Musician's Friend

Excellent website for all your musical needs. Great stock and great deals. I have ordered several times and never really experienced a problem. I have had to make a refund once but it was no problem at all. I returned the item and I received a full refund back onto my account. Though I recommend this site to everyone they're are just a couple of things to be wary of. The customer service is good but the sales reps are not as informational as Musician's Friend claim to be about particular products. Also, and this only happened once, I bought a guitar and was expecting the one that was in the picture but when I had received the guitar it was something different. Though that was partly my fault for not thouroughly reading all the item contents and description and just basing my decision on the picture, I still didn't like the fact the used a higher end model to display and lower end guitar which in the end was still very satisfactory. Other than that I have had nothing but a great experience with this site. Happy buying.

I can endorse what the other reviewers have written, Musicians Friend has been a reliable provider for most of the time. On one occasion, though, I'd ordered an instrument as a birthday present and it didn't turn up at all. When I called, I was told that Musician's Friend didn't have it in stock and had no idea why they'd accepted payment for it and not told me that it was unavailable. I did get a prompt refund, but it still left me with no present to give and naturally I was unhappy about it. That was maybe one transaction out of half a dozen, though, so I can put it down to chance and just knock a star off the rating for it.

Although it's great to be able to save money, I will add that the company is big enough and popular enough to undercut smaller businesses, sometimes quite drastically. And that's a pity. So I'm inclined to say that if you really can afford to pay a bit more - not to be overcharged, just pay a bit more - then you might at least consider supporting a local business that doesn't have the advantage of a mail-order company's buying power.

But if you're just starting out and need to put the gear together for a band, this has to be the first place to look for a good deal. Then in a year or two when the band folds up and you have to sell the gear again, the local business will probably get it anyway. Maybe what goes around comes around.

I ordered a PA system that was "backordered" so I was fully prepared for additional wait time. A couple of weeks after order was placed, I received notice that my system was shipped. That's when the trouble started. ABF Freight (another terrible company to stay away from) was chosen by MF to deliver the system to my home. ABF scheduled two appointments wherein Musician's Friend never showed up and I had to call them to ask what happened. They said the driver should have called both times because the system was not on the truck. They then "located" my system in their warehouse and attempted to deliver it. It arrived with ripped, damaged packing, broken and missing equipment. I rejected the order, attempted to contact MF but have heard nothing from this terrible company for the last week! Stay away! I have pictures of the damaged boxes but this site will not upload them.

I ordered a guitar on cyber monday, and the one color i chose is the only one not it stock, so Musician's Friend tell me "it will ship on 16th and arrive the 23rd for Christmas". The 16th came and went and on the 17th i look into it only to find it hadnt shipped yet. I call and only then was i told it was back ordered to jan3rd. I waited for them i would have been screwed for a christmas gift, Gabby the representative tries to tell me its because i have a different ship address than my billing address ( its a gift and i didn't want it to arrive when i want home). Then she goes to talk to the manger, i look on the site and the guitar is in fact in stock and ready to ship, as an appeasement the manager offers a discount and free 2 day shipping ( which temporarily made me happy). Next issue it doesn't arrive in 2 days. I l call and they say we sent it, so its Ups PROBLEM NOW. Turns out they sent it out past the deadline to make the Air plane that day, so UPS decided it would be OK for a guitar to ride in a cold truck in 12 degree weather for 6 days and deliver it whenever without contacting musician friend or Me. I told UPS if it arrives and is damaged from being in cold weather for so long, they will be replacing it. I will not buy from them again, they dont appear to care about making lasting customers, too bad because i know a lot of musicians and i will make sure i steer them away... so upset with Musician's Friend and UPS...

After screwing up my Christmas present (the only one my son was getting) and shipping HALF of a desk, Musician's Friend then told me the only way I was going to get the desk now was to send them back their screw up, pay more money to get another desk shipped that would get there well after Christmas, and then some day they would refund my money for the original purchase.

After I shipped them their junk, they refunded part of my payment and then proceeded to ignore my emails. I had to open a case against them via PayPal to get my money back. I promised that if I didn't get this resolved, I would spread their name on every review site I could find, so here you go. This organization is a joke and should be avoided at all costs.

