This is a top notch music shop in the old school tradition. I recommend checking it out, taking…read moresome time to talk to the owner or the friendly staff. You will learn something. They may not have a million instruments on display, but they have a lot, andif you want something specific they can help you with that. They also do great repair work.

I didn't find the book I was looking for here (a popular first year piano lesson book, which I was…read moreshopping for late in the start-of-lessons season) but I did find a very pleasant store, very helpful staff, and a place I'll return to next time I need anything music related. Guitar strings, picks, tuners, etc., they have a store chock full of whatever you need. Except of course they were fresh out of the book I was looking for (an empty slot on the rack) but I can't hold that against them.

School of Rock is a must for any young person who loves Rock music and wants to perform. With…read moreprograms and lessons for young rockers at every level, and an incredibly supportive and knowledgeable faculty and staff, School of Rock Boston is an absolute gem.

My son has been a drum student at SOR for quite a few years now. He has loved it since he started…read morethere and still does! Great management, great teachers, great gigs. Always willing to accommodate. If I could give them 10 stars I would!!!!

We have been with Gene Kelly for two years. Our daughter Sophia loves to go to piano class and is…read morealways excited to go. He is really patient and understanding to her strengths and adapts his teaching to the way she enjoys learning. He has also given her some recent pop music simplified that she really enjoys learning and relating too. We would highly recommend !!!

My seven-year-old daughter has been learning piano with Gene for a year now. I did a great deal of…read moreresearch on group lessons vs. one-on-one lessons and then searched far and wide (for over a year, as I was preparing for the right time to introduce a new activity to my daughter) only to find him a few blocks from my house! I only have positive things to say about him. My daughter was first exposed to the piano through the music class at Chinese school. My daughter would linger by the piano after class, and her teacher, who played the piano during the lesson, mentioned that my daughter might enjoy piano lessons. Because my daughter already exhibited signs of interest, I felt that one-on-one was the way to go. I wanted a teacher who was 1) a little outside of the box, 2) willing to make the experience fun for my child - not too strict and 3) experienced enough to have seen a wide range of students to know what to do for my child if/when she experiences difficulty. Neither I nor my husband play the piano, so if our daughter had problems we wouldn't know if it was the material or the teacher/teaching method/style. With Gene, who has tremendous experience teaching in public schools, I knew that I wouldn't have to worry so much about pedagogy. More recently, when Gene updated his website, I learned that Gene is a graduate of Berklee College of Music which I didn't know when I hired him. I feel very privileged to have him as my daughter's piano teacher. During the first few months, my daughter would come out of the lessons completely exhilarated and bursting with glee. When things started to get harder, Gene was able to help us get through it successfully. Now, my daughter goes to our electronic keyboard on her own. I have to pull her away from the keyboard to get her to school on time and to get her to bed at a decent hour! I'm extremely happy with how my daughter has taken to piano, and I'm very fortunate to have Gene teaching her. Gene is very patient and works with students from where they are. My daughter may arrive to her lesson extremely excited about a new song she learned on her own. Gene will listen and give pointers, and then will redirect her back to the day's lesson. He's good at managing the pace of the lesson. My daughter always enjoys going and the time zips by.

A friend told me about Guitar Stop so I brought in my acoustic which had a bad case of fret buzz. I…read morethought it needed an entire setup (I'm still very much a beginner player). However, Jeanne made a minor adjustment to the truss rod and fixed my lousy stringing error and the buzz was gone. This cost me $5. I returned to the store the next day and Annette was extremely helpful and very patient with all my questions about a new electric guitar. I ended up purchasing my first electric with a great amp. They even include a free gig bag and six picks! Very cool. Overall, I'm very pleased with this family-owned store and will visit them again for my guitar needs. Thanks for reading and rock on!

I had a strange experience there with a guitar repair…read more 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.

My apologies as this review is WAY overdue. Also, please note that this is only my second review on…read moreYelp... ever. I was so thrilled with my experience at Wood & Strings that I was inspired to post. In the past few months I have had two fantastic customer experiences at the shop. 1. For my birthday I received a set of brushes for my drum kit. In a heavy practice session I damaged one of the brushes. I brought them back to W & S and they were exchanged with no questions asked, simply an apology and a smile. The staff person also upgraded the style of brushes to a better brand/make. 2. More recently (and more significantly), I returned to the Wood & Strings shop as I was in the market for a Banjo and a Dulcimer as gifts for family members. Most of my communications/interactions were with Mick (sp?). Mick was the absolute man. He was patient, informative and packaged together a fantastic deal for a brand new banjo and slick, vintage dulcimer. Not only did he guide me through my instrument decision making process with poise, patience, and knowledge, he threw in tuners, stings, gig bags, stands, and cases to boot. I cannot think of another store I would turn to in Boston, New England, the US for my string and percussion needs. My whole experience, from start to finish, was pleasurable, authentic, entertaining, and informative. The shop is old schooled and filled with music treasures. All of the staff are knowledgeable and simply put - great, real folk. We need more shops like Wood & Strings around Boston, and we all need customer service experiences as I had with Mick and the gang from Woods & Strings. Thanks guys.

1. Illegal bait and switch 2. Complete incompetence…read more3. Unhinged rude attitude 1. Illegal bait and switch - I called and asked if I could bring a guitar for assessment. Guy on phone said I could bring in and they'd assess for free. After five minutes of my free assessment, the lady tried to charge me for it. The guy then changed his story and said he actually meant that they would assess it for free only if I dropped it off but not dropped by with it (which doesn't make much sense if you think about it) 2. Complete incompetence - A) I told her that the guitar frets were out of tune. She denied it and said nothing was wrong with the guitar. B) I told her I wanted to action lowered. She said it was impossible to lower it anymore without causing buzzing. C) I told her something was rattling when I played the open G string. She said it could be anything causing it, even a loose truss rod So I took it to Stubblebine lutherie. Without even playing it, he inspected everything about the guitar - he listed exactly what was causing it to be out of tune (mainly the nut grooves), exactly how the action could easily be lowered without causing buzzing (he said the action was actually pretty high), and exactly what was causing the rattling (loose tuner component), and offered to fix everything for 100 dollars 3. Unhinged attitude - She started making fun of me for the questions I was asking. When I handed her the tuner, a rubber piece fell off, and she blamed me for breaking it to her coworker. When I pointed out that some of the frets we're out of tune, she blamed it on how I tuned it. When I clarified that I was told on the phone that the assessment would be free, she started to try to guilt me into paying and trying to get me to tell her how much money I made in my job. When I eventually did offer money because I felt bad, she made fun of me again

I just wanted to thank you SO SO much for fixing my Gibson Les Paul. You did SUCH a good job that…read moreit sounds like it did when it was brand new nearly 20 years ago, NO ONE has done such a great job as you have. A thousand thank yous, I got completely lost in the moment playing it and it's been years since I experience that unless I was onstage in the zone. I'm thrilled my step father found you, your going to be my forever go to for anything regarding fixing my guitars. Price was VERY reasonable- in a world where everything is to much, you certainly are priced fair. Thank you.

I walked into Mike's, because I was in the market for an electric and live in the neighborhood…read more This was my first electric, but I knew I wanted something decent with good tone. I told the store owner what I was looking for, and he showed me what was in my price range. He also very kindly told me that I was welcome to try any of the guitars--even though I very clearly could not afford them! I thought that was cool! He left me alone to play the guitars. I was able to take my time--as I didn't really know what I was looking for. I was so happy with one of them, that I went ahead and bought it! I've had it for about 2 or 3 years now, and I still love it!