Thomas & Vessel Stringed Instruments

I love this place! I can not be anymore blessed for finding this place. I’m not even close to knowing all there is about violins, but being the mom of a young student violinist I try to ask around and do as much research as I can. After going to a few places and being told that it really didn’t matter how good a ½ violin sounded because my daughter was only a student and would she going eventually transition to a bigger size. At Thomas and Vessel my daughter was treated as if she was a professional violinist and we received the greatest customer service! The best part is if you buy a smaller violin when your student/​son/​daughter needs to transition to a bigger size they will apply a 70% credit of the sale value of what you originally paid towards your new violin.

How often are you blown away from the service you get these days? I feel like its been a while since I have walked away feeling SO impressed by the help I received and Thomas & Vessel broke the mold.
My 5 yr old has been asking to okay the violin for a year now and I am finally caving and getting her lessons. I know NOTHING about violins and am a total newb. I needed to call around and find out what I need to do to get the little munchkin a violin. First I called a very established business that even I knew of, not having any connection to musical instrument sales. The gal who answered was fine but didn’t knock my socks off or anything. I decided to call one more place that had been suggested to me.
I called Thomas & Vessel and no one answered so I hung up… But seconds later I recieved a call from Steve at T&M asking if I had called and could he help me. He was so kind and engaged and eager to help that I knew at once that THIS was the shop I wanted to do business with. He even checked into good teacher options for me considering I had said I wanted to start a little casual for the first year as she is SO young and already has a packed schedule. He called me back with suggestions and invited me to come in today to see what size violin she would need.
When we arrived at the the shop, Steve was SO welcoming and sweet and engaged all my kids. When he sized my daughter for a violin he made it so fun and special for her. Very rarely do I write Unilocal reviews, but I felt the service I recieved today totally earned it. I can’t wait to use Thomas & Vessel for my girlie’s violin :)

I play the piano, but I’ve always wanted to venture into a string instrument, So I decided to buy a cheap student violin for less than $ 300. I didn’t purchase it here, however what brought me to this place — aside from a lot of google searching, was to price check a set of Dominate Strings.
They were substantially cheaper! The were also able to answer all of my questions I had about making this kind of jump, as well as giving me tips on how to become more successful in my venture.
The store is very welcoming, and beats the crud out of other local music stores in town in terms of Customer Service, General Atmosphere, and Price over all.
I don’t give Five Star Reviews very often, but when I do, that location deserves it. This is pretty much now, going to be my go-​to location for string instrument needs!
P. S. Don’t go to guitar center for your violin needs. –_-;

I drive 2 hours+ to deal with them when we need something. I have 3 children seriously studying violin/​fiddling. This is where we go whenever we need something. We have used them for repairs, set-​up, bows, strings, etc. Plan to shop there for a violin in ’15. There are shops closer to where I live, and there are bigger shops in the bay/​LA… but this is where we prefer to go. Both Steve and Gary seem to be knowledgeable high level luthiers. Nice too. They need to build a nice website and do more self promotion so more musicians will find them.
Update: We were shopping for a nice full size violin for my daughter with an absolute max budget of $ 4,000. This was a long-​planned purchase and a big deal to us. After trial instruments from multiple high end shops, we bought here. Very happy.

This is a great hidden gem in the middle of Modesto. I moved out to the boonies and was in desperate need of a violin shop when I happened upon this one. There are lessons– strings and piano– offered on the site, as well as high quality violins and string instruments for sell and rent. They construct and apprentice violin making right there, and patiently explain some of the methods behind making and caring for your instrument. They know what they’re doing and aren’t at all pretentious. Great find.

This evening, I took my ukulele over to Thomas & Vessel Stringed Instruments. The gentleman who helped me was super nice and I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. The problem is fixed and she plays so very sweetly now. I strongly recommend that you bring your guitar, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, viola, double bass, sitar, dulcimer or hurdy gurdy to Thomas & Vessel.