They also advertise on Reverb.com. I offered to buy a guitar full price (less shipping). Drome…read morelisted the guitar for more than the street price it sold for new in 2015! They wanted $80 to ship?! Really!? Monster Music in NY ships for free! Guy at Drome told me they would get a proper shipping estimate. They let my Reverb offer expired. I didn't hear back from them. So I put in another offer, they rejected it almost right away. I sent them a PM message, that I wasn't happy. I called them on the phone and the guy said he was too busy and he was a little rude. Bad customer service people. No one wants to hear excuses you obviously had time to reject my offer! There are literally thousands of guitars on Reverb. You can find great deals for almost anything. Don't buy from brick and mortar stores they are outdated, lack selection, overcharge and sell new crappy guitars. Find a dealer on Reverb that has a return policy. Use USPS it's $30-$40 to ship a guitar. UPS and Fedex are the worse companies, porch thieves love them cause they dump and run. Bad music stores pass those high costs on to you and don't care. This doesn't make brick and mortar stores competitive. FedEx and UPS are in SERIOUS financial trouble for a reason. If you are a dealer and you use them, you will also suffer or continue ripping off customers by charging high shipping.

This place is amazing it has everything that you're looking for. If you are a music buff and you…read moreabsolutely love music than this is the store you want to go to. If you need anything for any type of musical instrument chances are they have it here. The customer service that is here is very friendly and they go above and beyond when they are talking with you to make sure that you have exactly what you were looking for. They have certain people that are in charge of certain areas, it's like their specialty areas and their knowledge is overwhelming. The reason why I dropped it down one star is because parking is a little strange you don't park in front of the building you park beside the building but there's two entrances and the one entrance goes in front of the building and if there's somebody who happen to be in front of the building you get stuck and you have to wait for that person to move that would be the only downside. Other than that this place is phenomenal. I would recommend this place for any music lover. Thanks for listening.

I had my daughter's violin service by Frank. He was professional, timely, experienced, and helpful…read more I would most certainly utilize this violin shop again.

I recently purchased a new violin from Frank Marchitto. The entire experience was quite…read morepleasurable. I gave him a price range and I was given the opportunity to try violins until I found one that suited me. After having it for a few days I needed an adjustment and Frank was very accommodating with an appointment. I found him to be very friendly and knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. I would definitely go back again. Barb H

Will performed at our wedding with En-ting and they were phenomenal!!!! He was so kind throughout…read morethe process, was involved just the right amount in our planning, was extremely patient and professional, and was just all around amazing. On the day of the wedding we did not need to do anything - he took care of everything and delivered a perfect performance with his violinist. We are so pleased and so happy that Will and En-ting were a part of our wedding.

Fantastic, approachable teacher. He is very flexible with scheduling…read more I really relearned the cello as my own friend.

In my fairly long experience, there are only two types of music stores…read more Type A, you walk in and you're looked at like you're a perp. If you look like you might even start thinking about taking an instrument down from the walls, you'll get a lecture about not touching the merchandise and a series of inquiries about whether you're a serious buyer or not. The staff may be knowledgeable, but they'll talk to you as if you're a mentally-challenged space alien who has never heard of a major chord or a scale and is need of being spoken to like a slow-witted dog. The prices are fixed, as if Moses had passed them down on an extra set of tablets from the mountain top, and any discussion of same is an apostasy that will quickly get you invited to get serious or get out. Type B, you walk in and the staff are already playing something. They check to see if you need help but will leave you alone to look if you say you're just looking. If you have a passing question about something, instead of answering it they'll pull down an instrument, give you a demonstration, and ask you to try it out. They'll talk to you frankly about the best place to buy X, Y, or Z and may point out the good features of what they have but are trying to match you up to whatever it is you need or are at the right stage for. They love music, maybe just a bit too much, but they love musicians even more, and they really love aspiring musicians. Hermie's is firmly in the Type B camp, and are going to be Cool about just about everything you can imagine. They know the scene, the area, the schools, the teachers, the bands, and they know their stuff. Prices are going to vary quite a bit, like they do at any instrument-oriented store, but as a working musician's place this is incredibly friendly towards the amateur and the student. The staff took time today to show my young musician a bunch of things he hadn't seen before on the guitar and lit a fire on inspiration in him. Honestly, I can't tell you whether you will get a good deal on X or Y here, relative to all the good deals in the universe. It's a small store, and they have more at the Albany location. It's a bit out of the way on the Jay walk in downtown Schenectady. But I've seen so many ***ho*es in the music business over the year I know by now how to tell what's what with the stores. Hermie's is good people.

