I came in to look at electronic drum kits as a newer drummer. Steven L was so patient and showed me several models while also multitasking effortlessly with other customer needs, yet always returning to pick up right where we left off. We're still gathering info on drum sets, but highly recommend the attentive service and quality of products on display to try out. read more

They were awesome. The gal helping me was super helpful even though the store was pretty busy. I love guitar center in general. So many amazing guitars that you can just grab and play. I would actuality love to have free run of the place for 30-60 minutes so no one could hear me playing. That would be better than Disneyland. read more

Guitar Center - Just picked up this Strat there. Pro 2 HSS. It's no Gibson but I do love it. - Guitar Stores Near Me - Tacoma, Washington

GUITAR CENTER is my favorite store. Over the last few years I spent a good chunk of change, and the people working there were the reason. THey have always looked out for me, helped me with decisions and worked for an outcome that was mutually beneficial. Two fenders, 2 Taylors, a martin and a les paul, great mixer and PA's, they have always stood behind their products and supported me. read more

Dan was very knowledgeable helped me purchase a gorgeous guitar for my son. He went out of his way to ensure all needs were met and it was shipped safely and quickly. Super helpful and professional! read more

My grandson and I walked in with a question about Our cello, we purchased the cello case from guitar center and though cellos are not their main focus we thought we could ask a question. WELL From the door we received great service Lots of information and an enormous amount of help Every interactions was kind and informative We will return for guitar lessons for both of us read more

The issues have been corrected, just found another great deal. Customer service is much better and the entire staff seems capable and attentive to assistance. read more

Experience of buying many instruments and gear there. Just bought a fractal audio axe effects from there. Only had it a couple years. Volume started cutting out the other day. Now I can't get sound out of it. I did but it used. It wsnt really cheap. If your going to sell people shit gear, at least let them get a free jar of Vaseline with their purchase so they know they're getting fucked. Have a nice day read more

Nick was amazing. He help me answer all questions about karaoke systems and microphones options. He recommended me without not pushing me to buy. Had a great learning experience. read more

This guitar center is special imo. I've gotten lessons here and bought music equipment and everybody is dope. Every teacher I've had is an insane musician. Their skill level inspires me to become better and that's why I keep coming back. read more

Went here to buy a Microphone and received very good customer service. I did not get the employee name but he showed me all the different microphones they had, what I was looking for in particular like if I was using it for gaming, podcasting, singing and I walked out spending less money than planned with a microphone that works amazing! It was a blue yeti. Thanks Tacoma Guitar Center for your help! read more

In all the years I've been to Guitar Center (mostly the Tukwila and Tacoma locations) I have NEVER had a bad experience with any of the employees there. So why there are so many bad reviews for Guitar Center, I really don't understand... That quick rant out of the way... I want to focus my review on the guitar tech at this specific location. About a year ago I brought in my '89 Strat because there was an issue with the pick up switch... their tech (Ron) quickly checked it out, and (without asking for any payment mind you) completely fixed the issue for me! I did however, end up paying him do a complete set up on it, and no joke, it felt and sounded like a brand new guitar when he was done! Needless to say, I was VERY happy with the work he did on it, and when I needed some work done on a Les Paul of mine, I didn't think twice about who to bring it to. Once again, he did a FANTASTIC job, and if I ever need help with another guitar, I will most assuredly bring it to him. Thank you Ron for your expertise and friendliness, and thank you everyone else at Guitar Center who has always been super awesome, y'all are doing an amazing job :) read more

