Nick Rail Music

Great, caring, thoughtful kids. And they have the good sense to love The Iron Giant!

I've been going to Nick Rail Music in Santa Barbara since1987 for all my trumpets, mutes, and other music accessories and repairs. The staff is awesome, too It's great to have such a wonderful full service music store in town!

We had an emergency viola problem, and Cody was so helpful! I love having this music shop in town.

First time in that nice little store. Awesome! customer service

Made a call to this music store having done some business some time ago. The gentlemen I had dealt with was no longer there (very nice gentleman). I need some work on my sax, so I called this music store again today. A man answered the phone, I asked for the gentleman I has worked with previous, and was told he was no longer there, so I asked for his name and he would not answer. I asked again for his name and he hung up on me! Great customer service. Don't waste your time, very BAD customer service.

I've been to literally hundreds of music stores being a 30+ year guitar hobbyist and collector. We were looking for a Trumpet for my son to rent for school band These guys were great. We were greeted warmly and they were very accommodating to our requirements and working with us to get to an acceptable instrument and rental agreement with a reasonable applicable credit toward purchase. We've rented at other stores in the past that were 5 start experiences.

This store was small but great and inviting. It was the polar opposite of our experience at Bertrands. Bertrands was an absolutely horrible experience with cold lifeless greeting, lack of customer service skills, crappy instruments, and overall feeling they were just trying to rent you the crappiest used instrument they could for the highest price.

Super friendly and helpful. Highly recommended to anyone on the Scripps Poway area. I was there to get a $5 item for my daughter and they made me feel appreciated as much as someone buying a new $700 instrument.

I was really looking forward to renting a clarinet from this location. Unfortunately, the service was terrible and I decided against it. Try a different music shop or try ordering online.

Go there if you need to buy supplies. Do NOT take your brass instruments for repair. I recently took my euphonium in to get chemically-cleaned (a regular service for brass instruments). The carelessness began when the store employee began handling my horn with a college/HS grad ring on his hand, and I could HEAR metal-on-metal contact.you don't wear rings when you handle brass instruments!

Especially not when they're silver-plated. Fast-forward a day. I receive a call that two valve slides are frozen, and they could unstick them for an extra $20-40. Considering I had performed with the instrument (with all working valve slides) on the day before I took it to the shop, I called B.S. and told them to not perform any extra services.

I come to pick it up a couple days later. I didn't get a good look at it in the shop (I was in a time crunch), but I did check the 2nd valve slide and it moved effortlessly. The employee went ".huh." and I knew that their service cost offer was B.S. I take the horn out later, and three observations: 1) there is a new 1-inch scratch/dent on the backside of the bell, 2) there are new scuffs all over the body of the instrument, particularly on the bottom bow and bell flare, and 3) the newly-replaced felts were installed so that the top three valves were at uneven heights (which creates uneven-sized tubing and can lead to response and intonation issues).

I was able to deal with the felts, but you cannot remove scuffs and scratches. Especially from a silver-plated instrument. If you want your brass instrument to be serviced by people who will handle the instrument without damaging it, do not take it to Nick Rail Music. I will be taking all of my future work to Windsmith and Bertrands' from now on.

They are always sooo nice and sooo helpful with even the smallest of needs. They've helped me with instruments and services for the family in multiple categories and helped me find ways to save money, but get quality goods and services. I feel like they are a beacon in the community and super glad to know them!

NOT RENT OR BUY FROM THEM. GO ONLINE AND GET WHAT YOU NEED 4 TIMES CHEAPER THEN HERE. I rented a Sax for my daughter for 3 years paying $61.00 per month for an Alto Accent Sax with an option to buy. When the 3 years were completed they said that only 2 years applied for the buy option. I said ok how much more do i need to buy it? They still wanted $900 plus and i had already paid $1800 on rental and this type of Sax sell for $350 used online.

I tried to use the money to buy something else because i had to get something equal or higher value as long as it was a band instrument. I ask for a clarinet that had the price of $1900 and they said that if i wanted that one I had to pay the resale price of $2400 so i still needed out of pocket $600 and I said but the price says $1900 and with no shame at all they said thats for someone that comes in and buys it here in the store but since you are using credit then you have to pay de resale price.

The customer service was terrible and the way they steal people's money and taking advantage of students its totally wrong. I hope they are giving money back to the schools for having them as the renters for their bands.

Great experience here with Brian. My brother needed to find a mouthpiece that worked with a new kind of trombone he started to use. Brian was knowledgable and encouraged my brother to test drive different kinds with a trombone at the store. He set up a room and my brother was able to find one that he found to be perfect. Brian also offered to polish it and it looked great!

The guy at the front was a pleasure and my boyfriend really enjoyed the little jam rooms they have, super rad!

I brought my Yamaha Bass Trombone for a Sonic cleaning which cost $140 and it was one of the most disappointing jobs I had ever seen, there was gunk still on the inside of the slides, and they had to actually take it back to clean the spots left over from the cleaner all over the bell section. On top of that there were solder points that were damaged in the process. Extremely disappointed with the quality of care they had towards my instrument. Would not recommend if it's anything but a student instrument.

