Let the tooting and honking begin!…read more My fifth grade daughter identifies clarinetist (after trying all the many wind instruments one school day in August). Which means, a clarinet purchase was in my near future. Thank goodness for West Music. I popped on their website and found the options (resin or wood, premium brand or standard). I selected my choice and signed up easily for a four year payment plan-- that included a $9 a month peace of mind charge for repairs. Clarinets aren't cheap but luckily if my daughter decides clarinet isn't for her; West Music will purchase it back from us no questions asked. Phew. The clarinet was ready for pickup at this location. (I received a call, text and email reminder.) Evan was super pleasant and helpful. I have a long road with West Music as the tooting and honking clarinetist continues on over the years-- I have a good feeling it'll be a great experience. Stay tuned.

I took my son's sax into the repair shop over my lunch hour as it needed two screws and was…read moreunplayable. In addition to the two screws they replaced, they tweaked and adjusted a couple of other issues they found during the bench time and presented the instrument back to me within an hour, all for a very reasonable fee.

I started taking lessons a year ago virtually. I am a working mature adult. I have to say that…read moreMike Neiman always makes people feel comfortable and is well versed on different methods to teach a person's learning style. I had taken piano early in my career and really never mastered how to read well or put both hands together. I am actually reading better and putting my hands together and moving along. I feel that the music academy is a great place to learn and if piano is the instrument I recommend Mike Neiman.

We started our then-7-year-old son with Mr. Nemeth last January and couldn't be happier! Our son…read moreenjoys the lessons, which are very easy to schedule, and we have had so much fun as a family watching him learn to play! He was a complete beginner, and has the attention span of your average kiddo, but Mr. Nemeth has been extremely patient while also making learning music a fun experience for him/us. Highly recommend for any level of student!

Mike is an incredible human and truly passionate about his business. It started as a piano studio…read morefrom his home and has expanded into a variety of musical teachings through professionals across the United States. They are able to teach virtually, thanks to COVID. It's been awesome to see this business grow. HIGHLY recommend Mike and his group of trained musicians if you're looking for a studio to learn any instrument!

Did cost effective work Fixed a broken necklace link…read moreRepair was complete within 2 days

I had the best experience with Hands Jewelers this past week…read more A friend gifted me a vintage watch and it needed a new battery. Also, the piece's second hand had detached and was skating freely across the watch face. The associate who greeted me was very enthusiastic about seeing a Tony the Tiger watch and quickly presented me with service options. Sensing my concern about cost of fixing the second hand, she offered an alternative. She also told me the item would be ready by the end of the week but I was called for pick-up well before that timeline. Now, for just over $10, I have the watch up and spinning. Raise your hands for Hands!

They fixed an old Tissot vintage Swiss quartz watch for me with a new battery for $34. The…read morebatteries alone for two watches I took to another IC location were more at a high-end jewelry store. Fan of this place. Nice honest people and a good watchman they have.

Several other local jewelry stores couldn't be bothered with even looking at my watch for a minor…read morerepair. To be sure, it is an inexpensive watch, but one place said (without examining it) it would be too expensive to repair, and the other place said (without looking at it at all) that I should go somewhere else where the watches would be more in my price range. At Cook's, they quickly determined what needed to be done, and did it. . . 12 bucks. While waiting (5 minutes or so) I noticed they had a lot of nice jewelry and watches. This is one place I will be doing my Christmas shopping this year, for sure.

Prices were steep. I like to support local businesses, especially record stores, but I know what…read morethose records go for and what online wholesalers sell them for. If you're higher than other stores by an unacceptable amount I'll support the online wholesaler instead. It doesn't give me that warm feeling I get holding a record, looking at it, and deciding to buy it, and it's putting small business out of business, but if I know you got that on millions of records for $4-10 and you're trying to get 25-30 bucks I can't support you. The used records were priced what the new records should have cost. If it's not rare, I'm not paying $15 for something I can get for $2-5 at a record show back in Chicago... So I'm too spoiled to buy anything here but they had a decent collection, staff seemed nice, plenty of inventory. I wouldn't go back, but it might work for this town/people.

5 stars for the atmosphere, 3 stars for the lack of organization…read more Always love shopping at local stores. Especially, local record stores. The staff was very friendly and the environment of the store is incredibly welcoming and cozy. While they don't have the largest selection in the area, I was pleasantly surprised to find numerous records which I had not seen anywhere else. One of the other cool things about the store is that they provide perfectly sized shopping bags while you are making your selection. These bags come in incredibly handy to hold on to whatever records you are planning on purchasing so that you don't need to set them on the floor or on top of the records. This perk is wonderful. Plus there are little hooks around the store which you can then hang the bags on in order to have both hands available to browse their selection. If there is one thing which I will complain about, and it is the reason I did not give the store five stars, it is the organization of the records. Within the genre of records, there appears to be no organizational structure whatsoever for the vinyl. This makes trying to find a particular record almost impossible without having to flip through hundreds of records which you simply don't care about. While I can imagine that it is a nice way to possibly find albums you didn't know you wanted, it was very frustrating and after about 30 minutes of looking through the albums, I simply gave up because I did not have the patience to go through every album in the store looking for a particular one. I will certainly return to the store anytime I am in the area but if you are looking for someplace that you can pop in, look for a specific record, and then leave, this is not it. If you are looking for a store in which you will spend an hour simply browsing through a selection, look no further, this is your place.

Miriam made me the most beautiful engagement ring! She sourced the most perfect diamond and…read moresapphires and designed a setting for them, which I'm so excited to get to wear every day. She was kind and patient with us as we worked through all the different options. It was a collaborative process to get exactly what we wanted. The end result is so perfect!

One day while down at the Iowa River Landing (lots of cool stuff down there if you haven't checked…read moreit out recently) I randomly decided to stop in to Diamond Leaf Jewelers and get my wedding ring cleaned. Before cleaning it Miriam checked it for loose stones and noticed that two were loose in their setting. It was a problem I had had before with the ring, but thought had been corrected by a previous jeweler. Miriam was very helpful in clearly explaining why the stones were loose and even showing me under magnification what the issue was. Though I am not from the area, I visit regularly for business, so I decided to have her do the adjustment to my ring to correct the problem. Just before the work was done she gave me another call with more detail and a few more ideas for my ring. Once we decided which route to go, the work was done within the time frame she had estimated for me (which was important since I wanted to time my ring being done with my next visit to the area). I was very pleased with the quality of work done. She made sure to let me know that she would check the ring in the future at no charge to make sure the stones remained set as intended. Throughout the entire process, from the time I first walked in the door until after I'd picked up my ring, the most impressive part of the experience was the effort and care Miriam gave to me as a customer. I felt she was very invested in making sure that I understood what my options were. She listened carefully and was understanding of what my priorities were, and she offered helpful suggestions based on the feedback I gave. My experience was a fairly simple jewelry repair, not terribly complex or expensive. If she put the amount of concern and attention to detail into something as small as my issue, I am completely confident that she would be a terrific resource for someone looking for custom jewelry or someone wanting work done on an heirloom piece.

I have checked around and Alex has the best payout if you are selling Silver or gold. The following…read moreis in response to the negative review I just read. His dog (behind the counter) has never growled or hardly looked up all the times I've been in his shop. If I had that type of business, I would definitly have a dog in the shop. Paul M

Have been to 5 different coin shops in the Cedar Rapids area since 2009 and Alex at AAB and Coin is…read morethe best to work with. Best prices and best sell back offers.