For years, my young son would go in and just noodle around. Staff were always so kind and helpful. He spent countless hours there, and eventually a good deal of his hard earned money on quality, reasonably priced gear. They care about the customer, they know their stuff, and they create a great atmosphere for experts and beginners alike. Canadian owned; old school, 'customer first' kind of place. read more

I love Long & McQuade music stores in general, for the variety of musical instruments and books that they offer. They also have music lessons (i.e. Piano, Guitar, etc,.), which seems like a great idea. I did some research to purchase a keyboard, and the price of the keyboard I was interested in seemed quite fair, too. Lastly, my interactions with Long & McQuade staff in multiple locations have been pleasant. For this specific Waterloo location, one employee named Dave met short of my expectations. Let me clarify, he was helpful while we were browsing. As soon as I paid for the instrument, he just ignored us. We had parked about 200 metres away from the store, due to the road closures associated with the LRT construction in Waterloo. We had our laptop bags and the umbrella, it was raining on and off, and since I got the keyboard, the bench and the keyboard stand, we weren't able to carry all of those by ourselves. Since Dave offered no insight to how to move these boxes to our car, (when we asked him, he only said "Oh, this keyboard is super light") my husband went to his car to see if he could get closer to the store while I waited in the store. Thankfully, someone told me about a temporary loading area behind the store so I directed my husband to drive there. Another employee named Jeff helped me greatly while I was standing in the front of the store confused and waiting for my husband to show up. Jeff moved the boxes to the back of the store and showed me the temporary unloading area, so I could send better instructions to my husband. I really appreciated Jeff's help. He's the best! In the meanwhile, Dave, who sold us the keyboard, didn't even tell my husband where I was, (I was downstairs at the back door guarding my boxes) when my husband came back to the store, so this caused additional delay. Some other older gentleman helped us load the boxes to our car. If Dave responded to our inquiries of how to load these boxes to our car from the get go, we wouldn't have wasted that half an hour trying to find the place to get the car closer to the store, and loading the boxes. Dave's ignorance and unhelpfulness really disappointed me. Despite this long delay in loading the boxes to our car, I'd say you could go to this Long & McQuade location for the service provided by Jeff and other very helpful staff. read more

I was in search for a specific used Martin guitar which led me to call this location since they had one in stock. I enquired about the history of the guitar and discovered that it had been sold by the store 3 yrs. previous for $1700. It was traded in and rented out 4 or 5 times. They then tried to sell it to me for $1400. Unbelievable. Unbelievable that a company that has been around this long would try to gouge a customer this way. If you are planning to buy used from this company, ask a lot of questions and be prepared to walk away. I had a worse experience at another one of their stores as the guitar had serious problems. Intonation was waay off on two strings and the neck needed a reset! Still, they were asking $1300 for this guitar which needed serious and expensive work. Caveat emptor. read more

I love this place, Canadian owned and operated. The staff are very friendly and knowledgeable. Fantastic prices and really reasonable financing! If they don't have what you are looking for they will get it in for you promptly! Highly recommended read more

As a beginner guitarist I didn't know much going in. The Staff inside are fantastic. It doesn't matter your skill level they make you feel comfortable. I think they are going to continue to see me on a regular basis. I would recommend this place to anyone in music. SPECTACULAR!! read more

I've been dabbling in ukulele for a while, but the one I had was a horrible-quality one my mom picked up (from Chapters) three-ish years ago. This was my first time purchasing a ukulele, so I was tentative, but Long & McQuade was awesome. Dave was especially helpful - finding the cheapest hard case, and telling me where to find a capo, a tuner, and everything else I needed. I returned later that day to purchase a second ukulele (for my brother) and Dave was continually helpful throughout that as well. A lot of stores give teenagers a rough time because they think we're hooligans, but I felt nothing but friendly vibes from everybody working there. I'll definitely be returning again for my next instrument purchase. read more