Freedom Guitar

Several bad experiences at this place, not counting the multiple wasted trips because they are not actually open the set hours they advertise. With Guitar Trader closing last year, there’s not much choice in San Diego for the required accessories associated with playing guitar. Sadly, my bad experiences with Freedom and Marks has left me feeling bitter towards local music shops and I’m better off shopping online and risking quality since I can’t try anything first.
Example: Brought in a $ 200 hihat stand to trade towards a pedal. They offered me $ 15 for it, and STILL expected over full retail for the pedal. I ended up selling the stand on ebay for $ 160 and buying the pedal for $ 40 less.
It’s not «High-​End», just marked up really high.

Freedom Guitar is the premier store in San Diego for all your vintage guitar and musical instrument needs. The owners, and staff are very experienced, friendly, professional, responsive and customer service oriented. They also have a full-​service repair department with skilled artisans/​specialists. I have purchased several guitars, and violins at Freedom Guitar over the years, and have been very satisfied with their products. I highly recommend Freedom Guitar to any and all musicians.

If I could give a negative star rating I would. Sylvester, the owner ripped me off and screwed up my guitar. I have a project guitar with a bolt on neck that I bought without a neck plate. I drove by the store and stopped in to see if they had a neck plate that would fit. The plate is a unique size and they didn’t have one that would fit so Sylvester said he could make one that would work. The guitar also needed some wiring to be done for some EMG pickups. All told, he said it would be an hour and a half of labor charged. I pick up my guitar and the wiring was not done at all and the neck moved around because he used a crappy piece of metal as a neck plate and it didn’t hold the neck in place. I took it back and Sylvester said he would fix it. So his «fix» was an equally crappy new neck plate and he glued the neck to the body because he couldn’t get his neck plate to hold the neck in place. And as an added bonus, he used screws that were too long so two of them poked through the fingerboard! So I took it back to him a third time to have him remove the neck from the body sine it was glued on and he had to steam the guitar to get it off. He did offer to fix it again, but I didn’t want anymore crappy work or damage done to my guitar so I just took it back. So for about $ 120 I got my guitar back without the wiring done, no neck plate that would work, with a bunch of glue residue in the neck pocket and two custom installed holes in my fingerboard… Nice job Freedom Guitar! Run from this place.

I live in Cleveland and can’t say anything about the store itself or local issues, but I had an exceptionally great experience with purchasing a long lost user manual from Freedom Guitar. FG was just about the only place in the world that I could find this on the internet. I was having problems making the purchase through the website, so I have the 1 – 800 number a call.
Dewey answered, said no problem, I gave him the item #. He fetched it with less than a minute, made sure I understood that it was in less-​than-​mint condition, in case I didn’t see it in the online photos. Yep, no problem. Took down my information, called me back because of USPS weirdness with my address, fixed that and sent the manual out the same day. From San Diego on late Tuesday afternoon to Cleveland and in my hands on Thursday morning… AWESOME.
I use the internet so much to make my purchases that I often forget how nice it is to have a brick-​and-​mortar store, and someone like Dewey who provides service above-​and-​beyond like this. Thanks, Dewey, and thanks Freedom Guitar. I’ll be stopping in when I return to SD someday, and I’ll be ordering by internet/​phone in the future.

Definitely go here for repairs. They gave me excellent customer service. I tried to get strings elsewhere, and it was a nightmare. At Freedom, the job was done in five minutes. It hardly cost five bucks. Incredible service!

Very knowledgeable, and nice people. It might depend on the workers there. So there’s this old guy there who I told him I was leaving for the military and he got me a case for an average price. Then I asked him I’ll come back in a week to install a pick up. He’s like cool it should take around $ 40 for half an hour. I was like aright. Then I come back in a week. He seemed like he already forgot I came in last week and I asked about installing a pick up. He said that they charge $ 80 and hour so I assume they would only do it for $ 40 still. Then I come back to get my ukulele, and it’s $ 125. Wow, I gave him the parts and everything to have it done. Maybe he charged me labor for an hour which is $ 80 plus a $ 2 battery for $ 45? T. T

Couldn’t find Jazz Bass pickup covers and a threaded saddle bridge anywhere — and I mean anywhere — else locally. They got me fully set up with everything I was after and I was out the door in minutes.
What I really didn’t enjoy was paying 60% over MSRP… next time I may be a little less impatient and buy online; I might still come out ahead even with expedited shipping.

