Be careful when trying to trade in your guitar, they will always try to find a fault with the guitar or tell you its been sold for cheap on line, (lies) they will also not give you what the instrument is really worth. dave read more

My boyfriend recently got back into learning how to play the guitar. He wanted to stop by and look around and it was so cool. There were customers in there testing out the guitars so basically there were little jam sessions going on. I though how entertaining to hear these people and browse around. My boyfriend ended up buying a guitar strap and who was the one who rung him up......Elvis! Lol read more

Joanna help me out yesterday to pick out a Djembe and another drum she was excellent knew what she was talking about and gave her best customer service. She is very mature for her age and knows a lot about her department. I found out we went to the same high school and had the same music teacher. Thanks Joana!! read more

Update: One of the sales managers responded to me and apologized for the employees behavior. She said she will address it with him. I'm adding a star for her response. read more

A few weeks back I purchased a Martin OMJM Acoustic Guitar from their Manager Tom...Tom gets 5 stars, overall the reason I give it 4 is simply because...well...it's Guitar Center. It's too loud, it's cluttered, and sadly they pretty much let anyone touch any instrument (and believe me, that's kind of gross when you think about it). I pop in here to grab strings occasionally and found a brand new out of box OMJM and Tom talked my ear off about it, and I left with it the next day. LOVE the guitar, and Tom is down to earth and truly took care of me. I appreciate the staff and all of the knowledge they carry. read more

This is solely on the guy that changed my strings. Super nice and friendly. His customer service was great!

Pretty awesome. I never ever bought anything from here before, but It's a cool place to chill. I got kicked out once a really long time ago, it was pretty hilarious. read more

Been shopping at GC since the days of the original Hollywood store located across from the current location. Scott (store mngr) is always helpful and Ruben and the crew in proaudio are always patient, never pressuring anyone to buy merchandise. Keep up the great work! read more

What is going on with these stores? The one in Monterey Park, and now this one in Pasadena? Do they realize the block around them is up for lease? In these Covid times there are stores that have stepped up, but these guys seem to be unaware. All very anxious to have you wear your mask, but the curbside number in MP doesn't answer so you have to go inside and there's a line, and you're warned about your mask. The whole point of ordering curbside and paying ahead is you shouldn't have to get out and put on your mask. Then in Pasadena you stand in 95 degree heat while the poor security guy has to "get clearance" for the next person to come in. You do and there are ten staff chatting and five customers. You ask for something and the guy chatting at the counter says, "If we have any they'll be over there." "Well it says online you do." "In our online store..." "No, in this store." "Oh, well we don't." "Any in back?" "I don't think so." "Well you have customers standing in 95 degree heat to get an item they could easily get online... ALL of this I can buy online and NOT from Guitar Center but I'm trying to 'shop' local'." We don't need these stores! I'll buy the speakers, guitars and gear my friends have...ONLINE. And the unemployment line will just get longer. read more

Guitar Center is one of those stores that could easily be intimidating if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. I've come here on several occassions and always head to the Pro-Audio/DJ section, because that's just my cup of tea. The employees that I've encountered have all been amazing when it comes to customer service, and another review I read was accurate in stating they are not pushy in any way. There is one guy working there that sounds like Jed the Fish from KROQ, who is just super friendly and very knowledgable in pro-audio. I didn't catch his name however. A special shout out goes to employee Jorge Retana. One day I came in to buy a pair of JBL Eon 515XT speakers, Eon 518S subwoofer and cables, etc. While testing out the equipment, Jorge was very helpful and patient. He even saw me eyeing his new Samsung Galaxy S3, and let me hold it and check it out while he was looking through inventory on the computer. (Who does that?.. awesome) Well long story short, the subwoofer was too large to fit into my super compact vehicle, so Jorge took the initiative to follow me from Guitar Center all the way to my house in his personal SUV with my product. This was above and beyond average customer service and he deserves to be commended. Management, I hope you're reading this. Anyhow, the speakers bump and I'm no longer intimidated coming into this location. read more

Ordered a very nice prs archon thanks to the help of Michael Garcia. He gave great advice regarding high gain amplification and tonal diversity. He helped me place the order and was very patient even though I was so indecisive with what I wanted. In the end I got exactly what I wanted and needed. Thanks again guys! read more

