I recently purchased an Epiphone Les Paul on Craig's list. When I got it home I realized that as I played up the neck, my high E string was rubbing on a fret. I wanted to keep my cost down, that is why I got this guitar. I was hoping it wouldn't be too expensive to repair. I was recommended to Charley's. I brought it in and spoke to Bryant, the repair guy. He was really nice and looked over the guitar very carefully, measuring here and there, etc. He told me it would need to be "set up". The cost for that is $50, plus $5 for a new set of strings. I dropped it off right before Christmas, so he told me it might be 2 weeks before he could finish because of all the holidays coming up. I did have to call him several times to keep tabs on if it was done or not, even though he promised to call me. By the way, he did call me when it was done, I was just impatient, so I can't blame him. I realize he is a pretty busy guy with many more repairs than my guitar. I finally got it back (close to the actual time he promised) and I am very happy with his work. In fact, I trust him enough now to bring in my 40+ year old Martin acoustic and have him reset the neck and set it up. He is an authorized Martin repair guy, so that says a lot. That was my first experience with Charley's and it won't be my last. read more

Bought a Roland amp for playing at the jails I visit. Came with a cool aluminum stand was gently used and allowed me to plug my mic and guitar in. Even came with a great case for transporting. It works awesome with my Martin d28 and my sure sm58 mic.. These guys are awesome to work with!!! read more

I purchased a 1965 Gibson ES-335 from Charley's Guitar Shop in April 2021 after seeing it listed on Reverb. The listing described the guitar as having "no breaks, no cracks, no repairs other than a refret." Recently, while preparing to sell the instrument, it was inspected by a respected luthier in the UK. During this inspection, it was identified that the guitar has previously undergone a neck reset, with associated finish work around the heel. The luthier has advised that this work appears older and predates my ownership. As many will know, a neck reset on a vintage ES-335 is considered significant repair work and can materially affect both value and collectability. It is also the type of work that would normally be disclosed at the point of sale. I contacted the shop to raise this and to try to resolve the matter amicably. Despite multiple emails, a phone call, and a clear proposed resolution, I have not received a response to my follow-up correspondence. I have now sent a further formal email requesting a response within 14 days. I remain open to resolving this fairly and would welcome the opportunity to discuss it directly. read more

I had an ailing Les Paul with ground noise issues that came about as a result of a tone quest gone sideways. I found some pickups I liked and changed the pickups and wiring elsewhere and that's when the ground noise and buzzing started. Bryant heard the story and held the intake briefing and it was great talking to somebody who knows what the hell he's talking about (not that I'm any expert, I'm not). He recommended a re-wiring job that Caleb took care of and who went the extra mile to make sure it was perfect. I'd go back to these guys for future repairs and should've gone to them in the first place. Great job guys! Keep up the awesome work. read more

Charley's Guitar Shop - 2016 Les Paul Traditional with original 57 Classic pickups. - Guitar Stores Near Me - Dallas, Texas

Boooo! I've bought two instruments here and had my repairs done here, too. Last September I brought a guitar in for a pretty simple, straightforward repair. Bryant never repaired it and I finally picked it up and he wasn't at all apologetic. He kept trying to give me a coupon for something off the next time, I told him I wasn't coming back so he said I could give it to someone else! Haha! Why would I do that? This place is a has been, Murphy's Music in Irving is my new place. read more

It's an iconic music store. It's dripping in musical history. First visit friendly staff. Lots of cool gear vintage and new.

One of the best shops in DFW from my traveling. I would argue they have the fairest pricing when it comes to used high end gear. Purchased a rare boutique pedal from the shop a couple months ago and chatted with the owner I believe for a bit (sorry I totally have forgotten your name) was glad to return to see what Jacob has brought into the shop. Must see spot if you're a guitarist in the area read more

They have an incredible number of fabulous used guitars. Loads of accessories. Best guitar maintenance/repair in town!

Visiting Charley's has been on my bucket list ever since I became a serious fan of the blues, Texas, & SRV. I finally made the drive out from CA & made it happen. I got a t-shirt, walked around & took pics of all the cool photos of all the greats all over the walls. I'm so happy I was able to stop in on such a beautiful day. To make my visit even more special, Brian gave me some guitar pics, and since my next stop was Laurel Land Memorial Park, you know I had to leave one for Stevie. read more

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Great service. Worked on my gibson standard. Outstanding work. Great selection of acoustics. read more

After reading the negative review left, directed at the repairman Bryant, I felt the need to put in my two cents. I've been dealing with Charley's quite heavily ever since Brian (not Bryant the repairman) came over in '04, and he turned me onto Bryant's work. I've been with them ever since. If you can't communicate with them, then something is wrong on your end. They are upfront, to the point, hilarious and brutally honest. If it sucks, they'll tell you it sucks and then try to make it better. Bryant has worked serious magic on some really abnormal guitars that I've brought in. read more

