I've purchased three violins from Jeff. He is very knowledgeable, and the prices are very reasonable.

Jeff has worked on two of my old basses. One was a valuable old Italian bass that had previously been restored in New York. It had a number of cracks, and he fixed them several years ago and they have stayed rock solid. He replaced my tail piece after trying several ones to see what worked best on my bass. He did a great setup, perfect sound post placement. More recently I brought an estate 120 year old bass that he dressed the fingerboard, installed a new adjustable bridge, end pin, tail piece, adjusted the nut. The results were the best fingerboard setup I've ever had. My action can be as low as I dare with no buzzing. What impressed me is unlike any other setups, it was very easy to play all the way up the neck into the thumb positions. Jeff's prices were very reasonable. He is a bass player himself and is well known. I know of one bass shop in the Bay area that takes their shipments of Chinese basses to him to do their setups. While I can't personally vouch for his work on violins, he certainly has a lot of business on the smaller string instruments and I've seen only happy violin customers. I watched when he was selling a violin to a man looking to upgrade his violin. He never pushed him in any direction, the customer had to love an instrument to buy it. It's a pleasure to recommend Jeff Sahs Violin shop. Quality, Integrity, Musicianship at a very reasonable price. Bob Comarow read more

I used to have my violin bow rehaired by Ifshins. Now that I am in the Sacramento area, my violin bow needed another rehair. Jeff Sahs was recommended to me and I could not be happier. Jeff was very approachable and straight forward to talk with. I first contacted him by the phone and I could not have asked for a better in person experience. Jeff was thorough with what exactly was wrong with my bow and was very clear about the cost for the rehair. I picked up my violin bow at the agreed time and day and Jeff gave the bow a nice clean and quick, but careful last inspection before giving my the invoice receipt and wishing me well. Overall, I highly recommend Jeff Sahs. read more

Fast, friendly and nutritious! Brought my Steinberger upright bass for slot work for new string gauges. No need to go to the Bay, he's right here in Sac. read more

Jeff Sahs Violins - Electric upright bass - Musical Instruments & Teachers Near Me - Sacramento, California

This guy is seriously the best in town!!! Visiting his shop was like stepping into papa Geppetto's studio with each violin being his Pinocchio! He takes meticulous care of each and is so wise. Great selection of violins to choose from as well. read more

I dropped of a '63 Kay M-3 (1/4 Sized) Upright bass, that needed some significant work done. He created a new nut, shaped a new bridge, shaped/planed the bowed fretboard and even removed some spray-painted letters from the body, without destroying the finish. The bass sounded/played bad before it got there with 2 virtually dead sounding strings. After all the work and a new set of Helicoil strings, the thing sounds and plays great!! This was all done for an 8yo to learn to play jazz, so the price was a concern. His goal was to get the playability for the least amount of investment. He went above and beyond that, and even made my daughter a keepsake with the fretboard shavings:-) Thanks for going the extra mile Jeff! read more

Jeff took great care of me. Planed the fingerboard and setup my 1/4upright and had it done in less than 2 days. The price was more than fair. Absolutely recommend... read more

The first time I went to Jeff was when I was looking into buying a bow. I felt very comfortable trying the different bows and didn't feel pressured to leave too soon. At that visit I didn't think I would walk out of there with a bow, but I did and it was significantly less money than I thought I was going to be spending! He was also really flexible with payment and let me send him a check as I didn't realize that he only took cash or check. The second time I visited his shop was to get the bow I purchased from him rehaired. This wasn't quite as pleasant of a visit. When I dropped the bow off it was a typical visit. He inspected my bow and made suggestions on other maintenance related things I should look into having done on my bow. I asked him when he thought he would be done with my bow and the estimate he gave me was about a week and he said that he would call me when he was done with my bow. A week passed by and there was no call. I got very worried as I had just started my last semester as a violin major and I really needed a good quality bow! I decided to give it an extra day since I could tell when I went in that the shop was busy, but even after that, no call. When I called him he wasn't there so I left a voice message. He called back later stating that my bow was done and was ready to be picked up. After I picked up my bow and got a good chance to look at it, I noticed that the hair was too short for the stick and was VERY worried because that can cause damage to the stick. After having my violin professor and a strings teacher I was student teaching with look at it as well and asking for their suggestions, I called him letting him know what was happening with the bow he recently rehaired and asked him for suggestions on if there was anything I could try at home or if I needed to take it back to him to look at it. I made it very clear that I wasn't trying to insult his work, but I understood that the time of year I got it rehaired (winter) might have affected the result of my rehaired bow. He gave me a suggestion to try at home that really helped and I wouldn't have even known to do! Basically it turned out that the hair was dehydrated and he gave me a tip to take a dab of water and put it on the side of the hair that faces the stick (the unrosined side). It hydrated the hair and helped it stretch out. It all turned out good in the end, but I didn't like that I had to call him to see if my bow was ready. Something I noticed from both visits was that he needs to work on his communication skills. The first time I went, he didn't mention that when I arrived that I needed to call him on the phone to let him know I was there. I was ringing the front doorbell for a good 30 minutes. Overall, he sells great quality products and he definitely knows his stuff about repairs! He's also reasonably priced. The reason why I gave him 4 stars instead of 5 was because of the communication issues. read more