Voltage Guitars

Wonderful shop! One of the only stores I have ever been in that actually know what they are talking about. Lloyd C. the owner and everybody else were always so friendly and extremely informative, over the years going to Voltage G. was always such an experience, not only for the people you could casually encounter there (stars!) but also about the friendliness and AMAZING GUITARS! I love this place!

I don’t usually write reviews on Unilocal,but I felt strongly enough about my experiences with Voltage Guitars that I was motivated to do so. I will present the facts and you can decide for yourself. My first experience with Voltage was back in 2004 when I bought a stock 1978 Fender Precision bass from them after seeing it advertised on their website, but more on that in a minute.
A year or so later, I was also in the market for a quality acoustic guitar, so I bought an old Guild flat top they had listed on the site. I spoke with them over the phone, paid for the guitar and asked them to hold it for me and they assured me that they would. Later that week, I took a day off work and made a seven hour drive down from the Bay Area to pick up the guitar so that I wouldn’t have to risk damage during shipment. When I got to the store, they informed me that they had sold the guitar. You know, the one I had already paid for. They didn’t bother informing me of this until I showed up at their store. Instead, they offered me a thoroughly trashed POS Guild acoustic for the same price. They never even bothered to apologize or explain how/​why they sold the guitar I had already been charged for. They didn’t seem particularly concerned about it either, but just kind of sneered at me when I explained how I had taken off work and made the drive down for nothing. I literally drove away from their shop shaking my head at the lack of regard they showed me as a customer and still remember the experience all these years later.
Now back to the bass. I played that «stock 1978» Fender Precision for years, then decided to sell it recently, so I could buy an amp. I listed the bass on Craigslist as what it had been represented to me as, a 1978 Fender Precision. A prospective buyer who used to work for one of the major American guitar manufacturers and who knows a lot about vintage instruments showed up to inspect the bass. In the process of that examination, we removed the pickguard to access the control cavity and determined from the serial number on the pots that they were actually made in 1981. Also, this gentleman brought a Fender Precision he already owned with a serial number lower than mine, which he had already authenticated as an ’81. Subsequent research confirmed that the serial number on my bass is indicative of a bass made in ’81, as is the finish. Finally, the owner’s manual that was included in the case has a copyright date of 1981. The gentlemen decided not to buy the bass and I will most likely have to sell it for less than I paid to adjust for the difference in market demand between instruments manufactured in the seventies vs. the eighties.
So, my conclusion is that either Voltage, a dealer whose entire business is selling vintage guitars, cannot accurately determine the vintages of the guitars they are selling, or they are misrepresenting at least some of the instruments they are offering to get a higher price for them. I’m not sure which, but in either case I would not recommend them. If you decide you are going to buy from them, I would strongly advise you to do your due diligence and personally verify anything they tell you about the instrument you are interested in. Do not take their word for it or you may not get what you think you are paying for.