If I could give this place more than 5 stars...I would! I wish I could just live there. Got the best customer service I could ask for from Mr. Carter himself. I wouldn't dream of coming to Nashville without setting aside some time to visit this store. And here is a pro tip...don't overlook the selection of books available.
Incredible selection of premium instruments. The best music store I've been to in Nashville hands down.
Heaven if you like guitars. Totally mind blowing selection and the pedal cases are completely out of this world
Great place to check out a lot of very nice guitars!!!
One of the best places on earth to just browse, find a guitar, plug in and jam!
Super knowledgeable, great collection, lots of friendly and interesting characters around that shop. They also do great work on repairs!
I had a great time in this shop. The staff are super nice and set me up with everything I wanted to try. Great selection of guitars and amps. So happy with the guitar I bought. Thanks guys.
Outstanding experience. Emoyees were very approchable and helped me understand the boutique world of their MasterCraft instruments.
Tons of really cool, vintage guitars and basses. Great shop!
Love this place! They have an awesome selection of vintage electrics and acoustics, and a cool selection of effects pedals too!
A wet dream of guitars, amps, pedals, mandolins. The selection is phenomenal from cheap to coveted instruments. Prices are reasonable.
Typical music store staff. Too busy or uptight to be helpful. Not sales driven, I'm assuming. I was one of ten people in the show room. I wanted to make an amp purchase but subsequently surfed reverb and Ebay and found a comparable deal, because I couldn't get help.
Played a $25,000 guitar. THAT was awesome! Loved the murals outside
Stumbled upon Carter Vintage Guitars with walking down 8th, what an amazing place. A enormous selection of stringed instruments, primarily their vintage selections... a 1967 Rickenbacker... and vintage Martin ukuleles. The staff is super helpful, ask for Justin.
Friendly staff. Guitars of all shapes & sizes and ages. Too cool.
Gorgeous vintage guitars. Well worth the trip to see but we'll out of our price range
I couldn t get in. Only with appointment. I just want to have a quick look.
One of the best guitar shops I've ever been to. Fantastic selection of electric/acoustic guitars and amps. Little jam rooms filled with amps to test the merchandise. And very fair prices! Went in expecting to play around with some quality instruments and walked out with a Taylor 714. And an amazing bluegrass band played a free show!
Great staff. My review is mostly for the repair guys. They do excellent work, they treat every guitar the same. It doesn't matter if she is a 99 dollar Epiphone or a 5 thousand dollar Gibson. They handle everything with care and get the job done. I give 4 stars for the price. It's a little steep but you get what you pay for and at Carter's you get quality.
Go see the "Sweet Home Alabama" guitar.
Lots of guitars to pick up and play. Friendly, helpful staff. If you're going to Nashville to buy a guitar, definitely stop in here and have a sniff.
A review from someone not caught up in the hype. I went into this store because I drove past not because I recognize any legacy it has. I walked in and thought what anyone would: kid in a candy store. I love vintage guitars and I am a collector. As we walked down to the crowded guitar pit on the display at the end of the ramp my wife stopped me to take a look at something I had just walked past and some rude older man who worked there and gave an exasperated sigh like it was a giant inconvenience like we were holding him up from something important by looking at merchandise THEY PLACED THERE! I was high enough up the food chain there to warrant having a desk to himself so Ill assume he is owner or manager and should know better.
I love that the guitars are very accessable. One very nice guy was very welcoming to us and I appreciated him and one nice woman as we were leaving were the stars here. I dont know what was going on that day but they had some kid walking around recording video of the place and he repeatedly got in the way of people shopping like he had zero sense or manners. Then you get to the pricetag and I understand running a brick in mortar in a town where skyscraper cranes are starting to outnumber native residents but almost any guitar with a G on the headstock was close to $1000 over an actual wiggle room. I get inflating price for negotiation room and covering overhead and convenience but its a bit overkill. The amount of guitars were impressive Ill never take that from them.
If you want and destination shopping tourist or fanboi review theres a ton of them. Im just a guy who has bought and plenty of vintage guitars and have been in every type of guitar store you can think of coast to coast. Maybe I caught the place on a bad day but Ill never go back but I will thank the two people in there who were nice. You were the saving grace of this place.
