I love this Guitar Center. I've had nothing but great experiences with the staff, and there's always a huge selection of items in stock. I wanted to give a shout-out to Patrick who handled a quick re-stringing of our acoustic guitar. He was super helpful and the whole process took less than 10 minutes. read more

Friendly staff, doing all they possibly can while observing the covid parameters. I just dropped off my guitar for restringing and they finished in basically one day, when they originally estimated the turnaround to be a week! So that was good news. Well priced for the service as well. read more

Let me start by saying I love Guitar Center!!! but at this location the customer service is S**t, Had taken one of my new guitars in for a platinum adjustment, and the person that helped me was very rude, very uninformative, and not helpful at all, it seemed like they didn't want to be there, WORST experience there...the repair person wasn't in at the time, I was hesitant to leave my guitar with this person, but i still left it, I was hoping repair guy was better at their job than this person, picked up my guitar the next day, adjustment was fine but definitely the last time Im coming here for anything, I will rather make the drive to the Round Rock location... much better service! Guitar Center, I highly recommend some customer service training at this location... with a crappy attitude you will lose customers, this location definitely lost my business. read more

There were three guitars that I was interested in so I plugged into a Fender Blues Jr. (i.e., what I use at home) and some blue haired employee scolded me to turn the volume down, because it was," Way too loud!" Folks, the Blues Jr. is a 15 watt amp and the master volume was below 2 (out of 12). No please, no thank you, he just stammered off like I kicked his dog or something. Ironically, I later found out that this guy was the "manager" (*rolls eyes*). I got the impression that this dude was hungover and forgot that he works at...sorry...manages a guitar store. Anyway, I put those guitars back and rolled over to Strait Music where they treated me like a musician who wants to hear what the gear sounds like before I purchase it. I ended up getting an awesome Fender Stratocaster - American Professional from the guys over at Strait Music. Just to be clear, this review is a runny dump on GC and a promotion for Strait Music. P.s., I hope your day gets better Blue-Hair McGee! read more

The guitar tech guy here, Sean, does really great work. He was able to fix my wonky Floyd Rose and even set up my 6 string Washburn in drop A, as per my ridiculous request. This guitar hasn't been serviced in years, and it now plays better than ever! The action is perfect, and I can't feel/hear any buzzing as I play. What a relief to have this machine back in top performance! Sean was great to work with, and I'll definitely come back if I need work done. read more

This place is awesome. Always got what i need for my guitarring needs. Couldn't ask for more.

My teenage daughter saved up to buy a guitar for her friend's birthday. She found one on sale, but it wasn't in stock at the store. She ordered it on-line on May 8th. It never came, and zero communication from Guitar Center. At the end of June, we called customer service, and were promised it would arrive July 1st. No guitar arrived. We called again today. The rep was very rude and condescending to us. Said he would put the order in again-for a higher price! My daughter didn't have enough money on her debit card, so we just cancelled the whole thing. To add insult to injury, he hung up on us! I guess customer service isn't their thing. Use extreme caution if ordering on-line!! read more

I walked all the way from the front of the store to the back of the store and no one spoke or offered to assist me. I went into the acoustic area because I was looking for a particular guitar. There was only one person in the area whose time was being monopolized by one patron telling his life story. I waited for a good 5 to 10 minutes and just walked out. Still no one said anything to me. Customer service is important. read more

I've spent thousands at this store and use to like it. I don't recommend anyone go to the guitar center, until after the pandemic, unless you absolutely have to. Remember when you could try out an instrument, browse the store, think about what you might buy? You can't do that. You will be rushed, judged, uncomfortable, escorted by a single employee, and can't browse. They are not operating at 50% of building capacity, they are letting people in when a single employee can escort them. Long lines outside in the Austin heat, even short lines take a long time. Very uncomfortable and awkward once inside. I'm glad guitar center is open for musicians who have to have new equipment right now, but for amateurs and everyone else at the margins, I'd strongly advise staying away until well after the pandemic, meaning no mask requirements or lines to get in, no supervised entry. read more

Came in to trade in an amp to buy a guitar today. The woman behind the guitar counter was very rude and unhelpful. Will not be returning to this location. read more

I had a great experience with the helpful staff there. I got cable I needed. In and out in 3 minutes. Nice!

