Nick Rail Music

I agree with Steven D. The manager of this store (?Cheryl?) should be an embarrassment to the owner. As a casual shopper I have observed her amazing rudeness to other customers on several occasions. Her attitude is nasty and condescending. She has answered my simplest question with an attempt to belittle my knowledge in face of her superiority. (If I knew all the answers, why would I ask a question in the first place?) Get rid of her, Nick.

I loved walking into Nick Rail Music, a privately owned music store. Very intimate and pleasant experience. The store also has a wide variety of private music instructors and repair technicians which I found very appealing.
Biggest highlight for me was the gentleman working behind the counter.
Brian was friendly, patient and thorough with his explanations. He’s very knowledgable about woodwind and brass instruments, as well as guitars, basses and recording equipment.
Great experience, I’ll be coming back soon.

How disappointing! We have been coming to this establishment for 3+ years, ever since their previous location in Kearny Mesa. Today’s experience was so beyond the norm for their customer service that we all left the store in shock. My grandfather, who is invalid, wanted to buy my 9-​year-​old cousin a flute to start her music lessons.
Having shopped at this establishment for the last 3+ years, we asked my grandpa to use Nick Rail Music. He spoke with Brian at the store who helped setup everything. We went in today to pick up the flute and Brian greeted us as we walked in. There was another young man who was in the back room who poked his head out but never greeted us or said anything. Brian was super friendly, attentive and was an overall nice young man. My aunt told him that my grandfather had been on the phone with him and he knew exactly who we were and quickly retrieved the flute. We handed him the check that my grandfather gave us for the store to pay for the item. Brian kindly informed us that we would need the drivers license number and expiration date, so my aunt called my grandfather to get the necessary information.
As this was happening, a woman who I originally thought was another customer entered and quickly went behind the cashier’s desk. Without even knowing the situation, she started reprimanding Brian and saying that she «told [him] yesterday» that the actual person who the check belonged to had to be present and they would not take the check as it would be a «second party check». I would like to point out that the check was written out to Nick Rail Music and NOT a «second party check» as she claimed. Brian quickly apologized. The woman, who I quickly came to realize was the store manager Cheryl Jones, continued with her reprimand as she walked to the back room including informing us AGAIN that they will not be taking our check. It was unclear how she knew what was transpiring but it seemed as if she knew before she even entered the premises. If her issue was a payment issue, my uncle (who is a POS specialist) says she could have easily contacted my grandfather’s bank for a check authorization and confirm the funds were present. Regardless, my aunt who was on the phone with my grandfather the entire time, informed him what happened and he too became very upset as he believed everything was in order when he last spoke to Brian.
I felt bad for Brian, who looked very embarrassed by his boss’ behavior. We all came to the conclusion that we would be purchasing the flute elsewhere, where the manager didn’t seem in the slightest concerned with $ 600+ walking out the door. The whole experience ended with my 9-​year-​old cousin in tears. Talk about piss poor customer service.
We originally dealt with Jim in the past, who was a saxophone specialist — who certainly dealt with his customers in a more helpful manner, which is why we were consistent repeat customers from the beginning. This was such a disheartening experience and really left a sour taste in our mouths. Like I had already stated, we were repeat customers for 3+ years and shear lack of professionalism, courtesy and customer service shown by the store manager, Cheryl Jones was appalling.
Needless to say, we will NOT be returning to this establishment.

Called with an emergency repair situation, because the band concert is next week. I brought it in, they looked, fixed it on the spot, and charged me only $ 20! Love this place!

I was looking for someone to service my 55-​yr. old Buffet alto sax. A friend recommended Nick Rail, and I could not be more satisfied! All the staff were pleasant, knowledgeable and professional, and Jim, who worked on my horn, was excellent. His assessment was thorough, and he did very good work at a fair price, and on time. The sax has always played well, in addition to having sentimental value. Jim clearly appreciated this. He actually talked me out of buying a new ligature and other services that would have been more costly and unnecessary. I’m just getting back into playing, and Jim and the rest of the staff took time to answer all my questions. I’m really glad I found Nick Rail at this location.

My son play Tenor Sax for the Marching Band at RBHS. During practice he fell and the Sax got quite damage. I brought to the store and Jim Weiss, Repair Technician, is very good at what he does. He got the Sax repaired perfectly in a very short time for a reasonable price.
Highly recommend this place to all my friends.

I have waited till the last min. to get a cello for my son. After calling everyone who is on Unilocal I found Nick’s. Not only did Nick’s have a ¾ size cello, their prices were reasonable. I went in my sons cello was sitting out waiting for me, the guys working there were nice and friendly. Thanks Nick Rail Music.

I just rented a trombone for my son, they are really nice, prices are reasonable. It was used, and they found a small ding in it (which I didn’t even see) and they are fixing it before we take it home. I was impressed.

These guys/​gals rock. They have always been more than helpful with fantastic customer service.

I really am glad I found this place. I just got back into playing my trumpet again after 20+ years and found that I had misplaced all of my trumpet books. They had a good selection of books and music for the trumpet and I was able to talk to them about some issues I was having with my Mt. Vernon Bach. They recommended that I bring it in and let Daniel, their repair guy look at it. I did and it turns out I had a few more serious problems than I thought. I decided to retire the trumpet and buy a new one.
I found a great deal on a used Strad on eBay and once it arrived I had Daniel perform a sonic clean on it and unstick my third valve slide. He went above and beyond, this trumpet looks brand new. It didn’t matter that I didn’t buy a new horn from them, they treated me just like I had. I will definately be back for more items as I need them. They don’t have everything but can order in or have items brought down from their other locations as needed. I am more than please with the service and professionalism of these folks. Daniel is one of the best repair guys and I will take the Mt. Vernon in for final repairs before retiring it and using it only for special occasions. I look forward to many years of doing business with them.

I just rented my 10 yea rold son a sax from this place to use at school in the band. The lady who helped me was very knowledeable and helpful. The price seems fair and I love that I can buy teh instrument with full credit of my monthly rental payments if I chose to. It is a small litlte store, so don’t go here if you are looking for a huge selection, but if they have what you want, they deserve your business.

It’s a veryyy small music store that specializes in brass and woodwind instruments and they have a few music books for other instruments, but the selection isn’t very large. The customer service though was great. I dealt with the manager and he was friendly and helped me order a few music books so I could purchase them from him later on. I’ll definitely come back :]

It’s a fairly small instrument store. They’ve got other locations too, including Santa Barbara and Agoura Hills, which is probably why I’ve heard of them before moving to San Diego.
I think the things I like about Nick Rail is that they’ve got a nice selection of accessories. This is the only place in San Diego where I buy my saxophone reeds, and while I’m sure I can get them for cheaper at
or Musician’s Friend or even Amazon, I think I’d rather support the local business.
I also took a couple of sax lessons here last year, and I probably would have stuck around doing them if I had not moved to Ventura County. But now that I’m back in the 858, I just might give this place another chance. Gerard Nolan, one of the woodwind teachers, is pretty rockin’. Plus, he gets additional stars for his Irish accent.
This is probably the one stop store you need for your woodwind, brass, and some percussion needs. For guitars, basses, and kits, I guess you can stick with Guitar Center. For orchestra strings, Nick Rail has a few things in stock, and I’m sure they’d special order for you too.
And as for piano stuff, well, piano resources are plenty all over.