Gryphon Stringed Instruments

From total beginner to expert vintage collector, Gryphon Strings is the place to go if you want to buy a great guitar at a fair price. Their repair and maintenance work is consistently outstanding as well.

One of the best guitar shops I know of. Great selection of instruments, excellent customer service, friendly and professional, fair prices and one of the best repair departments there is.

Gryphon specializes in acoustic string instruments and accessories, especially guitars. They carry the full line of Martin and Taylor guitars, and many boutique brands. Their service department is a certified Martin 1833 shop, and does very good work. They have friendly personalized service.

I am writing this a while after having my guitar set up here. I have a Schecter Hellraiser C-1 Hybrid. It was my first "high value" guitar (certainly not as high as many others have), but for me it was a very special guitar signifying my advancement in playing. I went with Gryphon for basic setup service and to support a local business. Gryphon strings came with strong recommendations from Schecter, my guitar teacher, and various other friends/family who know the luthiers at Gryphon.

I received the guitar and found it kind of hard to play (compared to my cheaper Squire and some random knockoff guitar, both of which I was more comfortable messing with the truss rod, action etc). Being newer to guitars back then, I accepted the difficulty of play at face value, assuming that it was because I just wasn't good enough yet to understand or play after the setup.

It wasn't until much, much later (and lots of relatively painful practice sessions) that I learned it was because the action of the Schecter was set extremely high. I have since learned how to do my own guitars; and received confirmation from other luthiers that whoever did my setup at Gryphon set the action too high. Everyone likes their action a bit differently, but it was so high for me I could barely play without pain.

So I want to put this out there, your experience at Gryphon strings varies extremely widely with whoever works on your guitar. This was extremely frustrating because I was newer to guitars back then and really "didn't know any better", trusted the expert team at Gryphon, and was let down. I doubted my ability to keep the guitar and be able to play it to the point where I was considering reselling it when the problem was that it was just not set up properly. I spent about $300 here including the setup (bought case, bought strings etc. to support local business).

They back what they sell. On my new guitar, I was breaking strings in my shows. They reset some key settings on my Taylor and did it quickly and without issues. I am glad people stand behind what they sell in 2022. It is now a rarity.

Took my guitar in because the pick-ups didn't sound balanced. Brian did a quick QC to confirm they were in good order and a few screw turns later it sounds great! Thanks! Also they sell individual guitar picks; I had always wanted to try the Delrin 500s without spending on a whole variety pack or a full set. I look forward to coming back!

The repair shop is operated by magicians. They are true masters of their craft. I could not be happier with the work they performed on my J200. Highly, highly recommend for any repairs. Their selection of acoustics is amazing as well. And to top it all off, everyone there is extremely friendly. No grumpy guitar shop guys anywhere to be found. Love it.

Today is my fourth trip to this shop. On my first trip I was wary of. what one could call the smug guitar shop. That is not the case here at Griffon. Great service and amazing guitars. Today I went in looking for parts for a 78 Gibson. They were out of parts for retail use, but they sold me a few of their service stash. I am fully aware how hard it is to keep some of these parts in stock right now. So the willingness to sell me ones they keep for shop repairs really impressed me. I will now be a devoted patron as long as I am around. And then some!

Helpful bunch of staff. We were looking to get a nylon string guitar for beginner and Michael was just awesome! Ask for him if you happen to go to the store and I assure you that you'll have a great experience! Everyone in the store is helpful but Michael's 30+ years of experience is a big difference!

Had a question on a 1964 Martin D-21 that apparently had the bracing scalloped by Frank back in the day (70's?) but, the guitar itself is extensively but well overhauled by other luthiers including a back and sides refinish by a Collings guy. Frank confirmed that he may have done some work but definitely not all work on the guitar and that was extremely helpful to my understanding of the history of this instrument.

The thing sounds ridiculous, so it's all good either way. It was an honor to speak with a master craftsman but to entertain my silly guitar questions with the patience of a monk, thank you.