Top LA session guitarist- Joe Diblasi who played on Pink Floyd's The Wall recorded with Bet Midler and many others is sending a filming department to do a video shoot of some of my originals In which I'll be performing on guitars Bob Groat did excellent fret jobs etc. on! And I will thereafter continue his excellent repairs and craftsmanship! Thanks again Bob! Toby read more

So glad I get to do this. Groat is an Honest Man. First of all. - He can repair any guitar He is busy so Money Talks where emergencies take priority. His Reputation is his Business. I like Groat! He's honest.. And I'm Glad to help folks know about him. read more

I needed a new nut on my classical guitar. There was very little question about where I was going to bring it - Groat Instruments has been doing exceptional work for years. I asked Bob to restring it as well (yeah, lazy me). The work was simple, and was simply done with excellence. Thank you. I'll be back. read more

My tuner needed a part replaced + I wanted the strings restrung. Bob was super nice and helpful. The replacement job was done beautifully. They did it in one business day. The price was super reasonable. I highly recommend Groat Instruments. read more

I had 2 guitars serviced here. Relatively simple jobs. First a flat top acoustic guitar bridge repair and secondly an electric guitar fret mill. Both times the work done was excellent quality. Bridge repair took 5 days longer than promised. Fine by me. Fret mill was delivered on time. Prices were reasonable. I'd happily have any of my guitars serviced here. read more

I got Mr. Groat's number from a band mate of mine. I had purchased a Gary Willis signature Ibanez 5-string fretless bass. It was a beautiful instrument to be sure but it didn't take long for me to learn that I hated playing it because there were some prominent buzz spots on the fretboard, including the E on the 2nd fret D -string. I'd already had the bass looked after by another tech, and had the strings replaced to no avail. Bob Groat diagnosed that he would have to level the fretboard, which as a luthier he is qualified to do. Once he returned me my instrument, it sounded better than ever, no buzz spots to be found. The guy is a magician! read more

I called Bob Groat and asked if he replaced mandolin frets - my first five had significant grooves. He said yes, but it may take a 3-4 weeks since he was backed up with prior jobs. The frets were replaced within that time frame and were done correctly. When I got home, I noticed a slight buzz when I was playing. Bob said to bring it back and he'd look at it. I brought my mandolin in to the shop the next day and he made the adjustments while I waited. Five stars for: 1) Accuracy of financial cost 2) Accuracy of time frame to complete the repair 3) Quality of workmanship 4) Customer service for fixing the slight string buzz right away. This is my first time at Groat's Music. If I have other similar repairs, I will bring those instruments to him. read more

I have taken about 10-15 basses to Bob Groat and Jordan over the years since he took over Michael Dolan's old shop. Bob and Jordan are excellent at what they do and have made every one of my basses look like new again. Bob is a perfectionist, so he never takes shortcuts. If it's not good enough then he'll do it over. I don't know of any other shops with that work ethic. Thanks Bob and Jordan !!!! - Mike read more

Took my players special Strat in - 2 humbuckers, master volume, 2 tone. The neck tone had no stop-just kept turning! The bridge tone seemed to be wired backwards-all the way up was "bassy", all the way down "trebly". Told Bob I really wanted 2 volume and master tone. Took it in on a Tuesday, he said he might be able to get to it this week. He called on Thursday to let me know it was done! Great price, and now I have the guitar I wanted! Thanks Bob! read more

A friend recommended Bob Groat so I took my 28 year old guitar to Bob's shop. It needed some work on some of the upper range frets. It had some serious buzz. Bob and crew fixed it up quickly (one week) for less than estimated. It plays wonderfully now and the frets are all even and brightly polished. As a bonus, he took the extra step and added a handy complementary Velcro strip to help hold my equally aged guitar case closed. It had a nasty habit of popping open, but no more! The next time I need a luthier to work on any guitar I'll take it to Groat Instruments. read more

