Grayson’s Tune Town

One of the best guitar shops in Los Angeles; Connor and Sam ALWAYS take care of my guitars. This shop is a total mom and pop style shop with a modernized feel. Not only do they have SOLID prices, but they have supreme service that follows. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ will revisit!

Love this place! I went and got my guitar strung and they cleaned and polished it too. Good people working there and very personal. Grayson’s crushes guitar center in every way. Keep it up

Grayson’s is a cool, medium sized shop that serves the small-​town vibe community of Montrose. They offer a wide variety of new instruments, guitar service, lessons, accessories. Their price on new guitars and amps generally matched the M.A.P.pricing that one would find on popular mail-​order sites.
I stopped in an a whim a while back while killing time on a Saturday. At first it just looks like a run of the mill community guitar shop, but the people inside are knowledgeable, fun, sincere, and really seem to love their jobs. I was pleasantly surprised. It reminds me of a cool, local guitar shop from about 20 – 30 years ago; before big box and mail-​order took over.
The crown jewel of this place, IMO, is Sam Hwang; the guitar tech. I was suspicious at first, probably because he looks younger than he is. Guitar (and amps) have been my hobby and profession for 25 years. I generally do all my own work except for things that involve glue and files. Because of this, my first though was, «oh man, I don’t trust that kid to do complex guitar repair.» I was wrong. I was extremely wrong. Sam has come up with quick, clever, and elegant solutions to my unusual guitar problems. Fantastic work all around.
My only possible bummer is that they don’t deal in used guitars. I don’t think a pawn-​shop vibe would be good, but a well-​curated selection of used and vintage instruments would be a positive change,.

Take heed all you serious guitar players accustomed to professional setups and considering Grayson’s for your next one: You will be gravely disappointed if not mortified.
They will actually use a Boss chromatic tuner to intonate your guitar — no kidding. For those who aren’t aware, a STROBE tuner is the only tuner a professional luthier will utilize to bring your instrument back to harmonic usability/​stability. It gives the user a visual understanding of what is happening in hertz (our measure of frequencies in cycles), and allows he/​she to accurately align the «proper» pitch values of notes with particular points on the guitar neck, especially as pertaining to the electrical output. A standard chromatic tuner simply helps you to make a note sound more like a B, D or otherwise. A strobe shows all the various «notes» inside a note, thereby helping a good luthier to create a sympathy within chords played all over the neck. To use a strobe along with your tuned ear is to use science. This is your tech or luthier’s job.
What they charge you for at Grayson’s is what you do on your bed at 13-​years-​old with a fine measure, a few tools, a chromatic tuner and an allen wrench. And they will do it (they’re the 99% minority in the industry) without telling you. This will result in inevitable sourness.
If you have a developed ear, your instrument will sound terrible to you, and all major triads will be unforgivable above the 7^th fret. You will ask for your money back, and the owner — who spends his time ordering high end guitars that the lazy staff doesn’t bother tuning — will tell you to get F’d. «Nobody’s ever complained before,» he’ll say. Grayson’s is a local place for kids and dads; that’s why.
Take your stuff to Future Music if you’re looking for a local mom and pop.
How dare these turkeys make adjustments on my 74′ Tele with a Boss Tuner. They belong working on Squires for kids, although I’m sure they’d have the audacity to take on a Stradivarius violin if you’d pay them for it.
Non-​refundable crud for those living just enough for the city.

If you are looking for lessons on how to play the guitar this is a good place to go.
My son and I happened to be nearby after lunch and we decided to just pop in spur of the moment. My son wanted to sign up for some lessons so he could learn to read music while playing his Gretsch guitar. They have plenty of instructors and we were able to book a couple lessons for him during the Winter break from school.
I believe the rate is $ 30 for a half hour and we will definitely sign up for some more.

For a small local guitar shop, they have a really nice selection of gear including higher end items I can’t even find at my local Guitar Center. Nice folks, no attitude when I asked to demo something, though I had only come in for some strings.

