The top 20 music shops in Yolo County, United States

Very friendly knowledgeable staff. Excellent inventory of not just run-of-the-mill stuff, but also unique instruments not typically found in other stores. Good selection of accessories, cords, adapters, etc. They also have an online store so you can get an idea of what you’ll find when you get there. Overall great experience

Awesome music shop. Highly recommend

Always knowledgeable and friendly!

Great store for rentals and purchases, but can get a little pricey, but still a great store all around.

Used to stop by when they were in downtown Davis.. “new” location is bigger and very cool

good deals

You should update your hours on Google if you’re going to be closed on a day you say you’re open. We drove 40 minutes out of our way to go here just for them to have a sign saying they’re closed.

Don’t bring your instrument to get repaired here. Very laggy with no communication. Waste of time.

Staffs are SO SALTY AND RUDE sh*

I’ve known and have had David fine tune my guitar for years now.

David is great, I brought in my guitar for set up. He had it back to me in a week and it’s awesome. When I brought it in it had major fret buzz and was unplayable. I couldn’t believe the difference, I will definitely be a regular customer.

Highly recommended repair shop! Brought a couple of my Epiphones for set up, and David did an amazing job! Gives you a lot of useful info, and he really cares about his customers and will answer any questions you may have. Has superior knowledge and definitely deserves 5 and more stars!!!

Buen lugar para caminar

Good for repairs but if youre looking for instruments there is a minimal selection.

I dropped a banjo off at the beginning of February. After two calls to them and no calls from them, I came and picked it up. Took them a long time to find it. Can’t recommend these guys.

Al Calderone made some repairs to a dreadnaught body acoustic for me. The repairs are perfect and the guitar plays like it is new again. At the time of this review it has been a year and the repairs are still very solid and the workmanship is top notch.
I attended his annual “Guitar Festival” and was nothing but impressed by level of instruction that came from the different workshops. If your a budding luthier, a solo artist, or just a hobbiest, you will definitely take away a ton of good stuff from this event!!!

I had a vintage Les Paul with a nasty crack in the neck that Al repaired incredibly well and in a very timely fashion. Al is super friendly and knowledgeable, the pricing is great, and the location is great. Hard to beat ARC for all of your luthiery needs.

Totally professional and friendly service. Al (the owner) is so helpful and knowledgeable about guitars and all things related to them. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do work on my guitars. He always does first-rate work and I’m a very happy customer!!!

Nice, friendly shop with a surprisingly strong little bar inside! My friends didn’t know about it, so here is your PSA. Great place to have a brew or two, share a conversation, and listen to some tunes

Nice people working there all the time. Great little place with some great records and more.
Good vibes in here.

Awesome place to find music. Live music every week, great stuff.

Nice selection. Pretentious atmosphere.

Lots of great music and very helpful

Been buying vinyl here for the last 5 or 6 yrs now since doing an out of town job in Dixon. I live in the Bay Area and made it a point once in a while to stop by. The deal this guy has for RSD Black Friday is great, shop there on that wknd and get a 50℅ off voucher on any used record. I would use this wisely and picked up killer deals on his wall displays Occasionally if there was a problem the owner I will assume never really asked any questions and let me exchange for something else on store credit. Not on this day (3/6/2022). Didn’t really recognize the employees and they decided to check the record on the house TT. They pretty much told me there wasn’t anything they could do since their house TT that tracks 1g higher than my $550+ Fluance played it with no problem. So long story short I left the record, and a frequent buyer card with 6 or 7 punches at the register and showed myself out the door.
Was great doing business with you guys Armadillo.

Worst DJ ever, unless you like conjunction and Cumbria’s only. Went to a wedding where the brides family was Caucasian and came in from out of town. The DJ didn’t care and played knly music geared towards groom side of the family. Despite several attempts from the brides family to intercede and request made, he continued to play Mexican only music. Sadly, the brides family left early.

