Freedom Guitar

PERMANENTLY CLOSED Freedomguitar has closed its doors after serving San Diego since 1972.

We are super picky but all about buying used aka cheap haha. This store was amazing and so was the owner. Patient with my kids and gave honest advice. If you are looking for an instrument, check him out.

My home town, guitar shop with a plethora of used gear and any speaker replacement you could ever need

I stopped into this place today thinking I'd give the "small guy" a shot vs the bigger box guitar Chain stores. Lesson learned - stick to the devil you know. As for guitars they had shit selection for anything even remotely affordable.

Constantly advertising going out of business clearance sales, but they never go out of business. How do they live with themselves? Do they have no conscience?

The staff were very helpful, and got my child set up with a decent flute.

They were generous with donating a piece of equipment to Tremble Clefs San Diego, a nonprofit music therapy group for folks living with Parkinson's Disease. The owner, Sylvester, is a true hero.

They have an awesome inventory of instruments, equipment, and music related things; a lot of cool vintage items. But they have horrible customer service. I went in because I had passed the store a few times and I just wanted to check it out, but it seemed like they couldn't wait to get me out the door. They didn't seem very interested in talking with me or helping me find items I was looking for.

Took my Casio keyboard in for a repair. The service was friendly and super quick - the repairman was there at the time and fixed it within the hour. Price was extremely reasonable and much less than expected. Overall great experience and will be back in the future for any repairs.

If I could give a negative star rating I would. Sylvester, the owner ripped me off and screwed up my guitar. I have a project guitar with a bolt on neck that I bought without a neck plate. I drove by the store and stopped in to see if they had a neck plate that would fit. The plate is a unique size and they didn't have one that would fit so Sylvester said he could make one that would work.

The guitar also needed some wiring to be done for some EMG pickups. All told, he said it would be an hour and a half of labor charged. I pick up my guitar and the wiring was not done at all and the neck moved around because he used a crappy piece of metal as a neck plate and it didn't hold the neck in place. I took it back and Sylvester said he would fix it.

So his "fix" was an equally crappy new neck plate and he glued the neck to the body because he couldn't get his neck plate to hold the neck in place. And as an added bonus, he used screws that were too long so two of them poked through the fingerboard! So I took it back to him a third time to have him remove the neck from the body sine it was glued on and he had to steam the guitar to get it off.

He did offer to fix it again, but I didn't want anymore crappy work or damage done to my guitar so I just took it back. So for about $120 I got my guitar back without the wiring done, no neck plate that would work, with a bunch of glue residue in the neck pocket and two custom installed holes in my fingerboard. Nice job Freedom Guitar! Run from this place.

Dewey and Sylvester are old school cheats who will invite you in as friendly businessmen, then lie, cheat and steal from you when they have your stuff. Stay away if you know what is good for you. I wish I listened to the reviewes here :( I took an amp there for repair, they charged me a diagnosis fee (which they didnt tell me about before I came in), then took over 2 months to get a part, which the supplier said they had in stock.

When I brought my amp to be repaired, they charged me more than the estimate (the exact cost of the diagnosis fee), without my authorization. Filed a complaint with Breau of electronic repair. Go to guitar center or anywhere else, these guys are old school bait cheats!

Several bad experiences at this place, not counting the multiple wasted trips because they are not actually open the set hours they advertise. With Guitar Trader closing last year, there's not much choice in San Diego for the required accessories associated with playing guitar. Sadly, my bad experiences with Freedom and Marks has left me feeling bitter towards local music shops and I'm better off shopping online and risking quality since I can't try anything first. Example: Brought in a $200 hihat stand to trade towards a pedal.

They offered me $15 for it, and STILL expected over full retail for the pedal. I ended up selling the stand on ebay for $160 and buying the pedal for $40 less. It's not "High-End", just marked up really high.

