Luthier’s Co-Op

Every now and again you run into a place that you hope to find before everyone else does when it’s published in some stupid thrillist or «best places you’ve never heard of» type articles. This place is unreal and almost to the point it hurts me to review it, the down to earth pretentiouslessnes is unbelievable. Great beers without the 12 dollar a glass price and amazing music make this place my go to spot to bring my friends.

This place is fantastic. I brought in two guitars and a bass to get set up before a tour and these guys did a top notch job. Definitely planning to bring my guitar back in soon.

I love this place! Whoever thought hey, let’s put a bar in a music shop is a genius! There is also a little stage and free live music most nights. One night when I was sitting there a bunch of the audience members grabbed some instruments off the wall and started playing. Where else does that happen? I think the only thing missing here is unicorns… anyways, go here if you want to be meet cool people, drink good beer, and buy a guitar (I can proudly say I made a drunk guitar purchase) best guitar ever too!

This place is awesome! Vintage instruments (and awesome tube amps), a small stage for entertainment and a bar! As a guitarist (very amateur at that) this is heaven! It’s that place you dreamed of with some of the most magical guitars ever crafted — vintage guitars that you’ve heard about and would love to play. The amps are fantastic as well, I saw an old Marshall combo there for a good price and may have to go back for it!
Dropped off my vintage acoustic for some repair work and it was clear the owner (I forget his name) knows guitars. He appraised it and did a thorough check to determine what was needed.
The fact that there’s bar there and entertainment is icing on the cake. This is a really cool place. I hope to get up there for a Friday or Saturday night so I can just hang out drinking a couple of beers and listening to other music lovers play.
If you like music, beer/​wine and can appreciate the art of the stringed instrument, you are missing out if you don’t check this place out.

This is a magical place! It’s been exciting to watch the Luthier’s co-​op grow over the past 5 years. Through Steve, I’ve built a back line of colorful, unique, and mojo-​havin’ antique instruments on a bread and butter budget. Best of all– now I can bring my friends to sit in a crowd of guitars, mandolins, and banjos to toast the best local ales and sink away in the talents of Jazz fusion trios, artful song writers and young PVPA’s guitar slingers. I admire Steve’s integrity as a shop owner, he’s dedicated to the shop’s role in the community, and it’s boosting the volume of my favorite Western Massachusetts town of Easthampton. If your looking to slip away for an evening with the real thing. This is it.

This review pertains to the bar side of things, not the music store side. This place is such a neat concept … I think it’s really cool how they turned their music store into a hangout, and for the bar, the instruments hanging all over the walls make decorating a snap. I do wish that there were a little bit more of a drink selection, but overall we had a fun time.

Love this place. Amazing instruments with tons of character. Service is awesome, I’ve had the headstock of my les Paul glued back on and it is great 2 years later, and i use 13 gauge strings on it!!! I have gotten a Gibson J-​60 from there, that was stepped right through by a child, they repaired it amazingly! It is my favorite instrument I own, battles scars only seem to add to the charm of it. I also have a Regal Mandolin and and Ibanez mandolin I got there, and a squier tele and a fender resonator. Wow as i type this i realize how many instruments I have goten there. Support local buisness! They do shows and open jams here which is such a unique experience! 5 stars all the way

I can’t believe I moved to Easthampton without knowing about this place. I’m learning to play the banjo, and this place is as wonderful a resource as I could have asked for.
This is no Guitar Center, and that’s a huge compliment. Most of their stock seems to be consignment, and the variety is pretty interesting. There are a few Fender Strats and Squires, but there are also a lot of brands that I’ve never seen before. You probably won’t recognize a great instrument here just by its looks or model name, but, given the expertise possessed by the people who work here, there are surely some treasures waiting to be found by someone patient enough to explore them. Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, pedal steels, banjos… there’s a lot to see.
And yet, the place doesn’t really feel like a retail store. It’s not packed solid with gear. Rather, it just feels like a big workspace belonging to the people who own and run it, very personal. And work is certainly being done here. I usually walk in to hear the sound of some kind of woodworking machinery emanating from the back of the store while someone else is at the front desk, tool in hand, working on a guitar or violin. Lessons sometimes take place in a small practice room in the back, or sometimes right in the center of the store. There’s free coffee available and a few tables and chairs where you can have a seat.
The first time I entered the store, I was looking for a banjo strap. They carried a new one that was a little overkill for my lightweight banjo, and it costs something like $ 25. However, they also figured out that they had a used mandolin strap that I could use on my banjo with some adjustments, and they sold that to me instead for $ 3. This is not a high-​pressure sales place. The people who I’ve spoken with at the shop genuinely love the instruments and the music. I think they’d rather just quit the business than worry about squeezing every last dollar out of someone. Like I said, this is no Guitar Center.
You might be able to find a cheaper instrument somewhere else. In fact, I’m sure you can, but you’ll get what you pay for. I bought my first banjo pretty cheaply from a guitar shop in Worcester. It wasn’t set up correctly, it was poorly built, and it fell apart in a year. For the same price at Luthiers Co-​op, I could have bought a much nicer banjo (it’s the one that Jane plays during our lessons) that is not only manufactured well but has been in the hands of people who know and care about it.
As mentioned above, I’ve been taking old-​time banjo lessons here. Jane, who teaches banjo, is an amazing person to know. She’s been working with stringed instruments all her life, and she’s an inexhaustible source of knowledge about my instrument and the music I’m learning to play. Because I’m an intermediate player, and because I don’t have any well-​defined goals, our hour lessons are more like conversations in which we talk about whatever songs or techniques I’ve been playing with. She seems comfortable offering me advice without forcing me to accept it. «As long as you’re playing the music the way you want to hear it, that’s good» is what she says. The lessons I’ve had so far have given me a lot of confidence to continue exploring the banjo. I don’t feel boxed in by technique or style. Every week I leave excited to continue playing.
My lessons are $ 45/​hour, and I bought 5 up front for the price of 4. ½ hour lessons are $ 25 I think, but they might vary depending on the instrument/​teacher.
I’ve never had to bring an instrument in for repairs, but given my experience so far, I would absolutely trust them. Like I’ve said, they seem to really care about the instruments, so if there was something they couldn’t take on they would say so.
Aside from the services they offer, the coop also hosts several musical events every month. On wednesdays, the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton hosts an open mic here with an admission donation of $ 5. There’s also a string band jam on the 3^rd friday of each month. These and other events in the region are posted in the front window of the shop. Easthampton’s artistic community is quiet compared to that of nearby Northampton, but it’s also a lot more personal and close. I’m looking forward to becoming a part of it.
This is quite a long review. There’s a lot to say about this place, because it’s not your typical instrument shop. Not by a long shot. I hope you will check them out.