Absolute Music Reviews 82

Visited their stand at the Guitar Show, Birmingham on the Saturday with a family friend. We were both keen on buying a recently released guitar accessory and were served by the owner, who was most helpful and happy to negotiate a great deal for us. Top marks :-)

Purchased a guitar for my 9yr old son. Chris from Absolute music was Awesome! There was loads of choice and he made great recommendations spending time with my son to find out what he was looking for asking and answering questions. Set us up in a booth to test some equipment and made it a really fun experience. The shop is great and he's a credit to it. Thanks!

Rufus handled a damaged cymbal with top level customer service and got the replacement to me in-time for a gig, great service as always!

After taking my family along to the 'Learn to Play Day' for probably the 4th time, I felt compelled to write a review. Absolute Music are an Absolute credit to Bournemouth and Poole. A fantastic company with the very best customer service. I don't buy a lot of gear, just speakers, leads and microphones, but despite on occasions (not always) online retailers being a little bit cheaper, the top notch advice and customer service means that I always choose Absolute. The store is so pleasing to go to as well with lots of items on display. I just wish I played an instrument so I could go more often. Although after yesterday, the bass guitar seems very appealing. When everyone seems to be buying things online, Absolute Music is a company we need to use and cherish.

I hate to write such a negative review as I’ve been a customer for years. However, over the last few years the company has drastically declined in quality.

I’ve recently purchased 3 guitars from the store one of which priced above a thousand.

It’s sad to say that my Gretch after a week, all the knobs have fallen off, the scratch plate disintegrated during a performance and recently the pots have come loose and are falling out. Okay fine easy fix, let’s talk about the acoustic.

1 month in the input jack came loose because it wasn’t checked properly. Had it tightened but now a few months in all the electrics are now failing. Saved the best for last.

I spend over £1000 pounds on a fender telecaster that had, poor intonation, action was all over the place (fret buzzing some notes unplayable), neck bowed and worst of all not even straight. After 2 hours of adjusting and changing grotty strings, the neck as it turns wasn’t even in line. The e string wasn’t even over the fretboard in higher frets. It gets better, 1 month into owning I have now started developing electrical problems with the pickup switch.

Some might say maybe I’m heavy handed. I own multiple guitars and have owned Gibson’s and cheaper guitars for years and never had such problems. The company doesn’t even check over the stock, sells used instruments as new for a much higher price than other companies. But most importantly a new guitar should be checked over and properly set up, especially when paying £1000.

Don’t buy from a music shop that doesn’t care about their instruments. Go to guitar Mania or my favourite Andertons. They actually know what they’re doing.

Lovely attentive staff and they were a pleasure to deal with. I took my 6 year old boy there today to buy his first ever bass guitar. - he is Green Day obsessed. The staff bent over backwards to get him the perfect bit of kit, no pressure sales or anything like that. I know NOTHING about music other than what is good and Green Day are awesome - my little boy had a magical day today and we even found someone there to give lessons. A great and fun experience . I think I dealt with Mike and Phil - an absolute credit to the business. I have a feeling a will be spending a lot of money here over the next decade or so!!

I found the staff to be extremely helpful and polite. They sorted my issues out . I would recommend anyone to buy from this company simply because of their customer care and brilliant service . 5 star plus

Ok if you like fender, I went to try a number of different guitars and feel necks but it was bare, what about Ibanez, Schecter, ESP , LTD , also, where are all the amps and heads, no Orange , Marshall Engl EVH, absolute sh”;:e , drove for an hour and a half to get there was looking forward to it for ages, DONT BOTHER

Absolutely brilliant. Ordered my partner an amp for Christmas, and it arrived the next day. When I rang to ask about warranty the gentleman was very knowledgeable and turns out you can get a three year warranty, amazing for free. Would 100% recommend buying from them, I was worried buying online but very happy I did. They were even cheaper than Amazon!!!