Carter Vintage Guitars has a huge inventory of unique and boutique instruments alongside the industry titan's more distinctive offerings. I did not purchase an instrument on my recent visits but I was fully impressed by their comprehensive selection of just about everything they carry. I was shopping for a mandolin but it was hard to not be distracted by all the other guitars surrounding me. If I was going to criticize one thing it would be the lighting. It's definitely a showroom that is framing the instruments as they might appear on a stage. The problem is that, in the case of the high end mandolin rooms it was really hard to to read the logos on the headstock. There was an instrument that I wanted to hear a second time and simply could not find it because I just couldn't see headstocks of the top row of instruments. I didn't have time, nor did I want to handle all the instruments or bother with a sales person at that point.
Im a drummer and really enjoyed checking out this shop. Huge showroom filled with beautiful instruments. Must see for any music lover who plays.
Very good selection of guitars.
They also have souvenirs.
Nice place.
This was a magical musical playground for my husband. If you want to see a great selection and also see your significant other become a child again you need to step inside this store. The staff are wonderful and encourage you to pick up an instrument and give it a try!
I was drooling since the moment I walked in! Great selection of dream guitars and amps. Great boutique pedal selection well!
Like a trip to an amazing art museum except you can put the master's very tools in your own hands. Amazing staff as well.
Some of the coolest guitars in here. Everyone I grabbed was setup well.
Was there for 10 minutes and no one ever came to asked to help. No it was not busy for the prices they re asking they should be a little bit more helpful
Loved too look at variety. Very nice, helpful people!
Legendary and full of talented people trying instruments out. I m not a strings player, but it was still great to hang out here and drink in the history.
A lot of classic guitars pre-cbs strays, beautiful old amps, friendly staff.
Very nice vintage music store. Great selection of Bluegrass instruments. Friendly, and helpful staff. Many other genre instruments available too.
A good place to check out high quality instruments without a sales person breathing down your neck. They're there IF you need anything.
I came in extremely curious about their restored, vintage inventory. Many of their guitars are placed very close together, and I accidentally (and slightly) bumped one against another as I pulled it out. Immediately someone came to me with a long condescending explanation on how to properly pull the instrument, so I felt uncomfortable being in the store. SHE DID NOT EVEN ASK IF I WAS INTERESTED IN A PARTICULAR GUITAR, ZERO SENSE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE.... disappointing because I was considering a purchase. Even though the bump was very slight, it was a strong indication of the instrument s resonance - haha!!!!
I may go back eventually, but this isn t the only place to find pristine vintage instruments. They may have enough of a customer base that blindly spends, so no effort required on their part.
Great selection of guitars. Super nice people and great service in the store and guitar tech guys
Carter vintage works with crooks to sell stolen gear. Looking for a stolen guitar? stop in to see if they have it. Be prepared to pull teeth to reclaim stolen gear, even if you have a police report.
Hands down, the BEST guitar shop in town. I often hear of a couple other names thrown out as being great that I, myself, even used to go to often. One is on a "corner"... cough cough... Another starts with a G and then continues with RUhN (just take out the H)...
All jokes aside, the owner of Carters is a super nice guy. You can tell he has trained his employees to provide service and be friendly. Not be smug, rude, condescending, etc. Other stores are not only rude often, but they just dont have the same kind of amazing gear. This feels, AND IS, a players shop. Others are too stuck on theirselves and snide. Much too "retail," and "dont-touch-without-me-handing-it" type. This is THE PLACE TO GO.
Carter Vintage is a blast! Their selection is beyond fantastic! I went in yesterday looking to trade a couple guitars plus cash for something new and great. Paul and Adam were fantastic and extremely helpful and friendly. I went to other shops before stopping by and Carter Vintage offered me almost double for my trade than any other shop! They let me try as many guitars as I wanted, put me in a private room with some amps, it was fantastic. I finally settled on a nice Les Paul once Paul offered me an excellent deal on it. I am very happy with my experience and purchase at Carter Vintage. You probably won't find a better selection or a better deal anywhere else!
My absolute favorite, must visit as much as I can while in Nashville, store.
The staff are available, friendly, and knowledgeable.
The inventory is insanely plentiful, prices fluctuate depending on condition, model, vintage and rarity.
If you can't find something you want to take home with you, then you really aren't into guitars.
It was AWESOME and we even got to see some music royalty in the mix. It was like guitar heaven. My two pickers loved the place. It was our first time in the store but definitely not the last. You know the old saying, How many guitars do you need.....Just ONE more
I don't know anything about guitars, but this place is amazing.
This place is incredible. It's also a tad overwhelming at times. Like giving a 5 gallon bucket of ice cream to a 4 yr old. Nevertheless, I was able to overcome my guitar gluttony by remembering I was an full grown adult and just enjoy playing some of the best sounding guitars you will ever hear. Everyone there was really wonderful to talk to and have a great story to share. These people reallllly love what they do.