Charley's Guitar Shop - Guitar Stores Near Me - Dallas, Texas

Charley's Guitar is a fine establishment with some serious history behind its legendary name. I have had my Tom Andersons through their shop, and nothing but perfection comes out. I bought a Bogner Shiva from Brian, and including the fact that I received a killer deal, it's been a lifetime purchase. Trends come and go, as does the competitors, and undoubtedly there are trolls trying to smudge their reputation, but if you are in the Dallas area, there is nowhere else to go. Heck, I live in Massachussetts and I still go through them for all my needs... Need I say more?? read more

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This place is incredible....but you knew that! What really is impressive is the Russell Repair Shop inside the store. Bryant Russell is a miracle worker. I was advised by a friend of mine(noted Dallas musician, Milo Deering), that He only trusted his stringed instruments to the guys at Charley's. When I needed a neck repair done on my mandolin recently,Bryant had my cracked neck reset and adjusted the action perfectly in no time; and it plays much better now than I deserve....I'll never go anywhere else. read more

Charley's Guitar Shop - Guitar Stores Near Me - Dallas, Texas

If you're not a guitar player (or collector) you can skip this review. But to those that are, please read on: Right before a band gig late last year, I discovered that one of my electric bass guitars had a problem with string-buzz on the fretboard, which bugged the crap out of me, so I needed to find someone who could true-up the neck and make bridge adjustments needed to fix the problem. I'm not good at this black art. Where does one go for help? The answer is, resoundingly, Charley's Guitar Shop!! Although they have a small, old showroom in the front with some really expensive guitars and amps that will scare off only the most dedicated guitar collectors, if you just keep on walking past that area all the way to the back of the building you will find a little repair shop with a young man inside who can fix ANYTHING that's wrong with your guitar, bass, mandolin, whatever you've got with strings. The guy is a total, freakin' GENIUS. Short on small talk, but polite and professional to the core, he is always swamped with work (what happens when you're DAMN GOOD) so don't expect a fast turnaround. BUT BELIEVE ME, IT'S WORTH THE WAIT. I ended up bringing him two 12-string guitars and (so far) two of my basses, and he has wrought miracles upon them all. The average repair/adjustment cost has been about $75 per instrument, worth every single penny and then some. I wish I had discovered him sooner - could have saved myself a lot of playing misery. read more

Not a giant selection but these guys are experts. Easy place to take your treasured guitar and get it upgraded or fixed. Very honest and decent. The guitars they do have are top shelf. read more

Charley's Guitar Shop - The front if Charley's' - Guitar Stores Near Me - Dallas, Texas

Bryant was suggested to me as a great tech and a wizard with a soldering iron. Had him do a pot swap for me. Quick and good work. All I can ask for. read more

This place is awesome. My 25 years old guitar feels like new after Caleb worked on it. I thought guitar tune up is expensive and I haven't found any reliable shop. Several people recommended this place on Facebook group, so I took mine there. Caleb worked on mine and he explained what was wrong with it. He found more problems(wiring) and fixed perfectly. I've been playing everyday ever since I picked it up. I highly recommend this place to everyone. Don't hesitate. Just bring your guitar there and they will take care of you. read more

I've had some great experiences at Charely's. I've brought all of my guitars for all sorts of reasons. they do great work and they're honest and fair. But about a month ago, I dropped my guitar off for some work. they said it would be done later that week (dropped it on a Monday). it has now been 4 weeks with handfuls of calls, and they have not started to work on it, nor have I received a call saying why it's taking so long or if there's a problem. I'm always the one calling. You would think a business would want to keep their customers happy and wanting to come back. I'm very excited to see the work and I'm sure it will be excellent as usual, but the lack of communication and rude conversations I've had is just not cool. This week is almost over so we are entering the 5th week of my guitar not being finished. If this is all cleared up soon, I'll come back and redo my review. EDIT: after two months, I got my guitar back and the set up wasn't great and the "relic" job they did looks no different. feels almost half assed to me. very upset and going to try to get my money back. always had great experiences at Charley's but this may have just ruined it for me totally. read more

Just outstanding work. Caleb and Bryant have done several setups, and small upgrades to a few of my guitars over the last year. Their prices are fair, and they're upfront about turnaround time. The work is excellent, and the store has a cool vibe. I highly recommend Charleys. read more

I recently had a visit to Charley's in the Dallas area. I have been traveling for business and have checked out a few guitar shops in the area. If you are looking for the guitar Walmart Center go to GC. This is the real deal and offers experienced staff for musicians. read more

