I've visited twice, and each time the older, long-haired man (guessing he is the owner) has been…read morecondescending with me. First time, I shrug it off - everyone has a bad day now and then. Second time, he was happy and jovial with another customer and made little attempt to cover his "displeasure" with my asking any questions (when he wasn't speaking with the other customer). Too bad, but I will never go there again. Seemed like he had some treasures, but no crappy customer service is worth it when other stores are willing and capable of treating you with decency and respect.

The owner is great. I had a wonderful experience selling him an instrument. He has a very good…read moreselection of instruments and accessories. I was very impressed the second that I walked in the store. I will definitely recommend this place to anyone who's interested in anything musical.

What a fantastic experience! I recently purchased a Gibson SG Standard - Cardinal Red Burst from…read morethem and I could not be happier. The entire process was flawless. I had a number of questions prior to the purchase, and I posted them in the website's chat feature. The responses were quick, clear, and concise. I pulled the trigger on the guitar and the communication continued to be fantastic every step of the way. The guitar arrived EXACTLY as they had described. I could not be happier. I most definitely recommend these guys!!!

What a great place to buy an instrument. No pushy people, just nice folks that are super helpful…read more I have purchased several guitars here and have not been disappointed at all.

Whip City Music is what a hometown music store should be- from lessons to instrument repair to…read more cool new and used instruments and guitar pedals. Just gotta love this place! Owner Doug Cotton aims to please- being a musician himself,he knows his stuff and can help out whether you are a budding musician or seasoned pro. I'm so happy Whip City Music is here serving the local community and helping to make downtown Westfield happening again!

From the owner: Locally owned and operated, Whip City Music continues the tradition of providing quality new and…read moreused musical instruments, a wide array of music accessories, expert music lessons and essential music instrument repair services in the heart of downtown Westfield Massachusetts. With our competitive and affordable prices and friendly, relaxed atmosphere, Whip City Music is the place to go for all your music needs.

I can't say enough about how great this store is. And now that they're in the new location, it's…read moreeven better. I've bought, sold, and traded a ton of gear here and it's always been a great experience. The whole staff is very helpful, but not pushy. I often deal with Sam, since we're both guitar pedal aficionados. He's always eager to answer any questions or just talk about gear in general. Their inventory is very impressive, for an independent music store. And their prices are as good as the big online retailers. I don't go as often, since I moved out of the Valley. But whenever I'm out that way, I'm sure to stop by. I haven't been to every music store in Massachusetts, but this is definitely the best one I've been to. Beginner to Boutique, they have it all.

AVOID MILL RIVER MUSIC AT ALL COSTS - JON (the owner) HAS AN APPALLING LACK OF ATTENTION TO…read moreDETAIL. ADDITIONALLY, HE IS EXTREMELY RUDE AND DISHONEST. In the past 25 years, I have over 2500 transactions on ebay and reverb. I have left negative or neutral feedback less than one 1/2 of 1% of the time. In this case, Jon richly deserved it. Many times over. PayPal glitched my address on a Reverb Payment, resulting in Jon sending my guitar to the wrong address. This was DESPITE me giving the correct information to Julia prior to the sale AND having the correct information on file with Reverb. As soon as I saw the error, I contacted Mill River Music immediately -Julia was not there, so I had to deal with Jon. Jon acknowledged the correct information WAS provided ahead of time, that he did not talk to Julia prior sending, and that he blindly went by what PayPal provided without contacting me first to verify. (Despite my primary address of record on Reverb being the one I had provided to Julia prior.) ALL OF THIS WAS NO BIG DEAL- LIFE HAPPENS-I GET IT. However, when I contacted Jon, instead of apologizing for his oversight, and immediately correcting the situation, he was incredibly rude and insulting many times over. OVER HIS LACK OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL. There is no excuse for this deliberate lack of customer service and accountability. None. He then said he would contact Fed-Ex to reroute my guitar. HE DID NOT. Again, there is no excuse for this deliberate lack of customer service and accountability. None. Jon had several days to contact Fed-Ex prior to delivery and failed to do so. He had time to send me several obnoxious messages, but he couldn't make time to contact Fed-Ex and redirect the guitar prior to delivery. This resulted in the guitar being delivered to a high crime area and left unattended in plain view in a box labeled as a guitar. It is incredibly lucky that the new occupants were honest, retrieved it before it was stolen, held it for Fed-Ex and that Fed-Ex was ultimately able to deliver it correctly. (No thanks to Jon.) Jon never once acknowledged his lack of attention to detail with my valuable instrument, or apologized for mishandling it. IF he had, that would have been the beginning and end of it. Instead, Jon's actions have forced me to leave this review as a warning to potential customers. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. THIS IS NOT SOMEONE WHO TAKES PERSONAL OWNERSHIP, PRIDE, AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GOODS AND SERVICES HE PROVIDES. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. PS: 1. to be absolutely clear, Jon waited TWO days after i reached out before he contacted Fed-Ex. 2. I have screenshots and pdfs of everything. 3. i fully expect that instead of demonstrating basic customer service and simply owning his mistakes and apologizing for them, Jon will reply to this review with more gaslighting and personal attacks. AGAIN, Avoid At ALL Costs!

