Guitar Stop

I love this store, and am very happy to support this small business, which at times has a better selection than big retailers. I was saddened to hear they are vehemently opposing the bike lane initiatives of the city. I want to say that I never had a pressing need to park in front of this store. Parking space availability is not going to affect my interest or ability to shop here. Update: I believe the bike lane design being implemented by the city is the best attempt we have at balancing the needs of various stakeholders of the community.

I bought a classical guitar at Guitar Stop 3 years ago that has served me well. They provide set up services. I also bought an electric guitar more recently. Service is friendly, informative, and efficient. They prefer to take the guitars off the racks themselves, which is understandable given the value of the merchandise. I've taken my son there for music lessons and Alex is great.

I am rating them here based on their ability to service my guitars and offer great product with great service. This is a family owned business and they stand by their products and don't deserve negative reviews bc of their stance on traffic. Traffic safety is nuanced and not a bumper sticker or black & white issue. The rules and laws in Cambridge are complicated. If you want a great guitar or music lessons and want to support a family-owned business this is your place!

Owner vocally against basic infrastructure improvements. If you care about public and pedestrian safety, take your business elsewhere.

It's a nice little family owned shop with a wide selection of quality products; issue is that I've gotten 3 guitars setup here and all 3 of them have buzzed when I got them home. One so badly that I couldn't overcome it and had to bring it back. Maybe they are taking on too many jobs and the tech is trying to crank them out too quickly, but $60ish for a setup that I then have to fix is a dealbreaker for me.

I purchased a guitar box a couple of days ago, and both the shop owners were very friendly and nice on the phone and in-person. Had a really positive and pleasant experience so will definitely be back the next time I need anything guitar related! Hope they keep the shop for several more decades!

Small shop, well stocked for strings and accessories. Owner is super helpful!

Super friendly and professional, great selection of reasonably-priced stuff, love that they have several left-handed guitars always in stock. I generally drop in for small stuff (strings, guitar hanger, slide, etc.) and they always have what I'm looking for.

I was going to buy a bass guitar here, but the lady wouldn't let me try out any of them, even though there was no one else in there, AND I had brought my headphones. What's more is that she wasn't busy at the moment. I ended up going over to Mr. Music in Allston to get a bass and bass amp from there.

I love this place. They've got a whole bunch of Fender instruments. The people who tends you here are extremely nice, and they know their products. I got lucky there was a 75th anniversary Fender Telecaster on sale and, well, I bought it. 5/5.

I had a strange experience there with a guitar repair. Ten years ago I bought an acoustic guitar with a pickup at GuitarStop. A few months ago the pickup stoped working. I brought it in to Guitar Stop. Their technician examined the guitar, cleaned the dust out, and came to the conclusion that the pickup/preamp would need to be replaced. They gave me the customer service phone number of the guitar manufacturer, and said that because they were no longer distributing that brand, there was no way they could get the parts, or do anything else to help me.

Even though I bought the guitar there, they told me I'm on my own. One odd experience was that the technician didn't talk to me. All this info was mediated to me by the people behind the counter. When I had a question, they would ask the tech, the tech would tell them, they'd tell me. It was odd to have a middleman coordinating. I then did what I didn't want to do: I brought the guitar to Guitar Center on Mass Ave, across from Berklee.

The guitar technician came out, introduced himself to me, and walked me through all the options. A couple days later they called me and said the guitar was completely fixed. It was the wiring, the very thing that Guitar Stop claimed it wasn't. There was NOTHING WRONG with the pickup or preamp. It works/sounds beautiful now. When I brought this to the attention of Guitar Stop, they told me how "filthy" my guitar was, how their tech tried every everything, etc.

They offered to refund me the $20 bench fee, but it feels picayune to accept that. I always want to support local business and not the "big retailers, " but in this case, if I need any work on any guitar, I won't feel confident bringing it to Guitar Stop.

Very rude. Called to ask a question and they were very short and hung up on me, despite me being polite and interested in their shop.

Guitar Stop is a great place to get a beautiful instrument. They have a very broad and very nice selection of quality instruments, that are quite affordable. The staff is very responsive to emails and very helpful in store as well. I would highly recommend Guitar Stop to any musicians looking to get a nice guitar, bass, banjo, or any of the other nice instruments they have!