Excellent fret dressing job on my Martin OM, it has never played better. They also polished the fretboard which gave the matte ebony a clean new look. :-) read more

I took my Martin D-41 to Bryant for a setup and he kept it for 8 weeks which I thought was too long (especially since Bryant is supposed to be the Dallas Martin Certified Repair guy). They asked me to give them another chance, so I did. Two years later I took the same D-41 in for a neck reset, and my 1971 Twin Reverb in for a retube. What a nightmare!!! Bryant damaged some of the binding on the D-41 and didn't even splice a new piece in (SOP for any decent luthier), he just tried to fix the broken piece and it looked terrible. Then, he had drilled a 3/8" hole into the heel that was about ht it in1/2" deep (I don't know why, it didn't do anything.). He tried to tell me it was that way when I brought it in. . .. NO WAY. It "was" pristine before I brought it in. He filled it in with some type of clear repair stuff. On the amp retube, I told them I wanted JJ's and definitely NOT Sovteks. They put Sovteks in it anyway and now the reverb doesn't work. I was so mad about all this, I just got my stuff and left. I should have gotten my lawyer to file suit against them, especially for the damage for the D-41. I might add that they kept my guitar and amp for 4 months for all this!!! I would NEVER EVER take anything back to them for any kind of work!!!! read more

These guys know their stuff, from all the info when you want to purchase a beginner guitar, or your hundreth to the guys who do all the repairs and fix-it work in the back. They are no-nonsense guys who have everything you could want. read more

Wonderful experience at Charley's! As a mediocre at best guitarist, I was initially intimidated to walk into Charley's...but I'm very happy I did! I needed a set up for my SG and Bryant took care of everything! I was so appreciative that he offered to squeeze me into his busy schedule. He even took the time to teach me how to properly put new strings on. Thank you, Bryant! Very welcoming and knowledgeable staff. I can't wait to go back! read more

Charley's Guitar Shop did an outstanding repair on my husband's Martin guitar. He had absolutely destroyed it in Nashville with a gaping hole in the body of the instrument. The guitar is fully restored and sounds the same, if not better, than it did previously and they were great to check with me along the way to approve any extra work that would cost more money. It was more expensive than I had thought it would be, but the amount of time they spent on it and how much work they did on it proved well worth the money. read more

Charley's Guitar Shop - Before and after of my husband's destroyed Martin guitar. Bryant at Charley's took great care of us. - Guitar Stores Near Me - Dallas, Texas

Do not trust these guys with your instrument. Everyone you talk to at this business will give you a different story about what needs to be done, and what the status of your repair is. Wildly mismanaged, inconsistent, aloof -- basically just a nightmare to deal with. Check out the 3-star review below; these stories are starting to pile up. Something's not right at Charley's. I can tell you right now that you are better off at Guitar Center. read more

I had my P-Bass setup this week by them. They lowered the play a little, cleaned it up nice, put new strings on it. I do not believe it has ever played as nice as it does now. I'm pretty happy. I have heard some people say the turn around on the repair shop is not very quick but I guess I was lucky, they said it would take about a week and it took about a week. The price was reasonable. I'm a happy guy - I'll be using them in the future. read more

We dropped off two guitars and an ukulele for repair and restringing. Charlie, did an amazing job. He went above and beyond what we asked for. The price was very reasonable. We will definitely use this shop again. read more

Charlie's guitar shop has really gone downhill in the last several years. Let me tell you a story. I have a nice Martin acoustic and I took it to Charlie's to get a K and K mini installed. After the initial installation I took the guitar home plugged it in and I was getting a very odd distortion especially on the low-end. So I took it back to them and told them to check it. I left it with them for a whole week. When I came back they said that it should be working fine now but that I probably needed to buy an L R bags DI box. Mind you, I'm trying to plug this in directly to a mixer and I'm already using a DI box. So I take the guitar home plug it in and it has the same distortion it had before. I even went out and bought a nicer active DI box and same result. So I took it in to Charlie's for a third time. I come back to pick it up a week later go home plug it in same problem. This was over a period of about a year because I don't have a lot of free time to be running back-and-forth to Charlie's. I was pissed off. I called K and K asked that what the problem could be they gave me a few suggestions. I took it back to Charlie's again and told them the suggestions. They said we can fix it for sure. Take it home same problem. So I take it to my new guitar tech. He fixed it within an hour. He stuck his hand inside the sound hole to feel for the transducers and immediately one fell off of the bridge. They hadn't been glued on properly. He was able to easily pull the other two transducers off without any effort. He re-glued the transducers and now it is sounding great just how I thought it always should have sounded. I don't understand why Charlize couldn't figure out the problem but one reason is because every time I took it in there I asked them can you hook it up and test it before you give it back to me and they gave me some BS about how they don't have anything to hook it up to. What kind of a shop operates like that? They should give me my money back for the install plus extra for all the time I wasted taking it to their shop which is a bit of a drive for me. But I'll never go back in there again. read more