If you walk into Freedom Guitar, bring your A-​Game. Sylvester will twist you inside out, and ring out your pockets, but they do have some real gems in that store. They need to dust that place though.
The guys here are really helpful, but you have to watch your back with Sylvester. He is lurking with bad intentions!!! The guitar tech, Rudy is an A-​1 repair man. He works quickly, and reliably.

To be honest I’ve never liked them & they have a bad reputation.
However, they do have a lot of inventory, & if you just have to have something & can’t find it anywhere else, you could do worse…

I had a totally positive experience at Freedom Guitar. Sylvester was friendly, knowledgeable, and made me feel like a long-​time customer, even though this was my first time visiting his shop. I was apprehensive when I read some of the reviews on Unilocal,but my experience was 100% positive.

My experience with Freedom Guitars was partially my fault. Although I agree with all of the bad reviews, in my case I really didn’t do my homework which included Unilocaling a business to determine whether or not I should do business with them. Being new to San Diego and having a gig coming up soon I made the mistake of purchasing an item there (I needed to return it because it failed for a useless store credit). I would warn people to simply do your homework, their prices are outrageously overpriced and the gear is not well maintained. Hopefully this review and the others will encourage FG to step up their game.

So, I hadn’t been to this place in years – I live in LA now – but just the other day, when visiting San Diego, I drove by it again, marveling that it was still open. I wondered if maybe they had gotten any less unpleasant, mellowed over time maybe… I considered actually stopping in again.
Then, randomly, I logged into my Unilocal account for the first time in a while, and found a personal message from Sylvester, the guy who was such a jerk that day. This message was sent three years after my original visit & review, so apparently he’s had some time to consider it. Here is the full text of the message:
From Sylvester B., Owner:
is your bad music still making all amps shut down???
Awesome, right? Some companies provide support & customer service after sale, but Freedom Guitar promises you years of insults. Good to know some things never change!
For the record, I’m still pretty much the same mediocre guitar player I was way back when, and my bad music has yet to destroy any other amps. :-D
Also, God has yet to deliver that vengeance as originally promised, so I guess the Big Guy is taking more of a long-​game approach…

We’ve been renting instruments for my little sister there for a while now, they offer excellent customer service and are very friendly people.
Just recently I went back to return an instrument and the owner (I think) was so nice and gave me some guitar strings for free! hehe:) They have a huge inventory and great quality stuff… I would recommend this place to anyone and everyone!
Thanks again for your great customer service!
God bless you all:)

To bad about this shop, They seem to have nice stuff but what you look close everything in the store is a old fashion cover up. Looks like they take beat down amps and do a spit shine and then put a super high price on it like it’s in mint shape. I would be careful buying anything from here I would guess you will get a lemon. I have been in here a few times not once was i talked to. I would pass on Freedom Guitar.

I bought my first guitar here many moons ago. I take my stuff to get fixed here all the time. The guys have always been very friendly to me? confused by all the low ratings.

I brought my 1979 Music Man stingray to sell because I fell on hard times. The skinny guy with glasses on the side laughed at my instrument and said my USA made bass was worthless compared to Fender (who says that to a customer) anyways they got behind the computer and said they were only going for $ 300.00 on eBay witch I know was a lie. Because I searched eBay before leaving the house. But I had to sell because I need cash in a hurry. Hey gave me $ 300.00 Bottom line they ripped my ass off. I felt like shit leaving without my bass I had for over 10 years. I went back 3 weeks later to see the price they had on it and maybe I could buy it back. It was there and the price tag was at $ 1,200.00 I will never go there. Stay clear of that place