November 24,2015 I put in an order for a Sound Percussion Labs Marching Snare Drum with Carrier 13 x 11 in. Black Item #: J*******2002 $169.99 which was on back order. Musician's Friend were expected to receive more on Dec 4 from the manufacturer. On Dec 4, I received an email saying they had not received them yet but would send it out as soon as they received them. On Fri, Dec 11 at 4:24pm I received an email saying my order would not be here by Christmas and I had the option to find another similar item if I needed it by Christmas. I found another item. Sound Percussion Labs High-Tension Marching Snare Drum with Carrier Regular 14 x 12 Black $379.99 which is obviously a little more expensive. I called first thing Monday, Dec 14 to make the switch. The first person I spoke to (forgot to write her name down) said the original item was set to ship out that day but there was no tracking info in the system and at first I was going to go with it. Of course, I was confused because I just got the other email saying I wasn't going to get my original order by Christmas. Ultimately, I decided I wanted this other item that I found instead and called back just a few minutes later the same day to go ahead and make the switch. I spoke with Allen next, who put me on a long hold to straighten everything out. He got everything switched over for me and said there should be no problem getting my order by Christmas. I checked my order status this last Saturday, Dec 19 and saw my new order wasn't even showing up on my acct but my credit card had already been charged on Dec 15. So, I called and spoke with Kiera, who also put me on a long hold. She said my order was on hold pending the exchange return - this was Sat, Dec 19 mind you. They had let my canceled order get all the way to my home town sorting facility before it was returned and weren't going to release my new order until they received it! After telling me she would not guarantee my order could arrive by Christmas, she spoke to a supervisor and they were supposed to go ahead and release my order (since they knew they were going to receive the return soon) and bump up the shipping so I would get it by Wed, Dec 23. I checked my order online Sunday, Dec 20. They had the new order showing up but didn't bump up the shipping. They were shipping it out UPS Ground from Kansas City, MO to arrive here by Wed. Sorry but shipping ground from MO to FL on the same week as THE major holiday for shipping gifts does NOT guarantee my gift arrives by Christmas- THEY DID NOT BUMP UP THE SHIPPING. So, I called again today, Dec 21 and spoke with Crystal, who after putting me on a couple long holds, said, "Maybe it can be a late Christmas present." She said there was absolutely no way to get my order to me by Christmas. I asked her about returning the item if it doesn't arrive in time before I got off the phone. After stewing on it a bit, I called back and spoke with Leon, told him the whole story and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. He put me on a long hold and came back to say I could definitely speak to a supervisor but he had a solution. He said they were going to do an exchange for the order going out ground and send my order out again today this time 2nd day air, which should get here by Wed, Dec 23 and added $20 in house credit on my acct. Before I got off the phone I made sure their system reflected the shipping change and I will be monitoring it closely. At this point, however, I have no confidence my order will arrive on time. Fingers crossed!

