The Starving Musician - Santa Cruz — Local services in Santa Cruz

To Max and the great professionals of Starving Musicians in Santa Cruz that had a great price on an Alhambra made in Spain, Flamenco Guitar, that I had to have. As that among all other types of guitars produces the sound that is authentically Flamenco.

I called fist thing in the morning to discuss making the purchase and picking it up before someone else took advantage of the sale price. Max put it aside and as I was having issues over the site it was posted on and had to purchase it at. I was having to trouble shoot making it work and somehow was not working. Time was running out and so I left to Santa Cruz and got there with an hour before closing, I brought a couple gifts for the shop and met Max. Sometimes what you imagine over the phone and what you see when you arrive are so different than what you imagine. Max had the look of a Spanish Conquistador and a Luther extrodinair. He showed me the guitar and he even knew how to play Flamenco. The whole team there gave me their attention and good vibes as Still I was having a problem with my card. Under pressure I had to make this all work and leave with the guitar, so I called American Express and had a great Agent that walked through every step to get my card to function. It was involved and the minutes from the phone dying and the store closing was about 10 minutes and finally it went through and it all came to fruition. I just want to say Thank You to all the guys at the Starving Musician that had a hand in making me feel at home and patiently let me work it all out and the relief the transaction went through and that I didn't have to spend the night at their homes and try it all again the next day. I went to Foster Freeze and got the biggest burger and with my new Flamenco Guitar made my way home. That was a great...

About a year ago, I bought a short-scale electric guitar from FB Marketplace. I could tell something was off with the intonation; the bottom three strings sounded weird whenever I played barre chords.

I took the guitar to Sylvan Music and the now-closed Guitar Shop on Soquel. Both places looked at it and said they needed to do a full setup from scratch. Lots of money!

Next, I went to the Starving Musician. Max took the guitar to see what I meant, played it for about 15 seconds, and said, "Man, there's nothing wrong with this guitar."

I went home and realized he was right. The problem was all in how I was playing barre chords on a short-scale guitar. It was a bad habit I picked up from a harder-to-play acoustic guitar, where I was unintentionally bending the lower three strings too much. When someone played it the way it was supposed to be played, there was no problem. The other "luthiers" at Sylvan and the Santa Cruz Guitar Shop couldn't see that? I doubt it!

Ever since that day, I've only gone to the Starving Musician whenever I want to buy a guitar. Honestly I couldn't buy a guitar from them yet, but lots of strings and...

Staff needs more professionalism in this place. Went to sell a brand new high quality USB microphone straight out the box, used it once & the worker was disrespectful telling me the rubber knobs are gooey and gross while wiping his hands like some uptight chick that never touched a door handle before & then telling me I should send it back to the manufacturer. Does this guy even know anything about music equipment? Dude, your store buys USED equipment in all sorts of conditions & there is far worse going on behind those used mic screens, cables, tote bags, speaker material, & wooden guitar panels that you buy, rather than some usual knob build up that can easily be cleaned with rubbing alcohol or do you just sit on your butt all day while the equipment shines itself??? Yeah, look out for staff that don't smile when you walk-in. There's a saying, "a man with no smile should not...