‘Line 6 authroized dealer’ is the ONLY reason I chose to use this place. They should call this place ‘Hostage Gear’, not Freedom Guitars. I dropped off the amp for repair in the second week of December. Got a call 2 days before Christmas to pick it up. $ 95.00 charge. Got it home and within 10 minutes, it was dead again. Brought it back in. Repair guy (who speaks with a thick accent and broken English) can’t figure out what’s wrong with it. I had to make suggestions to see if he was testing it properly. (He hadn’t done what I suggested, by the way!) He recommended I replace the entire board since he can’t figure it out. My GOD, if you have a guy who can’t speak the language, don’t have him be your point of contact for your customers! Anyway weeks go by. No calls. So I call them to find out what’s going on. I get the excuse that Line 6 is closed for inventory for a week. Gee, thanks for letting me know! More weeks go by, still no calls. I call them again. I get a new excuse that Line 6 is closed for the entire month and will not ship any parts. OK, finally I get a call on February 10^th that the damn thing is ready. At an additional cost of $ 133.00. Save yourself time, money and aggravation. Go anywhere but here! Jeff is the ONLY bright spot at this establishment. Nice guy. The main guy was rude and dismissive. (Sylvester, I think.) He told me that it was Line 6 that I was upset with, not his store. Yeah, keep deluding yourself, buddy if that helps you sleep at night. Do yourself a favor and bring your business to a place that actually appreciates your patronage, NOT to Freedom Guitars! NEVER AGAIN!!! One more thing… don’t pay cash. Your credit card may be your only avenue of dispute with these jerks!

I’ve lived pretty close to freedom guitar for a few years and I’m still puzzled by all the really nasty experiences I have heard from many people who have done business with them.
So far, they guys (Syllvester, the guy with the glasses and the young guy with the glasses and fuzz) have all been pretty chill guys. I’ve tried some neat gear. 60s mustang bass, 1980s japanese fenders and that old fender rhodes that’s now gone from that.
I agree with the majority that the prices in the store are not that reasonable. the most i’ve really purchased were some guitar cables, picks and some books
but I have gone here to repair my tele or my p-​bass and they have been really reasonable with their set up charges. I even got a discount on a monster cable once for being a loyal customer? (yeah like once every two months haha)
this store does carry a really large amount of things and has a lot of history. I know joe perry from aerosmith recently purchased an amp there. and some guy from some 80s hair metal band used to frequent the story daily when he was a kid. haha
anyways check it out for the selection. theres always random stuff to find in the store (old pedals, old junky guitars, random pickups, cases etc…)

I love Matt so I Just Say No to Freedom Guitars. Go to Dusty’s Music in Oceanside instead… the drive is well worth the selection and wonderful, knowledgeable customer service!

I had an issue with Freedom Guitar about a year and a half ago when I lost my younger brother. We had lost our mother in in a botched surgery a little while before this and my little brother never did recover from his loss. He’s been involved in bands and the local music scene since he was 13. Avid guitarist and all around composer. Well he let the best get to him and developed a drug habit as an easy way out.
He was a good kid, but unfortunately towards the end he had sold both his and my guitars to support his habit. He took mine to Freedom Guitar and his to Guitar Center in La Mesa. I called Guitar Center and told them the situation and that my little brothers guitar had great sentimental value and if I could purchase it back. Without hesitation the woman offered to sell it back to me at cost, no questions asked. She was amazing, and I’ll never forget her generocity.
Freedom on the other hand. well I had told them the story and came in with my original receipt of purchase with my john hancock printed right on it and asked if I could buy my guitar back for a reasonable price. They told me there’d be a 250 dollar mark up on it. Outraged I told them, legally, it was stolen from me and was never theirs to begin with. They we’re incredibly rude to me telling me «that’s life, bud. and this is a business, not a charity». My father had to come back in to buy the guitar back because I couldn’t keep my composure.
My entire family is involved in, and plays music and have all bought from Freedom Guitar over the years. Never again, will I, or anybody close to me, or my family, step foot in this establishment again. In response to the other poster, if god is to take retribution on anybody it’d surely be this shop owner. If I remember correctly greed is one of the 7 deadly sins.
–Matthew Wick