After dealing with Sweetwater and Musicians friend for years, I can assure u that you should buy NEW gear from musicians friend. Better tech support, honest REPS. Better prices on most gear. Musician's Friend simply have more durable gear. Sweetwater sells refurbished type stuff and returned gear as New. That's a fact.
MF Won't sell you old/"new" gear buried deep in a huge warehouse.
MF actually inspects items, Sweetwater lies about their 55 point evaluation (that's obvious bs, lol)
Sweetwater has great marketing tactics and will easily fool nonprofessional-musicians. They tell you everything u want to hear during the sale. When ur item breaks after 30 days their attitude changes. They work hand in hand with companies, to sell the companies reject items... They look new cuz They make them look new. SCAM. Sweetwater can easily replace thier garbage cuz they exchange it for garbage! They get these items cheap cuz of the sheer amount they buy. They don't buy companies good stuff, they buy up their garbage... Their 2 year warranty is a scam. Their expensive stuff over $900 breaks right after 2 years (conveniently after the warranty expires). While Musicians friend has never sold me an item that has broke, EVER! Not even a demo, or refurbished item, nothing! I've bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff from MF... Even Sweetwaters patch cables are garbage after a short time. They sell companies weaker, older stock, I promise you!.
Sweetwaters garbage let's me down constantly.
I'm done with SW and dealing only with MF, Reverb.com, or ebay/craigslist.
Sweetwater gives a 2 year warranty cuz their stuff breaks, not cuz they care! Every company would do it if there wasnt a catch. Read between the lines, folks... They will knock off $200 on a $1200 item for a reason folks... i can't explain everything that has happened to me at Sweetwater. If interested on what to expect from sweetwater u can reach me at *******@gmail.com. My mom taught me as a kid to never trust strangers that give me candy... sweetwater puts candy in every box, lol... im not falling for their scam any longer.
Pathetic company that relies on foreign sweatshops to sell there merchandise. My last orange ad30 amp i got from Sweetwater sounded like it was built by a malnourished, beaten 10 year old in some dungeon in china after the warranty expired and i played the amp maybe 15 times for a total of 10 hours tops... screw Chinese goods, screw sweetwaters sweatshop crap... Boycott Sweetwater and their communist friends and buy American made from Musicians Friend.
If you are the type that goes to the car dealership to get your windshield wipers changed, or buy your 10 year old a $4000 Taylor guitar, then Sweetwater may be right up your alley. If you want durability in the gear u buy, from people that know gear, trust MUSICIANS FRIEND. You won't be sorry.
Their name says it all, musiciansFRIEND.
Don't believe the positive reviews about Sweetwater. It's ur hard earned money... you have been warned.

I've always had good experiences with Musician's Friend. I've been ordering guitars and accessories from them for over ten years and I have never had a problem with returns, quality of products or any type of bad service. I year or two I had ordered two different guitars on the same day from musiciansfriend.com and decided that I was going to send one back. I contacted them through their 800 number and Musician's Friend were very courteous and understanding of my situation. They had already shipped both guitars already and when I called they told me that they would stop the shipment of the guitar that I didn't want at it's next checkpoint and would refund my money at no charge. I've always had great service with Musician's Friend and frequently order from them and recommend them to other people looking for musical instruments.

Here's how it happened... 15 years ago I started ordering from MF and never had an issue. Sweetwater was sold out of the Taylor I wanted, so I got on MF m's app and it said in stock! I ordered right then. Me being the review guru I am, I decided since it had been so long I would check their ratings (after the purchase, I know silly). I see what you've been seeing. Horror stories of packages coming beaten up and recycling restock items, customer service being terrible... etc. Etc. So I get a little panic in my stomach. I figured I'd just have to ride it out now, and I'm so glad I did. I ordered on a Friday night and by Tuesday evening I was playing my flawless, perfectly packaged, brand new guitar. Now, I didn't have to deal with customer service, but on SUNDAY I repeat SUNDAY I recieved a call from Rick my "gear advisor" who left a message and email to make sure that everything was going smoothly with my order. He offered me the tracking info and gave me a direct line to get in contact

Maybe I just got lucky? Maybe they're getting their act together? Or maybe only people with bad experiences leave anything on here for them. I enjoyed doing business with them. Easy, and smooth

I've spent thousands of dollars over the 18 months with them. A few of the items had issues that I fixed myself and didn't complain. Placed a small order and when it arrived, one of the items was missing. Called customer service. Musician's Friend said they'd have to do an "investigation" that would take several days and if I wanted the strings sooner than that, they'd have to charge me again. The item in question costs $7. My "friends" don't treat me like a thief. I checked out their employee satisfaction as well. Apparently they frequently treat their employees like dirt as well. More than one of their stories included the assertion that they value sales above customer service. Makes sense that they just filed for bankruptcy a second time. They're never going to make it if they keep treating everyone like dirt. Recipe for disaster. Thanks for letting me vent.

