Great shop. No joke, like, prob the best guitar store in the bay. Always something new and a great…read morerange of fun affordable axes and more drool worthy rarities. Also a great selection of effects pedals! The space feels very communal Johnny is always encouraging ppl to grab a guitar and plug in.

Love the shop. I do my best to shop here when I am in the east bay…read more Good mix of old and new guitars, nice amps. They have a work bench for repairs. Staff are friendly and accommodating. Since Leo's and Starving went out of business, shops like this need and deserve support. It's better than doom scrolling Reverb. I can usually pick up an interesting and used pedal for a few bucks. Instant fun!

Bought two violins here and had a great experience both times. Customer service was excellent, and…read moreall the staff were very friendly and helpful. Really appreciated the welcoming atmosphere and support throughout the process. They gave us plenty of time to test the violins and even offered to let us take multiple instruments home for comparison and testing, which made the experience much more comfortable and thoughtful.

I'm a self-taught player who has been on the same beginner violin for years now, so I was a bit…read morenervous at first, but I had an extraordinary experience at Ifshin! I booked an appointment to try violins and Sarah walked me through prices and ranges of violins, narrowing it down to a couple which I loved. They let me bring them both back home for a week to test, which I very much appreciated! In any case, I'll definitely be back and highly recommend.

This place is terrific. The owners are warm and knowledgeable, and the store is beautifully…read morestocked with an enormous variety of both conventional and unusual instruments. I purchased instruments from them and they were courteous and extremely helpful.

I've shopped at Berkeley Wind for years and Julius has always been a great help and very…read moreknowledgeable about all the musical instruments he sells. I'm a multi-instrumentalist musician, instructor and am glad I can find NEW musical instruments at a reasonable price. I've been very satisfied with all my purchases and would highly recommend shopping at Berkeley Wind.

Great vintage guitars, basses and amps in a cool south of market street spot. A helpful staff too.read more

I just had a great experience having my bass repaired here. After a terrible experience at a guitar…read moreshop whose name shall remain anonymous, but it's a national chain, I took it to Real Guitars. They had it done on time and under budget and did a fantastic job. I would recommend this shop to anyone good communication, courtesy, really nice people.

I recently acquired a violin that had slightly unusual string spacing. I took violin lessons as a…read morechild and am trying to re-introduce myself to the instrument. I brought my instrument to Peter for evaluation and he suggested re-spacing the strings and filing the bridge a bit. He completed this work and installed the new strings I had bought for the instrument by the following day. In addition to setting up my violin, he gave me a couple tips on how to evaluate the quality of a bow. Prior to leaving with my instrument, Peter told me about the San Francisco Scottish Fiddler's group when I told him about my interest in fiddling.

I've been meaning to write this review for about 6 months now, after the apartment complex I lived…read morein burned down and my violin had some related water (thankfully not fire) damage. I've always felt kind of uncomfortable in music stores specializing violins - I'm a mostly self taught folk musician whose instrument isn't worth tens of thousands (ok, barely a thousand at all), and I've gotten some serious attitude/snobbery from those places. However, going to Peter was the best experience I could have hoped for. He was super nice, wonderful at explaining what he was doing, and I instantly knew my instrument was in great hands. It's clear that he loves what he does, and he's really damn good at it. I couldn't recommend him more highly!

DO NOT pay a deposit to place an order to Mike. If you see a…read morecompleted instrument for sale in his workshop, buy it if it is good. But no deposit. This is what happened to me.... I used to trust him, and put down $1800 in October 2016 for a custom Tenor uke. It's January 30, 2018 today, 1 year and 3 months later. No uke, no news, nothing. I called, emailed, messaged...... I wish there was a ukulele forum that I could warn others about Mike's scam. I have a feeling I am not the only one out there.... Now I see through his antics like giving free lesson, educational chats, etc. It's all to make you part with the deposit. Even if his instruments are suppose to be good, it feels really bad owning an instrument from such an unscrupulous person. And how can students go to learn from such a dishonest person, who is only interested in your money? If you give him a deposit, you are just giving away charity money.

Mike is a fantastic teacher! Took the beginner class tonight and I learned a ton of techniques that…read moreI wouldn't have learned from youtube videos. He focuses a lot on building a good foundation and good habits so you can have a better practice as you learn and start playing songs. The class flow was fun and I barely felt the 2 hours pass. I would definitely recommend attending a few classes. There's so much to learn and absorb from the simplest techniques.

Gary is one of the most skilled guitar technicians and one of the NICEST people I ever met in this…read morebusiness. No job too big or small, he and his skilled staff NEVER snobby. I've known him since I was 18 years old before I got my first record deal. His shop was located in the alley along with the store Real Guitars. Behind Guitar Center when it was on South Van Ness in San Francisco. He also known as the tech to the "stars" constantly doing work over the years for people like Joe Satriani, Journey and others. He is the BEST !!!?

This dude rules. He fixed my zero sound issue in 5 minutes and is just a great guy!…read more Ok why the frick do they make you type 85 characters la de da de da.

Hal is a master at what he does. Very cool guy, knows everything there is to know about amp repair,…read moreand has tons of stories. Give this man your business.

Fresh from service! What can I say, Hal was funny and friendly. Communication was a breeze and the…read moreprice was super reasonable. Thats a win considering nobody even offers this service anymore. Hal can have all my business. You should give him yours too.