I called to confirm that I could return a condenser microphone that I bought at GC Los Angeles, within 45 days of the purchase date (I was about 29 days in). The employee on the phone spoke to the general manager several times, and the GM said that there was a a 14 day return window for condenser microphones, and that'd I'd have to go back to the store in Los Angeles to figure it out. I wouldn't be back in LA for at least another couple months - and I communicated that. I even asked if I could make an exchange or obtain store credit instead. The general manager was not interested in making any sort of "exception" because it was near the end of the month and they didn't want any addl losses in their sales. Later that day, I spoke to Guitar Center corporate, and it turns out that, as I thought, condenser microphones do not fall under the recording devices category, and I did indeed have a 45-day return window. Was a true bummer that I was misguided for numbers' sake, or that the GM was simply misinformed on policy. But I am glad I that I was able to contact GC corporate. read more

Spent a couple of hours trying different instruments and every one was polite and respectful. Prices are good and they will match prices from other places. Great service and if you want to spend some creative time, this is a great place. read more

Mask police. They'll chase you around the store if it's not over your nose. No more purchases at Guitar Center for me. "Thanks for being cool" dbags. read more

As with some kids, it took a while for a hobby to really sit right for our son. Is it Legos? No. Is it Bicycling? No. Is it Skateboarding? No. Is it collecting old baseball cards? No. Is it guitars? No. Is it girls? Yes. Oh. Okay. Not the one we were going for. But on the way to girls, he did take guitar lessons and I purchased several great guitar stands here but nothing more. Recently, I stopped in to look at turntables. We acquired a box of vinyl (Hendrix, Eagles, The Cream and more) from a generous friend who got tired of looking at them stacked in his garage. Thus, a turntable was in order. Me: Hey, I'm going to shop for a turntable, want to go? Son: Not today. But you should not go alone. Me: Why not? Son: Because you don't know anything. It would be dangerous. Me: ----- Son: Just let me go with you when you go. Me: I'm going today. Son: I can't go today. But you should not go alone. Can you tell this conversation was going nowhere? Kind of like the hobbies. I did go anyway, taking my life into my own hands, and a very nice young man, Devon, walked me through the myriad of options. My goodness, though, I'm not a DJ so I don't think I'll be buying anything here. The systems all seemed to be beyond what I would ever need but the customer service was great. But, hey, what's up with the check-in-chick at the door? You are all but frisked when you enter. I'm only dangerous if I buy something. read more

Guitar Center is always a bad experience. You're first greeted with the sound of 20 teenagers "trying" out the electric guitars.... what they really want is attention..... "Look at me! Look at me!.... I can play a guitar!". They're a bunch of teenage-attention whores that will all end up working at Guitar Center one day. I've played guitar since I was 12 and here is an important lesson I learned immediately. Just because you can play the guitar doesn't mean you HAVE to pick up every guitar you see. Not everyone wants to hear you "shred" out Smells Like Teen Spirit.. Here's a secret.... Everyone hates the guy at the party with the guitar.... Oh, What is that? A Dave Matthews tune? Who invited you anyway? I can ride a bike... but you don't see me picking up every damn bike I come into contact with..... uggghhh! Anyway, Guitar Center is where you will find all of these types of people. But sometimes you have to put up with it when you need some gear and don't want to drive all over town. Don't ever pay full price for ANYTHING in this store..... the "sales" people at Guitar Center can make you better deals on equipment. If you like this kind of shopping then maybe you'll love this place.... but I would rather have the PRICE listed be the ACTUAL PRICE. Get in and get out as quickly as possible.... read more

I have a theory that 95% of people at a concert neither know, nor care, what kind of guitar the performer is playing. For example, being a guitar playing diehard, I know that Keith Richards plays a Fender Telecaster without a high-E string. At any given Stones show, however, it's safe to say most people don't know that nor do they give a rip; they just want to hear "Satisfaction" and have a good time. Fair enough. If you are a person who finds that a guitar is indeed a guitar, then Guitar Center is place for you. Sure, they have some nice instruments, but they are kept high above the trying-out masses. Most of what you'll find available for your picking pleasure are mass produced axes from the major companies. That's not to say these instruments are of poor quality; many of them are fantastic. You can also find most anything you need for recording, percussion, effects, etc. In other words, your entire band can be outfitted in an afternoon without ever going anywhere else. But that's the problem with Guitar Center. There is very little about the place that is unique. You can find the same guitars, in the same colors, for the same prices at a dozen other stores around town. To extend an analogy: Guitar Center is a bit like a large Ford or Chevy dealership. That's fine if you're in the market for a late model Ford or Chevy. But when you decide to go searching for a '59 Lincoln in cherry red, don't waste your time at Guitar Center. read more

