Long & McQuade

They are getting better since the last time I went there last year as I’m an online shopper now. The last guitar I bought there had a warped neck that was in the used section. Not going to say what the exact model is but I’ll never buy a guitar there again. It kind of made sense why such an expensive guitar was so cheap but no warning at all the neck was warped. I would have returned it but I sold it on ebay.
in experience the employees don’t know enough. Friendly. yes. I asked them for quick connect cables one year for some EMG ⁸¹⁄₈₅ pickups (I know boring) and the guy looked at me blankly and so many of the guys working there mention kijiji. They make no effort to stand up for the prices in the shop when moms and dads of rockstars want a deal as smoking hot as their kids licks they belt out from a tab site. Not to say that you can walk all over them and get prices we want but every single time I go in there I check out the selections and so forth and I’m surprised they don’t get fired for mentioning it.
I find their selection to be boring. It took them years to get 7 and 8 string guitars in. I didn’t see 7 string D’Addario packs for 2 – 3 years of me going there. The pickup selection is ok at best. Pickups, strings and plectrums (picks) are the 3 best sellers in any shop it’s hard to disagree but 90% of the time they either will have to order you that Seymour Duncan Black Winter or EMG 66, as they are dealers of their parts. String wise. rotosound, d’addario, gibson, dean markley (garbage), GHS and Ernie Ball. Apparently Dunlop makes long and mcquade brand strings but even so it’s just the basic one kind of each. Material matters. I have steel on one guitar for this, pure nickel on another guitar for that. Their parts selection was awful and because of it I’m an online shopper. Again I could always ask them to order crap but it’s not hard to «figure out» their distributors to do it myself. Allparts for example you may see something on and have an excuse to go there because shipping from their warehouse is expensive and they actually turn down orders under X amount but long and mcquade does orders even if they are 1 $. I had to actually put a down payment on two screws. The guy gave me 10 cents back from my deposit and I joked with him saying excellent I can buy a gibson or two with this and he didn’t like that.
The owners or guys deciding what gets in at corporate level making the big decisions are of it is that they are stuck in the golden ages of the 50s to 70s. I mean sure Gibson. Fender and PRS everyone thinks are untouchable and only they can make guitars but there is so many great guitar brands out there that won’t break the bank I’m sure they will make as much money distributing enough Jackson, ESP/​LTD, Dean, Schecter, Washburn guitars for the metal community. One guy had the balls to tell a friend of mine that a les paul was a metal guitar.
ways to improve
diversify, not just 50 year olds shop at long and mcquade.
have less les pauls
more unique shapes. V, more explorers and so forth. Make the kids heads turn
there are other bass guitars besides P-​bass and jazz basses
have a little box and if enough people suggest a product bring it in
and again. diversity is key. Don’t target one customer base and only that.
in the end I’m sticking to ebay and kijiji though. I’m done with L&M and only go there when I’m desperate

I am a teacher and this is where we go to rent our lights and other equipement we need, from time to time, for school events. I have rented from them before, but never gone to actually pick things up before. I found the staff friendly, knowledgeable and their prices reasonable.
My only criticism would be that the area for renting equipment is small and shabby and they (for some unknown reason) had to get our rental approved by management, I guess because we’re a school, even though we’re in the system and have rented many times before. We had to wait to get in touch with someone on the phone. It was annoying and seemed unnecessary. Obviously it’s some weird policy, so I don’t blame the workers or anything.
Returning was nice and quick!

I love music so as you can imagine this store is one of favorite they sell all of my favorite Jazz instruments. I am a rusty Saxophonist I enjoy being in a place where I can talk about music.
The staff is very knowledgable and experienced in what they do, as fellow musicians its easy to talk in industry language with them.
#30daysofyelp

The place is a bit disorganized and prices aren’t that great but they have a fairly good selection at least. I usually wait until there’s a sale so if you know what you want and call ahead to make sure it’s in stock, you should survive the experience.

Long and McQquade has earned their 5 star review, and then some. I wanted to buy my wife an electric guitar for Christmas, but I was out of town leading up to the holiday. I was fortunate enough to have my generous mom take care of the tiresome leg work.
The guitar I was originally going to buy wasn’t one they’d be able to supply, but they offered alternatives. They also said I could check the store in Vancouver (where I was staying) to see if there was something else I wanted that might be similar. If there was they’d check to see if this (Scarborough) store had it. If not they’d check if other stores in Toronto had it. If need be they would even ship any guitar I might have found in Vancouver for free if they could locate it locally.
That blew me away. Plus if my wife wasn’t happy with it she could exchange it or get a full refund. That to me is the pinnacle of customer service. Fortunately I was able to find something else, and they were able to order it directly from the supplier without incident. But the effort they were willing to make is definitely something worth applauding.
Well done L & M!