I have shopped Musicians Friend for quite a long while. My last two guitar purchases have been through them (a Rogue LX205B 5-String Series III Electric Bass Guitar Metallic Blue & a Rogue RA-090 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Black. Yeah, I like me some Rogue Guitars). Both were open-box returns with very few cosmetic issues (i. E. The LX205B had minor scratches at the cord connection and was missing the peal fret marker on the 5th fret. The RA-090 had no discernible issues at all. Both were purchased with significant discounts on some already great but inexpensive guitars.) and played perfectly right out of the box. Out of my entire guitar collection, the Rogue RA-090 is my go-to for acoustic and my Rogue LX205B is second only to my 1979 Peavey T40 (and as a side note, my 1975 Fender Jazz, one f my dearest loves, comes in 3rd. Sorry Leo.).

The biggest issue I've run into is back-orders. I have had two or three that were cancelled that I didn't know about for several months after the cancellation when I checked my order history for updates. Although very annoying, it was nothing I haven't run into with other places. It's a fact of business that you sometimes get caught with a low inventory when an unexpected demand hits. Nothing unusual about it and I did get my merchandise after redoing the order (a Bill Lawrence A245C Acoustic Guitar Sound-hole Pickup Black).
Overall, I love their large selections; their new webpage design is a pain to navigate but I'm getting used to, and I have fewer complaints regarding Musicians Friend than I have on local retailers that I still frequent. Nothing that would make me stop patronizing any of them. I've been happy with every transaction.
***To be fair, one star off for the cancelled back-orders mentioned above. I hope someone finds this novella helpful.

I wish musicians friend would be honest and upfront about stock availability and shipping. I've run into numerous issues with them stating an item is in stock only to find out it s back ordered for months. Simply put, if it s not available per advertisement it should not be posted as available. This is a deceptive practice. Musician's Friend shouldn't put a pend on your charge card if they can't process something. I've seen back orders for 3 months. Sales people are trained to always say, it may be shipped next week. They are clueless as their entire ordering system has become a cluster of errors, delays and broken promises. Their online ordering system is rigged with problems as coupon codes, points and advertised discounts do not seem to be applied. It took me 4 tries to have it corrected. I've also been double charged as the items in the cart mysteriously doubled. I was glad I had caught it quickly. I no longer want to deal with musicians friend as loyalty means nothing to tgem.

This company is absolutely awful. I placed an order for a sound system in November, with a check sent to them on January 4th. It is now 2 months later, and I have not received my order yet. I have been emailing them, with no one replying, UNTIL I threatened to file a complaint with the BBB. Finally someone replied, and she did not seem to know how to read an email. She kept asking me for the check #, which was plain as day in the email, then repeatedly told me in 2 more emails that it just was not in my email. She finally got it, after 3 emails. I have never worked with a company this unorganized in my 20 year career. Their lack of proper customer service is evident, and their terrible online reviews are certainly reflective of that. Save yourself some trouble, and do not use this company. Ever.

Lied to about my order by 5 different employees. Ordered a guitar for my husband, an ER provider in Seattle. Trying to give him an escape during these very stressful days. Order was out for "verification" according to the first employee I contacted. Second employee said it was shipping out a week ago, third employee said it needed review, forth employee argued with me, fifth employee (supervisor named Tim) apologized and said he would ship it right away overnight. That was 4 days ago and the guitar shipped last night economy ground via UPS. Definitely a lot of mistakes made with no repercussions to the deceitful employees. I'll never buy another item from MF/GC. My husband has spent well over $30k with GC over the years. Will not get another penny from us! If we did our jobs so ineptly, people die.

When trying to cancel a backordered item I've called four times and you can only speak to customer service in India. Musician's Friend can do absolutely nothing. Each time I was told that the item would be cancelled from the order and I would receive confirmation by the end of the day and I have never been notified. I've asked to be transferred to a customer service rep in the U.S. but they say they can't do that. They offer free shipping because they wait until they have a lot of items going to a particular area to ship which means you may wait weeks for your order. Just a miserable experience and I will never do business here again. BTW, everything they sell is available on Amazon for the same price or less.