I live in Cleveland and can't say anything about the store itself or local issues, but I had an exceptionally great experience with purchasing a long lost user manual from Freedom Guitar. FG was just about the only place in the world that I could find this on the internet. I was having problems making the purchase through the website, so I have the 1-800 number a call. Dewey answered, said no problem, I gave him the item #.

He fetched it with less than a minute, made sure I understood that it was in less-than-mint condition, in case I didn't see it in the online photos. Yep, no problem. Took down my information, called me back because of USPS weirdness with my address, fixed that and sent the manual out the same day. From San Diego on late Tuesday afternoon to Cleveland and in my hands on Thursday morning. AWESOME.

I use the internet so much to make my purchases that I often forget how nice it is to have a brick-and-mortar store, and someone like Dewey who provides service above-and-beyond like this. Thanks, Dewey, and thanks Freedom Guitar. I'll be stopping in when I return to SD someday, and I'll be ordering by internet/phone in the future.

Very knowledgeable, and nice people. It might depend on the workers there. So there's this old guy there who I told him I was leaving for the military and he got me a case for an average price. Then I asked him I'll come back in a week to install a pick up. He's like cool it should take around $40 for half an hour. I was like aright.

Then I come back in a week. He seemed like he already forgot I came in last week and I asked about installing a pick up. He said that they charge $80 and hour so I assume they would only do it for $40 still. Then I come back to get my ukulele, and it's $125. Wow, I gave him the parts and everything to have it done. Maybe he charged me labor for an hour which is $80 plus a $2 battery for $45? T.T

Couldn't find Jazz Bass pickup covers and a threaded saddle bridge anywhere - and I mean anywhere - else locally. They got me fully set up with everything I was after and I was out the door in minutes. What I really didn't enjoy was paying 60% over MSRP. next time I may be a little less impatient and buy online; I might still come out ahead even with expedited shipping.

If you walk into Freedom Guitar, bring your A-Game. Sylvester will twist you inside out, and ring out your pockets, but they do have some real gems in that store. They need to dust that place though. The guys here are really helpful, but you have to watch your back with Sylvester. He is lurking with bad intentions! The guitar tech, Rudy is an A-1 repair man. He works quickly, and reliably.

A nice alternative to places like Guitar Center. Friendly staff, plenty of equipment for every type of musician. It can be a little pricey, but I'm willing to pay to support a local music store. I recommend that you at least come by for yourself and form your own opinion.

To be honest I've never liked them & they have a bad reputation. However, they do have a lot of inventory, & if you just have to have something & can't find it anywhere else, you could do worse.

I had a totally positive experience at Freedom Guitar. Sylvester was friendly, knowledgeable, and made me feel like a long-time customer, even though this was my first time visiting his shop. I was apprehensive when I read some of the reviews on Yelp, but my experience was 100% positive.

I've been to Freedom Guitar three times over the last several years. The first time I visited the store was such a negative experience that I did not return for about 3 years. I was treated like I did not belong there without even getting a chance to try anything out. I entered the store ready to spend upwards of $1k on a vintage amp I saw online and when I asked to try it out the response was, "well, are you going to buy it?" How am I supposed to know until I try it out?

Why would I walk into your store instead of just buying something unseen off Ebay? I felt like the attitude was old fashioned, eletist, and condescending. If they want to run a good 'ol boys club instead of a customer - oriented shop, that's fine, but they're losing business and I don't understand why they choose to do this. I gave them another chance a couple more times in recent years and fared little better; just glares, attitude and overpriced gear.

I really wanted to like this place. Now I just stick to Moze guitars, where I was welcomed warmly from the start and able to create a friendly relationship with all of the great guys who work there and who appreciate my loyalty. I tell people to steer clear of this place and recommended them elsewhere.

So, I hadn't been to this place in years--I live in LA now--but just the other day, when visiting San Diego, I drove by it again, marveling that it was still open. I wondered if maybe they had gotten any less unpleasant, mellowed over time maybe. I considered actually stopping in again. Then, randomly, I logged into my Yelp account for the first time in a while, and found a personal message from Sylvester, the guy who was such a jerk that day.

