Top-18 of music shops in Volcano

Simply the best. I have been going to music stores for 50 years, and worked in a couple on the mainland, with friends also owning and working in several. No one gives better discounts or is a more customer service oriented shop. The best of both worlds! Sincerely, “Master of Space and Time”.

Walked in on a whim today and met a great guy selling guitars at awesome prices. I have been to a few shops on the island and was underwhelmed with the service I received. Today I was absolutely blown away by how awesome Spencer was. I didn’t buy anything today because I didn’t plan on being there, but when I do I will only shop here.

Aloha, everytime I drop into Big Island Guitar, I am able to get the service I need for my guitar accessories. Excellent workmanship and great prices! Spencer is extremely helpful and knowledgeable about his products and what I need serviced.

Spencer is a very personable individual who is very knowledgeable. The store itself is quaint and stock can be limited but it has pretty much everything that’s needed in general.

Drove an hour , website said open, answering service said open, closed during advertised business hours.

Nice little music store and the owners were very friendly and knowledgeable. Loved their brand of Ukulele. Great clarity and sound and cool logo. I’ll be looking for a baritone Ukulele.

A fantastic selection of guitars and ukuleles at reasonable prices.
While I didn’t buy anything here, the staff are amazingly nice people and let me try any instrument I wanted. As for COVID precautions, you must wear a mask inside and use hand sanitizer before touching any guitar.

Nagyon kedves és vicces a tulajdonos. Megmutat mindent és nagyon profin játszik. Gitárosoknak egy remek hely, hogy ismerkedjenek a vilag legcukibb hangú hangszerével az Ukulelével. 🙂

This is a nice store with a knowledgeable and fun owner. Because of the prime location expect to pay retail prices. You can find cheaper prices if you shop around. I bought from him because he engaged my son and made it fun.

Unfortunately I can’t give 5 stars because the owner was unavailable to give lessons. He said he’s too busy and looking for a teacher, so things may change. I ended up taking my kids 2 blocks away to Hilo Ukulele and Guitar. Rick there gave the kids low priced lessons and threw some discounts for merchandise.

I guess if that store wasn’t available, I’d give this place a 5 star review. But competition does exist, which is great, so a solid 4 stars from me.

It’s a nice place and they have good quality.

The wine isn’t bad. Some real winners in the bunch. Unique blends with tropical flavors. Creative stuff. I like visiting the most, though. Kind, helpful staff. Warm, inviting tasting room. Grounds are nice for a picnic…even the occasional peacock. Nice stop when visiting Volcano NP.

Pleasant visit after volcano Nat’l park. Feb ’21 and covid precautions were sufficient. Interesting selection of wines, many with local grapes which is always nice to see. Found one of the 8 we tried a bit too busy, but the rest were very nice and had their place. Came back to the hotel with 3 bottles.

First time there in nearly 2 decades. Great experience. Good wine, friendly service. A must stop if in the volcano area.

Informative did not care for the tea infused wine. But it was a nice experience

Its nice there but the gifts are overpriced

TLDR: Go for the novelty and because you’re nearby; Wine is average

Pros: Very close to Volcanoes National Park, so great for a stop by. The novelty of the southern most US winery is neat. The use of hybrids to make a decent wine is a smart choice and makes passable wine.

Cons: The novelty is the reason to go. The wine is OK. It’s a winery on Hawaii that barely seems tied to the place. They import Pinot Noir… Why?! Very little by way of telling the story of the land they are on. Seems more like a souvenir shop that also sells wine.

Came in on a Saturday and it was busy (in a great way!), and staff were friendly. Living in Hawaii, we enjoy supporting local businesses and frequent the winery when we can. A personal favorite is the Guava Grape. It’s now in a smaller bottle, at the same price, so I asked the staff about it and they told me it was still the same mL as the previous larger bottle but they are currently having bottle distribution problems. The staff member acted very informed and was really convincing. I bought several at the counter because it was too busy to grab from the shelf. When I got to my car, the new size bottle is only 375 mL at the same price as the bigger bottle (what used to be at 750mL). When I kindly brought it up to the staff, I was told the smaller bottle size was due to a guava shortage. Who knows what the real story is. It would be fine to just say “it’s smaller at the same price because we need to make money” because it is, in fact, smaller, at HALF the size of the regular bottle—same price. I felt a little cheated because I was lied to, but it happens with tourists and they didn’t know I wasn’t one.

half the mL, for the same price. And I tipped the guy who lied to me! That’s what angered me the most.

