Music Go Round Minnetonka — Local services in Minnetonka

I was "Guitar Hunting" online for a somewhat specific guitar. I wanted to find a Jackson X-Series Soloist body painted "Rocket Red". I found them online at several places like Amazon and Sweetwater. I found many at stores and even pawn shops but nothing was locally available new. If I was going to spend nearly $800.oo for a guitar I definitely wanted to see it in person. I didn't want to drive to Kentucky from Minnesota to do so. After spending a great deal of time "Hunting" I had all but resigned myself to having to purchase it online. If anyone has ever had a bad experience with a guitar delivery you completely understand the frustration involved. I could only hope the delivery was not akin to Ace Ventura pet detective kicking and throwing the box around. Thus taking an otherwise beautiful instrument and turning it into a multi piece kindling kit for my backyard fire pit. Well, on with the review. I took my wife and son out to eat at a barbecue rib restaurant.(review coming soon) It was Sunday late in the day but I searched their inventory. Seemingly like a gift from the Heavens they had exactly what I was looking for as well as being $200.oo less expensive than everyone else. The store closed about an hour from that point and well, though it took a little convincing with my wife and son, i did after all just buy them both a $200.oo dinner. Needless to say I liked my chances of them agreeing to a trip to a guitar store. Though I wish I had pictures of the store on that day I do not. So sorry for that. I will have to describe it the best I can. Walking 🚶‍♂️ in the store I could see it was very clean. They are a bit short of square footage for their retail space but they make it work very well. Everything was organized and shelved great. I was greeted with a big smile from a young man sporting a green mohawk. He introduced himself as Joey. I asked about the Jackson and he walked me upstairs right to the guitar. "Why is it so much less than everyone else"? Apparently it was considered a factor flawed unit. They still have the factory warranty. The guitar was brand new. It had no case but the store sold many different cases both hard and soft gig bags. I felt the fret ends, the neck, looked over the body and looked very closely at the Floyd Rose Special bridge. It was time to play this pretty 😍 Lady. I asked Joey if he played. This guitar is designed and built for Raw squealing, pinched harmonics metal burning excitement. We then chose an amplifier to play through. I plugged into a used CRATE 2X12" solid state amp that was definitely used. I asked Joey if he would play as i am not a "Shredder" and he definitely was. Joey's ability and the sounds he produced sold me after about 4 seconds. I was absolutely taken with this young man's customer service also his ability on a guitar. I told him we would take the guitar and the amplifier. We carried it downstairs and I asked about a case. He threw in a nice thick gig bag, some picks and a set of strings for free. Well done Joey. 5 ☆ customer service. That was my first experience with that store. I later met a young man named Dominic. He was the stores luthier. I must have stopped in that store 3 times a week from that point forth. I had all my guitars setup and worked on by either Joey or Dominic (Dom) is what his friends call him. I live approximately 1400 miles from that store now. If I have a question or want to see what is involved with mailing a guitar to my new address they are the only ones I trust. There are no egos from the staff. They are honest and have treated me with respect. Most conversation was like speaking with family not a salesman. They are genuinely happy to see me and I am happy to see them. I am not sure how much I have spent at this store but evey penny was worth it. I believe I have purchased about 6 electric guitars, 2 amplifiers a Peavey the other was the CRATE. I also purchased a Crate 4X12 cabinet to plug a matching head unit i found at a different retailer. I stay in contact with them and check the inventory online...

Waited a week or two to post this because I was pretty livid at the time. Objectively, here we go:

After waiting saving and waiting patiently for the right guitar to pop up locally, it showed up on their website. Came in to check it out, went to the back of the store where all the guitars are located, everything checked out. Great. As I came back to the front, store employee as well as another patron were conversing without masks and the patron didn't even have a visible mask even through there's a pretty easy to read sign on the front door saying they are required. Totally unacceptable when we're almost a year into a pandemic - I ended up walking right out of the store and decided that I will take my business elsewhere.

Masking isn't political, it's for the safety of both people working and people shopping and I don't want to end up getting sick when things could have been prevented. As soon as your actions start interfering with people's right to live healthy lives, we have a real problem.

Support local non-chain...

I won't ever take an instrument there again. My guitar was not ready on the day promised. When I called to ask what time I could pick it up, the tech said that there was another instrument before mine, but he would do mine first as a favor. Shortly after, the tech called me back and asked me to remind him again what my instructions were regarding what needed to be done. About a half hour later he left a message saying my instrument was done. Clearly, the tech hastily did the work without any attention to detail. If he had, it would not have taken less than a half hour to look it over carefully, fix issues and do adjustments, and then clean and set it up properly. The instrument had been there for a week. Lesson learned. I'm going to pick it up now. I could have changed my strings myself. That's...