Imperial Vintage Guitars

Walked in randomly and met Joe. He sold me some Martin acoustic mediums and hooked me up with a battery for my Snark. They have some awesome stuff and it’s all reasonably priced. He let me play any guitar there, and there were so damn fine acoustics. Friendly service all the way! Will be coming back

Shai helped me find the bass I’d been looking for. I had a low budget for a player’s grade vintage Fender, and he had a surprisingly deep inventory of guitars between his two stores memorized. I’d been driving around LA all day looking for something suitable to leave on tour with, and he spent a good two hours just helping me sort it out. Bonus, it was setup well enough to get me through my tour without visiting a luthier. Whoever does the buying for imperial has good taste, everything in the shop is very very desirable.
Total trust in this shop. If you are doing the rounds for a vintage guitar, make sure you stop here.

It is a leap of faith to buy an expensive guitar that you have never played over the phone but my story turns out as a dream come true. I thought I would never do such a thing but have been looking for a mid 90’s telecaster plus with lace sensor pickups for ten years in black. They are never around. I found one on-​line at IVG and talked Dor’s ear off about how particular I was. I then talked with Shai, who is a guitar player, and he honestly walked me through the guitar’s shortcomings and assets. The guitar I got in the mail all the way on the East Coast was exactly what I expected. I am so very glad to have the guitar I was looking for – finally! It sounds amazing through the new Fender Vibrolux 68 which IVG can also get you (I didn’t realize they sold new Fender amps). Thank you Shai and Dor!

I came across Imperial Vintage when staying with my grandmother one weekend. I’d acquired an old guitar from a family member and was wanting to get it restrung so I could practice over the weekend. The crew here was very accommodating and turned around this adjustment in a few hours, adapting their next-​day pick-​up time frame. This I greatly appreciated! Being an old guitar, I valued the consideration shown in not wanting to break the old knobs when tuning. Ultimately, some WD-​40 worked at home!

This place is a rarity, especially in a city like Los Angeles. A triple threat of amazing gear, fair prices and really friendly and knowledgeable staff? Unheard of. Until this place came along. Tommy and Shai are gems, there to advise, discuss and answer any and all questions. Did I say the gear was amazing? Special, really one-​of-​a-​kind CLEAN vintage guitars and amps are all over this place. Bring your bib ’cause you’ll be drooling.

I bought an early 1970’s Fender Precision bass from Tommy in 2013. I was just beginning my collecting. I asked Tommy if the bass and the case being sold with it were 100% original. He informed me that both the bass and case were original. At the time, I didn’t know better.
Flash forward to 2014, and now after a lot of learning, I know that I was not told the truth. I contacted Imperial Vintage Guitars by email, asking simply that they allow me to return the non-​original case for an original, period correct case and they declined.
They offered to let me BUY a Fender case for the bass. It’s impossible for me to believe Tommy did not know the case was not an original Fender case (it does not say Fender on the outside and the inside compartment is not located where it would be on an original case).
Accordingly, it is my belief that Imperial Vintage Guitars took advantage of my inexperience, at the time, by being deceitful. There are lots of qualities that define the character of a business. Dishonesty is one of the worst.

Shai and Tommy are great. Their new store in Sherman Oaks has great stock at very, very fair prices. I am very satisfied with my purchase and I will surely do more business with them.

This is a great shop. These guys friendly and honest. They ask the right questions and are not pushy.

This is a great shop! They have a great collection of used and vintage guitars as well as some new ones and they all are priced right.
Whenever I go there I see a dozen of new items I haven’t seen before.
They did an amazing setup for my 1963 stratocaster and I bought a 1969 and I bought an original 1969 telecaster from them for pretty much a steal.
I had a very pleasant experience with both Shai and Tommy, they both made me feel welcomed every time I was in there. I’d rather shop in a mom & pop store like this than going to a big chain.
Keep up the good work guys, see you soon!

I think these guys do a great job. I went there several times and they are patient and helpful for every question.
One time I took them my Ibanez Jem 10^th Anniversary guitar for selling and they suggest to sell it my self to a buyer directly. I think this kind of suggestion is really important because it showed me they give more attention to help costumers then making money.
What can I say more? They are reliable, trustworthy and honest.
My only problem is they are too far from Long Beach. :D

The Guys are very helpful, nice & go above & beyond. Just a note sometimes repairs are sent out & the turn around time might not be clear.

After my buddy got his guitars set-​up here, I went to get a Fender Telecaster set-​up. Both Shai and Tommy are great. They gave me a better understanding of what I needed on the guitar. Customer service was great and prices were so much better than the other guitar repair places I shopped around for. I was originally told the job would take a week but got the call the next day to pick up my guitar. GREAT JOB, GREAT SERVICE, GREAT SHOP!!!