Big wow... I walked in. 3 people at the front desk having there own conversation. Could care less about a customer. I walk past another person texting on his phone. Same could care less. 3 other people at another area could care less. I actually counted them out loud how many employees could care less about a sale and tel help a customer. And they just looked at me. I walked out and they just stared at me not one person said a word. Well you just lost a really big sale. I won't ever shop at this place! You should t have to search for help when 8 employees are standing around having their own conversations! read more

I've been really happy with the service at this guitar center. I'm surprised to see some of the bad reviews here. Every time I've gone in they have answered my question promptly and have always been helpful when I'm looking at a new piece of gear. read more

I've had lots of both good and bad experiences here. The drums/percussion dept is usually really good, as is Guitars. Pro Audio/Lighting, however, is definitely a gamble. You either get someone who both knows their stuff and is helpful, or you get someone who's arrogant and pushy. The latter happened to me today when I picked up a simple, cheap light for my home studio. The chick with the dirty-looking, badly-dyed orange hair who checked me out totally gave me the "you're a dumbass if you don't get this amazing extended warranty" runaround. She wouldn't stop the push, even to the point of asking me if I trusted the wiring in my studio. Ultimately, I got the very condescending "Well, ok..." from her. I very nearly walked out without buying anything at that point. In addition to the telemarketing-grade upselling techniques, I also frequently get home with my purchases from pro audio / lighting to find that I was sold a re-stocked, used item. I've learned by now to open anything I get from that dept before I leave the store. I recommend you do the same, unless of course you like your "new" items covered in the fingerprints of the person who previously bought and used the thing you just paid FULL PRICE for! It's probably also worth mentioning that, in order to get into the Pro Audio / Lighting dept and be harrassed by this rude orange haired chick, I had to walk around the three other sales people who were crowded around the counter, just shooting the shit. It would have been nice if they'd moved their conversation over just an inch or two...enough to let me through. Hell, I would have been thrilled if they'd done anything to acknowledge my presence. read more

You can get some good deals on gear, but you better take advantage of their "low price guarantee"... although it might not be worth your time, depending on how much your time is worth. Checkout can be a BALL OF CONFUSION. I bought an amp at Guitar Center. The salesman was energetic and helped me try out a bunch of stuff. I asked for a package deal on a couple of speaker cabinets and he said "no, that's the price, that's as low as it's gonna get." He assured me over and over that I was getting a great deal. When I got home I found the same amp online for $50 less, and saw on the Guitar Center website a "low price guarantee" of the difference plus ten percent. I called Guitar Center to get my refund and they said I had to come back in person to get it (even though I had made the purchase with a credit card, only an hour ago, and they do sell their products online). So I drove all the way back there. I was promptly helped by a customer service guy. I told him I was there to get my "difference plus ten percent" and he said okay, but he could not do the transaction himself. Two more guys joined in the fiasco, then another guy took over and ran it through -- without the ten percent. I pointed out the mistake. He said "I wish you had said something before." I said "I did, I told the first guy." It took multiple credit card runs and a total of four guys to get it done. None of them seemed familiar at all with Guitar Center's low price guarantee policy, which is strange for someone who processes sales and returns at Guitar Center for a living. A few days later, I just HAD A FEELING they screwed it up. I checked my bank statement: sure as shit, the refund wasn't there. So I called Guitar Center and asked them to figure it out. The guy explained that they had my refund "as a credit" (which meant nothing, really, when I asked him what that meant) and it was never returned to me. I asked him to do the transaction over the phone. He checked with someone else, and then said okay, he would "get that going" for me. I patiently await this transaction on my bank statement... So if they could do my refund over the phone this time, why couldn't they do it the first time? This kind of run-around makes me feel like I'm doing business with a bunch of teenage drug dealers. You're never sure if they're being strategically shifty or if they're just bunglers. read more

