Tone Shop Guitars

I live over an hour from Austin and, while there are numerous higher-end guitar shops in my region, they're pretty far from my rural home. Since there's no way for them to compete with online guitar venues like Reverb or eBay, and, though they themselves have a presence on these very venues, I've never once seen them offer "best price". This is because they have the music capital of the world, Austin, and thousands of local guitarists at their disposal. That's great for them and I applaud their good fortune. For a guitar store, few hunting grounds are as productive as those surrounding Austin and San Antonio, so these shops haven't experienced the full brunt of being forced to transition from brick and mortar to internet driven sales. But they're getting better and I still support them, even if it costs me more to do so. In walk the online shops that work harder to achieve a more global, online business presence. Located in the North Dallas area, Tone Shop is the most recent shop I've done business with. Just yesterday I worked a deal with them and got my newest guitar for half-price. The deal was struck completely by text and, Chad, was the knowledgeable salesperson manning the sales phone. Awesome fellow to work with. We exchanged half a dozen messages and I got to where I wanted to go and said I yes to the offer. Within minutes I had a streamlined invoice and had the guitar paid for. I'd asked that the shop setup the guitar to my specifications and minutes later my new guitar was with the shop technician, performing the work. This meant that my order for service was expedited and I got a prompt by email telling me so followed by a text from Chad, who remained in constant touch with me at every point, until the guitar was shipped an hour later. He then texted that I let him know what I thought of the guitar once received and thanking me, on a personal level, for my purchase. I have since been in touch. I received a UPS tracking number just moments later and an update this morning indicating the guitar was already in San Marcos (15 miles from my home) and was slated for delivery today. The shop is 300 miles away, so this could only happen if they pay a premium for shipping, which, they do. In essence, what takes most online shops to do in five days (including shipping) was done in a single day! I found this to be truly amazing! This shop is technologically further along than many I've dealt with and seems to have he people who know how to drive that system. Tone Shop is a 21st century guitar shop and an example of just how well the e-commerce concept works when done to an art form. And, there was still a salesperson driving the process, providing seamless service far better than if we'd been face to face in a brick and mortar store. He was in constant contact with me for two hours, from inquiry to sale, to shipping, to personal follow-through after the guitar had shipped.

Nothing like having a place shoot itself in the foot. Went to pick up gear from service and on my way out I saw a head I wanted to check pricing on and see if it would match my needs. I had my equipment with me and bagged when an individual came to ask me if I was interested in testing anything out. My response is no. He then advised that my bag could not stay in the area and he needed to keep ot back by the service section. Not an issue. What is an issue is when I picked it up I removed it from the case checked the feel and put it back inside and secured all fasteners. When given back to me the zippers were not in the same place and the velcro wraps around my handle were open, meaning they went back in my case. I'm good enough of a person to purchase goods and services but if I wanna look at something without a salesman on my case I must be suspicious. I've used them several times for service, I intend to look somewhere else. **Post edit** Shop manager called and offered an apology, which is good. But got some facts wrong about my demeanor. I will admit I was irritated to have my equipment taken but nothing of note about why my bag was gone through. I wasn't mad until I got my bag back and it was not in the same condition I had handed to them.

I live in Arizona and have bought two guitars from Tone Shop Guitars. Both times I was delighted with my experience. Most recently, Jeff Williams took care of me after I contacted them about buying a used bass. He was not only helpful but super reasonable on getting me a great deal on having the bass shipped with a case. Incredibly fast order processing as well. I’m looking forward to doing more business with Tone Shop and especially Jeff.

This place has the ultimate selection of guitars. It's a little bit of everything kinda place. I got a plek job on my Tele. It is absolutely wonderful. The gentleman that helped me took me over to the strings and asked what size I play and grabbed a fresh set of 10-52 Super Slinkys. He rang me up, asked all the specifics on contact info, then set an expectation of when it would be ready. I had done some work on the guitar myself (new neck), so he also gently informed me that in the process they may discover that I missed some detail/measurement/etc. and they would then let me know if they needed to correct any of my amateur luthier handiwork. I wanted it right, so I agreed and he handed me a receipt and said, "You won't regret this, we'll let you know when it's ready." He was very right! I got a text saying it was ready. Best money I have invested in some time. This Tele just went from being my #3 with a slide or #4 to #1, maybe #2...but it is great!!!! It is now a hard decision on which to pick up. If you have a guitar that you love, but don't love how it plays, or is just well loved and needs a tune up, I highly recommend the plek service.

This place has a huge inventory and very fair pricing. I have had three set up and two were done very well, the third, they missed something, but that is not the point of this review. Yesterday I stopped in for some supplies, and as always they had what I was looking for. I was looking at the guitars as I always do, and I had a very simple question about one of the signature models and asked a representative. He was incredibly dismissive at first, then proceeded to just be flat out rude and start up some weird comedy routine about how guitar magically appear on the wall and no one plays them. After he got over that, he continued to dismiss my interest in the specific guitar and started trying to direct me to the Les Paul's, I politely let him know that I wasn't really All I wanted to know is if someone had spent any time with a specific guitar and what their impression might have been. All I could get out of him was.. yeah its great... you should buy it and support the artist. I am no time grubbing kid, I am a grown adult with the means to buy the things I like, and I got to be honest... his whole attitude was just insulting over all. I do not think I will be back.

I found my perfect P Bass (sunburst, rosewood board, tinted headstock) show up on reverb at Tone Shop. Gave the store a call, spoke with Pat and was told to ask for him when I got in. When I got to the store Pat greeted me and found the p bass, I played it and it fit my needs but I remarked to pat that the action was a little high so I was gonna make some adjustments at home. He said "oh we'll take care of that" and he gave it to their tech who did a quick setup and cleaned the guitar real quick and made it look and play like a million bucks. They also had it very reasonably priced relative to the market so I got a great p bass in primo condition setup for great playing. Also this store is massive with a good collection of new and used, expensive and cheap and everything in between. I'll definitely be going out there for any future guitar purchases.