They made a mistake on pricing a release, and refused to honor it. So they lost a long time customer, that has spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars, over MANY years, over a $7 item. Way to go! I will never return.

Much larger inside than it appears from the front. Not only did they have the exact piano fake book I was after, they had some things I would never have thought to look for. The Legend of Zelda for piano? Fantastic! The staff was friendly and offered their help, but the store was really logically laid out so I didn’t need assistance finding what I needed. My kind of place.

Band instruments, sheet music, ethnomusical instruments, rocknroll gear all fairly priced. Knowlegeable and smart staff. Music lessons too.

Great place to my son music supplies and instrument rental. The staff are so helpful and knowledgeable.

Oldest music store in Sacramento. Instrument you will not see at other stores. Friendly and personal staff.

Get some meisterklasse harmonicas and you get another star.

I have mixed feelings about the experience good and bad
It has to do with renting a use or new instrument

An employee had a very bad attitude

Needed to rent a violin for my son and they didn’t have a 3/4 used violin so I ‘rented’ a 1/2 violin. I didn’t realize but my wife also got him a 1/2 size violin from a neighbor so I returned the Klein violin 6 days after I rented it. They refused to refund the first 2 months rent ($43) because they said it was in the fine print…’no refunds!’. Horrible customer service. Klein customers beware!!! They won’t refund anything.

They didn’t have any product for me and inexperience help?

This place is amazing. We always take my son’s trumpet to Tim’s Music when repair or maintenance is needed. The staff is always friendly and very knowledgeable.

Great service! Love the family friendly atmosphere!

Very helpful and knowledgeable staff!

Decent place to shop for musical instruments and music classes. Great loaner program

Great help

Attended a piano recital on Sat 5th. Very well organized and music was enjoyable. Program was safe distancing and masks required. Students that participated were very involved.

This would be zero stars but a plug is warranted for John Doolittle’s sax lessons at the store of which I availed myself a couple of times. Zero stars involves me taking my alto sax there for repair. It’s over 50 years old but has had some restorative work done; fairly significant when I started playing again regularly about three years ago and more minor work several months ago and again following my unpleasant experience at Tim’s, the former by Kline Music and the latter by The Music Store in Rocklin. The guy at Kline is particularly known for his competence. The purported lead expert on reed instrument repairs at Tim’s told me my Selmer Mark VI needed a $1500 complete overhaul and they wouldn’t touch it for any lesser amount of work. The guy in Rocklin then fixed it for $65 and it plays just fine, as it did before it started acting up shortly before I took it to Tim’s. I played in church today and was complemented on my tone by their music director, who is a school music teacher and fellow owner of a Selmer Mark VI. An instrument in need of complete renovation obviously could not produce such a result. I got a different feel from the store than I did when I took lessons from Doolittle at the old location. Maybe they’ve bitten off more than they can chew financially but they’ve certainly lost my business.

I have purchase and rented instruments here before. This time, five different staff said they would help, apparently what I wanted was not in stock and instead of letting me know, all left me waiting. After quite a wait we decided to leave. Someone caught us leaving and took our number to call and figure out how we could get ahold of the instrument. That was over 8 weeks ago, my phone never rang. They’ve lost a loyal customer.

Amazing talent, a can’t miss show!

Jesse comes to our winery for several events, and he nails it every time. His talent fills the atmosphere with a feeling you can’t get anywhere else. Book Jesse if you want the best guitarist for your event!

Jesse has always done an amazing job entertaining our guests. He is very talented and his style of music is well received every time! We look forward to having Jesse back yet again.

Jesse was great! He showed it up time and all the guest loved his music.

The Miller family thanks you for your experience and expertise in handling our family’s needs

Got what we needed

Excellent!

Nice and friendly workers

Skip’s is the glue that has held the Sacramento music scene together for decades. They have a smaller inventory than Guitar Center, but if you’re looking for lessons, rentals, music programs, or knowledgeable staff, or if you just want to try the instruments without someone standing over you, this is still the place to go.

