Truly Strings Review

I paid him for a pickup replacement on a Fender Telecaster Baja. He seemed to be a rather friendly guy, and a youngster getting started. Gave me a good price and I gave him a tip because he did the job while I waited. After I playing it for a while at home, I realized that. Something was wrong. I tapped the pickups while switching them and they were incorrectly installed. I called him to set up a new appointment to correct it and he didn't answer and I left a message. He didn't return my call after 4 days so I took a chance and drove to his house. He answered the door and in a very unfriendly way told me that he got my message, was busy doing other things and that I had to make another appointment. No apology for the incorrect install, no assurance that he would correct it and no refund.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU to Truly Strings!!! MAJOR PROPS to Steve Basciettoto -my new GUITAR REPAIR GURU at Truly Strings!!! My gigging "go to" Taylor was in HORRIBLE shape (after 4 to 7 gigs a week for the past 5 or so years) FRETS WERE SHOT!!! TERRIBLE FRET BUZZ!!! Pieces broken and DIRT GROUND into EVERY nook and cranny!!! A student turned me on to Steve at Truly Strings and Steve REALLY had his work cut out for him on this guitar...I've tried just about EVERY BIG GUITAR REPAIR SPOT and Steve did an AMAZING JOB! GREAT prices! Did EXACTLY what the guitar needed! FAST turn around time!!! ALL my guitars are going to Steve Bascietto at Truly Strings for set-ups and repairs! LOCALLY "MARYLAND" OWNED! SMALL BUSINESS OWNER!!! He REALLY treats the guitars with LOVE and RESPECT!!! GREAT JOB STEVE!!! THANK YOU!!! : )

Did an awesome job on a 3d printed build. He was super nice and knowledgeable. I definitely recommend

Stephen is the man! Easy to work with, high quality results, quick service, fair pricing.

Stephen did a fantastic job on my Telecaster! A real nice guy who seems to have a passion for doing things the right way. The guitar plays the way it should now. Highly recommended!

I had Stephen work on my Custom Shop Telecaster and the service was top grade. Professional tech with over 15 years of experience. At Truly Strings, Stephen gives the customer the option for same day turn around and invites you into his workshop where he then explains to you step by step what he s doing to your guitar. If you re like me, you don t want to drop off you precious instrument to some shop with people you don t know for a week. Truly Strings is the better choice.

Steven is a super helpful and knowledgeable luthier here in Maryland. Not looking to screw anyone over, just do great work at a very reasonable price. Thanks man! Will return for future business!

This is a small owner operator business, located in a residential community near 216 and 29. Stephen was incredibly accommodating and provided excellent maintenance setup service on my Dean acoustic at a very reasonable price. He offered to complete the setup while I waited but I opted to simply drop it off. He took a good a look at it, made a couple of recommendations, and gave me a fair estimate. Stephen lowered the action, checked all the components, cleaned it, and replaced the strings. I highly recommend contacting Stephen for any guitar repair and maintenance needs.

Stephen has been working on my old Guild for a few weeks and has been giving me personal up dates via video. He is the best in town and now I know why.

Stephen did an amazing job with my PRS McCarty 594. He did an amazing and thorough job putting in new 5708s after I wasn't thrilled with the stock pups. Super responsive, and a pleasure to work with.

Steve of Truly Strings was great! He took a look at my 6 string and 12 string acoustic guitars, took some measurements and gave me a good idea of what would need to be done. I wasn't in a big hurry so I came back later on to pick the guitars up.

Wow! I have always heard it is good to have a luthier help you to set up a guitar correctly. All these years I've been playing, why did it take me so long to follow that really good advice?

My guitars are much more playable now, with a much better action and I can even use heavier gauge strings now than I was before due to playability issues for me. So there is a nicer ring AND it is a LOT easier on my fingers and hands!

So now I am so happy with my guitars and How Steve really transformed them. Plus he is a great guy to boot! If you haven;t had your guitars set up, get it done, trust me it;s worth it! If you are in the Baltimore/DC area, give Steve a try, he is awesome!

Oh and if you want a kick ass, totally original, electric guitar? He's got some REALLY sweet ones! This guy is the real deal, pay him a visit, you will NOT regret it!

Even though I haven t had the privilege of visiting the shop yet, just meeting Steven and having the good fortune to pick his brain for a few minutes, I would have no reservations to refer all of my friends and family members to him for repair work and/or a custom build. I look forward to possibly having the honor of touring his location, and possibly when I finish collecting all the Mechanical Royalties from foreign sales (Ha Ha) being able to commission a build for myself. Thank you for taking the time to inligjten and educate me today Steven.

Stephen worked on my Martin D-15. I have never been happier after getting my guitar back from a repair/set-up. This guitar feels and sounds so much better after Stephen got his hand on it. I would honestly recommend him to anyone looking for a educated and quality luthier

Stephen does outstanding work and is a great guy. All my guitars will go here from now on!

Steve's the man! I'll be bringing all my guitar repairs to him from now on

I contacted Stephen on a Friday and he got back to me within an hour! Very responsive and was able to get me in on the weekend so that I could get back to playing the instrument I love. Very professional and was able to fix my issues quickly. Very knowledgeable about instruments and had some great conversation. 10/10 recommend and will probably be bringing him one of my other guitars to take a look at!

