The staff are usually friendly and helpful. The used instruments are often in good condition and the prices are reasonable. The choices for acoustic guitars are low to mid-ranger and a little pricey in my opinion. They have a wider selection of electric guitars.They let you hang around for as long as you want and don’t pressure you into buying things. I haven’t sold anything there. But a few weeks ago, I inquired about putting up my guitar for consignment and felt the price was fair.My only criticism, the reason I gave 3 stars, is the lack of diversity. I haven’t seen a person of color staff member in many years, and I have never seen a woman staff member there. C’mon y’all it’s 2021. Make the effort!My response to the response to my review.:Thanks for clarifying what hasn’t been obvious to me. My apologies for the misrepresentation! I added the star again!

Received quick attention from the young guy behind the counter. Answered my acoustic string questions quickly. Very clean place with a lot of used and new guitars. A nice percussion section also. Its on Shattuck, so parking is a chore. But a nice shop with a lot of cables, straps, pedals and goodies for guitar.

Great local music store. Good selection of equipment for all levels.

Excellent experience. Bought a nice Casio digital piano/keyboard. Great prices and helpful staff. Owner cut me a small deal. Sammy was very helpful.

Excellent selection of vintage instruments. Love to visit often. No pressure to buy. Very favorite guitar store.Awesome to visit! Its like walking into a guitar museum. Great finds for the player and collector alike.

Solid knowledgeable staff.Hidden gem gear.Pedals pedals pedals.💘

Great music store, highly recommend

Great place, the staff is friendly and helpful and they have new gear about every 2 weeks.

Had some questions about an Amp today and was quite pleased with the responses because did some investigation afterwards and the staff were completely correct. Also was fortunate to hear some really good guitar from a gentleman inside. Playing before buying I’m sure. All around Great Experience!!

These guys are businessmen. Not as corporate as Guitar Center. Not a quaint Mom and Pop store.

Great local place for used musical gear. Friendly staff. I always make sure to stop by.

My partner and I always have a great experience here. They helped us find the perfect new guitar for him and were very patient as he tested them. Great service and prices. Ryan is awesome!

Super chill feel with plenty of helpful and knowledgeable staff. Loved that all the amps were ready to plug and play. I admit i havent been to many music stores to compare, but there wont be any need to try someplace else. Well definitely be repeat customers! Hes playing This orange Jackson more than hes played anything else to date. Happy daddy to have a stoked 11 year old rocking a Back in Black riff!

Amazing customer service, good prices, knowledgeable staff and really cool stuff.

Its a guitar store that sells stuff no other mainstream shops carry. Youll find some really unique guitars here that youll never see at Guitar Center.

Old school music shop. Very cool, great prices on vintage amps.

Cool store, friendly staff. Really, really cool collection here, I got to say the selection was really awesome! They definitely have something for everybody here not just the beginner or pro musician. If you need a good amp, some pedals or maybe even a mandolin, this is a great spot to go. Awesome atmosphere, super laid-back, no pushy crazy staff just a cool local music store.

Perfect Music Store...

Cool instruments new and used,please dont touch, more Kool instruments upstairs, a lot to dabble with.

Its good for the musician who knows what they want. Store employees not terribly knowledgeable, but fair prices and good stock.

Friendly and conscientious staff when our online pickup order didnt go through. Easy to get the strings we wanted.COVID: The staff asked every customer to use hand sanitizer at the door and confirmed mask use. The staff was wearing their masks, though they werent always secured. There is plexi glass along the entire register offering a pretty decent shield during transactions and queries. A narrow store, but with the door open it felt ventilated.

I love my bass guitar..

The best place for every starving musician to spend all of their food money 💰.

Very nice place to shop i needed a new MICROPHONE cable. Yesterday for my Bluetooth karaoke machine and ended up with a better one then the original one i had

Great service, by real musicians. Not some pseudo Disney land like guitar center. These guys are the real deal. I went in looking for a few parts for my guitar as well as gear, they were able to give me both advice and the precise equipment I needed. Will definitely keep buying from them.