I have a career background in the music industry, play instruments, know my gear, etc. Hence, it is quite annoying that the plethora of music shops in LA think that when they see a female walk in; she won’t know an amp from a cabinet or a bass from a guitar. Well, word to the «wise»: I DO. My gender can cause some poor customer service plus the habit of being taken advantage of.
Imperial Vintage Guitars isn’t AS bad as others I have experienced. The shop is quaint, clean, and well organized. Not to mention bright and quiet. However, character was missing from the shop. Meaning: Imperial Guitars is too «stiff» and perfect. All the equipment is clean and in rather great shape which IS exactly what some people are looking for. However, this doesn’t give the real feel of a vintage guitar shop where one finds rare and collectible pieces. It feels more about the money and «flipping» a guitar. Imperial Vintage Guitars lacks that soul to be found in a true, vintage guitar shop.
This also bleeds through onto Shai, the owner. Shai is personable, funny, and in a rather good mood as he helps his customers. Sounds great, right? However, he never mentioned playing music, knowing the instruments, etc. As I tried to sell him a 1920 Neapolitan mandolin (offered $ 150 – 200 at other spots); he didn’t know anything about it and had to look it up on the computer commenting the whole time on how much it would sell for or NOT sell for (apparently in my case) versus the beauty of the instrument and the music produced. Again, it felt like Shai is all about the money and doesn’t even play music himself.
Another «eh» moment regarding Shai was his constant statement that he didn’t want to «insult» me with the price he was offering for my mandolin. It took begging, basically, to get him to come out with it. It is comparable to being in a verbal argument with the other person saying, «I would say something mean about you but won’t…». That doesn’t make it better! Now I know you thinking of an insult!
Further, Shai proceeded to talk badly about a business competitor, which I found to be unprofessional. If you have to talk badly about a competitor or another business; that doesn’t solidify your own. In fact, that makes me wonder why you have to «convince» me of your own good-​standing.
Overall, Imperial Vintage Guitars isn’t a terrible choice when looking for a used– stringed music maker. The wares are in great shape and Shai is pleasant to converse with and is probably a great person, socially. However, he is more of a business man versus a musician. Plus, Imperial Vintage Guitars is a «used» store versus vintage. Not a bad choice, just not for me.

It’s really nice to have a place that has quality mid to high-​end to ultra high-​end guitars like this.
They also do great set-​up work for a very reasonable price. I’ve brought in my Les Pauls and had them returned to me playing better than ever.
I definitely recommend checking them out. Guitarists need places like this that are better alternatives to those big-​box stores.

I’ve been down to the store many times, to drool over the lovely fine vintage guitars, to get a repair done or to see about adding to my studio. Its great that there is a store that is AAA+++ for all of these things right down the road from me in Burbank! This is the kind of guitar store you would gladly travel to… if you had to… But thankfully its right on Magnolia! In addition Tom is a fine player who knows his instruments and is there for players too! Fair prices on amazing gear and fine repairs done! THANK YOU!!! :)

Rad guitar store! A real gem. Great service. I got a smokin’ deal on an early 70’s Les Paul! Tommy is awesome! I can’t say the same about the guitar stores near my house…

Guitar shopping doesn’t get easier and better than this! I came here to buy a guitar for my boyfriend. As soon as I walked in, I wished I was the one who played the guitar. This store makes me want to play the guitar.
The staff is very friendly and they definitely know what they’re talking about. They patiently listened to me and addressed my concerns as I bombarded them with gazillion questions. They are ahhhmazing! If you’re looking for a high quality guitar store with amazing deals and friendly staff, this is THE place to go to. I got more than my money’s worth (*wink wink*). My boyfriend couldn’t have been happier.
Finally someone stepped up and opened a REAL store. We’ll be sure to visit it again and again.
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Don’t really know how to rate this place being that both times I’ve been there, I was ignored. Maybe you should get off the phone and greet your customers! Or, have that guy sitting at the desk, stop browsing the web and help out. I WAS planning on picking up a twin reverb. Whether someone is buying some pics or a $ 5,000 guitar, every customer should matter. With this business model, you won’t last very long. Poor service can spread via work of mouth (the internet) like wild fire.
p. s. Look up the definition of Customer Service.

This is a very nice Vintage guitar store, they have a nice selection of old guitars and some new ones since they are also dealers for fender .
As a guitar player i love looking and playing old guitars, and the owners know alot about all of them which in my book is a great +, they have some great old guitar for a good price, that if i wasn’t so poor i would consider buying :)

Great people and unbelievable guitars. It’s very cool to visit if you’re a newbie player and very fun to shop in if you are a professional guitar player.