Ohio Music Shop

Let me start by saying that this is a fantastic music store gear-wise.  My goal isn't necessarily to knock them, but to use myself as a cautionary tale as far as their repairs go...but I digress.  

So I wanted to support the newest music shop in town by having them bias some new power tubes for my vintage Musicman 130 HD head, as well as look over the electronics.  Little did I know the proverbial monetary roller coaster ride I was in for.  Rather than make this a newspaper article worth of content, I'll get to the bare bones of the situation...This bias job was an even $100.  Not too terrible.  I brought it home and it broke down within a week.  I'm not saying that this was their doing, but if they really checked the electronics, wouldn't they have seen this?

I bought it back to have them fix it.  They kept it for a total of around 2 months (I guess it took awhile to find the root of the problem).  During this time, I had to call if I wanted any update whatsoever.  After the long wait, I received a call saying that the amp was done, and the repair was going to cost me a whopping $365 (I paid $350 for the amp).  They were not willing to negotiate the price at all, even though they neglected to update me when the price was reaching the $100, $200 or even $300 range.  To me, this seems like what I would expect from a shady auto-mechanic shop rather than a warm, local guitar retailer.  

Overall investment: $465 with NO wiggle room for an amp I paid $350 for.

Again this review does not reflect their selection of vintage gear, which is actually very good.  They are also all very friendly people.  I would buy an amp from them, but never again will they get my gear for repair.  

- Jeff

Guy walks into a bar.  That is also a guitar store.  That is also a live music venue.  That is also the only place I've ever seen that is a solid combination of all three. (Never been to McCabe's in Santa Monica, but this is along those lines, on a regional, i.e. smaller, scale.)   Right on Main, just across from and down the hill a bit from Kent Stage.  They don't have a real sign up, just yet, having moved their location slightly, but it is easy enough to find.

The middle of the store is a sweeping, wooden bar, behind which you'll find a whole bunch of beers.  Turn around after you've been served a cold one, and spy a small stage, then a long wall filled with sweet, locally grown guitars, all from the bench of Woody James.  The Les Paulmosts are pretty damned sweet, for a fraction of what the Kalamazoo animals put out.  When I have a few hours I'll return for a strum and a wheedle and report more fully.

Amps, drums, a whole bunch of fun stuff.  The day we were there I rough-estimated about two hundred or so years of experience at work in the store and on the adjacent tech bench/lutherie.  

Live music a couple times a week, nearly always free, on the stage.  Cold beer, any old time.  New and used guitars and amps just begging for a new home.  A blessedly small quantity of rock memorabilia on the walls.  Have another beer, then take a second, more loving look at that Gold Top.  How many guitars do you need?  One more.

Oh, and their "OHIO" logo is evocatively sweet:  Peace signs on the ends, a rifle with a daisy in its barrel in the middle.