They are one of the very few music stores still existing in the East Bay. And its a pretty cool store, with mostly used stuff. So their prices are obviously lower

Knowledgeable staff was happy to answer my questions. Good selection of guitars, drums, harmonicas, and a few other instruments and gear. New or used, its a bargain here.

They are stocked wall to wall with a variety of options and seem to be pretty experienced with typical newbie issues on sourcing products like those I have approached them with, both online and at the shop.

Great music store. They have books and blank song books as well.

I go here occasionally. Recently, I bought the last Yamaha recorder they had in stock. Great price, too. I really like the array of instruments I see in there, including ones I dont play. There are some unique finds and a good choice among the more commonly popular. Im mainly a percussionist but havent yet become much of a customer for that. Im still unsure why, but each time Ive gone in there, the attending staff havent been friendly, even though Im buying. They lost a star for that.

I have been buying from and selling gear to Starving Musician for 10+ years and they have a great selection of gear reasonably priced. The staff are well... F*#%ING awesome! They know whats up and most of them play in local bands too. You will be hard pressed to find a better music store in the locality.

Popped in on my way to my dentist...best place to spend 15-20 mins just looking at pedals and other guitar gear! As usual I saw a couple items Ill be back to get when I have more time! Cool place and cool employees too!

Such a helpful store. They answered all of my questions even when I didnt fully understand how to ask them. Beautiful little shop with nice guys.

This is a cheap music store specializing in low priced intro student instruments, covering more than just guitars and basses. Bit of a yawn though, with very few well prepared / setup instruments.

I am an Oakland Police Department Investigator working in Criminal Investigations. I have dealt with The Starving Musician over the years and I have found they have always been helpful and cooperative with our investigations, and I feel they have always treated people who have had their instruments stolen and later sold in their store very fairly. My kudos to this business for doing the right thing and playing an active role in reuniting victims with their stolen property!

Staff is cool and laid back. most people mistake them not kissing customer ass and stalking you like at GC a bad thing but I do not. I have bought, sold, traded many thing and they are always hip and good to deal with. Anytime I have called to see if they had something they were helpful and cool. ThanksBig Jon

Great local music store. So happy to go there for basic music supplies like guitar strings, drum sticks. They dont really carry wind instrument supplies. Their focus is electric guitars, amps, pedals and some percussion.

I bought a guitar really nice for a good price the salesman was knowledgeable and friendly

Went to buy strings/strap and the guy sold me 12-string strings. When I went back in to exchange them he handed me the correct strings and told me they were the same price (theyre not). I paid $25 for strings.....avoid this scammy shop

I went in to the Starving Musician and, to start, not one employee uttered a word to me. Second I wanted to play a bass, but there was no cable. I grab a cable and discover that not a single bass amp would power on, even when plugged in. On top of it, none of the employees seemed to really care anyway. Come on, its a music store-- people are supposed to be chill and happy to be there. You guys are just as bad as the people in Seattle. I wouldnt go back.

Good selection but was told after about an hour to wrap it up dude couldnt even make eye contact. Rude, was looking for a new rig and possibly another guitar...Ill just go to watermelon in Davis, better selection anyways

Large selection of lower end guitars and basses, plus strings, cables, band instrument supplies and pedals. Some cool used amps, but the guitars are garage band quality. Prices are not so competitive, and Im not sure if the service here warrants the extra expense. But if you want to avoid the Guitar Center corporate thing, this is your only real alternative in Berkeley. Well, theres Subway, but thats really on the fringe.

Go here. Great rotating collection of new and used gear. Find that pedal you read about online used and pay for it with the best layaway policy in the Bay Area.

This place is great. I went in and asked for strings for my cuatro and while they didnt have any in store, they gave me something comparable. I ended up ordering the strings meant for the instrument through their website for pick up and they mailed them to me with no extra charge! I also met one of their employees at a sushi place in Oakland and gave them edamame we couldnt finish, we started chatting about tattoos and stuff. I went in to by ukulele strings and he gives me the house brand ones and says theyre on the house. I was confused until he showed me the tatoo and says Payback for the edamame! Really just a bunch of quality people, definitely recommend it!