In a nutshell, it's really convenient for Pasadenians (sp). Has a relatively big selection. Plenty of parking and easy access. I usually know exactly what I want going in there. I let the staff know I'm a regular there and I am no nonsense when I make purchases. I do my own research and usually only ask the staff about "what's new". I did place a special order there once for something that I ultimately canceled. Not only did they not give me competitive pricing (the guy literally charge me MSRP), they said it would be 3 weeks to get. I ended up ordering it from Amazon.com (of all places) and got it in less than 5 days. Poo. I've also had MAJOR issues with their internet store, but that's a different review. read more

I'm halfway between this one an the Hollywood one and I always like this one better. Smaller but more chill and less solos. Aaron is a really nice chill salesman he doesn't attack you, so I really appreciate that and I would return here with no hesitation. read more

Just went in to get some strings and guitar straps and Jake did an amazing job of helping us out very detailed with everything and clear!

The Service is very decent and most of the employees are very knowledgeable in their departments. Don't have any complaints from any of my visits here. read more

Is there a professional musician on the planet who actually goes to guitar center because they want to? No, sometimes you just need to get something quickly and have no choice. Today I went to buy a basic contact mic and was sold the wrong product, even after I questioned whether it was the correct product to begin with. I mean if you're working in the recording/microphone section of the store and you can't sell someone something as basic as a contact mic, what hope is there for any of us. At least the sales person today was nice and respectful, usually as a woman, guitar center is a complete nightmare filled with patronizing wannabe musicians who either ignore you or talk down to you. Not much of a consolation as I take another huge chunk out of my day to go back and get what I actually need. Okay, rant/vent done, we all know this. read more

Good selection. Good Service. Sales people are not very knowledgable....they just want to sell you gear. Do you homework and research before asking the salesmen for opinions. On 3 separate occasions while shopping for keyboards, the 3 different salesmen didn't know how to operate the keyboard or anything about the populate brands I was looking at. I learned my lesson. Ended up buying from a local music store instead. read more

Excellent customer service, they stayed late to help us price match an item, super friendly and very professional and knowledgeable team, highly recommended location!! read more

Came to drop a few hundred on a bass guitar for my son. I walked around for 25 minutes and not one employee acknowledged me or asked me if I needed help, even though several walked by me?! read more

This place simply sucks. Honestly....don't come here. They just try to push you to buy things. Save yourself the grief of buying a defective instrument (like i have before) and just go to a mom and pop place like Pasadena Guitars. I was really dissapointed with the way i was treated at guitar center. The staff is disrespectful and they don't know much about anything related to guitars. I took my guitar amp to see if they knew what was wrong with it...and all i got was blank stares. I called jeff from pasadena guitars...and he told me what the problem was right away and i got it switched out and taken care of. There are better places to play and learn about guitars......i mean...you might as well go to best buy to buy a guitar read more

This is a fantastic store for gently used gear at great prices. They carry most of the standard gibson and fenders one would expect. A wider variety of guitars can be found at the hollywood branch. As other reviews mentioned, you may have to seek out some customer service here -- but that's really not such a big deal. Sure beats having salesmen hanging off of you when you're trying out the gear. read more

Great staff went to get an keyboard I bought checked cuz one of the keys were laying low. Got helped right away and the service was amazing 100% all the way to the goodbye before leaving. Granted it wasn't too busy but wow I was impressed. Keep it up guys live your atmosphere and the service was top notch fellas! read more

I've been a Guitar Center customer a long time as an acoustic guitarist and folksinger. Always had great experiences, but just had a particularly good one acquiring a TC-Helicon device that allows me to sing harmony - with myself. Had to special order, and then buy, in-store, related equipment (amp, mike, cords). With the way smoothed by the superb service of Moises Martinez who, despite the manufacturer responding slowly to the special order, got the item I needed and then taught me how to best sync it with my other equipment. So, kudo's to the store and to Moises - I hope your bosses value your contributions! read more