Hands down the best place to go for Fender. Huge selection. Just bought an excellent Professional Strat to go with the Performer Tele I bought here a few months ago. Tried a bunch of guitars and they have everything you could want up and down the line. Very patient with me on both experiences and I am VERY picky. Go to some other shops, try them as I did, you will return to Guitar Stop. Ten stars!

I got my ukulele three months ago I love it! And when I didn't know which ukulele I should get they help me right away.they help me on Which size I should I get and the 7 day return policy help me a lot on if a which size. So I recommend

Cozy place with lots of great stuff inside, including lefty players which is what attracted me being a left handed player. This is a family owned place from what I gather, and everyone that i've met here has been very nice to me. So, not sure why there's negative reviews posted here. One of the guitars i bought kept fret buzzing, brought it back weeks later and turned out to be a bad neck, exchanged no problem. Restrung one of my guitars right in front of me, set action, intonation and left within that hour of arriving. *****JEAN - I just wanted to say a big Thank You for adjusting the bridge on my Strat the other day! It's plays out great now staying in tune very strong! Appreciate. See you guys later, til next time****. Robert

I love this place. I have been a customer for 10 years. I bought a Telecaster here, and I buy everything from chords to tuners to pedals and picks. Sure guitars can be purchased cheaper elsewhere--but not "a lot cheaper." This is a small, family owned business. They are friendly and always willing to let browsers play instruments with no pressure.

I have sent many friends here over the years who have purchased guitars, amps, and equipment. They do an excellent job with setups. Turnaround is often one day and the prices are reasonable.

I love this place! They are kind, honest, and knowledgeable. They had a lot in stock. They had me try out a bunch of guitars until I found the sound and feel I wanted. They even got my five year old son involved. They put on a fresh set of strings for me and I was ready to go. DON'T BUY A GUITAR ONLINE! Go to Guitar Stop and fall in love with your next instrument. Because, as they say, how many guitars does a guitar player need? Just one more!

Excellent service and great selection of instruments, gear, accessories, and music books, for such a relatively small storefront. I go here frequently to have my acoustic set up and re-strung. The turnaround time is always beyond reasonable, and prices are fair.

Went in with a particular idea in mind. The folks at Guitar Stop listened to me play and suggested several different models to try until we found the perfect one. Exceptional knowledge and service. I'll be back for sure. Even gave my toddler a Ukulele, crayons and stickers to play with. This is why you don't go to Guitar Center.

Excellent shop! Came in late in the day and they were very nice and accommodating. Answered all my questions and I ended up getting a new guitar and accessories. They also have lessons for what seems to be pretty affordable rates compared to other places I've looked at. It's cool to have a local guitar shop and not have to go downtown for a bigger corporate store.

Came in with a simple mission: buy a nice little $200 Fender acoustic. A friend had bought one here, and I loved the sound and feel for such a bargain instrument. The woman set me up with one, and lined up a few similar instruments for comparison. I was left as alone as I liked, but not abandoned. I indeed changed my selection to a very similar model to that I'd thought I was intent on.

The store has some real depth in a few brands, and tends toward higher end electrics and more modest acoustics. A fair number of small amps, tending to be low-end, but including some nice busking amps is on hand. They'll be happy to let you try whatever you'd like, I'm sure, but. No Stairway.

They got what I need. When ever I need something, for example new strings or a strap button, I know to come here. Are there cheaper places? May be, but these guys stock everything that an amateur musician like me needs. And then, they are all unpretentiously helpful. Good advise without ever being condescending. Good place for a music lover who doesn't like to travel to Berkeley.

This place sucks. Terribly limited, overpriced selection and terrible customer service.

Not a fan at all. They have some nice guitars, but anything you find in this store could be found much cheaper anywhere else. Not to mention the lady who works there isn't the most friendly and doesn't like customers playing the instruments. Will probably not come back

I've been a casual player for years -- never have taken guitar that far, but have it around and pick it up now and then. I have a reasonable acoustic guitar that had been sitting around home a few years and needed some adjustment (a "setup" as I see it is referred to). Sitting near the radiator for a couple winters didn't do it any good.

They did a great job with it at Guitar Stop, no more buzz on the strings when I play it, and it plays very nicely now. And they came in significantly less on their price than the estimate. They care about what their doing and are knowledgable in my viewpoint. A bonus: I found a small but nicely focused selection of ukulele books (my current instrument of choice) and picked one up while I was there. Very pleased.