Awesome selection of used and refurbished guitars, bass, and other instruments (even some old amps and electronic equipment that can be used with MIDIs) definitely recommend checking it out!

Great store - very helpful staff. They dont try to sell you stuff (ie, Guitar Center) and they honestly help you find the best deals for what youre looking for.Very affordable and overall excellent quality. Lots of used stuff if thats what youre looking for too.

Reviewed great assistance, help and advice from David. Happily bought new guitar with his advice and guidance. Highly recommend

Attentive and very timely service. They performed a minor guitar repair on the spot and didnt charge me.

In and out super quick, found exactly what I wanted and at a great price !I wanted to avoid buying online, it feels so much better to shop local whenever possible.Bonus stars for the friendly professional service

Bought the best bass ever here. And too much other gear to list. Friendly laid back staff.

Wanted to stay and check out the store, but this is the most pretentious place Ive ever been in my entire life (with the exception of one of the employees with a fro. He was cool). Lacked good vibes.

Support independent music stores before they disappear. This place has what every musician needs, knowledgeable staff!

A great local music shop... I got a good deal on a 20th anniversary Squier Strat.

Cool!

Nicest people!!!Great prices!!!Will definitely be coming back for guitar fixing and buying other instruments!

Some nice guitars,I wonder how many starved musicians had to sell their guitar close to nothing just to get by.

This has always been a great store, good friendly staff, good deals on equipment.

Ive shopped here for years and have always received great service . Theyre always happy to help you with your musical needs .

Visited this place for the first time this weekend. Better selection of products than I anticipated. The staff was rude though. Made it seem like I was bothering them when I asked a question.

Great place to rent instruments from. Staff is great and very helpful.

This is not a place to go if youre looking to be treated well and want to be able to take your time with choosing stuff like guitars or other instruments. My friends and I have gone in a few times looking at guitars to possibly buy, and have also spent a few hundred dollars there collectively in the past few months, but at this point I would give negative stars if I could, because the owner is just a huge jerk. He kept rushing us saying things like ok five minutes guys and Im trying to run a business here so you cant stay if youre not gonna buy anything about 10 minutes after I bought $70 worth of stuff! He also claimed that I was taking up time he could be using on other customers, even though none of us asked anyone working there for help. There were only 2 other people in the store anyway! There is almost no space to walk in this store and if you accidentally bump into stuff the owner will get mad at you too. Basically there is no getting along with him and it has ruined my experience there to the point that there is no point in going anymore. He has done this kind of stuff before but this time he was even more rude than usual. I dont think that the owner understands that most people want to look around before they spend several hundred dollars on something. Ive tried to be polite to him in the past but I just cant anymore. My friends and I have been treated with nothing but hostility by the owner. The employees are very helpful and friendly but the owner clearly doesnt want to deal with anyone who stays in the store for more than a few minutes. Youll have a much better time going to the Guitar Center at the Emeryville public market. The staff are much more friendly and there is a much better selection of stuff with comparable, and often even better prices. Once again, the employees of the starving musician are very friendly and helpful but thats not enough to make up for the rudeness and hostility of the owner who is almost always there.

Great place to find them special little jewels.

Awesome!! Righteous pro gear selection!! Great service as well!

Their selection is alright and the people who work there are kind of hit and miss

My husband got a pretty nice used guitar from here, its beautiful and it was inexpensive!

I sold a guitar that Id bought for $250, but I only got $40 for it. At the time, I needed the money badly enough that I took it.

Great selection awesome workers

Nice vintage bass gear.

Because the Guitar Center killed the Fifth String we should try to save the Starving Musician.

Amazing collection of music equipment

They got it all, good service, etc.

Good gear!

Didnt buy my gear lol

They deal in stolen goods. Then they make the victims buy their stuff back

Friendly place with honest prices

Nice, helpful staff and good gear

Good alternative to GC

Extremely nice folks

Always helpful

Friendly local shop

A great place !!!!!

Sick!

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