Is it normal to train staff to outright lie about anything and everything? 1. Your guitars on the showroom floor are not new, most of them are abused and damaged. You cannot sell them as new. It's part of their scam to pawn off damaged goods on consumers in hopes that if returned, it will end up at another store and no longer be their problem. 3 employees from 2 locations told me this is normal operations. 2. I was told that I would have to pay extra for a case/bag on a brand new Gibson. Funny, that every single new Gibson comes with a case or bag. It's built into the price. Right there in the description of every single one as it has been for a few decades now. 3. The manager Bo is very deceitful. Extremely so. Every word out of his mouth was a laughable lie. He doesn't have a clue about guitars, but thinks he's going to get away with BS'ing someone to their face about Gibsons who just got done telling him that they own hundreds of them. What kind of person does that? 4. Manager told me that if I ordered a new guitar online that he would be shipping me their floor model; a severely damaged one, since they're the closest to me. I would then be required to pay return shipping if I wasn't okay with that. Absolutely insane. 5. It's against the law in this state to smoke next to a business entrance, but the manager is chain smoking away at the entrance every single time I have seen them there when visiting. You'd think common sense would prevail, but doing this during a pandemic is absolute ignorance on a whole other level. 6. They lie about the condition of their merchandise, lie about it's price, lie about what's included, lie about pretty much anything so they can hear their own voice. I'm an expert and a top 1% collector, don't lie to me. You come off deceitful and foolish. That's why I didn't leave with that Les Paul this passed weekend. Literally it. I have more guitars hanging on the walls in my bathrooms than this store has in it's entirety. I'm not hurting. 7. Finally, and sorry for the rant, but corporate needs to know that on no level whatsoever is it okay for a manager to abuse, demean, gaslight or threaten jobs of staff for not doing anything wrong except in the eyes of the perceived ignorance of a wannabe laughable dictator manager named Bo who needs to learn how to wash his hands before handling mutlithousand dollar instruments after smoking five cigarettes in a row. Really thinking it's Bo that needs to go. read more

I went today to spend more than a thousand in a apollo twin x interface and just left after this bald guy super low energy treated me like so bad that i felt the hate and tiredness that he has to life and other people and i just asked a question ? You guys should fire him super bad customer service. read more

The team dosent seem to know what they are doing. I was atempting to sell my used amp head, they were going to test it to verify it worked and plugged the output of my amp into the output of a combo amp. My amp didn't survive. They were then no longer interested in buying my amp after they blew it. Lesson learned, don't let them set it up to test, they'll blow it. Do it yourself. read more

I can't tell you how much I love and appreciate the experience we received from Ron. He is top notch. Greeted my father by name for his guitar tuning appointment. Offered him a seat immediately (dad's handicap is a new thing we are working with so this just made it that much more comfortable for all of us) Ron and him are evidently from the same neighborhood in California.. they got to talk about mutual music interest from when they were younger. Ron tuned his guitars to perfection and I enjoyed his test playing / jams... and I can tell dad absolutely loves this as a trip out of the house. Something that finally brings him a bit of normalcy in the world during some challenging times. Anyway, I very much appreciated the visit. Thanks Ron read more

Young man named Dom helped me find and purchase a keyboard -- needed it for a particular sound and sometimes when you go in knowing what you need people try to talk you out of it or talk to you as if you don't know stuff-- this guy was the opposite. Knowledgeable when I needed it, personable, seriously should get a major raise if he's always like this! read more

Their hours said they were open until 10pm for holiday shopping. This was in google, their business page, and their FB page. When I called earlier in the day they confirmed these hours. I arrived at 8:45pm and they were completely locked up. Not even open tell the normal closing time of 9. Unreliable. read more

Had a good time here, was treated, with respect the entire time, I didn't catch the name of the gentlemen who helped me, but simply based on the proffesionalism, I will return. Got all the answers I wanted and than some. Great knowledgable team that are clear and concise when it comes to answering questions and helping out clients like myself out. read more

I should have just left. But I had just driven 60 miles to go here and just didn't feel like it. I recently went shopping here with the intent of buying a drum kit. I'd already did a lot of research since I'm not a drummer. I was in the drum department for a while and nobody was there. There were 2 adjacent rooms with glass doors and drum kits inside, so I went into one of them and began checking out the kit. A few minutes later, an employee (who ended up being the store manager) walks in with a stunned look on his face and said "you need to get out of this room" as in "you need to get out of this room or I'm calling the police". He was really rattled that I was banging away on some drums in a practice room. There were no signs saying that the area was closed. Wow. I'm from LA and went to several GC's over the years. All of them have practice rooms. I've always used these rooms, in fact it was encouraged. From that point I tried to make the best of the visit since I did live an hour away. So I asked "is it pretty common for people to change the heads after they buy a kit? His response, "yep... you'll just keep spending more and more money, it's endless". Mmmm, sarcasm. WTF, I'm trying to get a conversation going and all he had was sarcasm. The conversation improved a little bit, he did play a couple kits so I could hear the difference between the materials, but I think the negative start was just too much for him. He continued to be agitated. Never gained composure. That's it folks! GC is off my radar. I'm not spending any money where you are made to feel like an intruder. I can't believe I have to say this, but I need to feel safe inside of a retail outlet. A note to cooperate, teach your staff at the minimum to _not be_ so socially stunted. Being treated like you have criminal intent when you are shopping? Completely unacceptable. I used to think that the idea of buying an instrument online would be impossible, but no more. Free delivery, free returns, lowest prices, little time, no miles. Oh, but guitarcenter.com? No way. (Yes, this is my first review on Yelp, but this review is genuine. I've had this yelp account for years but have never used it to write a review. This negative experience was just so over the top I couldn't let it pass. Hopefully I won't be writing another one for a long long time.) read more