Really wish they'd be honest and upfront about how the credit works after renting an instrument. They tell you when you rent it that any money paid for the rental goes towards the purchase of an instrument once the rental period is up. What they don't tell you is it only good on brand new instruments, at the severely inflated retail price.

No consignments, no student instruments, no Nick Rail proved items. Full retail only, at around double the price of a Nick Rail instrument. So the $500 I've paid for my sons instrument is useless now. I appreciate how helpful they are and knowledgeable, but that's a shady practice that I wish I would've been told about upfront so I could've spent $500 elsewhere. I'm not rich, and it really would've been helpful to not toss that money towards nothing.

Update: Yes, you are correct that it was approximately 6 months ago (not sure why that is important) - I recently started a Yelp account which is why I posted it now. So, if you haven't changed your policies it is still applicable. Additionally, I believe it was poor training on behalf of your employees because not one, but two (male and female) gave me the same information. Had this been handled in a different way, I would not have resorted to this. Warning: If your child's instrument gets stolen or lost they are not very helpful.

My son's trumpet was taken at school and he had a concert the following week. The employees/management do not lend instruments, even for a day. We paid for two years and the only advice they could give us was to file a police report. I took the necessary steps and took my business to Bertrand's in Rancho Penasquitos - they told me that they would NEVER see a student go without an instrument for their concert. The reason I gave them 3 stars is because they have 5 star teachers working there - Mike is awesome.

Thanks to Nick Rail our music program at TPMS has benefited. Excellent service and true gem!

We rented a tenor sax for my son's school band class and could not have received more helpful service than we got from Joseph. Bought accessories we probably would have purchased online, but he made us feel we were getting the straight scoop from him about our options, so that made me want to throw more business their way.

Outstanding experience purchasing a saxophone yesterday. Great sales people to work with - Joseph and Brian were both informative and helpful, as well as patient - giving us all the time we needed to make our decision. Highly recommend!

I had really pleasant communications when I came in yesterday. I picked up a case for my tenor ukulele, talked to the main guy about my instrument and went on my way :

I needed to get my daughter a clairnet for band camp last minute(hers was stolen)so i went online and the application to rent-to-own was quick and simply. I called them and left a message with Irm at their corporate office requesting to get her instrument the same day. She responded within hours and told me we could pick it up before 5! Upon arrival the staff already were expecting us and its was the easiest transaction EVER! The staff was friendly and helpful! they were AWESOME! Thank you

I agree with Steven D. The manager of this store (?Cheryl?) should be an embarrassment to the owner. As a casual shopper I have observed her amazing rudeness to other customers on several occasions. Her attitude is nasty and condescending. She has answered my simplest question with an attempt to belittle my knowledge in face of her superiority. (If I knew all the answers, why would I ask a question in the first place?) Get rid of her, Nick.

I just rented a trombone for my son, they are really nice, prices are reasonable. It was used, and they found a small ding in it (which I didn't even see) and they are fixing it before we take it home. I was impressed.

I really am glad I found this place. I just got back into playing my trumpet again after 20+ years and found that I had misplaced all of my trumpet books. They had a good selection of books and music for the trumpet and I was able to talk to them about some issues I was having with my Mt. Vernon Bach. They recommended that I bring it in and let Daniel, their repair guy look at it.

I did and it turns out I had a few more serious problems than I thought. I decided to retire the trumpet and buy a new one. I found a great deal on a used Strad on eBay and once it arrived I had Daniel perform a sonic clean on it and unstick my third valve slide. He went above and beyond, this trumpet looks brand new. It didn't matter that I didn't buy a new horn from them, they treated me just like I had.

I will definately be back for more items as I need them. They don't have everything but can order in or have items brought down from their other locations as needed. I am more than please with the service and professionalism of these folks. Daniel is one of the best repair guys and I will take the Mt. Vernon in for final repairs before retiring it and using it only for special occasions. I look forward to many years of doing business with them.

Took my clarinet to two dealers (closer to me that Nick Rail) - with somewhat lower than $100 in service each. Still had problems. 'Ross' at Nick Rail fixed several minor problems and now it works perfectly (to the limit of my ability anyway)! Charged me less than 1/3 of what either of the other two charged. Don't know if it's the way to make money, but it's a great way to run a business from this customer's view. I'll go back for my next purchase or repair!

It's a fairly small instrument store. They've got other locations too, including Santa Barbara and Agoura Hills, which is probably why I've heard of them before moving to San Diego. I think the things I like about Nick Rail is that they've got a nice selection of accessories. This is the only place in San Diego where I buy my saxophone reeds, and while I'm sure I can get them for cheaper at wwbw.com or Musician's Friend or even Amazon, I think I'd rather support the local business.

I also took a couple of sax lessons here last year, and I probably would have stuck around doing them if I had not moved to Ventura County. But now that I'm back in the 858, I just might give this place another chance. Gerard Nolan, one of the woodwind teachers, is pretty rockin'. Plus, he gets additional stars for his Irish accent. This is probably the one stop store you need for your woodwind, brass, and some percussion needs.

For guitars, basses, and kits, I guess you can stick with Guitar Center. For orchestra strings, Nick Rail has a few things in stock, and I'm sure they'd special order for you too. And as for piano stuff, well, piano resources are plenty all over.