Island Music Co

Bought a Rickenbacker 330 off the web from Island. Found a tiny blemish. Matt offered me a full refund immediately or a discount to reflect the damage. So generous I felt embarrassed accepting. Highly recommended. You can trust these people.

This music store advertises a great variety of left-​handed instruments. That is the only reason I purchased from them online from across the country. I’m sure from the many rave reviews this place receives, that if you live in MD. this is a great «brick and mortar» location for buying gear. As a left handed player looking for something specific, I did not have that option in my area. So I was sucked into an online purchase experience that turned out to be terrible.
1. Their website looks/​operates like something circa 1995
I wasn’t able to see that the instrument I wanted was out of stock and needed to be special ordered (causing an additional 2 week wait time for the instrument). I was only informed of this until after I had paid over $ 700 for my purchase. Also, there was no confirmation screen to verify my address/​contact info and no way to verify that my banking info. had been processed (I had to double check my bank’s site to make sure).
2. They did not send me the tracking info. for the instrument when they sent it out. The shipment was already in transit once I got concerned and had to email them asking about the status.
3. THEY SENT THE SHIPMENT TO THE WRONG ADDRESS! I recently moved and had to use my old address in the billing section so the purchase would be processed correctly. I also included my current SHIPPING address and knew that they had that on file. I got home, the shipment status says delivered. but the package was not there! Luckily I was able to put 2 and 2 together and live close to my old place and was able to run over there and grab it before someone else did!
4. They are proud to include an instrument set up by a technician. Well, their tech. did a horrible job on my instrument. The instrument’s neck was bowed forward to a degree that made it unplayable, and nearly could’ve ruined it permanently. This also contributed to another part becoming defective. When all was said and done this added $ 100 to the cost so that I could get it properly set up and repaired.
Bottom line: IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN MARYLAND DON’T BUY FROM THIS PLACE IT’S TOO MUCH OF A RISK FOR ANY VALUABLE PIECE OF GEAR. Online customers are better off going through a vendor like Sweetwater. and if the instrument is harder to find… go to a local dealer and order through them. Take it from someone who had to learn the hard way (almost $ 900 later…)!

Awesome music store been going there for years. Great customer service, and when you go you have to meet keith the owner. The only person I khow who brought ther Dream to life.