I Go here now and than never bought a guitar or amp mostly buy strings, picks a few stands, cables and straps never had a problem

Walked in to buy a pedal, but had some questions. Took me forever to get someone over because all of the employees were standing aroubd chatting and drinking coffee and obviously too busy jokung around to help. Finally, got a kid over and he couldnt really answer questions and just totally walked away mid coversation. Then, I had to chase someone else down, and I assume he was the manager. Literally could not care about previous employee's behavior. I wanted to test the pedal, so he hooked it up. No assistance when it wasnt giving output. So then I opened up the battery case. The battery was not plugged in and still in plastic. Honestly, no one wanted to sell anything in this store. I even started looking at guitars, but decided to take my $600 over to Ted Brown instead. Will not be surprised when this place closes because of the recession because they will have deserved it at that point for ther lack of cs. read more

Over the last 20 years or so, I've experienced just a little of the nonsense that some people complain about at GC (one guy did not have a clue what he was talking about, and another guy lied to my face about something), but overall, their people in Seattle, Tukwilla, and Tacoma have been just fine. However, recently I've had reason to give huge shout-outs to Beau, Dee, and Kenny at Tacoma GC. They went out of their way to help my son and I with a warranty issue that was messed up at their pro coverage center. Very polite, thorough, and helpful. While I honestly would rather buy gear from locally owned stores, their great customer service means I'll definitely be going back. Their repair guy (sorry - forgot your name!) is also really helpful. Knows his stuff. read more

Update, nice cookie cutter response...further proof guitar center does not care about their customers. I will never shop here again and that's all I have to say about that read more

Bought a Brand NEW native instruments S49 MK2 keyboard from guitar center, they tacked on some silly restocking fee, (Apparently for my purchase only, not for all NI keyboards or company wide) and the keyboard had a faulty pot/knob out of the box, so they wanted me to pay $80 to EXCHANGE it !!!! I've liked guitar center pro audio and spent thousands, Pete (rest his soul) was a great guy as well as a few others currently employed. However, the guy i just talked to sounded like a automated phone system in person. I will not be purchasing anything else from here. I've never had a company treat me like this. read more

ZERO score. THIS STORE IS A SCAM. DO NOT PUT MONEY DOWN FOR ITEMS ON HOLD. My husband put money down on layaway to buy our daughter a guitar for birthday. Its reqiured for store policy to hole dor 30 days all items purchased by store to resell. He went to pick up the day its was available and they told him it was sold.No apology no compensation. We suspect an employee purchased item and blatantly ignored the deposit put down. Soooo unethical!!! So effort to make ammends. My husband was so disheartened he just got his deposit and left..... GUITAR CENTER, YOU ARE NOT A BANK! YOU DO NOT GET TO TAKE PEOPLES HARD EARNED MONEY AND SPEND IT HOWEVER YOU CHOOSE. EGREGIOUS... read more

I never review anything.. but I wasn't born yesterday and would advise anyone going to meet with Ron to have work done on your guitar be fair warned. He's quite crooked in my opinion and a liar as well. Here's what happened.. and I will keep it short: I brought in an old Alvarez guitar to have work done on it and told Ron I needed the action set lower, he responds with, "That's just $10". Great! I said, "Let's do it." After her started tweaking the neck and bringing the action down, I mentioned that I might as well put on new strings. He said, "Yeah, I can do that. $10 for the neck adjustment, and $15 more for the restring. $25 total." Of course, I said, "Let's do it." I browsed around the store a little and Ron came up to me to let me know he was done. I paid the $25 and left. When I got home the action was not adjusted at all! I'm incredibly busy with work and get maybe 1 day off a week. So, I went in a few days later and asked if Ron could adjust my neck since the action is still so unplayable. He said, "Yeah, I can do that for $75." $75? Seriously? To loosen the strings up and turn the damn truss rod a few times? I had a guitar tech in California named Dave that owned Damage Inc. This guy was a real guitar tech. For $45 he would restring, set the action on your neck, do a complete TUNE UP, take away any string buzz, wipe your neck down in lemon oil, and have that baby sparkling when you arrived to pick her up. I just felt dirty after leaving for the second time. I'm always respectful and kind to people, even when they do this $hi^ to me. I usually brush it off and move on. But this time I felt I better voice my experience on here to warn anyone else wanting to deal with Ron. Also, I lied when I said I would keep it short. Thanks for reading. read more