Ordered on the 14th. Slill in "processing" on the 20th. Musician's Friend had 5 business days so I called the 800 number to cancel. The operator was totally oblivious to the fact it had not even been picked or shipped[they can only charge you when it ships... so I knew] but instead insisted I could not cancel because it was "probably" going to ship later that day. Next day still in "processing". But by then I had stopped payment. And I went on "chat" and nicely told them what I did and why. Over the past 15? Yrs or so I had spent thousands there but the quality of service and especially shipping has gone way downhill. The kicker was when during the conversation I told "phone-man" that AMS usually delivered next day and that Sweetwater usually 2 or 3 days... he told me impossible, no way, and that's not true. Basically calling me a Lier. That was the proverbial straw that led to freezing the account and severing ties forever.

I purchased a Tama drum set and was talked into the warranty for $109.99. Musician's Friend said how great of a deal it was and that you can send any part of the drum in to be repaired no matter what the cause. Roughly a month after reviving the drum set the snare drum broke and requires service, so I called and they said no problem send it in and we'll get it repaired. I asked how long I could expect the repair to take and the rep said typically around 10 days including shipping. After they sent me the shipping label I took it to UPS the same day and shipped it. The repair company received the drum a couple days later so I gave it a week and a half and still didn't hear anything, so I called them. They couldn't figure out what was taking so long, so they said to give them up to 3 business days to find out and they'd call me back. A week later I called them because they never got back to me. This has happened every week since. This is the 7th week since first contacting them, and still no resolve, even after asking to talk to a supervisor. His solution is that if after 45 days goes by, they can reimbursed me for that part of the kit. So just to recap $110 for the warranty, 45 days of having to call them every week for an update with only one returned call, and they will give me my money back for the drum so that I can buy a new snare drum (that will likely cost me more than the first because it was bought in a kit). Long story short Musician's Friend is great to buy from, but don't waste your money or time on the warranty, unless you're not a working musician and can wait a month and a half for a repair.

I am a college student in desperate need of musical items at a decent price. Musician's Friend sends out coupons and there was a 20% coupon that I had just seen, however it expired only a day ago. I called the main number and the site's wonderful representative Ashley Foard picked up. I explained to her my situation and she kindly and patiently helped get me my discount. I ordered a keyboard and other accessories to go along with it, constantly asking questions to make sure the products and payment were correct. I successfully ordered my products and she offered to call when Musician's Friend arrive to make sure everything was in good condition. I was very fortunate to have spoken with Ashley and I am very happy with my purchase.

Musician's Friend tells you on their website Musician's Friend have a 2 year Musician's Friend warranty on the items they sell, but it's a total lie. I purchased a Warlock from them less than 2 years ago. Today was the first time I changed the strings on it and discovered that the screw that holds the high E string tuner is stripped out. I called Musician's Friend to exercise this 2 year warranty, but they told me that since it was over 45 days since I made the purchase, there was nothing they could do about it other than to give me the phone number to BC Rich.

When I asked them about the two year warranty they advertise on their website, I was told that the 2 year warranty stated on their website is actually a manufacturer's warranty, not a Musician's Friend warranty even though it clearly says on the website that the warranty is a Musician's Friend and not a manufacturer's warranty; moreover, it says on the website for someone to exercise that 2 year warranty they should contact Musician's Friend and not the manufacturer, but when you contact Musician's Friend, they tell you they will give you the manufacturer's phone number so you can contact them about the problem. Basically, the two year warranty you see on their website is nothing more than a lie to get you to buy from them; they do not actually honor that warranty.

I would not recommend anyone buy from Musician's Friend. They are not honest and do not honor their stated warranties. You could pay for a very expensive musical instrument like I did and then be stuck with a piece of garbage; their only answer is to pass the buck to someone else.

I accidentally ordered the same volume pedal twice. Musician's Friend both arrived the same day. I called to tell them of my mistake and I needed a return shipping label. I understand that I had to pay return shipping. I had to open the package to retrieve the paperwork. They charged me a $10.00 handling fee and the return shipping was $14.50. So to return a $77.00 pedal cost me $24.50. My refund was $52.50 when it was all said and done. I've been buying musical gear from them and many other sites for many years. This was my first time returning an item to them. I will never use them again. Stick with Sweetwater.com. Best customer service. Too bad I can't give musician's friend 0 stars. They are not your "friend".