Brought my mid 70's D-18 to Steve at Truly Strings for a full restoration. He reset the neck angle and re fretted the neck. The guitar was almost unplayable before but now it plays great! Perfect, buzz free action with a quality fit and finish!. Steve was friendly, informative and helpful. Reasonable turn around time and competitively priced. I will definitely be bringing more instruments his way!

I own a taylor 310 that I bought used about 10 years ago. I knew the guitar needed work done when I noticed some buzzing when I played. I found out about Stephen and Truly Strings and Things through a Google search and am so happy I went with him. I emailed him and set up an appointment. I brought my guitar to him and he looked it over. He recommended a full re-fret and adjusting the neck pitch. He let me know it would take a few weeks which worked for me so I handed my guitar over to him. Not only did he get the job done a week earlier but after a closer look decided that a full re-fret wouldn t be needed and did a re-fret of the first 10 frets, saving me some money. I ve played with the guitar all day today and it sounds better than when I first bought it. I would highly recommend Stephen. He s knowledgeable, honest, and a great guy. I have a bass guitar that I ll be bringing back to him to take a look. Thanks Stephen.

I brought in my PRS SE to have the nut replaced, install some new humbuckers and have it set up. Stephen is a professional and genuinely wants you to have the best experience possible with your instrument. He s also a really nice guy. He answered all my questions and gave me recommendations about possible future upgrades and maintenance options for my guitar. He had it back to me in record time and it looks and plays like brand new! I ll definitely be back!

Brought my ES-339 back to life. Great communication. Quick Turnaround. Great insight and recommendations for future work while being super generous with his time and knowledge. Easily my go-to guy from now on.

Quality work and honest prices. Definitely a go-to luthier for every and any kind of guitar work. Also has an great collection of handmade guitars for purchase!

I have nothing but great things to say about Stephen and the work he does. I appreciated his patience with my (many) questions, updates, and overall professionalism. I was blown away by his immaculate stainless steel refret for an old guitar with a bound ebony fretboard, which could not have been easy to pull-off and serves as a testament to his masterful touch and attention to detail. And with the final set-up the guitar is a dream to play for both rhythm and lead. Truly Strings is the real deal.

Big thanks to Stephen at Truly Strings & Things for doing some excellent guitar work for my band. Having not met him before, his knowledge both of the instrument and the job that needed to be done made us feel very comfortable using him.

I usually take my guitars to Bill's Music for setups, but I find their rates a little high so I was looking for an alternative. Steven is very responsive when you shoot him an email, and he's very pleasant to work with. I really appreciate the fact that you can take your guitar to him, and instead of dropping it off, waiting a few days and getting it back without any feedback whatsoever from whoever did the setup, he will work on it in front of you, explain what he's finding, and of course show you what he's doing. So instead of paying a flat rate, you only pay for what really needs to be done, and you can see it done on top of it, and you get some input on what's being done. He did a great job on my Epiphone and had some great advice for my resonator. I'll definitely come back! :-)

Very courteous, easy to talk to, gives honest assessment. I will post again when I get my guitar back.

Major props to Truly Strings. I m a working musician and I average 4-5 gigs a week. I brought two of my guitars to Steve at Truly Strings and he is the consummate pro -- explaining everything to me in advance and giving me a great price for his exceptional work. He s my go-to guru from here on out! I highly recommend him for all your stringed instrument repairs and maintenance. He also has a line of boutique handcrafted guitars and I fully intend on buying one of them soon. Serious musicians should check him out for sure.

He's my guy. I've been playing 35 years. It took me years to find someone I trust and Steve is that guy. I'm glad he's younger than me and will probably outlive me so I will never need to find anyone else. He's always striving to learn more. Great luthier, great person.

On Sunday, For the first time in my playing life, I took my new stratocaster in to be set up. Steve was amazing! Friendly and informative and didn't make me feel like a dummy because I'm a noob. I will be bringing all of my guitars in for him to set up and have already told several of my friends about him. Oh almost forgot to mention, my guitar sounds amazing!!!!

I wish I could give him more than five stars. Having brought my acoustic guitar in to get what I thought would only a few frets recrowned, he was able to evaluate my instrument and offer a much more concise and permanent solution to the guitar's dreadful buzzing problems for an extremely reasonable fee. I'm not writing this review exclusively for his expertise, however.

Stephen was able to diagnose a particularly strange manufacturing defect of my guitar, and not only guided me through the steps to have the guitar sent back to the company to be further evaluated, but collected documentation and even spoke to the company on my behalf to thoroughly explain the problems with the instrument; he even served as an excellent sounding board for advice and was unafraid to let me know his empathetic perspective on what to do.

Stephen is a professional, an advocate, and a man who clearly loves music; he simply wants to serve his community and does so with a tremendous amount of talent and empathy. Take your guitar to him.

Stephen did a hella nice setup for my guitar with a very quick turnaround time. Definitely my go-to guitar guy from now on.

Nicest person, does great work. Plan on having him to do guitar work in the future.

Stephen is extremely knowledgeable and honest. I have taken a few basses and guitars to him and he's always quick and genuinely takes pride in his work. I highly recommend him for guitar repair and setups!

Steve is very good at what he does! He took a Stratocaster disaster and made it a joy to play.
Nothing I didn't need, and everything I did.
Watch out Mark Knopfler...

The second I met Stephen I knew he was very passionate about his work and serving his customers. He went above and beyond what I asked of him. Just an absolutely wonderful experience start to finish. I had some minor work done on my guitars. He laid out all my options and made sure I knew what was needed and what wasn t. Couldn t recommend him enough!!