Ward-Brodt Music — Local services in Fitchburg

This place is NOT what it used to be! The last couple of times I visited, the stock had diminished to the point where I could not find what should have been fairly common musical items. They have a lot of little musical gifts and trinkets, but I've quit stopping there for any serious musical purchases--they most likely won't have what I need in the store. I direct a musical ensemble, and one of the features I used to like was the ability to look at their musical selections and purchase them on-site, so I could carry them home and use them in rehearsal. This is no longer the case--they have only one copy of each selection; I can look at it if I want, but then I have to let Ward-Brodt order it, and then, since I live an hour away from Madison, I have to pay extra for them to ship it to me. This is all nonsense! I can do the same thing online. If Ward-Brodt can't compete with Internet sites, they should close up shop. And I have to agree with Jesse--the staff there are rude, snotty, and unduly self-righteous when explaining how we are to buy music from them. Michael C. Faulhaber's response to Jesse's review is typical, in his arrogant defense of his unspeakably rude staff--he's right and you're wrong, folks, and he's doing you a favor by being in business, so you're not allowed to complain about them. It's the same sort of pigheaded self-righteousness I'm getting used to from too many Madison businesses lately. I'll do my shopping online, thanks--I can do it better, faster, and with none of the nose-in-the-air rudeness of the sales staff I encounter at Ward-Brodt. And Michael C. Faulhauber can keep defending his arrogant sales staff, right up to the moment he goes out...

Below is my original review, which I am now Revising. I am also changing from 5 stars to 3. . I sold my vintage cornet privately for a good price, however when the buyer arrived we found it did not have the correct mouthpiece. Quite embarrassing. I had already reduced the price by $1k, and in good faith dropped it another $500 since the buyer had traveled hundreds of miles to pick it up

How can an instrument be appraised properly if it is not intact? How was this not found during the appraisal? I don’t play the horn. I would’ve had no way of knowing if this were the right mouthpiece and counted on the professionals to appraise its condition.

A week later, I called the company to discuss this with the manager. The phone number on the appraisal sheet itself was out of order. Also a little unprofessional. The manager assured me he would get back to me. It is now been over a week. This is my dad‘s instrument that he played for decades, and it meant something to me on a sentimental level. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to have sold it so cheaply because of An oversight by professionals I trusted. The lack of accountability just adds insult to injury

————————————— Quick, professional, cleaning of my vintage instrument, along with an appraisal at a reasonable...

Rating is based on ordering only. Will not receive delivery until school begins. Would like to give 5 stars but there were two separate lists of recommended accessories that were suggested by the music instructor that had some inconsistencies. In some instances the items were the same but brands and prices were different. There were also a couple minor items that were only available on the secondary list (separate from the instrument rental page) so we had to order them separately as there was no apparent way to consolidate into one checkout cart. Just anecdotally, we noticed that delivery fees for those two small items totalling less that six dollars to be shipped locally ranged from around $6 for 7 day delivery to $103.00 for three day delivery. How is that even possible?? Thankfully delivery to the school is free, so we didn't need to pay for any shipping, and I'll give the benefit of the doubt that the website probably just had an error in the calculation formula. Anyway, it would have been nice to have just one centralized list to pick from, but bottom line is that it was still pretty easy to get an instrument lined up for the upcoming...