Bach 'N Rock Music — Local services in Astoria

So I’ve gotta respect what this guy is trying for. It’s a great idea and it seems like he’s sort of surrounding himself with all of the things he loves; Music, musical instruments, plants, coffee, a bird, a happy sleepy dog. Anyways the shop could be amazing but,, oh god it is not. The smell of mildew in this shop is the strongest I’ve ever experienced. Bare in mind when I visited I had a cold so I was already a little low on olfactory sense but the smell was so strong it made me light-headed. I’m not talking like musty attic smell, I mean something more like if you found a baseball mitt in your grandfathers attic put you’re face in the hole and breathed deeply. I think the smell may have partially been the bird as there cages can often smell pretty strong which is something that could be corrected with a good amount of air flow. There’s a lot of music mostly classical and jazz but it’s there if you could stand the smell to search through it. I can’t speak to the quality of music as I didn’t look for long. I know the rock and roll vinyls I looked at were all sort of un sought after bands. He had a few good albums on his wall but they looked like really recent pressings that you could find at Best Buy. The jazz and classical sections were much larger but all along the floor in boxes. I really think if this guy did something about the smell and got some air moving. Maybe did some re-organizing this could be just the most fantastic record shop. But as strong of a constitution as I have I could not stand to be in the shop for more than...

When I first called this shop-summer 2024- Tim sounded incredibly confident that he could overhaul my professional solid silver open holed Gemeinhardt Flute (with B footjoint). It played perfectly but needed new pads and had never had an overall-I bought it new in 1998. He did polish it up, replace the pads with professional ones and got the dings and dents out for 500$. When I went to pick it up nothing below the middle notes would even play. He tightened a few things here and there while I waited (and kept handing it back for me to try because he cannot play it). I still paid him, and took it home hoping the pads would seat better with time. I had to bring it back to him twice more (after paying another tech $100 out of Vernonia to say the pads needed to be redone) and he did keep it and try to make it work. I understand he is able to repair brass instruments, but he does not play the flute at all. He was super nice in offering to keep trying, but I decided to take my flute to yet a third technician. The specialist in Portland explained that none of the pads were seated correctly, deemed it unplayable and it had to be redone completely for another $500. I did go back and talk to Tim, and he did offer a store credit. He has a large sign saying that there are no refunds for any repairs. His shop by the way smells like Nag Champa incense which I love! I gave an extra star as he is compassionate with his animal rescue—and his profits go to that—wanted to end on a...

To preface this I will say I came in looking for media, not instruments or instrument repair, so this could be a stellar place if that's what you're looking for. However my experience was not great. The owner seemed annoyed by our presence (which I usually don't really care about, I've worked plenty of customer service jobs and everyone has their days) but everything was bafflingly expensive while nothing about the selection was cool or unique, all stuff you would find at a Goodwill, and on top of that it was all locked up (I live in Portland and they don't even do that with the rare stuff at record stores. I promise you no one in Astoria is trying to steal a used copy of Family Guy Season 5 on DVD...) The place felt creepy and dismal and smelled like a decrepit, mildewy pet store. I didn't even notice there was a live bird in there until my girlfriend pointed it out, and I felt uneasy and gross after leaving and looking at all the reviews mentioning the sad caged cat (which I didn't see). We bought two jazz cassette tapes (they have an extensive collection, which initially was exciting because we love cassettes, but the pickings were slim) which were unpriced and we thought "Hey, they can't be that expensive, right? They're cassettes!". Well, they ended up being upwards of 20 bucks. And the first one broke immediately when we played it. I'd say this place is a hard pass if you're coming...