The Yelp rating here should be higher. This place is actually quite pleasant to hang out. Customer service here is excellent. I've been coming here for the past 7 years. But stopped the past 3 years, and back again. Sales rep are always very accommodating. I ordered a compressor pedal from the guitar center website and wasn't completely satisfied with it and did not want to return it by mail, so I called in to see if they were willing to exchange it in store for a different one, and they said yeah just bring it in anytime. So I went, and didn't realize it would cause such complications running it through their system, it took almost an hour to get the return and exchange to happen, But their sales rep Stephanie and the management was more than willing and determined to help me out to get what I wanted. So thank you Stephanie for going the extra mile. Excellent customer service! read more

Love the layout, but the staff can use a little pep talk every once in a while. I come here to pick up gear at times, but must remember to know what I want because not everyone is knowledgeable of the equipment I need at times. Other than that, I love that there is a store to go to for all my DJ needs. Peace!! read more

This place is very easy and welcoming to visit. The staff has always been very friendly, knowledgeable and welcoming specialiy miguel in repairs was very detailed and informative while always providing excellent customer service. read more

I had the best experience this past week at this guitar center. The team did everything in there power to solve my issues and answer all of my questions. Dillon and Evan if I am not mistaken as well as the whole sound department were excellent. I called earlier that day because I had an issue with my software/interface and I urgently needed it to be fixed. I spent hours looking for answer online and couldn't so I called guitar center. They tried everything in there power from letting me know what adapters I needed to how my software was set up and I still couldn't get it to work. They let me take me laptop,interface,guitar.. basically my whole setup and helped me for hours in between customers and I couldn't be happier.Dillon solved the issue from software to headphones not working. I mean this team is amazing! Even after that he took time to show me some reverb pedals. I genuinely had a great experience thank you again. Because of their efforts I probably won't ever shop at another guitar center Pasadena is my favorite! Thank You Guitar center team! read more

Ok here it goes my little bad adventure with this store. First of all let me explain why I gave them 2 Yelp stars. It turned out at the end of my little adventure here, that I was able to get a really great deal, but hey slow down, don't misunderstand, I specify "at the end"!... Ok it's all started in September 2010, when I decided to buy a new drumset. Of course I did previously a lot of research on internet, for price, sizes, and Brands. Then, at last I also checked on GC website, and the drumset I wanted was available in Stock, (following the CG website). So I showed up in the store and a young guy, named Daniel, seems at first very helpfull. So here was the deal; After asking Him repeatedly to check if for real the drumset was actually in stock and available, Daniel assure me that everything was in stock. I got Ddrum acoustic set (the John Bohnam set, 26" bass drums, 14"tom, 16" and 18" floor tom), hardware pack, 2 Ddrums Octabons, Drum cases etc etc etc... At the end I decided to do a financing with CG for a total of almost $3000. Coool I thought, I was very happy cos I've been told by Daniel that in no more than 15/20 days I will receive everything. I went back home super excited dreaming about my bad ass drumset!. 2 weeks later I placed my order, I received a phone call from guess who?....Daniel telling me "Hey Dude just calling you to let you know your kit is ON THE WAY!!!" F!?& Yeah I thought that's very cool.... Slooooooow down!.... The week after another phone call from CG number, and I thought before answer..."here is my kit!!!!" But unfortunately was Daniel on the other side, telling me "Hey dude I have a bad news...." I swear the phone conversation started that way... I just want to remind you this was happening at the beginnig of October, after I already started tho pay monthly my drumset, and here continue in this way "Sorry Marco, I called our storage and they said your kit is discontinue, and it wont be available until the December the 27th"...WTF!!!...wasn't the kit in stock, and didn't I ask him repeatedly to check if it was available. After a "sorry there's nothing I can do for you, other than refund the amount"...I was pissed off totally!!!... But after I calm down, I ask him to ensure that the kit will be arrive at the end of Dec. Daniel told me that He called personally Ddrum to make sure the drums will be delivered on that date. Of course I specify with Him to keep all the rest of my order, case, hardware etc, in his storage until everything I ordered will arrive. "sure no problem", Daniel reply. Infact I received I phone call after few days, was Daniel telling me my drum cases were arrived...so I reply to him " ok then keep them until the rest is coming". In the meantime I received other phone call from Him, basically everytime something was coming in He wanted to call me...which I thought, "Ok cool, He's taking care of everything"...my F!"$£ bad mistake believe in that!!!... I basically went a couple of time in the store to pick up random parts from my order, and I also received at last, the first Box from my drumset, a Tom and a snare drums... And we arrive almost at the end of December, period in which the rest of my drumset was supposed to come in... Then a week before Christmas, I thought " Hey I haven't heard anything from GC, let me check my order status" Here we go the non funny part... I called in and here we go Daniel reply to me "Ok I haven't received nothing for you yet, but Hey let me call our warehouse, to check your order status..." 15 minutes later a phone call from Daniel shocked me!...."Hey Marco, I'm so sorry but I have a bad news, your drumset is not available anymore, Ddrum stopped to make this drumset a YEAR AGO!!!!!!!!!!.... WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????? In the meantime I already paid off half of the kit without having a drumkit!!!!! I was shocked cos "Hey don't worry" He said " we're going to refund you what you have already paid off"..."Fuck You dude" I said to him " Of course you're going to refund me those fucking money, but WTF, you told me at first the kit was available, and it wasn't, I waited 3 Fucking month, paid off more than half, and now you're telling me Ddrums doesn't even make this kit anymore....you Fucking liar!!!!!" I went BERZEKER!!! "YOu fucking lie to me just for getting good commission from my order, and without even really check if everything was in stock, plus you're not giving me alternative option other than a fucking refund!!!!, after waiting for 3 months!!!!!!!, and you sound YOU DON't GIVE a DAMN THING ABOUT IT!" So I decided to return my stuff...I went to the store and neither Daniel or the Drum Dept manager were in the store... I was lucky enough to deal with Jonsy the guit dept ass manager, who didn't know shit about drums, but He gave me a great deal on the "Jason Bohnam Ludwig limit edition". I got it for $1300 instead of $2999...at the end I was finally happy! read more