It's about a 4 minute walk from the Porter square station, quite convenient. Nice selection of guitars, including archtops, which were what I was looking for. The staff was friendly and approachable. And the price for the Ibanez I picked up was great. Very satisfied with my experience there.

I am more of a casual music fan than a musician, but I've been several times with friends, and was always impressed by the place. The staff are helpful and engaged, but not pushy, which is rare thing to find in a music store! (By contrast, every Sam Ash I ever had the misfortune of patronizing during my tenure as a high school band geek seemed to be entirely staffed by a combination of sketchy salesman and lazy potheads.) They have a nice selection of affordable quality, and they don't mind letting you test drive something at your leisure.

Great start to my second (or is it third?) try at learning the guitar, with lessons from Travis. Wait, you want me to change chords AND do a complicated strum? Hang on, here we go! Thanks, Guitar Stop. [Drafted in March, still true today]

I wish Guitar Stop was better, they are the closest Guitar Shop to my apartment and family owned, which you don't see much anymore. But I've given them three chances and each time the customer service gets worse, and this most recent time I had them work on my guitar and I am not happy at all with the results. First time I went into Guitar Stop I was presented with sales pressure, I was just looking around, already had a few guitars and just checking out this shop since I recently moved to the area.

I can deal with someone trying to sell me everything I look at or touch, I'm used to it. I bought a few accessories and then found them drastically cheaper at other local shops a few weeks later (tuner, stands, etc.) Second time I went into Guitar Stop was with specific questions and a laundry list of things to buy. I was shocked at their lack of pickups to purchase for upgrading my stock guitar.

I asked the lady if I should use a glass slide or a metal slide because I wanted to experiment with different styles of music and she had no idea and suggested I buy both and figure it out. I was also told in a "I'm write you're wrong, and I refuse to accept you could be right" tone that my string selection was completely wrong for my guitar and that my guitar should not be played with those strings. Well, MANY Rockabilly/Country as well as Surf players use Flatwound Strings on non-hollowbody guitars, And what do I play? Rockabilly/Country and Surf.

I even argued back that the nut was custom made for me by a guitar maker so I could use that exact brand/model of flatwound strings since I liked how they sounded so much. A custom job that cost me $130. Ever play a vintage Fender? you only got flatwound strings pre 1960, I play vintage music, I play it on a modern guitar with a vintage amp, I like my sound to be vintage.

I work retail, just make the customer happy and don't act like a know it all okay? Its okay to suggest but in the end give them what they want. The Third and now last time I went to Guitar Stop I had my strings changed and a setup done which includes neck adjust and action adjust. The action was set so freaking high it was unbearable. Its like they took the allen wrenches and adjusted everything as high as it could possibly go, except the High E string which was so low it rubbed my bridge pickup. I ended up having to pay someone else to fix their mistake.

I'm sorry, Guitar Stop, I want to love you, but now that Cambridge Music Center is gone, you're my closest local music store, and really, you're not the one for me. The shop has plenty of guitars. Hence the name. But I'm not a guitar player. I'm into mandolin and banjo and just about anything outside the box, and Guitar Stop, while they advertise their multi-instrumentalism, are really just into the monolithic guitar.

When I first started banjo, I came in for fingerpicks and a starter book. The woman couldn't explain the difference between frailing and picking (I didn't know. I had only started playing a day or two before), and the only book they had was a book of 3-chord sing-along songs (think "Michael, row your boat ashore") for banjo, uke, and guitar.

No tabs, licks, instructional material at all. Sad. I got my fingerpicks and headed out. If I ever venture into the already-saturated world of guitar, I'll try, try again. I do appreciate that this store is giving a home-grown alternative to Daddy's and Guitar Center. And really, I guess I should have expected as much from a place called "Guitar Stop." I just was hoping for something more.

I really like local guitar stores. They're a dying breed, and I'm all about conserving our fragile economic ecosystem. While I've never bought a guitar from here, I've come here many times to buy boxes to ship guitars that I sadly had to sell. The woman was always really nice, and while I'm not a fan of paying 10.00 for a box, they always have them and take pretty good care to get me one that will fit the guitar properly. Anyway, This is one of the few music stores I *really* like and highly reccomend. No BS, just good service.

Big fan of Guitar Stop. I bought a Telecaster there a few years ago, and I go back now and then for set-ups and intonation and that sort of thing (not really my area of expertise). The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. Their turnaround is really quick for set-ups, and they'll call you when it's ready - I've had other guitar stores completely forget this part.