Been going to Collar City Guitars since they opened. It's great to have a music store of this…read morequality on Troy. Peter and staff are very helpful, honest and do good work. It's great to see the evolution of the gear they have, a great selection of instruments and gear. Highly recommend, you can't go wrong.

FANTASTIC little shop in Troy. Lots of different types of gear. We came in looking for EarthQuaker…read moreDevices pedals and were not disappointed. (Tho, sadly, they did not have a Spires, which is the one I am still looking for.) We were able to try several pedals. My partner has been seriously looking for a looping pedal for as long as I've known her, so we saw that they had a few, and they were gracious enough to set them up for us to try (even the Electro-Harmonix one that they said was not very intuitive (Guess which one we ended up with.) They were VERY friendly, but at the same time did not hover over us. They let us spend about an hour playing with different pedals, talked about the shop, and guitars, and loopers, several customers came in and out, and all three of the guys behind the counter worked on some repairs. (They are a very repair centric shop.) The layout is a bit tight, but it's cozy. They have comfy seating, and really nice displays. It feels crowded, and it is, but it's in that... Clean and homey sort of way. They don't have a HUGE selection... It is not going to be an experience like guitar center. But it's going to give you that caring and dedicated local shop experience. And that's so much better. The prices were GOOD. (The looper ended up being cheaper than Amazon.) He even gave us each a EarthQuaker Devices sticker. (Before we even bought anything.) These guys are an Earthquaker licensed shop, too, so if you're looking for those pedals, this is a place to go.

Just bought a digital piano (Roland F107) from Hilton Music store in Colonie Center and could not…read morebe more pleased! As a total piano novice and with limited space in my house, I wanted something compact but with full functionality - 88 key weighted keyboard, etc., and this fit the bill perfectly. Owner Bob Hilton worked with me and was terrific - pleasant, knowledgeable, and not pushy. We asked about delivery and turns out he lives not far from us so he delivered it himself on his way home that very same evening! Also very impressed with the sturdiness of the "console" that comes with the keyboard. I have it free-standing in a room (not enough wall space) and was concerned that my rambunctious cats would jump on it and knock it over - no worries after putting it together with the cover closed over the keyboard.

Occasionally we buy things here…read more There was a set of drum sticks. Some sheet music. We even bought a ukulele once. But mostly, we come here to browse. My son is really into music, but even more into music shops. And the staff at Hilton has been marvelous about encouraging his interest. Perhaps his favorite thing to do is sit down at the electric guitar pedal board and experiment with different pedals and settings. Should he ever want to pursue lessons, I might send him here for that too. It's certainly convenient. I'll also be bringing my own guitar there for new strings soon. Speaking of which, I found out that on Tuesday, August 11, Hilton is having "Restring Day" starting at 6pm. That means free strings. It's unlikely I'll be able to make it. But it's just another cool thing about the small mall music shop that could.

I worked with Eric to surprise my husband and get his guitar restrung and serviced. Everyone was…read moresuper nice and my husband was thrilled with the workmanship. Would highly recommend them!

This place has outstanding service. Everyone that I've had the pleasure of dealing with here has…read morebeen incredibly knowledgeable and seems to be willing to go to any lengths to help me. The instruments here are also beautiful and make me wish I could play all of them.

Everything you need in one place!! Lessons, instruments and supplies, repairs and recording and…read moremastering!! Scott Apicelli has done a great service to the community and for keeping music alive!

I met the owner when I wandered in looking for sheet music. Had such a nice time I ended up buying…read morethree instruments! We also brought three instruments donated to a music scholarship I was working on. They took the time to estimate the value and what each instrument needed. No charge. Will always go to them from now on - even though it's about an hour north of us.

What a fantastic experience! I recently purchased a Gibson SG Standard - Cardinal Red Burst from…read morethem and I could not be happier. The entire process was flawless. I had a number of questions prior to the purchase, and I posted them in the website's chat feature. The responses were quick, clear, and concise. I pulled the trigger on the guitar and the communication continued to be fantastic every step of the way. The guitar arrived EXACTLY as they had described. I could not be happier. I most definitely recommend these guys!!!

What a great place to buy an instrument. No pushy people, just nice folks that are super helpful…read more I have purchased several guitars here and have not been disappointed at all.

I highly recommend avoiding the Guitar Center for lessons. Their system is designed make it…read moredifficult to get all the lessons you pay for. I wanted to take the summer off but still have make up lessons I was owed. They use automatic deduction for payment and refuse to refund any money claiming that they can't once the money has been taken from your account. So I was charged for four more lessons than I wanted but here's the thing - once you are no longer allowing automatic deductions they remove you from the schedule. Pretty difficult to get the make up lessons you may be owed if you're not on the schedule. I spoke to the manager about this and he personally scheduled a make up lesson for me for yesterday. I showed on time only to be told the teacher wasn't there and I wasn't on the schedule. Then he tried to blame the lessons manager. Another interesting thing that happened was that once I was no longer doing automatic deductions the teacher canceled twice. She had not canceled once since I started in September. Avoid this place for lessons.

Low rating is for the corporation. This GC location itself is good. The people that work there are…read moreunderpaid and asked to do an awful lot. But they still are pretty cool people who genuinely care about instruments and want to help you. They're really cool. I like to sometimes bring nice guitars in to them that I have no intention of trading in. I do it just so that the employees can take a few minutes free break just to jam on a nice guitar. But the GC corporation itself just grows and grows taking on more and more debt that they're not planning on repaying. They're just gonna use bankruptcy protection and will have wiped out all the small stores in the meanwhile. If you're in the albany/saratoga area take your business to Parkway Music in Clifton Park instead. It's a small business but their facility and inventory makes GC look crappy. But these folks that work at this GC are pretty cool, as is their management that I know of anyway.

Great Shop! Whether for new or used instruments or browsing through a great selection of Vynals,…read morethis is the musician and music lovers place to be! Larry is always very kind and extremely knowledgeable. I couldn't give this shop enough starts

I would recommend over any other music shop in the area!!! Great deals and a super friendly…read moreenvironment

Classes are a little more expensive than other toddler classes but Matt has great experience and…read morebrings lots of enthusiasm. It takes about 3 classes for kids to warm up but my child really enjoys, singing and dancing. Its a great introduction to rhythm, melody, ethnic and heritage songs and different meters. Their favorite part of class is when Matt dumps out a big pile of instruments for them to explore. The class is a little loud and overstimulating for me as an adult at times but I really enjoy doing this with them. This will be our 3rd session. I also appreciate Matts laid back deamenor and flexibility. Sometimes my kid is acting up but Matt will dance with them or work to include them in the class more.