UpFront Guitars and Music LLC — Local services in Bellingham

1. They don’t anticipate your needs. I brought my acoustic in for a setup. Without asking me, they dropped the action as low as possible. They didn’t think to ask me how I liked my action in the first place. This resulted in several more trips to the store to get the action back to where it was originally. I brought in another guitar to have pots replaced. They bill me for the work, and tell me the new pots weren’t as long as the old ones and they’re hanging on by a few threads, and I may want to get extended-shaft pots. Why I didn’t get a phone call on this is beyond my comprehension.

2. They presume to know more than you. I asked to have linear pots in my electric. They argued with me, didn’t understand why I wanted linear pots, and suggested I go with the audio taper pots they have in store. I tried to be amenable, but after having linear pots for over a decade, I couldn’t adapt to audio taper pots. I went back to have them install the linear pots, and to install new pickups at the same time. This way they wouldn’t have to open up the guitar twice. Later that week I went to get the guitar, they forgot to install the linear pots. I had to come back the next day to get the guitar.

3. They aren’t skilled woodworkers. I brought an electric in to have new locking tuners installed. After ordering one incompatible set per their recommendation, we went with the brand that they stock. Communication was spotty, so I went down to check in a few times - incomplete. They finally finished the job and I retrieved the guitar. I brought it home and discovered a large lacquer crack stemming from the tuner holes. Then, I brought it to their attention, they subtly avoided accountability, and told me that if I was that concerned about the aesthetics they would bring it to their finish guy. So, the psychology here is - they damage my instrument, they avoid telling me what happened, then they make it seem like it’s not important to fix unless I decide to be overly concerned about aesthetics. It puts me in the position of having to plead for a solution to a problem they negligently created.

4. They aren’t adept at installing aftermarket parts. I had them install a tremsetter on my Strat. Had to go back twice, and it ultimately didn’t not work. They could not figure it out. They recommended a tremel-no instead. They installed it incorrectly the first time, but got it right the second time. I like the tremsetter better, but I’m stuck with the tremel-no until I can find somebody to replace it. I’ll probably go to my previous luthier.

5. They seem overwhelmed or absentminded. The last straw was this week. I brought in a new guitar to have the pickups, pots, and switch replaced. I brought the guitar home after the installation, the pickup came loose - they stripped the screw hole on the body where the pickup mounts. I go back the next day to have them fix it. At first, they wanted to bore the metal screw hole of the pickup and put in a larger screw of a different color and paint it black to match the others. I said no to that. Then, they decided to use some wood and glue and use the same screw. During that process, they scuffed the pickup. This was a brand new $200 pickup that they took out of the box. They told me they can have their finish guy make it look like new. Well, the finish guy must get a lot of work from this place. Along with that, they dinged the body, the tone knob is loose, and the tremolo bar is damaged. They simply didn’t understand how my guitar functions, and they didn’t care to investigate at all.

6. They lack accountability. They don’t tell you when they damaged your instruments, And if you bring the damages to their attention, they become defensive and condescending. They are remarkably unwilling to admit fault, and even more unwilling to resolve your issues. Everything's an argument or an opportunity for them to showcase their generic knowledge about guitars. It’s exhausting trying to get what you want from them.

I will never...

UpFront Guitars is a FANTASTIC store, easily one of my favorites in the area (and I go all over MA to check out guitar stores). Great service, knowledgeable team members, and an excellent selection of less common guitars and accessories. There's stuff in here for all price ranges and they have all the basics covered, but it's really the only store in Massachusetts worth going to for certain unique brands (such as the new line of Harmony guitars, Emerson wiring stuff, or Solo Dallas and JAM pedals). The staff here know their stuff, and they really seem to WANT to talk about it with you; we guitar players know it can be really fun to talk gear, but it's just a bummer when there's an undercurrent of salesmanship going on. None of that here! These folks are just plain passionate about the products they keep in stock, and all of my experiences at UpFront have been better than the chain stores because of the curated selection of products and their general approach to doing business. It really feels more like just talking to another musician about cool gear, and that's a rare thing in music stores these days.

I bought a pedal from UpFront guitars that turned out not to work well with my rig; no fault of the pedal, it just didn't do the same thing with my guitar and amp as it did with the equipment I had used to test it in the store. It happens, right? Well the team here really went ABOVE AND BEYOND to help me exchange it, since they knew I was coming from kind of far away. They stayed open on New Year's Eve long enough for me to complete the exchange, and even took the time to help me figure out what would work better! I ended up leaving with a Solo Dallas Storm and I've been absolutely loving it (check it out if you're playing a strat or tele through a tweed-style amp and you're looking for a booster/compressor type thing that stays articulate). And there were a few other things I needed to figure out during that visit, I was totally being an annoying customer. These guys were so patient, and didn't rush me at all even though it would have been well within reason to do so. This experience was what moved me to write a review, as I think extra effort deserves a shout-out!

If you're looking for support from a knowledgeable team to help you pick out the product that will really work for you, or want to talk gear with cool people that would rather have a real conversation than try to sell you something, or simply need that unique piece of equipment that you'll never see in a big chain store, you owe it to yourself to pay UpFront...

Great guitar dealer. I bought a guitar that I’ve been wanting for a few months but there’s an eighteen month lag time because they’re made one at a time. I just sent them a message to ask if the guitar they had was played by curious plinkers who embarrassingly will plug in and turn the amp up too loud and make me very angry when I’m in a guitar dealer….anyway they answered the question and without me asking gave me a great deal that I couldn’t turn down.

The shipping company, OOPS made the guitar arrival late, but other than that the buying experience was awesome. They even tracked down why I hadn’t seen any movement on the tracking number in two days. My next purchase will be from them, maybe a G&L ASAT special or another Les Paul if they sell them. But knowing that a dealer can give me a price other than msrp on a brand new guitar, and having never gotten a deal like that from the Indiana megastore, I’m using these guys again.

They even set it up (I tweaked it some) and new strings for free. The Indiana place charges extra for that. I have no beef with them, but Gordon and Eric provide every bit as good of customer service as they do. I cringe to think about how much money I could’ve saved by buying from Upfront to begin with. I buy expensive guitars, so any bit of savings would have helped me explain to my wife why I gave so much for (to her) a piece of wood with strings on it.

TBH, my wife doesn’t ask and doesn’t care, but if she did… anyway I hope these guys are taken care of because they’re a small business that’s up against (now) two music companies (one is great, one is so-so) in a very limited market. If this review doesn’t convince you that you can absolutely trust these hardworking guys, just hit em up on their website or on reverb. They’re very friendly and quick to respond to questions and know what they’re selling. I know i will...