I had a fantastic experience shopping for my first electric guitar at Grayson’s. Chris patiently helped me all three days I spent just wandering around playing all of the different guitars I was interested in. Since I am a beginner, I also asked Chris to play the guitars on a few of their amps for me so I could compare both guitar and amp sounds, and that really helped with my decision-​making. I came in thinking I wanted an Epi Les Paul, but ended up with an awesome (and much more comfortable) Epi SG. I was also thrilled that their cheapest tube amp (Excelsior Pro) also sounded the best to me. It was the cheapest due to minor cosmetic damage — woohoo!
I think I spent around six hours total shopping for my guitar and amp, and the staff there was always friendly and helpful. Special thanks to Chris!

Nice people. Bad business.
Was promised a certain product just to find out it was damaged. They dont value their customers. Chris and staff knew the importance of getting this product by the specific date and it was a complete disaster. Theyre kids who know music, thats it !

The recent push to encourage people to ‘shop small’ is easily justified by a store like Grayson’s. It is family owned and operated, with as many as three generations in the store at once. Everyone who works there is sincere, patient, and highly knowledgeable. They have an impressive range guitars, ukes, banjos, and other stringed gems. They offer repair services, sales, and more.
If you need lessons, advice, or a reason to remember why it is so important to shop small, go to Grayson’s. You won’t regret the trip.

Excellent music store that has been in the quaint little area of Montrose for years. Excellent service and quality stock items. Prices are as competitive to Guitar Center and Sam Ash. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES!!! I am a musician of 20+ years and take my word, this is a solid music store.

My girlfriend and I were in Glendale shopping and decided it was time to purchase her father’s birthday/father’s day gift. Used Unilocal,and found Grayson’s. Having lived in Southern California all my life, I have never visited the City of Montrose. We showed up about 20 mins before closing and we were greeted by Conor. As a sales manager in a retail environment, I understand that when it is about that time to close the store, sales reps can be short with customers. But Conor took his time and gave us his opinion on several different guitars. He was very helpful and knowledgable. After 45 mins of entering the store, my girlfriend was able to pick out the perfect gift for her father. Her father’s birthday is on Thursday and she is truly excited to give him a gift he will cherish perhaps for the rest of his life.
Conor and Sam were truly amazing when it came to taking care of the customer. Sure, we were thinking about going to a major retailer, but glad we ended up going go Grayson’s. Unlike my girlfriend, I really have no appreciation of playing any type of musical instruments. Therefore I had no knowledge when it comes to guitars and brands. But Conor explained everything so well, as if I were buying a guitar for myself. Overall, I highly recommend this place. In the future if I ever decide to take up playing the guitar, I know where to go! Thanks gents!

I was looking for a special edition Fender electric guitar. I e-​mailed Grayson’s, and the owner, Mr. Grayson, quickly responded to my query & ordered the guitar in two different colors. He e-​mailed me as soon as the guitars arrived so that I could go & see them. He gave me plenty of time to try them out on various amps in the shop– it was calm, quiet in their high-​end guitar room. Mr. Grayson or his grandson was available for any questions, etc… After I decided to buy the guitar, Mr. Grayson gave me a very competitive price, which was at least $ 100 less than the «street value» from the web vendors.
A few weeks after my purchase, I thought that the guitar’s intonation was off, and I stopped by the shop for their tech to check it. Even though the shop was very busy, and the tech’s bench was clearly full, he very kindly set up my guitar again, checked everything out. He also told me that he remembered setting up the guitar when I bought it.
I’m very happy to support a local small business like Grayson’s due to their competitive prices, outstanding customer service, and attention to detail.