I have known Bob for decades and he has worked on numbers of my instruments over the years. Artists that are excellent craftsmen are few and far between. A little grace for the artistic temperament is necessary, but you know that's just the way it is. Bob has heart, character and integrity and it shows in everything he does...By the way Christianne, your review was written around the time Bob was mourning the loss of his precious Karen. As Winston Churchill said during world war II "Be kind to everyone you meet they are fighting a war you know nothing about. Your review describes a Bob I have never known so I presume something was definitely wrong in the dynamic you described. It was not the real Bob that you met... read more

I had a great experience with Bob and his team. I have a one-of-a-kind custom shop Taylor that I had built for me years ago, right after the "expression" pickup system came out. Recently the expression system gave up the ghost and I was looking for a replacement. My first call was to Michael Dolan, who has worked on several of my guitars in the past. He let me know that he's moved his shop out of town, so he told me to check out Groat Instruments. Bob recommended that I consider an LR Baggs under-saddle pickup since I play in loud environments. He installed the pickup, and even handcrafted an ebony "end-piece" to match the trim to the expression system outline. It looks great, it plays great, it sounds great, and the price was very reasonable. I would definitely recommend Groat Instruments. read more

They have a great shop here. Highly detailed work, great, friendly staff. The owner is very knowledgeable about all sorts of stringed instruments. Recommended. read more

I just picked up my guitar from Groat. It was supposed to go in to have a Fender Factory neck bolted on to a custom made Tele body. I was told by the person that I bought the body from that it was manufactured to EXACT factory specs and that all you had to do was bold a neck on it. Jordan and the gang at Groat took the job on and went at it. It bolted together okay but the intonation was off. It took some custom luthier work to fix the other guys mistakes, but the results are fabulous. I would trust Groat with any of my instruments. The quality of their work is very high. The pricing and turn around time were just as impressive. I highly recommend this business. read more

I have a collection with many vintage guitars. I have had work done by Michael Dolan, and after he left, I have had my work done by Bob Groat. I have had an absolutely excellent experience with all of the work they have done. Everything from repairing the electrical components, replacing a nut, bridge work, set up and even complete refinishing on my 1964 Firebird VII and on a Stratocaster. I made the mistake once of taking my 1967 J 45 to a guy out of a music store in Cotati and he took 5 months and never did the work. I think Bob Groat, and Jordan, are two of the best luthiers in the North Bay. His custom basses are the things dreams are made of. Just wish I could afford one! read more

Took my guitar there for a bridge replacement after speaking to them on the phone. They said they would order a replacement bridge right away. When I dropped it off, they told me they tried to order a replacement bridge, but their vendor was sold out and they would look elsewhere. They said the work would be done in 2 weeks. I called them 3 weeks later and they said the same thing about the bridge. They obviously hadn't given it a thought since I walked out the door. I asked them if they had any plans to let me know this. They said unfortunately they don't keep records on everything. I decided to pick it up and go elsewhere. Thanks for storing my guitar, ignoring my service and wasting my time. I should have heeded the reviews from others. I very rarely leave reviews, but this was a joke. read more

Bob Groat took such great care of me and my sweet Fender (yes, "sweet" Fender!) acoustic guitar recently! Reasonable, honest, I loved trusting Bob with my guitar and it's perfect now! read more

I have taken a few instruments to Groat for repairs. They were fixed quickly and at a more than fair price. Jordan looked at the latest one and diagnosed the problem and fixed it while I waited. I did not expect service that quick. Bob and his guys are all friendly and knowledgeable about their craft. There is no question that this is my go to shop from now on. You should make it yours too. You will be quite pleased. While you're there, check out his custom built instruments. read more

Great place. We've taken in guitars several times and they always do a great job. Bob has even stayed open late twice so we could get there before they closed. I highly recommend them. Kathleen McCallum read more

Bob is the man. He's humble. He doesn't talk your head off like other luthiers. He knows what he's doing. He does good work. He doesn't over charge. He sells funny bumper stickers. Nuff said. read more