This message was sent three years after my original visit & review, so apparently he's had some time to consider it. Here is the full text of the message: From Sylvester B., Owner: is your bad music still making all amps shut down? Awesome, right? Some companies provide support & customer service after sale, but Freedom Guitar promises you years of insults.

Good to know some things never change! For the record, I'm still pretty much the same mediocre guitar player I was way back when, and my bad music has yet to destroy any other amps. :-D Also, God has yet to deliver that vengeance as originally promised, so I guess the Big Guy is taking more of a long-game approach.

I bought my first guitar here when I was 13. Keep going back for everything else. Friendly guys, they don't make me feel like an idiot when I go like guitar center.

We've been renting instruments for my little sister there for a while now, they offer excellent customer service and are very friendly people. Just recently I went back to return an instrument and the owner (I think) was so nice and gave me some guitar strings for free! hehe:) They have a huge inventory and great quality stuff. I would recommend this place to anyone and everyone! Thanks again for your great customer service! God bless you all:)

I bought my first guitar here many moons ago. I take my stuff to get fixed here all the time. The guys have always been very friendly to me? confused by all the low ratings.

Run away! I sent these guys a request for some pictures of a 1958 les paul they were offering, along with an offer of cash plus a nice PRS private stock.here is the response they sent me via ebay (along with my original question).note they go by vintageheadquarters on ebay, "what for so you can bitch! bitch" - vintageheadquarters Click "respond" to reply through Messages, or go to your email to reply From: ------------ To: vintageheadquarters Subject: Other: oasis*guitar sent a message about 1958 Les Paul Special-Gibson #400258319178 Sent Date: Dec-30-11 06:05:46 PST Dear vintageheadquarters, Hi, Could you please send more photos to (e-mail removed).

As many detailed photos as you have (including electronics) would be great! Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I think that pretty much says it all. What a joke! Go to lakeshore guitars or Jimmy Wallace or (insert reputable, non douche bag, vintage guitar dealer here). UPDATE. the guy replied back apologizing.

He indicated that his e-mail was intended for different customer and was sent to me by mistake. Not sure that makes it any better but oh well. Good luck dealing with these guys.

I love Matt so I Just Say No to Freedom Guitars. Go to Dusty's Music in Oceanside instead. the drive is well worth the selection and wonderful, knowledgeable customer service!

I had an issue with Freedom Guitar about a year and a half ago when I lost my younger brother. We had lost our mother in in a botched surgery a little while before this and my little brother never did recover from his loss. He's been involved in bands and the local music scene since he was 13. Avid guitarist and all around composer. Well he let the best get to him and developed a drug habit as an easy way out.

He was a good kid, but unfortunately towards the end he had sold both his and my guitars to support his habit. He took mine to Freedom Guitar and his to Guitar Center in La Mesa. I called Guitar Center and told them the situation and that my little brothers guitar had great sentimental value and if I could purchase it back. Without hesitation the woman offered to sell it back to me at cost, no questions asked.

She was amazing, and I'll never forget her generocity. Freedom on the other hand. well I had told them the story and came in with my original receipt of purchase with my john hancock printed right on it and asked if I could buy my guitar back for a reasonable price. They told me there'd be a 250 dollar mark up on it. Outraged I told them, legally, it was stolen from me and was never theirs to begin with.

They we're incredibly rude to me telling me "that's life, bud. and this is a business, not a charity". My father had to come back in to buy the guitar back because I couldn't keep my composure. My entire family is involved in, and plays music and have all bought from Freedom Guitar over the years. Never again, will I, or anybody close to me, or my family, step foot in this establishment again.

In response to the other poster, if god is to take retribution on anybody it'd surely be this shop owner. If I remember correctly greed is one of the 7 deadly sins. -Matthew Wick