Johnson String Instrument Review

Specialized service by competent and attentive professionals. High quality instruments and accessories at good prices, for sale or rental. Super recommend

Helpful staff and great selection of accessories. Definitely recommend!

Excellent offering of string instruments. Very competent and helpful staff.

Excellent service. The staff are super knowledgable and friendly. I highly recomend them, the next time you are looking for a string instrument!

Good selection of musical instruments knowledgeable employees, affordable instrument rental packages.

Super helpful, caring staff.lots of room to try instruments; cool building

They were very helpful in finding the right shoulder rest leg length for my violin and a bigger chin rest. They also installed the strings really well have the pegs perpendicular to my hands and is easier to tune with pegs. Very knowledgeable and helpful overall. They also have a lot of high quality instrument accessories and cases.

Very impressive place. Not your typical store. Located in a house that used to be a private house sometime in the past, the place has a feeling of a string instruments museum. Great service.

Note: We have never dealt with Johnson in person, this review is strictly for their online services.

Shipping back an instrument to them is an utter nightmare. With a website that doesn't mention anything about providing a shipping label to customers, we ended up paying three times the amount it cost us to have the instrument shipped to our home. Come to find out (after calling and unsuccessfully trying to recoup some of that astronomical shipping cost) that they will provide a shipping label for their original rate if requested. There is no mention of this option on their website, no additional information provided. Customers are left to either pay full price or get lucky and call in to stumble upon that discounted shipping rate.

Despite their lack of information and despite our polite request to receive some sort of refund or compensation for the outrageous full price shipping, Johnson has refused to help. We will never rent from them again and highly encourage others to look elsewhere for their online instrument rental needs.

Went in for help getting my sons violin restrung. We had rented it from the school, not from Johnson String. The store manager came out and reviewed the problem with the strings and informed me I could pay $70 for new strings, but that she thought they were in good shape and instead just tuned it up for me and got it working again (and taught me how to fix it in the future) all for free - great service and someplace We will visit next time we are renting or buying an instrument

Rented a violin for the first time. It was an easy, quick and friendly process.

Kinda hard to navigate to but this new location is much larger and more convenient!

We spoke with Nate this weekend regarding viola care/maintenance and discussed the best products for our needs. He was highly knowledgeable and took his time to educate us. We walked away with quality products and had a great experience. Thanks Nate & Johnson String!

The place is very versatile, offers lots of opportunities for young students to obtain good instrument, music and accessories for muslin education.

My son has been playing the violin for 4 years. I have resisted driving this far (an hour each way for us), insisting I could get his needed equipment on the internet cheaper. I couldn't have been more wrong! What I desperately needed was the expert advice, for my son to trial different styles of equipment and to see the items up close. I needed an educated someone to say, "These are the benefits and drawbacks of this style and those are the same for that style" as well as a reasonable price range for each. They are fully equipped and you can try instruments and bows from cheap to "oh-my-gosh, expensive". I left there feeling very much the guilty mother for taking so long to get him there, and extremely relieved that we got excellent equipment at a wonderful price. The service was spot on and he has commented more than once about how comfortable his new chin and shoulder rests are as well as how much he loves the sound of his new bow! That is saying something, coming from a 15 year old boy! Thank you so much, Johnson String Instrument! We'll definitely be back!

Great service and quality items. I highly recommended them!

A beautiful store for classical string instruments, employees are very knowledgeable, stock is respectable, rental prices for instruments are reasonable.

Helpful and knowledgeable staff. Good assortment of product offerings for musicians of all levels

I have rented a Jay Haide cello from here. I referred a friend of mine, and she purchased a Jay Haide with European wood. They shipped it with the bridge and sound post in place, just like mine. the sound post caused a crack and she had to return it. I was planning on purchasing my rental, and I took it to my local luthier to have the strings changed. Because of the damage found on my friend's cello, the luthier inspected my cello and found sound post damage. I attempted to call and email to see what could be done. I was told that I do not have the special replacement insurance, I was not allowed to take it to an outside luthier because they did not want anyone else looking at their work, I would have to pay $65 to return it so they could inspect it, and only then would they make a decision. The inconvenience of not having my cello is upsetting. I was told that a manager would be calling me within an hour...standby for an update to see if they make things right, or if I need to contact the Better Business Bureau.

