House of Musical Traditions

HOMT used to be a trusted place for me. Never got a reply back to this email where I tried to say they do sloppy work and mishandle instruments the nicest way I knew how. Hey David I’m reaching out about my brand new Eastman E1D that I bought and immediately left with you all for a k&k pickup installation. I’m disappointed with the condition the guitar was returned in. Specifically: There are subtle marks (pressure bruises) on the top that were not there when I paid for the guitar. They show up and align with where hard objects, like the K&K box and strap button, were stored in the outer pouch of the gig bag. In hindsight, I saw that the guitar was crammed between hard cases in the storage room. There was visible adhesive smeared on the 5th fret and also left inside the guitar body. All of the sawdust from the install was still in the guitar. This isn’t what I expected from a professional install from HMT. I’m not writing to ask for compensation, but I do want to be clear that this kind of handling and attention to detail isn’t acceptable, especially on a brand new instrument. More care should have been taken.

It's hard to beat their selection of acoustic instruments, and their instrument repair service is excellent and reasonably priced. I highly recommend. Edit: I still love this shop. They have an impressive selection and the staff is excellent. However, I'm not sure you'd want them to do detailed work on an electric guitar. Probably great for a basic setup, but I had a pickup swap (changing actives to passives) that went wrong and went over budget. The guitar tech was clearly uncomfortable with it and maybe we shouldn't have gone forward. My bad.