What a selection! I went in for strings - again. What do you need? From guitars to drums, to amps, and supplies this place has it all and unlike other places in the area they are open on Sunday!! I wasn't sure if they would have an issue with my son playing all the guitars in the store and get confronted with "those aren't toys" but to my surprise they not only welcomed him playing "Thunder Struck", "Happy Birthday","Yankee Doodle", and Cory Morrow's"Straight to Hell" they gave him a stool and a pick. Now he's 9 and two of the songs are no where near perfect but they seemed to welcome his desire to play. When it came time to stop playing and buy the strings the girl behind the counter was more knowledgeable than others I have met. She was so nice and I must add funny. read more

Came here to price some electric drum kits. Decent selection, although the high school kid sat on the most expensive one for a full thirty minutes and didn't let anybody else have a shot at it. Then on the way out, we watched a GC employee walk right past a trash can and throw his cigarette on the ground. My boyfriend exclaimed, "There's a trash can right there, man," and his response: "You wanna pick it up for me, go ahead." If you're going to let your employees take smoke breaks right outside your front door, Guitar Center, you should at least mention that littering your entrance with cigarette butts is a turnoff - as is the rude employee who doesn't care who sees him do it. Won't be back here anytime soon. read more

Today I went into this guitar center to get a replacement piece for a pair of headphones that I bought last year from here. Monica was the one to help me in the sound/recording section. She was very knowledgeable about all of the sound equipment and microphones. I was impressed how helpful she was! She literally went out of her way to help me as much as possible and I was very thankful for that. It can be very intimidating going in to places like this when you are not sure what to get for the best prices. Monica deserves a big raise! Thanks for reading! read more

Little to no knowledge of products they sell!! Your in Austin go to a local music shop, please!! Guitars: South Austin Music Drums: Jeff Ryder's Drum Shop Violins & Classical Strings: Blackberry Violin Shop read more

I will take this moment to applaud the customer service I received recently from an employee at this location from a young lady named Cheyenne. I am an music professional with over 30 years experience, including managing a successful violin shop for 13 of them, so I know a thing or two about music retail. No matter what experience I may have had before, the personal attention and level of service I got from this particular employee deserves being singled out as stellar and a fine example for her fellow employees to follow. I will reward her service with return business and I hope her superiors take note. If I was still running a retail operation, I would have offered her a job on the spot because any business would succeed with staff like this. read more

VENUE: Typical Guitar center. You have your rooms with their own respective intsruments SERVICE: OMG the guys who helped my friend and me were incredibly sweet. super nice and friendly and were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. I ended up leaving with an ukulele that i didn't need but so desperately wanted. they tuned that baby for me and helped me and my friend what we were originally looking for. Five stars for the service, definitely. read more

Really disappointed with this location as they had my guitar in for repair for many weeks, but yet had done no work on it. Was told they had ordered parts for the guitar , but after many weeks was told they hadn't ordered any replacement parts after all. Will definitely avoid this location if/when I need guitar repair in the future. read more

I went to Guitar Center because straight music was closed on Sunday. I bought a mic and set up, the guy behind the counter had told me that there was a no return policy on open mics, it seemed reasonable so I bought it. Left the equipment in my trunk and a buddy of mine offered to give me his mic and set up. I went back to return my unopened Microphone to find out that the store has a no return policy period.... I am out 100 dollars due to incompetency, I will go back to never shopping at this crappy store. read more

Dear Daniel/Customer Service dept...I just wanted you to know how Happy I am with Patrick and Carl in your repair dept. They went "Above and Beyond" the call of duty with my Beloved "Gibson Chet Atkins" 1994 Acoustic/Electric Guitar. Thanks So Very Much!! I Really Appreciate it from the Bottom of my Heart. They were So Warm and Friendly and Customer Service Oriented. Thank you and God bless read more

While this location has had lots of challenges in the past, the current manager (Sean) and the current guitar service tech (Patrick) are very committed to turning around this location in many areas. Sean seems to be working on all departments and the improvements are showing, although he still has some challenging departments. In my behalf, Sean talked to Patrick to have him look at some minor work for me and not only was Patrick very well versed in the mechanics and playability of my guitars, but he got the work done very quickly and was fun to talk with after the work while advising me on keeping it up. If you've been frustrated by this store before, I'd say give them another shot. read more