The wine was pleasant and our server was well rehearsed. I cannot call him experienced though as he seemed well under 21 and unlikely to possess a palate to match his descriptions, but his training was impressive. The cheese and cracker platter was an overpriced travesty, Ritz crackers and shoddy dip. Very clean washroom.

I really wanted to like this place.

Unfortunately, the wines were too sweet—added syrup?—and a lot of what goes into their wines isn’t made on the estate.

I took my bass guitar in for a restring and intonation issues. Gunner did a fantastic job at a very reasonable price. Will definitely bring my instruments there again. MAHALO Kindworks!

Friendly well stocked music store with great guitar/bass/ukulele repair and maintenance tech, lots of cool instruments, supplies and local art. Good selection of used instruments and they’ll sell yours on consignment! One of the best music stores anywhere, right in my neighborhood.

This shop is adorable! There are so many useful things for a musician including high quality instruments, strings, accessories and more. I also love the cute mugs, stickers and bags! Support local small business.

Spent $20 on gas to arrive 30 minutes before close and found out they were already closed….an update on hours would be appreciated.

This shop is great. The staff is well versed and very friendly. They are my 1st stop when shopping for gear. And if they don’t have what I need, they will bend over backwards to get it for me. Seriously. Only 5 stars because they don’t do 6!

Has all we needed

I have been to the Music Exchange in Kailua the last 2 visits.Got great great service from Gaven..he was patient generous and understood what I was looking for.It was a real priviledge to buy my Koaloha Ukulele from him ..I would reccomend him and the store very highly..as best place in Big Island to buy instruments.Ask him to tell you the story of what happened today I’m sure he will not mind sharing it..mahalo nui loa Gaven

These guys usually have what I need and their prices are reasonable. Great repair shop as well.

Friendly and knowledgeable service

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I’ve been here twice. The first time I stood off to the side, but in view of the clerk. I stood there for at least 15 minutes, while 2 different customers were attended to. I wasn’t even spoken to.
The next time I went in to buy some finger picks. I was spoken to, or maybe grunted at, while the attendant restrung an electric guitar.
I’ve had enough.

Service was awful acted like I bothered them by asking questions about ukulele. I will buy somewhere else.

Waited outside patiently for 30 minutes during an employee break. When the employee opened the shop again he told us to leave as soon as we stepped in. Giving no explanation, just saying “goodbye”.

Tasty food. Cozy environment.

Great place to stop off at! Very local and friendly vibe

Good food.. and a dry place from the damp day… worth the stop.. next time we will leave room for dessert…

Average but not much else around

Food and service where both just o.k. at best!

Good diner style food, and the staff is always very friendly. They play oldies on loop, which gives it a nice old fashioned feel. Their haupia cake is really good. Not many dairy free options here but it’s a diner, so what can you say.

Thought we’d check this place out on our recent vacation from Oahu mainly because they’re menu had options the kids would eat. Boy we’re we disappointed. Service was nearly nonexistent. The food was NOT fresh nor local as advertised. I’ve spent years in food service and every single item we were served came out of a frozen Sisco truck. It saddens me that people may come here from the mainland and think this is Hawaiian food. Definitely not worth the cost.

Awful service…. At first we were going to get the food to go but we were told by one of the employees that they were going to feed everyone sitting down first before they were going to take any to go orders so we decided to sit down to eat. After that we had to ask 2 times for someone to take our order during that time another party was sat and served drinks before we received any sort of drink… we finally had our order taken and got the food quickly from there. After we finished eating we had to wait 20mins to get our check. Not once did anyone say sorry for the delay.

Food was decent, customer service needs work.

Go look at the pictures. If they appeal, this is your place. For me? I used to live in US, and was in Hawaii for 2 weeks. I really wanted a burger at a down to earth place. This is, hands down, the worst value meal I can remember in my time in the USA, and the worst meal I’ve had in a diner or burger joint, ever.

Service that swung between inattentive & slightly hostile, dry burger – overpriced, average drinks, in a dive restaurant that seems to exist solely to trap tourists who found everything else in Volcano was closed that night. (This is A Thing. Each restaurant in Volcano appears to close on different nights, with no real pattern).

The fries are pretty good, though.