I took a vintage Martin in for work and Bob decided it needed a neck reset that would take 3 months. At the 3 month mark I started calling to check up on the instrument. When he finally declared it finished I went to pick it up and every string on every fret buzzed badly. I left it with him for 2 more weeks. The buzzing was now confined to the treble strings. He'd raised the bridge a bit, but still buzzed. I left it with him for 2 more weeks. Same result. I had to return a total of 5 times over the next 2 months and every time I showed up, I discovered that he'd raised the bridge a little bit more each time. Finally, he'd raised the bridge about a half an inch, it was flexing toward the neck, action was higher than I'd ever seen it, and the intonation was shot. I took it to another luthier in the area who looked it over, discovered the frets where Bob had done the neck removal were high. This luthier then immediately loosened all the strings for fear the Bob bridge was going to snap off at any moment and told me "this guitar should have never left Bob's shop in this condition". The 2nd luthier addressed the high frets and all was normal, finally. Buyer beware! Stay clear of this place. read more

I had Bob build me two custom necks never again after taking one of them back three times I gave up the neck is bowed in two directions un playable I had it checked by 2 other luthiers I paid almost 700,00 for the scalloped neck and it's garbage I had a neck built by a luthier in Forestville instead of returning to Groat I would not recommend them at all. read more

Just got my 1992 Gretsch acoustic/electric back from Groat Instruments. They found and fixed a problem with the neck and they did a great job! Thanks, guys! read more

Boy did I have a quite the rigmarole with Groat Instruments. He was recommended to me by Tall Toad Music in Petaluma. This plus all of the five star yelp reviews had me convinced he did top notch work. Needless to say, I was wrong...very wrong. Literally all the work I had done by them was of the poorest quality I have seen in years. I brought them three guitars each of which was royally screwed up by Bob and his apprentice, Jordan. Then, after contacting him about the lack of quality of his work he offered to re-do the work but only if I paid him. He gave me a measly discount of 25% and I went ahead and had the work re-done. I do not know what I was thinking but I really did want to believe that the guy was capable. Once again, he screwed up the work and even worse this time. On top of this, it took two months longer than he said it would. This is completely unreasonable. This time around, he was busy outside of the shop and had his apprentice Jordan do the work. He completely ruined an extremely rare, mint condition vintage Telecaster. I had this guitar refretted twice by them. The first time they over milled the frets and they were completely square. The guitar fretted out and buzzed all over the place. Groat would not admit to this. They chipped the fretboard in the process and wouldn't admit to it. After I pointed this out, they tried to repair it but only made the issue permanently worse. The second time around, the frets were completely uneven and weren't seated properly as confirmed by another veteran tech in the area. He had to give the guitar a complete fret mill and even now there are still major issues. The bone nut they made for this guitar wasn't even square and did not sit properly in the slot. Seriously, a monkey could have done a better job! On top of all of this, they broke the Fender logo off of the original case that came with this guitar. The other guitar I had them work on was a vintage Les Paul. They did a slightly less horrible job on this refret, so I decided not to have them re-do it. The string height coming off of the nut, however, was much too low. I do not know how they missed this major detail. All you had to do was strum one chord to hear it buzzing away like a bee-hive. Last, but not least, I had them work on one of my custom guitars. It needed to be re-wired. I am left-handed and indicated that the guitar would need to be wired this way. This job was also totally butchered. Three of the four pots worked one way while the fourth worked the other way. How does this make any sense? They also claimed they couldn't adjust the pickup height as the mounting system was "difficult to adjust." Hmmm isn't it your job to be able to do such things?! The guitar came back a mess and played horribly. It was fretting out left and right. I asked them what was up with this. They claimed I did not indicate I wanted it to play well. I asked for a set-up...isn't that indication enough? This guitar had to be re-done as well. Turns out it needed a partial mill. They also charged me for this work. I am probably forgetting ten other issues I had with their work but hopefully this gives you some idea of what I had to go through with these people. I demanded a full refund as I would have to pay someone else to correct these problems. Bob did end up giving me a partial refund but this was not nearly enough to cover the cost of the work I had to have done. I do not know how this company has such a great reputation. I had nothing but bad experience after bad experience with them and cannot believe what they would let out of their shop. If I could give them 0 stars, I would. read more