Musician's Friend

[TJS]

I had to give props to Musician's Friend. They are typically not a woodwind dealer but are starting to carry various items. I needed something I could only find there and received it 1 day after I ordered it. Very impressive.

[retread]

Yes, although they are oriented toward guitars and keyboards they have a decent selection of woodwind supplies. Their prices and service are excellent.

[thehighend]

Musician's Friend is definitely one of the best. Highly recommended!

[thehighend]

As a follow-up... Musician's Friend came through for me on several orders in December, and their service is leaps and bounds above that of WWBW (of course, the same applies to most companies, thankfully). MusiciansFriend also carries all the major sax lines (Selmer, Yanagisawa, Yamaha, Keilwerth) and their prices are typically as good as WWBW. And, if you are a www.fatwallet.com member, you also now get 12% FatWallet "cash back".
There are deals to be had, too; today I almost ordered an Otto Link tenor piece for $62 but managed to resist. Anyway, I'm just a new and happy customer, and SO glad that I have found an alternative to WWBW.

[robbieg]

Musicians Friend ended up buying out Giardinelli, which was (and still is) a Band Insturment store. After that they started to carry band and orchestra insturments. I've found that their stock is less than WWBW but they also have quicker service and tend to carry the more popular stuff anyway (they just don't have the 100 different little brands of reeds and stuff like that).

[JPSaxMan]

Considering that WWBW had the Dukoff tenor mouthpiece I wanted for $15 more than Musician's Friend, I ordered from them. Although we're on the opposite sides of the country and the order went in snail mail, it only took two weeks. Two weeks might have been a long time if it had come from WWBW or if I ordered with express shipping, but it got here across the country in about a week (considering the time it took for the order to get there). 8-)

[thehighend]

I think, after re-reading your post, that you are saying that Musician's Friend came through with a ($15) better price than WWBW, and relatively quick delivery too.
I'm glad to hear that Musician's Friend is coming through for other folks as well. Even though the company seems to originally be from Oregon, I believe they usually ship from warehouses in other parts of the country.

[JPSaxMan]

I think, after re-reading your post, that you are saying that Musician's Friend came through with a ($15) better price than WWBW, and relatively quick delivery too.

Yep, ya heard me right...sorry for any confusion:|

[Sigmund451]

I just bought a neck pouch and a double sax stand. I was very happy with their serivice and VERY happy with their prices. They are one of the few that dont gouge on shipping.

[2thmechanic]

Could somebody post the link to Musicians Friend? Thanks.

Dave

[saxmanglen]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/

[thehighend]

This link will take you specifically to the band instruments part of their site:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bo/content/cb/index

If you click-through via a FatWallet account, then you will also get 12% in FatWallet cash based on your purchase amount. Not bad.... e.g., a $1930 sax would effectively be $1698 after cash back. And, I have eventually received the cash in my FatWallet account, although it does take several weeks.

[robbieg]

Giardinelli is owned by Musicians Friend (much like WWBW and Music123) and they sometimes have stuff in stock that MF doesn't so you might wanna check them out too. I belive Giardinelli ships from New York.

http://www.giardinelli.com/

[Sigmund451]

They dont have (and admitt to not having) the best organized site on the web. Sometimes you have to be creative in your searches...theres stuff in there hiding...some of it good. You have to put forth a little effort. Im sure there is some secret incantation that gets it all out there but the secret does not belong to me. They are a Musicians Friend....they are also a computer users nightmare ;)

[thehighend]

Their site is not the best, for sure. I end up using their Search field quite a bit, simply typing in what I'm looking for, like "Yanagisawa".

[JazzMan_4_Jesus]

I have used them for my Bari Reeds.. got them in 2 days and will use them again for my double sax stand soon! I also use music123.com I have purchased several items from them (lig, mpc guards, and soft BARI reed for my sop)

[thehighend]

....if you are a www.fatwallet.com member, you also now get 12% FatWallet "cash back".

Unfortunately, the 12% dropped to 6% sometime last week.

[fballatore]

Unfortunately, the 12% dropped to 6% sometime last week.
Argggh - I just ordered over $200 worth of stuff from Musician's Friend - I wish I had known about FatWallet before then.

I love Musician's Friend. It's like night and day between MF and WWBW. From sales, to shipping to customer service, they're so much better.

[klezmerclarinet]

I'm shopping tenors and I notice that Musicians Friend has a "house brand" Giardinelli Tenor pro model GS512. Anyone have any experience with this brand of sax?

[thehighend]

I would be wary of their "house" brand.