The wall of guitars, many of which are quite reasonably priced, is an obvious draw to the musicians…read moreamong us. And if you're like me, where you're more musically inclined to play the stereo, there's a selection of vinyl - LPs and 45s - in the back to peruse (plus that cool display of 45s hanging from the ceiling in the guitar room). And if that's not enough, there's all the hobby supplies in the rest of the store. This is definitely a place to check out.

My girlfriend and I came in for like 10 mins, we weee looking at and trying out some guitars and…read morewere told "we don't jam here keep it brief", personally I think any music store that won't let you try out an instrument for as long as you want is worthless in a world where sweetwater and reverb exists

I love this place! I live in California but have family in western Mass. I've been here four times…read morenow, once for food, twice for music, and once for the luthier himself. All were delightful. The decor is outstanding. The music is intimate, varied and always fun. And Steve is completely at home with his place. I could not recommend it more highly. Just go!

The best music scene in the area, legendary open mic. Great crowds, and amazing team that runs it.read more

Been going to Collar City Guitars since they opened. It's great to have a music store of this…read morequality on Troy. Peter and staff are very helpful, honest and do good work. It's great to see the evolution of the gear they have, a great selection of instruments and gear. Highly recommend, you can't go wrong.

FANTASTIC little shop in Troy. Lots of different types of gear. We came in looking for EarthQuaker…read moreDevices pedals and were not disappointed. (Tho, sadly, they did not have a Spires, which is the one I am still looking for.) We were able to try several pedals. My partner has been seriously looking for a looping pedal for as long as I've known her, so we saw that they had a few, and they were gracious enough to set them up for us to try (even the Electro-Harmonix one that they said was not very intuitive (Guess which one we ended up with.) They were VERY friendly, but at the same time did not hover over us. They let us spend about an hour playing with different pedals, talked about the shop, and guitars, and loopers, several customers came in and out, and all three of the guys behind the counter worked on some repairs. (They are a very repair centric shop.) The layout is a bit tight, but it's cozy. They have comfy seating, and really nice displays. It feels crowded, and it is, but it's in that... Clean and homey sort of way. They don't have a HUGE selection... It is not going to be an experience like guitar center. But it's going to give you that caring and dedicated local shop experience. And that's so much better. The prices were GOOD. (The looper ended up being cheaper than Amazon.) He even gave us each a EarthQuaker Devices sticker. (Before we even bought anything.) These guys are an Earthquaker licensed shop, too, so if you're looking for those pedals, this is a place to go.

I highly recommend avoiding the Guitar Center for lessons. Their system is designed make it…read moredifficult to get all the lessons you pay for. I wanted to take the summer off but still have make up lessons I was owed. They use automatic deduction for payment and refuse to refund any money claiming that they can't once the money has been taken from your account. So I was charged for four more lessons than I wanted but here's the thing - once you are no longer allowing automatic deductions they remove you from the schedule. Pretty difficult to get the make up lessons you may be owed if you're not on the schedule. I spoke to the manager about this and he personally scheduled a make up lesson for me for yesterday. I showed on time only to be told the teacher wasn't there and I wasn't on the schedule. Then he tried to blame the lessons manager. Another interesting thing that happened was that once I was no longer doing automatic deductions the teacher canceled twice. She had not canceled once since I started in September. Avoid this place for lessons.

Low rating is for the corporation. This GC location itself is good. The people that work there are…read moreunderpaid and asked to do an awful lot. But they still are pretty cool people who genuinely care about instruments and want to help you. They're really cool. I like to sometimes bring nice guitars in to them that I have no intention of trading in. I do it just so that the employees can take a few minutes free break just to jam on a nice guitar. But the GC corporation itself just grows and grows taking on more and more debt that they're not planning on repaying. They're just gonna use bankruptcy protection and will have wiped out all the small stores in the meanwhile. If you're in the albany/saratoga area take your business to Parkway Music in Clifton Park instead. It's a small business but their facility and inventory makes GC look crappy. But these folks that work at this GC are pretty cool, as is their management that I know of anyway.

Purchased my first guitar, when they are in glenz falls. I've made a few other purchases over the…read moreyears. Smaller things, but all he's knowledgeable, courteous and fair pricing.

From the owner: Full service music store. Band & Orchestra Instrument sales and school rentals. Guitars, Drums &…read moreKeyboards. Repairs to all instruments. Large selection of print music, including NYSSMA solos and hard to find or out of print music.

I feel bad leaving a low review but I have to be honest. I scheduled a lesson there and both the…read moreowners completely forgot about so I had to work with their very inflexible schedule. The one lesson I actually got was nice and helpful but it felt nearly impossible to schedule more. I called the owners multiple times but they never got back to me so they are incompetent in that sense. Please get more organized!! Text your customers if that's what it takes. I understand that they are often booked but they made me feel like I was doing them a disservice by offering my money for lessons. Cute window cat though.