I called Hermies with a single outrageous question "Would you be able to fit me in for a single…read moremusic lesson today?" I travel full time. I had one day in Schenectady. My boyfriend had taken his bass guitar on the road when he learned I had played cello as a kid. "It's really similar" he said. But I found myself unable to remember anything from playing music. 3 years of cello, a few months of trombone & piano, and 12 years of choir...but my brain seemed as good as having never done anything musical. Larry answered the phone and was both welcoming and confident that he could give me enough info to get me started. "Stop by anytime before 8pm". Around 2pm, I entered the shop and Larry greeted me just as warmly as on the phone. He checked out my travel bass & tuned it for me. I watched as his fingers whirled around the strings moving from fret to fret. I heard a little voice say "there's no way you're going to be able to do this again". I felt lost. Larry handed me the bass & walked me through a set of scales. I fumbled and hit the wrong string, or both strings at once, but I made it through. I went forward and then backward through the scales. It was awkward, but I did it. We'd chat a moment, he'd teach me something else about the bass, and like a good instructor "show me your scales again" and I would run through them forward & backward again. For fun, he taught me the bass line for Louie Louie. How can you not get tickled playing Louie Louie? That lesson was what I needed to get started and believe maybe I "can" learn this instrument. The previous review raved about Hermies. I'm a fan too. This is a must stop if you are thinking of picking up any instrument. Violin, Guitar, Cello, Bass, Flute or Sax. This is the place to go!

Remember the little music stores from way back? You remember, the ones that carried real…read moreinstruments and real music and were run by real people who knew classical music? Helpful folks who would look things up for you and special order stuff? This is one of those places! Heaven.

Stopped in, picked up a few items (hard to find pickups, old DJ cart). Small shop, great owners…read more There were a couple guitars I liked as well as some electronic pieces that were interesting. On the way home, will stop in again to Pickup something from the window. Maybe look through the cases again. Yes, if you're a gear head you should take a look.

My daughter has been taking piano for 2 years and she has been enjoying the lessons. The teachers…read moreare very kind and helpful. This place is in good location and the price is fair. I reccomend this place to start your kids if they wanna learn to play an instrument!!

Rick was very friendly and helpful. My daughter's bracelet that was engraved with my parents…read morehandwriting broke in half. This bracelet was extremely special to her as my parents have passed away. I figured it wasn't going to be able to be repaired but Rick was able to duplicate the writing on another bracelet and helped to get just the right fit. We have definitely found our go-to Jeweler going forward. Highly recommend!

Simply put, RJ Stohr Jewelers excels. Several weeks ago, I was in town visiting family, and my…read morecladdagh ring broke. On a recommendation, I brought it to Stohr for the repair. While there, we also asked them to take a 36" strand of pearls which my wife inherited from her mother and make two 18" strands for our granddaughters. Frankly, I was surprised at the prices of the pearls and the repair. Fast forward a few weeks and we were back in town and brought in several pieces for cleaning and repairs. Yeah, these folks are so good at what they do, and so reasonable in their pricing that we now save our jewelry issues for RJ Stohr Jewelers. I'd like to think, of all their customers, we travel the furthest to do business with them. But, given how good they are and how well they treat their customers, I'm sure they have many long-distance customer relationships. Keep up the good work, Rick, Ben, Norm, and everyone at RJ Stohr Jewelers!