Walt is the best and more than fair. He is actually a national treasure. He has set up both acoustic and electric guitars for me and they are now precision instruments in incompetent hands. But that is not his fault. He does not judge. read more

I have known Walt Johns since 2002 when I started working at Guitar Center in Rockville. I will not bring or trust my guitars to anyone except him! He has always done an amazing job on setting up my guitars to my liking! From string change, neck repairs and pickup installation he is absolutely amazing! He is also an amazing guitarist and rents himself out for gigs. Look him up!! You will not be disappointed! Thanks Walt for being a great friend and luthier! read more

Great service, great prices and great turn around time, often the same day. Walt is the best around.

Walt is just a great musician and top notch guitar tech. I have trusted him with setting up, repairing, and modifying my valuable guitars for many years now! Do yourself a great favor and contact him first! He will provide professional service at a reasonable price and knows and can refer you, when necessary, to other valuable and trusted resources to meet all of your other musical needs! read more

Walt Johns is a true craftsman! I had broken the head of my Gibson SG which I was quoted very high prices to have fixed and many guitarist told me it could not be fixed. Walt took a couple looks and said he could have it fixed in about a week and he had very reasonable prices compared to what I was quoted. I cam back a week later and the she looked like new. Also not only did he fix the severe damage, he also set up my pickups and bridge and got my guitar sounding better than ever. I highly recommend Walt Johns for all of your guitar woes. read more

Walt Johns Guitars - Guitar Stores Near Me - Ijamsville, Maryland

Super guys. Incredible knowledge. Go to him!! Got my guitar fixed expertly and I was thrilled how it played.

Walt is the go to guy. Years ago I had bought my first higher end acoustic guitar ($1.3k+). It kept going out of tune. The intonation was awful. I went and had it worked on at least 3 different times over the course of 4-5 months before finally ending up at Walt's place. After inspecting it he looked at me and said "this is a Friday afternoon or Monday morning guitar" meaning it was rushed through production. He said that it was a warranty issue. Sure enough- I sent it back to the factory and ended up with a brand new, correctly made guitar. I was sold. Since then I have taken all of my guitars to him. For yearly once overs, setups, pickup repair (on acoustic), fret reshaping, and pickup installation (here's looking at you LR Baggs) and for other small problems. He charges a fair price for excellent work. Also, when the "repair" essentially amounts to nothing (jack cleaning god wife tightening) he hasn't charged me. When dealing with the extreme iOS and downs of humidity in the DC area he was kind enough to sit and talk for about 30 minutes about how best to safeguard my guitars. Plain and simple? I trust him. Why? Because he earned my trust. read more

I bought a new guitar that needed a set up badly.After reading good reviews on yelp about Walt Johns I decided to give him a call.Walt got my guitar done that same day,his price is reasonable,and he did a great job.If your guitar needs a set up or repair Walt the guy to see. read more

I used Walt for a setup on my electric. He was highly knowledgeable and very fairly priced. I looked up some other privateers int he area and got quoted around $70 for a setup. Seriously? Are you carving a new bridge out of a chunk left over from Nazareth? Walk's prices were where you'd expect. He also got it done within 2 hours. I saw him give the guy in front of me a discount because the work turned out to be less than they anticipated. It could have been his buddy or something, but it seemed like nice honest business to me. I'll be returning to have Walt tune up my other older guitars. read more

UPDATE: Walt has moved on from Guitar Center and now runs his guitar repair business out of his home. You can get in touch with him thru his Web site: http://www.waltjohns.com/. I met Walt at one of his gigs, great player. He repairs guitars out of the Rockville Guitar Center store (but doesn't work for guitar center). He knows his stuff, and does great work. He meticulously carved a new saddle for my acoustic when the old one was damaged. He also did a good job with my electric which was having trem tuning troubles. He doesn't do warranty work. Hours are a bit odd, so call first. Sometimes he is incredibly busy, too. But I trust him with my guitars. read more