If you have a choice between order online or coming to Guitar center I don't recommend the latter. Had to be one of the worst shopping experiences I've ever had. If you like being follow it around like you're done something wrong told not to pick up guitars until after they complain about having to sanitize them without telling you first this is the place for you. I work in sales to a lot of customer service, my advice. This must be what living in a police state is like. read more

Two stars for the selection. Three are missing because I bought a $500 guitar there less than three months ago and the pickups fell out this week. It's prolly a 5-minute fix (I just don't have the tools for it), and GC told me I'd have to pay for the $100 warranty to fix it. Nope. Why go here when you can go to South Austin Music, or any other local Austin business? In the words of my boyfriend "I will never again set foot in Guitar Center unless it's a life or death situation and I need to use a phone because my cell died and all other businesses are closed." read more

As a music producer, I am not reviewing GC as an instrument store, but rather how they relate to the pro-audio industry. I work with one of their sales specialists routinely and get very competitive prices. All the staff are very helpful. I recently purchased their highest-end mic stands and the staff were ok with me unpacking and assembling numerous microphone stands. They even offered to go in the back to see if they had a couple of their high-end stands. They proceeded to unpack and assemble these for me. They gave me a good price as usual, cleaned up my mess for me and sent me on my way a very happy customer. read more

If you look at my history, you can see I've never left a bad review on Yelp, but there's a first time for everything. Guitar Center have a bad reputation with musicians for a reason. At 951 AM, 21 May, I ordered an in-stock $25 XLR cable for curbside pickup and it took a day and a half for it to be ready for pickup, 533 PM, 22 May. I got a cable instead from Amazon and then tried to cancel the Guitar Center order. To my unceasing amusement, unlike pretty much any major retailer, https://www.guitarcenter.com doesn't offer customers the option to manage orders online. You're forced to call. It gets better. I talked to 3 people at the national call center 866-498-7882 with a week or more between calls. The wait times were over 20-30 minutes where the customer is sadistically subjected to the worst hold music ever, a surprisingly lo-fi recording of a truly terrible song on loop you've never heard before, unless you've been unfortunate enough to have called before. It's almost comically bad, as if the song was deliberately chosen by GC marketing to get customers to hang up. The first two agents assured me they successfully canceled the pickup. They had not. The third agent I spoke to said they could not cancel the order, only the individual store could, so I called the store at 512-419-1717. Over and over again. I called the store about a dozen times over the course of a few weeks. No one picks up the phone. This is just egregious. I blamed the multiple contacts at first on the pandemic, it's been hard on business and I really feel sorry for the poor call center agents trying their best at damage control, but this seems excessively bad. Then, over a month later on 26 June, I'm notified the order has been picked up! I emailed paypal-questions@guitarcntr.com on 28 June and have still not heard back. What a terrible customer experience. Don't give GC your money. read more

This place has terrible customer service. They act like you are a burden when you ask for help and are absolutely lacking in knowledge. I went to purchase an SD card for the Zoom recorder I had purchased previously there. It didn't work. Multiple representatives said, "It should work" and treated me like an idiot. I went to walmart next door, and found a card that actually worked for the device I had purchased at guitar center. Needless to say, I will not be returning. read more

Pros: great selection and the best prices in town Cons: the staff is not always knowledgeable and the customer service is hit or miss. I have been to the Anderson Lane location several times and I would recommend it over the South location. read more

It's never a good sign when multiple customers are wandering around and complaining about how they cant get anyone to help them. I approached one of the staff and asked if they could help me figure out which acoustic guitar strings would be best for me as a beginner. She said, "No." read more

Definitely the saddest/shadiest music store I've been to in a long time. It took me 15 minutes to find the store because their sign was off/broken. Went in to get some cables. They were almost all in the wrong place and less than half of them even had prices on them. As I was checking out, a customer was telling an employee about a terrible experience with another employee that I don't need to get into. I just wanted to leave as soon as I could. Avoid. read more

The people who work there are great. Andres and another guy with long hair.. (it was a few weeks ago) are the best. They helped me find a good uke and as a bonus I found a used mandolin for an unbeatable price. They were totally attentive and understanding. It's a chain though, and in a town like Austin I think there are more responsible businesses to support. That's the only reason for the three stars. read more