I bought a new guitar pedal from this store through Amazon, the pedal they sent me was dusty and dirty and obviously a used pedal. I talked with them and they offered to send me a return label to send it back for a refund but they have wasted my time by sending me a dirty and dusty pedal instead of a new one. They told me on the phone it was likely kept in a cabinet in the store and used by staff and customers for Christ knows how long and they sold this pedal as NEW for higher than the standard retail price and they didn't even bother to try and clean the dirt and dust from the pedal before sending it to me. I will never buy anything from this store ever again. I will be leaving bad reviews for this place everywhere I can as they have really annoyed me and wasted my time and tried to con me.

5 star company, perfect in every way

Customer service at it's best. The help and advice I received from Paul and Ben was brilliant. I was able to test out the drum kits I was interested in before buying. Paul played two of the kits so I was able to listen to the sound of each. To hear each drum kit being played from a spectator point of view was invaluable. Paul's knowledge and expertise in drums and how to drum was fantastic. I came away happy that I'd bought the right drum kit for me. I didn't feel pressured at all despite taking a while to decide! The whole experience was positive in every way. Thank you!

Left Handed Lives Matter!
i saw an advert for Absolute Music which interested me so i went onto their website. I am Left Handed and play Bass. They list 151, 4 string bass guitars, 3 of which are left handed. Those three are all low budget beginner models. 12% of the worlds population are left handed which is roughly the same percentage of the UK's population that describe their ethnicity as "Black". How would that discrimination go down guys!

I try to buy an sound card apollo x16 i made the payament. 1 min after i try to call them to fix the shipping adresse because paypal has the old my addres they sad to me will make a refund to let me do the order again but never get a refund and now no one is responding to me anymore .

Took my guitar in to be restrung the guy in the workshop was so helpful he did the job in 45minutes and gave me some really helpfull advice. So service in absolute music is great the whole place has a friendly vibe.

I needed a new bass guitar, and Chris couldn't have been any more helpful. He gave expert advice and helped me so well through the entire process. In the end I bought a fantastic second hand bass that looks like new and was extremely well priced. I have bought a lot from Absolute, and I know that they're there for me when I need help/advice. Best music store ever.

Edit 04/12/23: Have had the bass for three days now, played extensively and checked every square inch over and over. Either the guitar was never used, or the workshop gave it a good seeing to because the set-up is absolutely perfect, and the strings are brand-new as well. I'm totally over the moon because i practically got a brand-new bass (Ibanez SR500E in that beautiful dual black fade) at the price of a used one. Thanks so much, Absolute!!!

Always very friendly and great service. Staff are knowledgable and happy to answer questions/give advice.

Heading into a significant birthday, already lucky enough to have a 2022 Les Paul standard, I headed down to Bournemouth armed with an excuse to spend a bit more than I could afford on a custom. Friendly, knowledgeable staff, thanks Chris
Absolute give you the time you need, booths with (blackstar) valve amps, don't need to play not on the shop floor like some other stores. A floor full of Les Paul. - I tried Murphy labs, am amazing 78;custom, a new black custom and a b stock/demo 2015 true historic
Ended up with a 'new' 58. What a choice of guitars though. Thanks to Chris for his persistence with Gibson to get docs not available on the day. If you're in the market for a Les Paul, this might be your best chance to try the rare true historic now being released to market Vs current custom and custom shop. Couldn't be happier. Ended up selling my '22 standard as great as it was, just couldn't compete

The item I ordered wasn't much more than the cheapest retailers in mainland Europe and well worth it, not just to support a UK music shop, but one that provides true next day delivery. Really impressed with the service.

Bought a used pedal from their in-person store. Worked fine until the batteries they left in there exploded a few months later - livid that they didn't even bother to take out the last guy's before selling it onto me. (I used it plugged into a rig so never needed to take off the cover)

Normally a great shop, but I'm not convinced that they properly check their second hand stock.