Let me start by saying that I love making occasional trips to Montrose because it’s such a neat little town off the 210, and Grayson’s makes it all the more worthwhile!
For a smaller, local music shop, they carry a good selection of guitars/​guitar brands. I must say that it is quite refreshing to see a handful amount of Rickenbacker and Gretsch models alongside Fender, Squire, Ibanez, Taylor, and Epiphone guitars. Although they do not carry Gibson guitars (or so I did not see any the last few times that I visited), so if you’re a Gibson guitar type of person, Grayson’s probably isn’t the music shop for you…
Grayson’s also carries a decent selection of guitar and bass pedals, and unique string brands that other music shops don’t carry, such as Pyramid and Rickenbacker Strings.
My biggest criticism of Grayson’s is the demeanor, disposition, and over-​protective nature of their staff – they are constantly watching you, especially when you go into the small room that houses their most expensive guitars, such as Rickenbackers, Gretsch’s, Taylor acoustics, and Fender Custom Shop and Signature Models, so that they can deter you from playing any of these guitars. They will actually go into detail about why they really don’t want you to try out any of these guitars unless you are going to buy them, informing you that if you do play them, you are to remove belts and/​or jackets, or anything that has a zipper or something that could scratch or blemish the guitar in anyway. And if you choose to stay in this room for a while and try out multiple guitars they will continually pester you regarding this issue, and eventually carefully select the right phrases to get you out of the room. Hopefully their staff will read this and realize that such behavior is an example of poor customer service skills, and improve upon this in the future.
Other than the aforementioned, this is a great local shop. And their on-​site luthier does great setups for very affordable prices.

Very Helpful Employees, good gear. will definitely be coming back here since its like 5 min away from where i live

Was looking for a guitar, called up to 5 different stores and couldn’t find it… So you can imagine how happy I was that these guys carried it. They gave a pretty good discount, which was $ 500 off the price on Taylor’s website (though some private vendors online were offering this price). What was really awesome was that they gave me a free case, normally worth around $ 200 plus!!! I am a happy man.

I go here with my band every Saturday and everyone there is really chill, helpful and friendly. I also needed a new amp and I came in and they let me blast the volume and try all of their larger amps. When I decided on a fender hot rod deluxe 3, I got it for around 600 $, 400 less than retail, and I’m really happy with it.

If you’ve read any of my reviews prior to this one… you might know that I’m a detail and quality perfectionist… I’m slightly snobby about service as well (as I’ve worked as a help desk and road technician for many years, it pays to actually say hello and care)
Anyways…FORGET GUITAR CENTER DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND GO TO GRAYSONS!!!
Period. They may have a smaller showroom, and may ask that you be a certain age to play their more quality, high level guitars, but I take pride in knowing that my local guitar shop ACTUALLY cares about who touches a $ 3−5k instrument «just for fun».
I go to Grayson’s for all of my instrument service, SAM is one ABSOLUTELY AMAZING technician. That dude always answers my ridiculous questions, and loves chatting about pedals and all of the random guitars I bring in! He’s made my Martin and Fender guitars sing like never before!
Ask for SAM every time. Do yourself that favor. Call ahead of time too…
Z

I found this gem of a music store while looking on the Eastman Guitar website for dealers. The service was wonderful, and the salespeople were friendly and knowledgeable — not to mention their excellent selection of finely crafted instruments. I’ll definitely be back!

At age 52 and total beginner, I was a little intimidated walking in and asking about guitar lessons etc, everyone there were so cool and welcoming, it was amazing, made me feel like I had every right to be there.
I’d been to a few other shops and sort of felt the opposite, these boys are awesome.

This is the thing, Montrose as a whole is like a throwback to another time. It’s filled with awesome little mom and pop shops and real people. Impeccable service abounds… it’s like small town USA but within driving distance to awesometown, USA.
Grayson’s belongs here. It is a small family owned establishment run by an awesome guy named Ken who is just as sweet as can be, even when my sailor mouth is spouting of curse words left and right, and he hires these sweet, knowledgeable guys too! Brandon has been lovely and helpful (while still finding a way to spit out those quick witted little remarks I adore) and Ken’s own grandson Connor is also a doll.
I’ve been taking vocal lessons and piano lessons here for a few months now and let me say this, the prices and quality are unparalleled. And Ken has let me pay on a per lesson basis when I’m a little tight on cash and he even puts up with my awful scheduling habits without a word. I love the guy.
The last woman I took vocal lessons charged me $ 80 and hour and demanded that her students buy lessons in blocks of 8… not tooooooo affordable. Grayson’s charges me $ 25 for a 30 min lesson or $ 50 for an hour and I can pay as I go, AND I get the pleasure of chatting with my buddies in the shop. Done. I’m SOLD.