I had never been to a Guitar Center until recently. Unfortunately, they were the only place in town which stocked gaffers tape. The first employee I ask informs me they don't sell it. I inform him I called fifteen minutes ago and they said it was in stock. He begrudgingly looks it up and sends us back to "Pro Audio" My friend and I go back and pay forty dollars for our two rolls of tape. Lovely. However, this isn't my beef with Guitar Center. We're checked out relatively quickly by a begrudging employee who immediately tries to leave and help a customer eying some more expensive items. When our receipt doesn't print, he hands us off to one of apparently many assistant mangers to get us the receipt which I need to be reimbursed by work. None of them seem to have a clue what they're doing. Let's fast forward forty minutes, several customer service calls, and a severe lack of sincere apologies later. We're walking out with our bag and freshly printed receipt IN HAND. Mind you, we have two rolls of TAPE. This prick at the door stops us, inspecting our bag and receipt, holding us up for another few minutes. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE??? Ridiculous. I will never EVER go back here. read more

Hey, Lara here and I'm writing this review because I was pretty impressed with this particular Guitar Center in Tacoma and I would recommend going there even if it means driving a few extra miles like I did to get the kind of service they provided for me. Ron who set up two of my electric guitars had both of them done within an hour while a sweet young lady named Serenity gave me a tour of they're teaching facilities and spent time answering questions I had about some of they're musical gear and other name brand products as I waited for my guitars to get done. I'm very happy about how they are playing now! I can play through at least 10 songs or more without having to tune them every time I'm done with one and these guitars are not top of the line expensive ones. I had to get shorter scale guitars because of a shoulder injury and I need them to be lighter because the weight of a bigger guitar is just to hard on my lower back so Ron customized them to my liking and I couldn't be happier with the excellent job he did! I will be going back there on a regular basis for all of my guitar needs, and I live in SeaTac 22 miles away but it is gonna be worth it to me and I hope for you too!! read more

Here is just one of many retarded experiences at Guitar center. Employee: hey man you wanna buy a DW kit today for $4500 Me: Nope but I am looking for a Sabian 20" medium AA ride Employee: We don't have that but we do have a Sabian 21" AA rock ride Me: I don't want a Sabian 21"AA rock ride Employee: What about a Sabian 20" pro sonix ride Me: Look, I am looking for a Sabian 20" medium AA ride Employee: We can order one and it'll be here by next week. Me: No thanks, I'll go somewhere else. The only good part of GC is that they always have the drumheads and sticks I normally use. From now on I'll go elsewhere for my gear, there are a million other online places to order from. read more

I have a Fender Catalina acoustic guitar. I love this guitar... It's simple, it looks pretty, and it sounds great! I play as often as my fingers will let me, as I find it therapeutic like many other people. A few Weeks ago, I noticed a buzz on the high E string. The action has always been high on it, so I thought I was just not getting a good contact between my finger and guitar. But as time went on, it got worse. I started poking around on the inter-webs looking for guitar repair. Ron's Facebook pager was the first thing to come up. He had two reviews there, both of them good, so I sent him a Facebook message. He responded the next day, he was courteous, polite and straight forward. He told me that a setup would likely fix the problem. That's when I learned that her works out of guitar center, but he's been doing this for a long time. I dropped the guitar off on Tuesday, and due to my circumstances I could not pick it back up until Friday. The setup was $65 + tax... And I had the option of bringing replacement strings, or buying them in store (which obviously brings the cost up). When I got her back and played her again.... The sound was a hundred times better. I could tell the bridge had been adjusted, the action was much lower, and the tone was much deeper and crisp. Ron gave my baby her voice back... And I'm grateful. I definitley recommend his services! read more