I brought Walt my 1983 Strat Elite for a setup due to lack of sustain on a few strings and fret buzz. Also had deep groove marks on several frets. He leveled, crowned and polished the frets, adjusted the truss rod, action and intonation and cleaned up a noisy volume pot. He also cleaned and oiled the fingerboard and other miscellaneous setup stuff. All this work for $120 and completed in less than 1 day! The guitar plays better than it has in many years. I will definitely use Walt for any guitar repairs in the future. read more

I have taken guitars to Walt Johns Guitars on a few occasions: each time he has gotten the job done on time or early, he is easy to reach, and he does excellent work at a reasonable price. This time, I took an acoustic guitar to have an under-saddle pickup installed, as well as a setup. In additional to a perfect pickup installation, Walt fixed an issue with the guitar's action, as well. The guitar plays so much better than it did before, better than when I first got it 20 years ago. Walt does wonderful work at fair prices: I would never consider taking a guitar for repair or modification to anyone but him. thanks, Walt Johns Guitars for another job well done! Joe read more

I recently had my bass set-up there. His shop is attached to the back of his house. He offered me the lowest price in town and he was done in less than 2 hours. I highly recommend him. read more

I'm amazed as soon as he picked my guitar for a setup he knew what to do. I am very pleased that I brought my guitar to him. Highly recommended! read more

I brought a guitar I had just bought into Walt's shop. I had called him the day before and he said he could see me the next day. I brought it in and he asked "standard setup?" and I said yeah. I came back two hours later to pick it up. My guitar had brand new strings, was nicely polished, and felt great. He let me plug in and hear it out loud before leaving. I went home and continued to play on my own set up and I can definitely notice a difference - the guitar plays and sounds better. For $50, you can't beat it. read more

Completely amazed by the quality of the work and also the prices are better than anywhere I've seen in the area. Took my electric to get a bridge done on my Les Paul. I bought the wrong bridge but he was able to adapt it to fit at a very reasonable cost and make it look like it was made for the guitar. He also did adjustments to make sure it played right even though I did not pay for a setup on this. I had him do a setup and strap button install on my acoustic and the results of his work are phenomenal. Plays 100x better than before with very low (electric-like action) and no buzzing. I took the guitar to him at 9pm last night and it was done when I called him at 9am this morning. I asked which further upgrades he'd recommend. He told me the remaining upgrades I could do aren't worth the money I'd spend considering the return I'd get. He could've easily used this opportunity to sell more of his services and I would've probably done it, but he's not out to rip people off. He puts your interests and finances before his own gains. All in all, you get the best luthier in the area at the best prices that won't try making you spend money you don't need to. You really can't go wrong here, it's a no brainer. Also, if you are getting multiple services, ask for a quote, don't just go off the website. He gave a pretty good discount because I had a few things done. read more

No one but Walt works on any of my ten guitars and two banjos. Walt is the best I have ever encountered in my 45 years of playing stringed instruments. read more

I was referred to Walt by my friend KC to fix the intonation on my custom J-bass. He got me in relatively quickly despite having a number of instruments lined up. Walt did a full setup (15 items) and put on new D'Addario strings for a reasonable but not low price. Although the D'Addarios are not my first choice for sound, they feel pretty good. Strings aside, however, Walt does it RIGHT. Within the first few seconds of playing my bass after returning home, I had grinlock. Talk about sweet action.... I had thought my bass played pretty nicely beforehand, but now it sings! I heartily recommend Walt's work. read more

Left a message about needing a repair. Walt returned my call first thing Monday AM. Brought my bass over during lunch, expecting to leave it and pick it up later. Walt works out of a home shop. He put the guitar he was working on aside, and repaired my bass. Performed a mini set-up after diagnosing and solving my problem. Fifteen minutes and $30 later, I am a happy man. He will have my repeat business. read more

I called Walt this morning as I thought I had a problem with a tuning peg. He was about to leave on vacation and said if I could get right over, he would take care of it. After spending a few minutes, he said that although the peg is slightly bent, it works fine. He said, "If it ain't broke..." I tried to pay him for his time and he wouldn't accept it. He will be the ONLY person who will touch my guitar should it need some "care" in the future. read more