The greatest place for children to get outside and play in Volcano! From the toddler playground, the rolling grass for riding bikes, to the all wood covered skate park! There is nothing like a sunny day around the grill and picnic tables! Friends for a lifetime are easy to find here. Dont forget to bring twice as much food and sodas! Resident skate park manager and super uncle Eddie is your go to guide for a cool day at the park!

The people are friendly and always . They make my day!

The addition of the Thursday night market is a wonderful midweek option for great food, desserts, veggies, and personal and household goods.

Crip skate park

It was great fun making purchases from the many vendors.

Local gathering place for classes and events. Thai food truck in lot most days from lunch on.

Much of what it once had is either broken or removed now. The skatepark needs repair, the play ground has 50%+ it’s items removed. There bathrooms and people are nice but the playground could really use some renovations like Adventure Park in Waimea or Kamakana in Kailua-Kona. It would be great if people in South and East Hawaii Island had a nice playground without having to drive 100 miles to the other side of the island.

#des

The farmer’s market is the same as any farmer’s market in the area, absolutely the same tired vegetables by the same, tired old vendors. There may are some rather fresh vendors, but all in all a waste of gas to go all the way there. The powers that be have decided this venue should close at 10 am, if you’re local that’s fine, but to drive all the way up there is not worth the exhorbant price if gasoline on this island. The prices at the thrift shop for clothing are almost worth the trek up there, but there are limited sizes and no concise place to pay. Personally, I found it very disappointing and trufully a waste of time.

Got here from California, and just 3 weeks in I needed to give my soul some musical ailment…. and bought a good amount of stuff!
Matt and Dylan you guys are so awesome along with the young girl that was so cheerful and knowledgeable for her fruitful young age! The vibe here, the people here, their knowledge and servitude…… just AMAZINGLY STELLAR!!!

Obviously the best guitar/music shop in kona

Cool guys always willing to help me learn about the guitar

Friendly knowledgeable service, reasonable prices and a good selection!

They have knowledgeable staff and usually have what I’m looking for. If not, they give referrals.

Best place on island for drummers

Visited the store yesterday to buy 2 ukuleles. There were 2 customers ahead of me. Staff spent ample time with those customers and I waited patiently. I appreciated the attention that was given to them and I was looking forward to the same treatment. After 50 minutes (yes, 50 minutes), it was finally my turn. After speaking to me for 5 minutes, he excused himself to talk to the customer who just entered the store. I was dumbfounded. After a couple of minutes, when it was apparent that he did not want to help me, I left. I don’t know what I said or did, but it was clear that he didn’t value my time or wallet. I wasted a lot of time and he lost a sale.

The best

David I still love my number T120 custom tenor uke u made for me almost fourty years ago. still in perfect very used condition.. Brazillian rosewood back n sides n spruce top

I have one of his guitars. At first, I was scared to play it, because it is a true masterpiece of art. The koa’s grain looks three dimensional. The abalone inlay is unbelievable.

Started playing it and regret not playing earlier and more often. With little effort from either hand the guitar plays with ease and sounds better than anything I have ever heard!

Jonathan

Best tacos I’ve ever had.

If you’re ever wondering where the best kept secrets are regarding food in Hawai’i, I can’t think of a better place. This is it.

We visited the Volcano attractions nearby and we’re deciding on a place to eat. Most restaurants were heavily priced beyond our budget and we needed a quick fix to tie us over on our trip back to Kona. We picked Rico’s on a whim and we’re blessed with fantastic flavors.

This is one of the best taco/burrito shops we’ve had period (visiting from Dallas, Texas). We had both “street” tacos and burritos and the flavors were fantastic.

They are situated off of the side of the road and tucked beside a house under a prepared tent. There is little to no seating, so this is a grab and go. Owners are kind and friendly.

The food was great and the owners were so nice! 10/10 would recommend

Tacos and nachos were good, just don’t know if I can go 5 stars on that. Very kind people though. If you go close to closing they may be out of some items.

Best food you’ll find around here hands down. And just Really good Mexican food all around! A little pricy for what you get, but we Love the food and hope they’re here to stay for a long long time.

Might be unfair – but – impossible to find! Drove up and down for ages, no signs, nothing. Supposed to be upon.
Huge annoyance actually- coming from the national park, super hungry. Should update opening hours and/or put up signs.