Update to my review of Guitar Center. I turns out that the drum set WAS in the store after all. The problem as explained to me was that the store had not entered the kits into their inventory system and thus the sales people could not see them. And apparently they are not able or can't visually check. Problem has been resolved on my part but with today's technology and the expectations of consumers Guitar Center needs to ramp up their game. Mike M read more

"How's it going bro?" Not very well. This place is a complete joke even by guitar center standards. Tried to buy a bass cabinet but was informed that it was already sold even though it was sitting on the sales floor with a price tag. WTF? I then tried to buy another item but was tools it couldn't be released for another week. This visit was ridiculous. I've never been to a store with so many items on display I couldn't purchase. Save yourself the trouble and avoid these clowns if you can read more

Just needed a set of strings ordered online for curbside pickup. Hours after money taken still no response, no strings. Clerk at store refused to give customer merchandise that had been paid for in full. Customer since 2005, will never return. Total fail in just the most basic level of elementary commerce: currency for goods and services. read more

Went it to pick up accessories for a new guitar player and was helped promptly. Staff was knowledgeable, courteous and professional. Dan was super helpful in the lesson department outlining the different options available. Would recommend and will be back. Not always a fan of supporting big box stores but there are exceptions once in a while read more

Great inventory of guitars, looks nice in the wall when you walk into this place. That's about all that impresses me. Just another example of big corporate mentality. Every time I go there for strings or other parts, the staff treat me like a shoplifter. They are good at keeping an eye on some people that are looking around, but horrible at customer service. There always seems to be an unwillingness with customer service, and even a lack of knowledge from some of the counter staff. They obviously spend more money on advertisements, with the flyers I always receive in the mail....than they do on hiring friendly, knowledgeable staff. The price on parts, comes with a high mark up....on inferior, cheap products (potentiometers, caps, three way switches). I'm sure if you're in the market to spend 1500.00-2,000.00 on a Les Paul....they'll come running, but if you are poor....they won't give you the time of day. Fail. read more

I've had overall pretty good experiences at GC Tacoma. I've bought a bass, some studio monitors, as well as little odds and ends here and had my guitars set up by Ron several times, and while I do often just stop in a see what new stuff they have, for the most part everyone there is polite and nice to chat with. I would like to give a shout out to Ron (the guitar tech) and Dave, both of which have helped me numerous times and have both been great to business with. Although there have been other guys here at the store who've helped me in the past, I forget their names at the moment so I can't thank them publicly. Ron's done an amazing job at setting up all my guitars, and always gets them done literally next-day. If you're looking for a professional dude to make sure your gear is in great shape, don't hesitate to come here to have your stuff setup or repaired. read more

I would have like to have bought a guitar today, but the cocky gear-head customer service rep was too busy telling me how awful my trade-in was. I would have been ok if he just left it at "we can't take this guitar", but the lecture was a bit much. In the world of Amazon and EBay, Guitar Center stores should find some dudes with people skills, preferably even losing the dudes altogether. read more

Was searching for something kinda random...for use in a medical research project...walked in and was impressed by people trying out numerous guitars - playing far too well to be amateurs. Within a few minutes I was approached and helped by a young but very knowledgeable individual. Had what I needed in a few minutes and then started talking about microphone technology... wish I had more reason to hang out at Guitar Center. read more

Horrible customer service. Employee just disappeared while looking for cable. Seemed annoyed I wasn't familiar with common lengths of wires for speakers. Guess I missed that day of essential life's skills class. When I asked him if he found any he scoffed and said we don't carry that size cable. Oh....so you just disappeared instead of informing your customer of options. Fine by me, Amazon is 1/3 ,the price. read more

When I initially walked in, no one said a thing, not even a greeting. You could tell I was looking for something. I had called earlier. I read the signs and made my way to speaker system. I wasn't a big spender, but $200 is a good piece of change and some customer service would've been nice. I actually had to walk up to the guys conversing about heavy metal to get help. once there, the person helping me was helpful. He found 1 of 2 of the items. this box was open and I was apprehensive. He found the other, but it too was just taped when he brought it to me. How I know, is that the tape was loose and initial packaging always uses super tape. Anyway, I got it, he offered to help carry the system out. I did it, but other than lack of customer help initially, it was a good experience. Sorry others had a bad experience. The folks here are young, people skills in this generation are all through videogames and texting, so social skills is 0-3 on a scale of 0-10, the nature of the beast. read more