Great Service.

These folks are always great. You have to be good with informal, but it’s great because you’re just chatting about instruments with other people who love instruments. You going to Guitar Center? Skip’s is 10 minutes away…go there after before you buy.

I went to this store for a power conditioner. I purchased a Furman M-8lx for $189.95… it retails for $79.99 on Sweetwater. Had I not needed it immediately I would’ve never bought it. I understand a mark up but over 100 is absolutely ridiculous

First off, there are some very knowledgeable sales staff here. The lutheir does great work as well. The amp tech leaves something to be desired. I buy lots of guitars and amplifiers. I don’t like wasting money, I do my best at doing my homework before I purchase. I called and talked to the amp tech who first tells me he tries when I asked him if he was the tech. I tried to have a simple conversation about tube amp reliability issues. I wasn’t asking him to bash a company, just simply make some suggestions on some amps that he does not have to repair all the time. I also wanted to know if pcb’s are worth it repair wise or handwired. All I got was attitude and him pushing me to the sales department. You claim you are for local musicians, if we can not have a honest discussion before I once again blow another 1000 dollars or more for another amp, what’s the point in me coming to skips music for my needs? My money is accepted everywhere. I have many options. I like to support American businesses and local shops. This is the second time this business has waisted my time. I definitely did not deserve attitude. Since there is a lack of professionalism, I will not be back.

It saddens me to write this review.

As a retail store i have never had a problem tho i have not tried to return something to them.

As far as tech services go it’s an absolute joke.
Do not have them service your equipment.

Whats a guitar shop good for that can’t set up a Floyd rose guitar?
Absolutely nothing.
First time in came back un tunable and not even set up the locking nuts where not even tightened, fret buzz, whammy bar loose.

Brought it back said they could give me half the money back. I told Oscar to plug it in and play it, and charge me what he felt was right he refused.”That would have been the right thing to do” and explained his straw boss ness and how he didn’t have authority to give me more money back. Rather than loose 64 bucks for just having strings half assdly put on and given no other options. i decide to give them a chance to remedy it. Also no apology for wasting my time and insulting me w the poor quality and absolute lack of Q.C.

get it back again not tuned and mostly set up intonations in the ball park the guitar tech gets a snark $10 tuner from the guitar tech room? to check my intonation. The techs are using a $10 dollar tuner not a rack tuner or even a decent tuner.

I’d be happier if i had just flushed 128 bucks down the toilet.
Again zero apology for wasting my time and trying to give me back my guitar w/o finishing the work.

I wish i had read the reviews before bringing it in. i thought they where a reputable shop. If i hadn’t tried to have them repair something i could still shop there and like them.

Larry “Dr. Rock” brought two of my very vintage Fender amps back to life, sparkling in a manner I’d never heard them before they’d eventually spend a couple decades in storage come the early 90’s. Outstanding work, golden tone, and great communication concerning them in the process. Luck/timing likely played a part, but both amps were back to me a week ahead of when I was quoted for completion. Well worth the reasonable internal restoration costs. Straight-forward. No BS.

Great shop, great owner that give so much help

Great guy, does fantastic work. Brought my Martin guitar in for some work, when I got it back, it never played better.

Always been pleased with the work done on my my guitars but, doggone, the man lacks soft skills. Every time I decide to give him another chance I cringe for doing so.

Poor service, go elsewhere.

Injects politics into his business, supporting insurrectionists, and insulting people on the company Facebook page.

Find business elsewhere.

So Dave is a guy who does not take responsibility for the people who give his guitar lessons in his shop. He claims they are not his responsibility and to challenge one of his instructors (Tyson) in his shop is to “put him in the middle.”