Edit:
We didn’t go on a Tuesday 😉 just did the review later on. Thumbs up for answering, but sorry, this is still my experience with your place regardless of what others have experienced. I believe it’s fair to ‘warn’ others of this, before they count on visiting. This doesn’t take away from the great reviews you’ve received.

I had a really great early dinner. Was say right at the window, so I had a great view while eating. Everything I had was great. I had the fried chicken sandwich with Hawaiian coleslaw, the ice cream trio with chocolate chip cookie, and a root beer. The service was great as well. Would definitely go again.

Very tasty dinner! Good place to stop at while you’re here in the national park. Best part is the view from the windows as you eat

This place is amazing! You’re having an incredible meal in front of Kilauea Caldera! So what if there’s a wait for a table, it’s literally an active volcano so chill em outies with that smellifornia attitude. The food is really yummy, the bar is nice, and the staff are so kind.

5 stars for the gorgeous views of the Halemaumau Crater. We came here late afternoon for a quick meal and had Wild mushroom pizza, Volcano House Pasta and edamame. The pizza was good but the pasta felt a bit undercooked. The thai chilli spices on the edamame was a nice kick to it. There is also a lounge area and an espresso bar in the restaurant where you can just take in the views of the crater.

The lounge at Volcano House is a winner because hey, what other place can say it’s located on an actually erupting volcano?

Go for the view and the old-world patina of the hotel.

Some things may have too much patina, but roll with it, because you’re right on an erupting volcano!!

Drinks are pricey but taste good with the lava view.

Sushi is also expensive, but after eating subs from Kilauea General Store, small fresh fish bites were enough. Good flavour on the seaweed salad and fish was fresh. Coleslaw under sushi #1 on the left was dry and hard with no dressing.
Pickles under sushi #2 in the middle were good.

Do walk to the viewing point off Devastation Trail after dark to see the newly opened lava inside the cone.

Walked right in with no reservations on a weekday around 1:30. Got sat by a window with a view of the crater and felt fortunate. Food was solid (3-4 stars) and portions were generous. Cute presentation with the fries in a little basket. Appreciated the mocktails on offer and local sodas. Good selection of offerings on the menu. Service was efficient. Glad to have this spot for decent, filling food while visiting this national park. It’s located just a short walk across the street from the main visitor’s center and gift shop in the Volcano House hotel.

Avoid the Tomato soup and Grilled cheese and the Macadamia Nut tart. One of those gave me food poisoning.

In the bar of the restaurant he wanted to sell me a plastic cup for .75 cent. And I ask for a straw instead and he told me the straw comes with the cup.
Won’t visit that place again.

Very expensive and not worth at all.

Anne the owner is awesome! Beautiful instruments for sale!

Amazing service, with beautiful Ukes :). The store has moved just down the road, but well worth looking for.
Mahalo

Best place in Kona for quality Ukuleles

Small store, mostly low-end ukes, limited selection of accessories. Good for those looking at getting into ukulele. The gentleman that was selling the ukes said he doesn’t play ukulele so you may get the same basic info that you can research online yourself.

I’m a tourist, guitarist interested in a 6 string uke, so I stopped in this store. The man running the store was nice, and recommended another store in town. Much like the “Santa?” From Macy’s, I respect the customer service.

I ended up going to Music Exchange.

Many ukes are priced too high for the quality they provide

Do not shop here! This man only sells made in China/Asia etc. ukes. Thou will happily tell you that they are ‘Island made, hand crafted by a lady down the road.’ This is a lie. Do not trust this shop, over priced tourist trap!

Doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Store is vacant. No idea if they’ve moved somewhere else or just another COVID casualty.

Huge disappointment. Purchased a ukelele this summer. Clerk made a big deal of tuning it for my daughter. We got it home, took it to a professional string educator and have been told it’s simply for looks. It’s poorly made, so there’s no way to fix it or tune it. The store should have told us this was just for decoration.

The store is always neat and clean! Employees are helpful and attentive.

Very helpful!

Volcano hosts courteous and knowledgeable staff. Great quality products and a comfortable atmosphere. Excellent variety of products for your vaping needs!

I like the helpful staff

Very helpful staff. I just started vaping so my tolerance is low meaning anything above 2.5% I have a coughing fit. They dont carry 2.5% all they have is 5% or higher for nicotine. That kinda sux. But it is what it is. Staff member was still helpful in helping me find something smooth to get me by since everywhere else was closed on a sunday. Also big plus is that they open pretty late whereas everywhere else close 6ish.