Excellent place for instrument rentals purchases and accessories.

Pretty nice place- they helped us get my bow rehaired a few times and help me deal with bow bugs (yuck!). The layout can be a bit confusing, but it's not too bad. The downstairs entrance & area is sort of the more formal, appointment only area, where they deal with expensive stuff. The upstairs entrance & area is pretty much a gift shop compared to the downstairs area. It has cheaper bows, rosin, music, stands etc.

Overall, they know what they're doing and do quality work, but it's difficult to navigate as a novice. Also definitely on the expensive side, but that's a given with classical instruments- you don't want to comparison shop.

Fantastic place for violin rentals. Great service and selection. Made a special trip from the Albany area per suggestion and found it well worth the trip.

For all your string instrument needs. Expert sale, repair, appraisal. Extensive selection from affordable to high end, with some big names. Occasional performances in the lovely little recital room.

Great place to rent music instruments. I had to buy a violin for my kid and had no idea and these folks made is super easy!

This place has everything you need in terms of acoustic instruments. They slant classical and rent instruments to our kids' school programs, but they have interesting items for non-classical musicians as well.

Only downside is that we could not get a hard case for a small cello for our 6-year old. He is not really capable of caring for his instrument in transit (we are working on it), so his bridge has been displaced many times. A hard shell would save all a lot of trouble and earn it's price back in rentals. Unfortunately, buying one costs about as much as a year's rental of the instrument, so he will outgrow it before it is useful for us.

The premier house of strings in MA. Rentals and purchases. With the Carrige House on site for repairs.

Beautiful space.

Knowledgeable and friendly staff.

Friendly and knowledgeable staff. Great for all your musical and string instruments needs.

It is always a pleasure to work with such dedicated professionals with the same interests in music and Instruments.
I was happy with the JH cello from JSI I bought last year. Sadly, what I thought was a simple seam separation which would be covered under the one year warranty was not reparable. So JSI had me chose a new JH cello with a new one year warranty at no cost. I could not be happier with the selection or service. I highly recommend JSI to anyone looking for a quality string instrument.

Amazing staff...always ready to help. Extremely professionl and highly talented Luthiers.

Bot a set of dominant thomastik strings last summer..play 3 hours weekly since..A string unwound in decmber...asked for replacement string..not willing to oblige..disappointed...

Very professional and patient, shout out for Sue, she is the BEST!

Excellent service, outstanding, knowledgeable, and talented staff. I brought my violin in to be restrung. The lutheir was pleasant, skilled, and informative. The upgrade was done quickly and thoroughly. Based on our conversation, I was directed to a different department where a staff member continued the exceptional service and after demonstrating two different bows on my newly strung violin I decided to buy the best sounding one. I am very pleased with my experience and would highly recommend the establishment to novice and experienced musicians.

Johnson Strings, together with Carriage House Strings (same company, one upstairs from the other) sells stringed instruments ranging from student rentals all the way up to $50,000 one of a kind instruments. Many professional musicians come here, yet they show the new student just as much attention to getting the right instrument for them. It's a gem of a store located in suburban Boston. They have an excellent repair division, too, with very skilled luthiers, who again will fix your instrument, (or suggest not to if it doesn't make sense to.) It's the only string shop we and my son's teacher go to.

Beautiful store! The people were really nice and helpful as well.

Wonderful music store with helpful staff, decent selection of music, rental and purchase instruments and all the extras you could possibly need.

Helpful staff and very well organized during the peak times such as back-to-school week. Other times are far less crowded.

Parking is a bit tricky. Some spots close to the entrance, but many are farther away and downhill.

During our orchestra related visit, I also noticed the Guild brand guitars and the Blackwing pencils.

Staff is extremely patient and kind. Service is really a gem. I have been a patron of theirs for over 30 years largely because of this. Prices can be a little high or at MSRP for retail products but periodic sales can sometimes help attentuate costs.

Great service. Knowledgeable staff. Can get crowded

After coming in with a list of needed materials and having no idea what I was doing g or getting for my family, I could not help myself but remark to Sue, "You are living proof that Grace is not just a women's name." The above does not do justice to the quality of expertise and experience we benefitted from while we were here. I regret I could not give more stars, they deserve it.

Fantastic service and knowledgeable staff. Just rented a violin for daughter. Very happy that we came here.