Wow! What a selection of guitars! Everyone that worked there seemed to be knowledgeable of their guitars and friendly willing to help but not too pushy. They had lots of cool stuff to look at. Most everything my son played was in tune, he was able to plug in and play whichever guitar he wanted. Very cool place!
I was there for at least 2 hrs and NO ONE approached me to even say hello. Guess business is good - left without a vintage guitar. Disappointing.
Free parking in certain marked spots next to building!! Really cool place to look at vintage guitars and other string instruments. Went on a Monday morning and there were several other people there playing guitars and testing them out. Loved it, nice staff.
Nice talkative staff and tons of guitars. I bought some cables which were a bit pricey.
Great place for the person that suffers from Gear Aquisition Syndrome.
Some cool stuff but they are very proud of it. Even on the non rare items.
If you're in the market for a vintage guitar then this place is amazing. I played a Les Paul worth about $8k, as well as some of their acoustics. The staff was super cool and allowed me to play these guitars as if I was at a Guitar Center playing guitars worth in the low hundreds. I appreciated that.
Just got a 1946 J-45 delivered by the Carter Shop. Justin, their floor sales associate was fantastic to work with from the day I stepped into the shop. Good people who allow you to fool around with any dream instrument on the wall. I'll be posting a photo of my new dream guitar and sending it on. Without a doubt it was a memorable experience.
Wow, outstanding collection of instruments for the serious musician. A half dozen pedal steel classics, I've never seen that many in one spot. Row on row of high quality mandolins, banjos b bases and of course guitars. I could spend my entire inheritance in this place.... If I had one.
They have the best guitars with the finest quality! The people there are amazing!
Great staff and knowledge of new and vintage guitars and amps. Always a pleasure.
The only place for truly playable guitars it is the place in Nashville today sorry Gruen
This guitar place is full of vintage guitars, it is like a Guitar Center for vintage guitars, acoustic and electric, with a small bass selection.
I just purchased a GEM of a Martin guitar here.. They have an incredible selection of guitars.. I wear their tshirt & will most certainly shop here again!
Great selection of guitars and accessories and friendly staff
Best Guitar store in town! Quite often run into celebrities here.
Carter s is really more of an interactive guitar museum. The prices are spot on and the staff really knows their stuff.
Awesome selection of both vintage and current guitars
If you're a player..... You must check this place out.
Very interesting and eclectic selection of guitars.
I am from New Jersy, came down here for a concert, and stumbled upon this great place! Walter and his wife were the nicest, honest, and friendliest down to earth people I've met in a long time. There store is filled with easily accessible and quality gear! I have never felt so comfortable in a guitar shop. When im ready to make my next guitar purchase, i Am placing my order through them PERIOD. Wish i lived in Nashville, so i can go in there EVERYDAY!!!
I was in Nashville for SPBGMA last weekend. Some friends and I decided to run by some guitar shops in Nashville, and Carter was our first stop. The selection of instruments was decent, but I did not find anything in the store that lived up to the hype about Carter Vintage. Since I play banjo, when I saw two men walk in with an old Gibson RB-1 with the original case and an ancient looking hide head, I was very interested. The banjo had a very old two footed bridge as well. I was standing near the counter on the opposite side that the men were on checking out the instrument, and when I asked about the year of the instrument, my reply from Walter Carter was It s a 33. Now, back off. I was very surprised that a store owner would be so aggressive with a customer. I did as I was told, and explained the incident to my friends. We were walking out of the showroom when Mr. Carter approached me, and said that he apologized for his remark, because sometimes it gets a little crowded, and that he was in the middle of a sale. I do not feel that this is the correct way to treat a customer. I understand that being a college student, I may not look to be the most knowledgeable or talented musician to ever live, but that s not what matters in this situation. The point is treating people how they should be treated. We left the store, and went straight to Gruhn Guitars, where we met the two gentlemen that owned the banjo in the parking lot. I apologized to them for being intrusive, and talked to them about their instrument. They did not mind sharing the story of it whatsoever. At Gruhn s, we found a much better selection of instruments, and far better customer service. I can t speak for any other instruments, but I also felt that the banjos were set up better than those at Carter. The guys at Gruhn went far out of their way to get me what I needed. The only reason that I feel Carter Vintage Guitars should have the two stars instead of one is because of the apology I recieved.
wow ! My new favorite guitar store. Had so much selection! Great pricing and industry knowledge. I ended up finding the perfect sound and finish I had been searching for. Check it out!!!
cartervintage.com