Customer service is good and friendly

Pricey

Terrible people stood there forever and nobody helped me!!!

Nobody would even help. Rude staff. Won’t go back again.

Excellent professional help and an awesome selection of almost everything in the world of music

Excellent service! You need anything they got it all and for a great price. We are so happy to have an island store like Bounty Music with all the knowledgeable and friendly people ready to assist us.

Great store! If ever on Maui you must go there for you musical instrument and services needs. big ukulele selection, and great music instruction!

Small selection of instruments, but the people who work there are really nice. The more you come in the more they’ll work with you. It’s nice to have a music store on Maui.
You find Aloha inside the people at Bounty Music.

Awesome

Had to drive around to the back of the store. Store clerk had me wait outside as he went to get two packs of guitar strings. They had what I was looking for. Only took a couple of minutes.

I bought 2 guitars there. I’m happy with the guitars so they get an extra star. Their service is awful. I get that artistic people shouldn’t be expected to be the most professional at work so I gave them slack. I brought my guitar in to get serviced (strings buzzing on electric). Guy X says “The guy who can fix that isn’t here today and to start the process you gotta talk to Guy Y over there.” ( is there really only one person out of the 6 here that knows how to put a tag on a guitar with my name/#/ and problem?) I couldn’t believe only one person knew how to adjust it that worked AT A GUITAR/UKULELE SHOP. Guy X ditches me and I’m left stranded. There was more that day but I’ll stop here because Guy Y basically ignored me and helped people behind me.

I left it there (finally, and it wasn’t guy Y who helped but a girl who saw me there in line for 20 min and felt bad, she put a tag on the guitar with name/#/ and problem). 2 days later I called to see how it was going. They said “Dude, we’ll call you when it’s ready, click.” I went there 3 days after I left it and they said it hadn’t been touched. Would you trust a mechanic who didn’t even touch your car after 3 days in the shop? I wouldn’t. I took it home, watched YouTube videos and got it done.

If you need something NOW you have to go there. I love to support local business, even if they’re more expensive (to be fair in my cases they were not more expensive than online). However, I won’t support any business that is careless with me.

Went in to Bounty Music for new Ukelele strings on Christmas Eve. The young man that “assisted” us was incredibly rude! Initially, he was troubled by the fact that there were two wound strings on my ukulele. Then, after not being able to locate the matching set of strings, he stated that he would just “eyeball it”. He became even more rude after the young lady told him to verify by speaking to someone else. He refused. We were so offended, we left. Not enough room to finish my review..

Hey Beware,
I’m sorry but I’ve had a couple of rough experiences at bounty. I wanted to buy an artist series Stratocaster. I explained that I had looked online and was wondering if they could match the price or come close? I was told…
“If you can find it online you should just order it there, it’s easier.” I did explain that I like to support local businesses … but the sales guy was less than interested, and he just ended the conversation by walking away . Boy did I feel naive! I will say that I went online and ordered a nice guitar with free shipping and it was at my door in no time. I’ve since ordered an amp and two more guitars… all online without talking to Bounty. I have to confess that all experiences were “easier” than dealing with Bounty.

I just got off the phone with them and again I can’t believe the attitude. I explained that I was going to ship some guitars to the mainland, and did they have any guitar boxes that they were going to recycle or throw away? If so I would like to reuse them…you know go “green”. I’m not planing to ship for a couple of months.

“no” we don’t have any of those boxes…I was told, but we will sell you a Taylor box for 20$. They hung up on me before I could explain that I can get a bundle of 5 boxes for 8$ (online) with free shipping, so 20$ for 1 box is … well typical Bounty. I’m not really sure what the bad attitude is at Bounty? It is true that you can buy online for quite a bit cheaper than what Bounty offers on almost every single item they carry (this includes shipping costs).

Honestly Bounty seems disinterested and even lazy sometimes. I still go in and look every once in a while, but I don’t feel compelled to spend my money there.

1 star because, really it’s not worth the head ache to drive into town to put up with bad attitude!
I’ll give another star because a couple of the staff members are very nice… so it’s not a total waste of time…

I recommend that you do what I do which is… I just sit at my computer with a hot cup of coffee and shop away.. (go Prime!).