Guitar Stores Online – What Are the Best Online Guitar Stores?
As more and more people become comfortable with making purchases online, it’s inevitable that guitar stores have gone online as well. If you’re looking for great selection and price, shopping for a guitar online can be a great way to go. In this article I’ll look at three of the best online guitar stores and some of the unique features of each one.
The stores in this article are the big three of music specialty retailers. All three offer extensive inventory, a low price guarantee,used items, and some form of discount, on sale, or clearance section. With the exception of the used gear, all three can be expected to have roughly the same selection. So there aren’t a lot of differences between these stores, but we’ll take a quick look at each one:
Guitar Center
Guitar Center is hands down the largest offline music retailer, and despite the name, they, carry a lot more than just guitars. Probably because they have a nationwide network of brick-and-mortar stores, their used gear section is larger than either Musician’s Friend or Music 123, with over 30,000 used items for sale as I am writing this.
Guitar Center will also buy your used gear, and offer a discount on new gear that you buy when trading in. Of course, to trade in, you have to visit a store, so that’s not really shopping online, is it? Guitar Center will also ship items to the store nearest you instead of to your home, which could be useful if you don’t want your brand new guitar to be sitting on your front porch in the hot sun (or freezing cold) when it arrives.
Musician’s Friend
Musician’s Friend probably has the widest selection of all the online music stores. As the name implies, they carry a lot more than just guitars, but they carry lots of guitars, so you’re sure to find what you’re looking for here. Be sure to check out the Used Gear and Clearance sections, too, if you’re looking for deals.
The Musician’s Friend website also has a huge, well-organized “Knowledge Base” section, with articles, reviews, FAQs, buying guides, and more. Look for the “Articles” link on the home page to access this section.
Music 123
Like Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend, Music123 carries a wide range of music gear, not just guitars. They are a catalog and online only store that is owned by Guitar Center. The Music123 site seemed to me a bit easier to navigate than the other two sites, maybe because it’s a bit more of a no-frills site. No scrolling banners or pictures of famous artists on the home page. Just easy to navigate links and buttons to get you where you want to go.
This article reviewed three of the top online guitar stores. But there are lots more places to buy guitars online. These three stores are just the tip of the iceberg.