Guitar Center

I bought most of my drum kit (and will order the rest) through the guitar center on BACKUS AVE. Danbury, CT. Everyone there is very helpful, and the prices are very reasonable!

I’m the guy who wrote about the store associate who I described as a pimply fat kid named John.
Well, other side of the spectrum, I just had a couple experiences at the Danbury GC buying a mandolin, and worked with Rich. Rich is helpful, super friendly, and easy to work with and talk to. He’s knowledgeable and smart on the things he knows about, and if he isn’t knowledgeable on a topic can and does find you someone who is. Short of that is very open about what he knows and what he doesn’t, and is then conversational, offering what expertise he does have and giving what feels like real opinions and counsel to help you make a decision in your buying process. It was like making a buying decision with a buddy, rather than a salesman.
You can’t ask for more than that.
He went above and beyond making sure my buying experience was a positive one, helping with returns, discounts, processing, etc., and we had a really good time doing it, as well.
Sure, there are bigger stores, and bigger Guitar Centers in CT. What Rich does is finds that happy place where you get the feel of a small town local store and the pricing and buying power of a mega-​chain like GC.
As I said, you can’t ask for more than that.

I am writing an update to my first review. As this is the largest guitar store in Danbury, it is an important resource for guitar players, even if it isn’t your main store. So, I have two stand out employees that have made my subsequent visits and business with this store much better than my initial experiences when the store opened: 1) The assistant store manager: his first name is Mark and he is absolutely outstanding. He is patient, knowledgeable and exactly the kind of person you’d hope to work with in a store like this. The store still has problems but with a guy like this, I am sure they will get worked out. My experience with him multiple times has been terrific. 2) The guitar tech: guy named Zack. Same deal — 100% outstanding, stand up guy. Huge huge help with my Martin Guitar. Artfully handled me and another customer (that was very smart and quite disgruntled). I also met another employee in the store: Nick. Good guy, wouldn’t hesitate to make a guitar purchase from him (less experience with him then the first two though). All told, the store is still too small however it has some outstanding people and they do have a well architect-​ed learning area. Is it as nice as the Guitar Center in Seattle, WA or even Orange, CT? Well, not really. But is it nice for a neighborhood guitar store? Sure. Just keep staffing with people like Mark, Zack and Nick and the store will easily be at 4 stars. Expand it another 5000 feet and we can talk about 5 stars.

The biggest problem with this store is the lack of real expertise that professionals need in sorting through options. If I’m buying pa speakers, for instance, I want to talk to a pro audio guy, not a guitar player. Anyway, it’s convenient for me when in the area, but I much prefer a knowledgeable staff. Do your research first.