Guitar Resurrection

Want in to check out a new bass amp and figured I would go support a local spot. The place has some great looking guitars but it felt like one of those music store you would go into as a child trying to rent a clarinet or something. They didn't let me pick which bass to play through the amp and they were looking over me a lot like I was a child.

Amazing place. Picked up a Dr. Z amp and had the utmost of respect for Jim's opinion.

Excellent stock and hands-on, knowledgeable owner and staff with many years of experience.

Guitar Rez is an institution in Austin. Incredible range or guitars and amps, many of which you won't find at other stores. Best place to hang out and talk gear, music. There's a group of regular customers that stop by most Saturdays - always fun to catch up. I've found (too) many good deals here on PRS, Santa Cruz, and Gibson and Fender Custom Shop guitars. Definitely check out the used gear - all top notch and usually priced below what you'll see on Reverb.

They fixed my bass guitar quickly and with good communication.

Awesome local music store. Goto place for music stuff. Rainsong guitars, G&K Amps, Trace Elliot amps, fender etc. Typically has internet prices at a local shop. Highly recommended!

Drove 45 minutes to get there. As soon as I walked in was asked if I'm vaccinated. I said no and was asked to leave. At the time of writing this review mask mandates have been over in this city for over a year.

Friendly service. Decades of knowledge. And always a selection of new and used instruments that you won't find at a big-box retailer.

Just completed a layaway purchase for a used Gibson J185 working with Jim at Guitar Resurrection and my experience was perfect as usual. This is the fourth guitar I've purchased from him in the past five years and there's a reason I keep coming back. This shop is comfortable and unpretentious - with a far more friendly, consultative approach than the usual Austin music store experience.

He was patient with me throughout - in evaluating the instrument, the layaway process, selecting the right pickup, etc. Proud to be a repeat customer and recommend Jim and Guitar Rez to anyone in the market for anything guitar related.

Great shop as long as you understand what you're getting into. This ain't Guitar Center. I'm not even sure they have a sign out front, so that kinda tells you how enthusiastic they are about attracting new customers. But if you want to buy something special, they could be the place. No $200 Epiphones here. Lots of signs that say "ASK BEFORE PLAYING." These guys don't want you scuffing up their gear unless you're a serious buyer. Doesn't bother me, I can't afford the stuff anyway!

I just go for repair work and basic stuff like strings. They haven't let me down! And it can be hard to find a place that does decent maintenance work without either a) taking forever, or b) charging an arm and a leg. I don't trust a big box shop with my gear, so I'm happy to have these guys in the neighborhood.

Awesome, everything a guitar player could ever want. Really amazing customer service. Great prices and no massive Ego like the employees at Guitar center have. I will shop at Guitar Resurrection from now on.

I have had issues with a pickup selector for years and have tolerated it. Today I called Guitar Resurrection for help and Jim worked his magic and was able to restore the original part in two minutes by cleaning and testing. Thanks Jim, I am so pleased that it works properly again! I am able to fully enjoy my guitar after all this time. Next time, I will not hesitate to call the experts at GR. All the Best!

When going to Guitar Resurrection, it's a little strange to get to (if going north on Lamar, you must pass and do a turn-around to legally be able to enter their street). However, I will say it is definitely worth it. My brother has purchased a beautiful guitar there, I have had my guitar work done there (and unlike other places, they gave me the pros and cons of what I was planning to do-not just trying to sell a service), and purchased various items, and I believe I was treated so well that I recommend this place to my friends and I will definitely return.

I wish I could play a chord and some notes for whoever is reading this, to hear. My guitar sounds Amazing! I have a nice Strat that had some dead notes, and it wasn't playing chords in tune, even after tuning each of the strings. It just needed a professional tune up. It got that and more! All of the dead notes have been brought back to life, and everything plays in tune nicely and it just sounds amazing! Its also easier to press the notes down on the neck, and I no longer get a zip sound when I slide up and down the fretboard! I couldn't be more satisfied with service.

Nicest guys and great gear. I wish I could stop by more often. When I've needed random parts or had requests, they've always taken care of me. I'd much rather buy my gear from them than Guitar Center or online.

This one of the best high end guitar and amp dealers anywhere. Jim thenowner knows alot about gear amd will share the information freely. I have played and tire kicked many before I bought. Most of the time I go to look and test. Over the 10 years I havd frequented the store I have bought 1 amp and 3 really nice guitars and have had them service an amo amd a couple of my guitars.

The service is great the the gear is top notch. My next trip will be to fix a G&L guitar I bought used and has never been totally right. In confident they will get it right as they always have in the past. They are even flexible during this pandemic with store hours and turnaround times. I realky appreciate Jim amd his staff.

I have meant to submit this review for quite some time now, but after seeing all of the negativity on both Yelp and Google reviews for the Rez, I had to step in. Firstly let me say I grew up here, I left for 20 years while I served in the Marine Corps, but this is home so I had to move no where else but here. Upon moving back I began looking around for guitar stores to hang out and make purchases, try out gear, buy gear, finding new and exciting stuff.

Let me say Jim is not your social butterfly but he is a quite pleasant person and store owner. When I first came to Guitar Rez I felt a little of the same because it was a smaller store, the equipment is a little more expensive, and yes you have to ask to plug in to the more expensive rarer, and hard to find toys they have here. What you won't find, self help gear and amps to plug into, broken equipment on display, dirty guitars, out of tune (detuned) guitars, no Crate, Line 6, or Blackstar amps.

