Hubbard's Music-N-More — Local services in Las Cruces

Im an out of towner coming from a small town an hour and half away, dropped my guitar off several weeks ago for a set up because it hadnt been worked on in some time and needed some electronics repaired. The first thing (which didnt bother me at the time, until i started noticing things wrong with the guitar) was i was told it would be done in a week, called in a week, told it would be another week, waited 2 weeks and called them and lo and behold it was finally just then ready for me to pick up. Happy i finally had my guitar back and wanting to get the hour and a half ride back over with, i plugged it in and made sure it played (theyre pros right so if it makes noise they did everything right) once home i noticed the first problem, the nut, they didnt bother to shape the top or the sides to fit the neck width so there's excess material hanging off the sides and the strings are too deep, the slots were filed at sloppy angles as well and there were ribbons of material hanging from the front of the slots from the file work which would have been removed if the nut had been properly shaped on the top. The next thing was my middle pickup wasnt even threaded to the screw on the treble side, figured this out when i brushed it with my finger and it dropped into the pickgaurd. Lastly while remounting the pickgaurd they stripped the some screw holes in the body so that the holes are now oversized and the scews wont grip. All in all theres poor reliability and half measure shoddy work coming out of their shop. Needless to say they wont be getting any more of...

2 experiences with this business; first was VERY positive, which led to this, the second...

Asked Service "department" for routine string change of a guitar. Since I was not in a rush for return, the tech stated he would perform some additional maintenence on the instrument. Several weeks later I was informed by the same tech that he damaged the guitar during this work, that it was "partially playable". I inquired as to what remedy I would receive for the damage incurred. Initially, I was offered a possible discount on another guitar; at the time, they were negotiating with the owner for possible consignment. I have waited over a month for further contact about this situation to no avail. Hence, the negative review.

In summary: Hubbard's received a 100% functional guitar in good working order; a simple string change was all that was requested from me Hubbard's damaged the instrument beyond the scope of being fully playable, which they stated would require me to pay to have the instrument restored to the condition I BROUGHT TO THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE To date (28 April 21) Hubbard's has not compensated me in any manner for my loss nor contacted me for a reasonable solution I have incurred a loss in the several hundred dollar range, far beyond the cost of a "routine string change"

BTW the instrument in question is an Ovation 12-string - not a 'junk' piece - I purchased as a birthday gift for my son a few years ago; it is (was) a gift which bore...

I've bought 2 guitars and some other things at Hubbard's. The folks there are friendly and happy to answer questions. I bought a carbon fiber guitar there and they happily matched the price I saw on the internet (saved me $400!). The second time I bought a guitar there, a different carbon fiber model, they threw in a free $30 capo (a real nice one).

The guitar selection isn't very large: they don't carry Taylor, Gibson, and many other guitar manufacturers. They do sell Seagull, Rainsong, Godin, Fender, Larrivee, and I'm pretty sure I've seen Sigma and an occasional Epiphone there as well. I'm pretty sure they didn't carry Martin, but not 100% (can't remember seeing any Martins there).

The service portion of the shop is very busy. Too busy, in fact. The guy doing the work does good work, but he's swamped. I took an old classical guitar to have it restrung (I could never do the fancy nylon stringing) and it took him 2 weeks. So if you have a real guitar issue, it'll take a lot longer than that.

There's also other sections in the store. They sell drums, basses, ukes, some weirdo looking stringed instruments (maybe they are just there for conversation). The store is very disorganized though and stronly resembles a store room.

The best guitar shop in Las Cruces by a...