Never been here. Google keeps saying I have. There's a great little gorge along the Charles River at the upper falls, nice place to walk or sit in the sun. The parking lot is at the Mill building where this little music place is.
I don't want to rate it high or low.
No rating.

I am currently playing and renting the 7/8 size cello, but a few years ago when I first started playing they gave me a cello that was broken, the cello wouldn't play right and had a really bad buzzing sound when you played it. Then we went back to get a new one but ounce again it was brojen as well, now mhy 7/8 size cello's bow is defective the people who gave me the bow tightened it for me so I didn't realize that it was really that badly broken, it won't tighten. SHAMM!!!

Awesome place, great instruments, amazing old building. Worth the visit!

I assumed the store was larger and had a museum of sorts in it based on what I read online. However it is quite small but the music selections were awesome. Lots of stringed instruments for sale and rent, cases, and books. A little pricey but still reasonable. There is a Luthier downstairs. Parking was great.

Top notch strings sales and service. Can t bear these guys in the greater Boston area (IMO)

Very friendly and helpful staff, quick service, good manner overall. Highly recommend.

Always a great experience. Staff is friendly and professional.

In was more suprised for what was in here i wasnt expect a wide variety of strings items i only when in here for rosin left with a few music books

Huge shout out to the professionals at Johnson String Instruments. We had car trouble coming from NH and didn't walk in until 10 minutes before closing on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. While we apologized profusely, they quickly got straight to work cheerfully helping my daughter choose a violin to rent. We were heading out the door violin in hand 20 minutes later. The shop itself is well stocked and safety protocols are followed. Thank you for a very positive experience!

I recently purchased two Classical guitars-one for my wife and one for myself from Johnson String Instruments. Why did I purchase something this valuable and which we will spend so much time within our hands as we play and learn to play more complex music? Well, the answer is in the process I went through to find Johnson String Instrument. I spent several hours on the internet researching similar facilities. Johnson String Instrument came away with a much more positive and professional reviews and the customers' comments were focused on customer satisfaction and professionalism. During and after the sale process through delivery and customer-focused satisfaction post-sale they have demonstrated an authentic focus on CUSTOMER SATISFACTION- a truly rare quality in this day of transnational business. They deserve your consideration if you are looking for a home through which to address your forever needs with your stringed instruments.
Regards,
Dr. David Lyon

Outstanding service and high quality instruments. Always a pleasure to visit.

Nice place, everyone is friendly here. we rented a cello for my son, he really enjoyed that.

Worst rental experience I have ever had double charged me several times. Took 3 months of payments in an auto charge I did NOT sign up for. Refused to retrieve violin and never gave a reason, then proceeded to charge me. I would recommend that if you really want to rent a string instrument you should go elsewhere they will sap as much money from you as they possibly can.

Great selection of rental violins for young musicians. Rental program is reasonably priced - I pay quarterly. And the insurance coverage is comprehensive. Several years ago my daughter's violin got run over by her teacher's car accidentally and the insurance allowed us to get another violin at no extra cost!

Always a good experience here. Friendly staff and good inventory. Some the concerts downstairs have been great, too.

I have been to Johnson String a couple times, both times only for violin. The clerks have been knowledgeable and helpful. We rented a 1/2 size violin for my daughter, and the clerk brought out 2 instruments that we tried in a little room off to the side. The clerk was a trained musician and offered useful guidance. On a separate occasion, we bought a chin rest. They had the brand recommended by our teacher and the clerk helped to assemble it and put it on the violin, which was above and beyond what I expected. The more questions you ask, the more help you receive. They are very willing to help at this store. Since the people who work there are trained musicians, they really can offer helpful advice and guidance.

Wonderful ental equipment and service. Had to return item halfway through contract. They gave us a full prorata refund and couldn't be nicer or more professional.

I've been a customer at Johnson String Instruments since my son started violin lessons 3 years ago. The front staff are always helpful, courteous, kind and patient. The quality of the instruments and rental policies are exceptional.

I highly recommend them!

Great atmosphere, selection, and design. When I called in, though, about a GUITAR action adjustment, they said to come to the shop. After driving 20 minutes, I found out that the guitar repair man is never at the shop on mondays, and to come back tommorow. Wasted an hour and way too much time driving.

They're super helpful and kind, went in to size up my daughter's violin.