I have had good customer service at this GC. I came in with a used amp that I had shipped to me from another GC. It wasn't working. They took 3 minutes to verify this and cheerfully replaced it with an identical used amp. On another occasion, I came in hoping to purchase a tiny allen wrench to adjust the bridge on my Telecaster. All they had for sale was a huge set of allen wrenches. I told the salesman I only needed the little one, and he told me he could give me one of those for free, which he did. The place is very busy and can be difficult to get a salesman's attention, but I have found them to be helpful. read more

I've been going there for over a year and still, the positive is that the sales people don't bombard me at the door. Great selection, however, it's clear that its a party store, since the manager's desk always has beer on it!!!!! No wonder, I've always had to hunt down a sales person...... read more

I went to this store after having a very bad experience with the one in sunset. I was fortunate i had Moises to help me with every aspect of my purchase. Totally satisfied it was quick i had my speakers and mixer in my van in no time. Thank You Moises for returning my call and answering all of my questions you saved me a trip see you soon GC Pasadena. read more

Great service, went to get a pa system and the person that helped me was very nice attentive and great customer service

Really drab attempt to assist customers, staff seemed sad and angry. Overpriced equipment is another fault that brings the GC down to a 2 stars. read more

I see a lot of negative reviews on this Guitar Center, but I can honestly say that my family and I had a great experience the day we shopped. We made an unplanned stop at the Pasadena location on Black Friday. The staff from the Pro Audio dept. was helpful and attentive. We bought a Yamaha digital piano at a good price and the store manager helped us negotiate with the Hollywood store to get the wood finish we wanted and to obtain some accessories. Our phone calls were returned within 24 hrs. C'mon - how often does that happen?! Thanks, Guitar Center and JR, for such good customer service. read more

1. Was looking for a harmonica holder. Asked the salesperson if they carried them, he had no idea what it was. 2. Had a question about a product. Could find no one on the floor. Finally found a sales person at the cash register, but he was busy cruising CraigsList for other job opportunities (can you blame him?) so was unable to help me. 3. Was looking for mandolin strings. The sales person only know where the guitar strings were, didn't seems to be aware of this "mandolin" instrument. 4. Called the store and asked to be put through to the keyboard department. Phone rang 30 times, no answer. Guitar Center is universally know for piss poor customer service. Their target customers are not musicians, but parents who are buying beginner instruments for their kids. Buy online, patronize your local mom and pop music store (do they still exist?) or if you must, go to Sam Ash. read more

Gotta love Pasadena, You could play their guitars try their amps, buy strings, PLAY THAT AWESOME 12 String Guitar in the acoustic room in the back, Look at the awesome drumming equipment and if your lucky get to try it out , And the Poo-bah record store is in the front, great place to hang out read more

Went here to sell five pieces of used gear. Got a fair price and the staff was super super friendly and helpful. Would def recommend.