No Mitchell, sterling, Epiphone, or lower end budget guitars, also not a huge selection of used guitars on display. What you will find small staff, great amp selection, great selection of clean, playable, immaculate, in tune guitars to try and buy. What some people fail to realize is that they aim for a specific level of guitar, and gear enthusiast.

The vintage lover, the music professional, the collector, and people who want to admire quality equipment for a fair price. I have made many purchases here my self, but about twice a week I love to just come in and talk about new gear, try new gear. and sometimes go home with a newly purchased guitar or amp. They work on my electrics, and sometimes we don't even talk about guitars. GASP!

Sometimes it is Woody Allen, or other comedy films, or life in general, or foreign travels. If you want to compete with other cookie monster detuned guitars at insane volume levels, or look try out the latest offering from Line 6 or Boss. If you want to look at quality offerings from PRS, Fender Custom Shop, G&L, Gibson, Bogner, ENGL and be assured what you are buying has been properly cared for and you will have to ask for permission to play, yes this is your place. No couches, no cookie monster, no fancy murals.

Very cool shop top notch instruments I've bought some of the finest Guitar's iPhone through these guys for a decent price definitely worth a shot You might find your dream guitar

Guys are really nice here, and know a lot about the various equipment. The building looks super sketchy outside. I don't even think the sign says "Guitar Resurrection" on it. Really the only downside of this place is it looks like you'd get robbed in the 5 seconds it takes to get from your car to the door. However! On the inside they have an overwhelming number of guitar FX pedals, that the employees know almost everything about.

One of the dudes was explaining a certain pedal to me down to the coils it uses. He gave a very concise explanation of the difference between the pedals, as well as their prices and exactly what I should expect from them. They also let you test the equipment out before you buy it, so you can really do your research and make sure you take home exactly what you need

Yes, it's true that someone has to help you with the high-end guitars, but there are a lot of tire kickers out there who will just come into play and aren't really interested in buying. I've spent hours there A/B'ing 3 contending guitars at a time. There's never any pressure. I found honesty and good, helpful information. I had a less than five star experience buying a used amp once But I'm still happy to do business there.

I think the prices are fair and that Jim cares about his customers. If you don't go here because of someone else's review about being unhappy that they couldn't scratch every guitar in the place you're making a mistake. And the person's comment in another review about having to know what you want just isn't true, at least not for me anyway.

Great selection of moderate-to-high end guitars and basses. It's a shame that 1/3 of them aren't allowed to be played without specific permission. Such instruments should be off the floor and behind the counter. The boutique amp selection is generous, but they won't let you plug into any of the amps yourself - they have to do it for you.

Really kills the whole vibe of shopping for your next big purchase, especially when you can just go to another guitar shop and try the same amps without the mother-may-I approach, especially when the sales guy negates any argument of "damaging the merchandise" by carelessly steamrolling over a guitar stand while plugging the damn thing in. The store had literally zero customers in it (on a Saturday!), and the employees seemed more intent with checking their phones than to check to see if their instruments were in tune.

The arrogance and snobbery was pretty tangible. Great shop if you like to be treated like an infant in a pottery store. Honestly if they had any more worship for Blues Lawyer toys, they'd break their arms from jerking off too hard.

I've bought and traded a boat-load of fine instruments in my 52 years, mostly through Guitar Rez. I rarely deal with anyone else in the business and usually wind up regretting it when I do (except with my friends at Cotten Music in Nashville). I cannot recommend Guitar Rez highly enough; tops for product knowledge, service, experience and integrity.

Great selection of QUALITY guitars, amps and gear at competitive prices. If you're looking to kill an hour or so shredding on every guitar and amp in the place, then go to Guitar Center. If you want the best and you're serious about it, then go to Guitar Rez.

Awesome store. the staff was friendly and really knowledge also just really chill guys who know music and enjoy operating an old school mom and pop style shop I recommend this place to everyone, its a great alternative to big chain shops like Guitar Center

What a disappointment! Went to this out of the way store to look at quality, recent and vintage acoustics. Staff appeared bothered to have customers actually invade their space. May have had some nice guitars (played a couple of R. Taylors) but having to put up with the staff who were particularly unfriendly took all the fun out of the experience. Would not recommend these guys. If you're in Austin.go to Austin Vintage Guitars.they're way nicer and have a much more varied selection of quality used guitars.

This guys have plain bad customer service. I bought several guitars from them in a month. One was an Esteve classical guitar barely 30 days old (under warranty). One of their claims was great customer service. The guitar had a buzz in it when you play a G chord. I brought it in and the owner pretended like he could not hear the buzz, but one of the workers kept saying, "There is it is" can't you hear it".

It was fairly obvious even to an untrained ear. They claimed it was repaired twice, by changing strings etc. Finally on the 3rd time, they had me come back, they owner just sat there and the employees appeared to be not allowed to speark. I am a collector/player and would not recommend them to anyone.

This place has a great selection of boutique amps and vintage guitars. The prices are standard for what you would pay for these items. They don't have a reputation for giving you killer deals. They do have a reputation for not being the friendliest cats, and I found that to be true until I actually demonstrated to them that I had a freaking clue about gear.

It seems that if you can engage them in some intelligent talk, they'll be nicer to you. Otherwise, they'll turn into Nigel Tufnel and tell you, "Don't touch that one, don't look at it, it's not to be played." I guess guitars are just supposed to hang up on a wall. My bad. This is the only place in Austin I've seen Bogner or Top Hat amps.

They have other boutique amps as well, so it's worth going there to check that stuff out. Just act like you're going to buy it, or they won't let you touch it.