[fballatore]

Having said what I said earlier, I need to relay an annoying story about my latest MF order. I had placed an order on 1/10/06 using my credit card, and everything shipped on 1/11 except one item (a Rovner lig) that was on backorder. The lig shipped on 1/19/06, and I received it a couple of days later. On 2/5/06, I placed another order making sure that everything was in stock. I received a phone call the next day to confirm my order and was told it would ship that day. Four days after my order, on Thursday, I received an email stating that 4 of the 7 items I ordered were on backorder. I thought this was strange, so I called customer service, and spoke with a very rude rep that told me the problem was that I had "placed a stop on the credit card charge" for the 30.99 Rovner lig, and that my order was being cancelled because of this. I told him that was ridiculous, and that I had done no such thing, and he then accused me of trying to rip them off. He then gave me the corporate phone number if I "wanted to discuss this further". I called and spoke with someone in accounting and told him that I was extremely annoyed about this situation, and that I didn't appreciate being accused like this. After an hour on the phone, it turns out that Citibank (and most other credit card companies) will only hold an authorization on a charge for 3-5 days on an on-line order, and that my card was never charged for the Rovner, but I had no idea of this. While I understand that this is to protect the card holder, I was flabbergasted that Musician's Friend didn't have a better way to deal with this. They must run across this a hundred times a day! I've ordered many, many things on line, and have never had this happen on any backorder items; I'm guessing that all the other on-line vendors I deal with just re-do the charge when the backorder is ready to ship - seems very simple to me. I asked why someone from MF didn't try to contact me when the charge was declined - no answer. I asked why the rep that called me on Monday to confirm my order didn't explain this - no answer. I asked why she told me on Monday that the order was shipping - no answer. I asked when they were planning to discuss this with me - no answer. I asked why I received an email saying that the items were on backorder (all items were actually in stock throughout the entire week) - no answer. I asked why they didn't have a better way to deal with this type of situation that arises (according to him, "hundreds of times a day") - no answer. After all this, I told the accounting person that of course I wanted them to re-charge me for the Rovner lig, and he did, and confirmed that the charge went through. I then asked when I could expect the second order to ship, and that I would hope they would expedite the shipment, and was told "we'll see what we can do". I expected a much better answer than this. When I've dealt with WWBW in the past, and they've screwed something up, they always expedite the item and ship overnight at their expense. The package did ship on Thursday, but they did nothing at all to expedite the shipment - I just checked UPS tracking, and it went ground, not even second or 3rd day, and I won't have it until Wednesday.

That will be my last order with Musician's Friend - I'm going back to WWBW.

Frank

[Timmy_G]

Someone should make a breathe mint named "musicians friend"

[thehighend]

My personal experiences have taught me that both WWBW and Musicians Friend are tough to deal with when things go wrong. I simply have found that things go wrong much more often with WWBW.

[thundersax]

sorry to hear about this recent bad experience from "the friend" I have ordered a lot of stuff from them over the past few years and have never had any trouble.... maybe you got a frustrated dude on a bad day? not making excuses for them I wouldnt have liked the situation any better I'm sure. they do have a competitor though who is looking pretty good although the selection might not be as good, try music123.com. they are not bad and have about the same prices and best of all you can play them against each other a little as they are willing to beat each others advertised prices.

[thehighend]

music123.com is the same company as wwbw.com
Two sites linked to the same (lame) operations. I suppose I'm showing my bias again. This bias is based on numerous bad experiences with WWBW. I will order from WWBW when I have to, but I'm glad there are alternatives such as Musicians Friend.

[JPSaxMan]

I agree with Frank about the WWBW screw-ups...they do make sure that they try to fix their mistakes.

I am getting a bad vibe from WWBW about now though; I ordered three Rovner ligs for trial, and the lady on the phone said they would be expected on the 12th. I get an email a day or two later and find out the tracking on the one lig was Feb 23...:shock:. So I send them an email to cancel that Rovner and if the other ones are going to be late to cancel the entire order. No action has been taken yet...this should be interesting

[thundersax]

I didnt know that music123 and WWBW were affiliated, sorry.

[tjontheroad]

music123.com is the same company as wwbw.com
Two sites linked to the same (lame) operations. I suppose I'm showing my bias again. This bias is based on numerous bad experiences with WWBW. I will order from WWBW when I have to, but I'm glad there are alternatives such as Musicians Friend.


FYI - Music 123 was Zapf's Music prior to the WWBW buyout. Zaph's was a long time Philadelphia local dealer and school band shop. Musician's Friend is owned by Guitar Center.

[jmartin]

I've been buying from MF for years. I've bought guitars, flutes, piccolo, mouthpiece, and supplies. Never had the first problem. I've also returned several thing without any problem. Can't say enough good things about them. I particularly like the "closeout" section. If they decide not to carry an item, they really blow it out.

[jjhall]

I've spent $1000's with MF. Problems have been very rare and quickly taken care of.

[fballatore]

Well, I guess I ought to give Musician's Friend another shot then, based on the feedback here.

Thanks guys.