We signed up for lessons in late June. This was before the 4th of July. As it turned out, the first lesson was on the 4th. We did not check the calendar while signing up and neither did they. THERE WAS NO MUTUAL AGREEMENT TO MEET ON THE 4TH OF JULY! THERE WAS NO DISCUSSION REGARDING THE 4TH. No one said, “Hey, your son’s first lesson is on the 4th, can you make it? I mean it is a National Holiday.” Nor did I ask Tyson to work on the 4th anymore than I would expect him to work on Christmas or New Years–those are dates normal people spend with family and friends. No discussion what-so-ever. We went on holiday like 90% of the population. The 4th was to be our first lesson and if Tyson was going to be there on a national holiday it is incumbent upon him to let us know. He (Tyson) sent me an email after the 4th saying he was there–that is the only notice we received and one that should have been sent before the 4th, not after the 4th. Everyone I talk to feels the same way about this. A national holiday, really? Who would expect a guitar shop to be open on the 4th for lessons? The money is trivial, but the point is not. We are not looking to get over on anyone, but we did not agree with anyone to be there on the 4th of July. We should have been informed and that is a shortcoming on behalf of Dave, Tyson and his staff. Sign us up and give us the pertinent information by which we can make a decision, otherwise you are deliberately or carelessly misleading the public. I know a lot of people in town, I own my own business and I would never/ever expect my clients to pay for services they did not receive when I was negligent in my communication. Tyson was negligent and frankly Dave’s staff member who gladly took our money and signed us up was negligent too–kindly state the store policy to us as it applies to all calendar days including holidays. If we had known we would have acted accordingly, but we should not assume that your instructor is going to be working on Xmas, the 4th or any other national holiday. It begs credibility to think so. So when I asked Dave about this matter with Tyson his first response is to say it is not his responsibility. That he feels put upon because these people only give lessons at Dave’s place, but they really do not work for him. When money is exchanged at your pace of business you do bare responsibility. Period.

They offered lessons with another instructor, but after careful consideration I decided I did not want to do business with them. I did ask for money back on the lessons not used. Dave said there were no refunds on lessons. Not a wise move to make people pay for services they do not receive. This is a poor business practice, but reflective of the owner and his lack of business acumen. I run my own business we have five star reviews for a reason. We put our customers first. Dave and the people at Guitar Workshop practice a form of business that has little honor. Maybe I am old fashioned to say so, but I think you should conduct yourself honorably in business and that means not taking money you have not earned. So keep the $50.00 Dave, it is a very small price to pay to keep people like you out of my life and the life of my son. And this I would say to parents who are considering guitar lessons at Guitar Workshop: they lack honor and they will not put your children’s interest first.

Excellent service, real pros that work there, you can tell that they are musicians.

I have never bought a guitar before and had no idea what to look at or into just knew I wanted an electric guitar. The staff there were amazing and extremely helpful in helping me pick out my new guitar! Would highly recommend.

Anytime I need anything, these guys are usually the only stop I need to make.

Friendly folks But poor job on my guitar.
1) I took my new guitar for setup and it has the transparent pickguard, it was all dirty inside the pickguard so i had to buy the tool to open the pickguard and clean myself also few screws were popping out. (And also they took off the protective sticker which i kept for a purpose.

2) the frets were still sharp which they said they gonna file it off. So i had to take another shop to get it done and i spent more.

Drove 160 miles total and spend money for poor treatment to the guitar.

They had a decent selection of instruments, but I was very disappointed with how one of the workers treated my friend and me. We were playing on a few different instruments over the course of about 30 minutes, and at some point a worker walked up to us and told us that the jamming had to stop. Never thought I’d hear that complaint in a music store, especially since we were playing relatively quietly. He most likely assumed we weren’t serious about buying anything (which is far from true), but I can assure you that they won’t be getting my business any time soon. I’d rather drive the extra 30 minutes to Guitar Center.

My 12 y/o special needs son walked in this store and asked for help, by using their phone to call his mom and was refused help this is absolutely despicable. I will absolutely let people know what kind of people run this store.