bud and his instructors. Great folks, old school type shop.
Great job of setting up and tuning my guitars. I also bought a used Crate amp here which sounds awesome!
The shop leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve only dealt with the repair side of the shop, and after the last incident, I won’t be returning. The greying owner is of little to no value. Unhelpful. I brought a piece of gear to get fixed back in September or October of 2020. After about 4 weeks, I called the repair guy and he hadn’t yet looked at it. Understandable as he said they were busy. Another 4 weeks go by and I still hadn’t heard anything back, so I decide to call. The repairman had taken a look, couldn’t quite figure out the problem and said he’d be able to drop it off in a week as he just did a drop off and told me he tried to call me. When? I received no calls from him, no missed calls, nothing! I called this shop multiple times. Showed up 3 times between December 2020 and February 2021 during hours posted and nothing. Lights out. No sign. Nothing. Finally, after roughly 6 months of waiting to pick up my still broken gear, I called and finally got through to someone. He stated they were open till 6 and I told him I could be there by 545 and he said, “Well, I have things to do later” as if he wasn’t planning on even staying open that late.
Would’ve appreciated any sort of updates on the status of my gear instead of having to jump through hoops to figure out what was going on. Poor communication, rude service.
Place is cluttered with old equipment and guitars being worked on to the point where it feels unsafe to walk around to look at guitars on display. As for the guitars on display their all out of tune, dusty and not setup so they don’t feel playable. The man working the front seemed knowledgeable but reluctant to try and sell anything or help find guitars that weren’t up on display. Selection of gear seems limited/ used and or ill-maintained. Amps could not be tested because guitar lessons were taken place in the other room that must not have been sound proofed. I can’t speak for how good the guitar lessons are but as for the rest of the shop it seemed neglected and appeared to have no interest in selling any gear.
The owner of this store is the worst I’ve ever seen at any music store I’ve been to. I asked him to setup my guitar specifically to a lower tuning which he had no problem with and a full setup. The thing was, I was considering selling this guitar and possibly trading in for another one. So this guy gives me the offer that if I don’t like his setup, and it’s not perfect, I could trade mine for one of his on the wall. I said that’s a good idea because I barely had any money at the time. After the job the guitar had horrible tuning stability, dead frets, and a notch in one of the frets he told me that made the guitar unsellable and he wouldn’t touch it. Unbelievable I try to take it over and over again to get him to do the job right and he says the guitar isn’t meant for lower tunings. Maybe it would’ve been better to mention that at first. Pathetic. Waste your money elsewhere if you’re a sensible person