Brought a guitar in due to excessive buzz, especially low E. They did a setup and lowered action (I had raised and increased relief to see if I could get rid of buzz). ... the guitar now buzzes much worse now than it ever did. Not really sure how they could let it out of the shop like that. I don't think the technician actually played the guitar once it was done since the buzzing is quite severe. Shame on me for not checking thoroughly before leaving. Either way I don't think I would feel good about taking back the guitar or recommending anyone else take their guitar there. I guess I will try and find another shop that can actually fix the problem. read more

I took my Martin 12 string in for warranty work 12 days ago. The back was separating from the body, Was told the repair would take about a week,, He also mentioned that the strings were a little high and recommended them to properly set it up,, I told them to go ahead with the repairs....One week later , I called to follow up , Was told they hadn't started it and They were going to call Martin. The assured me that he would have it done early in the week. I stopped in on the following Tuesday , They had not started the repair and said they were waiting for Martin to Call them back. I picked up my guitar and took it to Kerrys in Bedford, Will be done tomorrow. I really didn't appreciate the lack of communication and that I wasn't a valued customer. I would have respected them if they were honest and told me they were backed up and was going to be a few weeks instead of letting me hang read more

Great guys, Great guitars, but more importantly great shop. If you need anything done from major repairs to a simple set up, I wouldn't go anywhere else. These guys were able to set up a guitar that two other places had failed to do correctly. This should be your only place for a guitar setup. read more

I tried to give them multiple chances but I would highly recommend going elsewhere. I've always heard the repair shop is great but I had bad experiences. I'll do my best to stick to the facts so I don't sound like I'm bashing them. Bryant is a very friendly and personable guy and when we talked he sounded very competent. I'm wondering how much of the actual setup work he actually does as opposed to an assistant or apprentice. I recently found a luthier I used to use a long time ago has his own shop now and will be going there to fix their mistakes. I'm not here to shill for anyone but let it be known there are other options in the area. First experience: I brought a guitar in a few years back for a setup. They said the nut might be filed too low and that they may need to fill it. I said I'd rather replace it since it was mammoth ivory so they offered to call me if it needed anything. It's important to note, I didn't ask for the call, they offered. After two weeks of no calls I finally showed up in person to see if it was even ready. It was, they forgot about it. When I got it home I saw they glued a piece of bone to the bottom of the nut and filled the slots with what looks like the usual bone dust and cyanoacrylate method. That is only supposed to be used for temporary repairs. There was also a new gap between the nut and fretboard and dried glue all over the outside. When I brought it back there was nobody in the shop. While I was showing the person behind the counter a few other customers started to come over to see. As soon as he noticed the others coming over he said I had to leave and come back to talk to the shop guys. He was very rude about it and wouldn't even let me finish what I was trying to say. Second experience: I brought a brand new Heritage H-150 in for a full setup. I had just finished taking a bunch of pictures to send my insurance company so the pre-shop condition was highly documented. When I dropped it off I was very particular about issues with the B string and problems with the tuners sticking and jerking. They were very dismissive and kept telling me there was nothing wrong because they were Grovers. Here are all of the issues that I found 1. Very minor but it did not have the type of strings I requested. Yes, it's nit picky but as you'll see it goes to a very common theme. 2. The intonation is still off. More so than before on the lower strings and I still can't get them to intonate correctly. 3. The B string I was very clear about is still have a lot of problems. The buzz is still there and even worse if a few spots. 4. The stock TonePros bridge was not secured with the set screws. In fact, one of them is now missing. The other was never tightened and fell off when I changed the strings. I know they were secured before because I had previously changed the strings and you can clearly see them in the pics I took for the insurance company. 5. There are large dings on the back of the body. I've wanted this model guitar for years and this was a little heartbreaking. Again, the insurance pics I took were from multiple angles in multiple lights to show the exact condition. I've taken more pics of the current condition and there is no doubt. I don't wear belts when I play and I've only taken it out of the case twice since I brought it home. 6. There is a small ding on the headstock as well. See number 5 for how I was able to compare that. 7. The nut is covered in file marks. This doesn't affect the quality of sound or stability but it's very unprofessional. I can, and have, done much better nut work myself. 8. When I picked it up I stressed the quality of the tuners again for a second time. I was told the same thing. I've since found out they are in fact not working correctly and the store I bought it from is sending me replacements. I've already replaced the Grovers with a direct drop in replacement of much higher quality and the difference is night and day. read more