Loyal customer to never return again. My son went in to sell his guitar, looking to purchase another. I'd say we've purchased 4 to 5 in the last few years. If you know the price of a guitar, we've spent a significant amount of money. After waiting over 2 hours they offered him $120. My son said he didn't feel that was a fair price and asked for his guitar back. "sorry u sold it". Talk about chicken shit, there is NO WAY they would of pulled that on an anyone else. I feel they took advantage of my son, who is 18. Yes, he may have said I want to sell this guitar rather than can I have an estimate. Even if that was the case, I feel had I or anyone else been there the guitar would of been returned. A manager who was approached said no return of guitar but would offer 50% off a purchase. I'm not posting to protect my son, he obviously went in and chose the wrong wording. Who hasn't done that?! He didn't return next say and say "i changed my mind". It all took place within the same time frame of 2 HOURS OF WAITING ON ESTIMATE. I just find it shame that this is how business was done and took advantage of a customer. read more

Recently, my dad experienced the worst service at Guitar Center, located in Pasadena, CA. He got a new guitar (Martin D-42) at Guitar Center about four years ago. Since then, the edge of the guitar body was fallen off a little bit, and he had repairs done twice (once at Martin and once at Guitar Center). And it happened again recently, so he went to Guitar Center in Pasadena on 11/2/17 (ref. no. 12528973) to get a repair, and when he went back to get it back, he found that there was a stain (from taping, not just on the outside of the body but seemed like it was smeared inside the wood already) and scratches on the body of the guitar. He could figure out that it was because the technician put a tape on the body while gluing/putting back the edge, which was fallen off, and after he noticed of the stain, it seemed like he tried to erase/clean the stain, which caused scratches while the stain still lasts. My dad complained, and the technician (we don't know his name) acknowledged their mistake and told my dad that he will try to erase it again, but my dad was afraid of more scratches that it may get and refused. At that time, the manager, named Scott, came to them, but his attitude was so rude and mean, and even aggressive. He asked my dad, "so what do you want? and my dad said, "I just want it as it was before," which he meant by without a stain and scratches, but Scott spoke him back, "so do you want the edge off as it was before? I can do that for you." This is not something that we expected to experience at Guitar Center. It's not like a small store in a small city. It sounded like Scott didn't care about the name value of the company he's working for. I don't understand how such a big company/service center can treat their customers like this. My parents don't speak English well, so they couldn't fight him back and just went back home without getting anything but hurt and a stained/scratched guitar, but when I heard about the experience that they had, I couldn't just bear with it. I will do whatever I can do to get the guitar repaired or exchanged, so the Guitar Center should do whatever they can do too. read more

if you have a pulse and a desire to make peoples lives miserable, guitar center is for you. i have never been around so many people that dont have a clue. i went to this location in search of a price for a cymbal. i wanted a sabian 18" HH Suspended cymbal. the bro in the drum department looks at me as if i had just asked him to milk a gorilla for its sperm. he had no idea what i was asking him to do. i told him exactly what i wanted again and what it is used for. he claws away at the computer and tells me it doesnt exist. FUCK YOU it doesnt exist! if its one thing i know, its cymbals..... and this shit exists! i grab on of the catalogs from the cymbal wall and show it to the ape behind the counter. after watching him struggle to read it, i just pointed to the shiny picture. he does some more super high tech computer work and tells me that it has been discontinued. LIAR! sabian NEVER discontinues a cymbal. i gave up and left. the employee was completely incompetent and unable to fill a simple request. NEVER go here unless you know EXACTLY what you want and its on the floor. talking to an employee is a death sentence. the first thing you see upon entering is a bunch of "hard core" people that are covered in tattoos shredding on shitty guitars turned all the way up. FUCK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i started a mosh pit and went nuts. knocked over a display case and cut myself pretty badly. BEST DAY EVER! CAPS LOCK! read more