San Diego Sound & Music Repair

Took my fender Rhodes here to get repaired, service was way better under new ownership.
The new owners have done a great job!

San Diego Sound & Music Repair is under new ownership and management, «Audio Design». Excellent customer service and top notch equipment repair.

I brought a headphone cable in, hoping he’d know some basic soldering and could fix it. He told me that he doesn’t fix any cables at all related to anything speaker or headphone related.
The way he said it was what really turned me off. He sounded like some arrogant old coot who thinks he knows everything about audio. You don’t man, there are much better specialists who took the time to learn.
Like seriously, it says «SOUND & MUSIC» repair yet you don’t know a d@mn thing about soldering.
So I contacted a member on my forums at
who knows how to tin and solder with enamel coated wires. Yeah… your business sucks you need to learn how to run it properly

Took like ~3 months to repair a pedal. What?
I think they sold it too. I have to check. The site says they sell units after not picking them up for a little, I haven’t been able to pick them up due to life. Instead of an option to mail it back to you, they sell it. so evil. lol
Anyways, 3 months? lol, really?!?

I have had two items repaired here. The first was a Mackie 18″ sub. They told me it would be fixed in 3 weeks, it was back to me in 1 week. Diagnosed it and sent me a quote back in 24 hours. Basically, the whole amp inside the unit had to be replaced with a new one. Then a few months later my Genz-​Benz bass amp needed repair. It was under warranty and they are an Authorized repair shop for the brand. I dropped my amp off, he said 3 – 4 weeks for repair. I got an email 1 day later saying it was ready! I picked it up, no charge because of warranty. I asked what was wrong with it, he said a cable crimped improperly and that he had seen the same thing before in this brand.
Their people skills could use improvement, but I don’t really care about that if my stuff is repaired properly and quickly. It may be a sign of a good electrical engineer if they are somewhat anti-​social! :-) The phone calls I had with him were short and to the point. The emails from him were one sentence. But he did actually crack a smile with me the last time I was in there!

I would leave 0 stars if i had the choice. i took my vestax mixer here because they are the authorized repair center for that brand. i dropped it off on may 27. i went and picked it up to get it fixed elsewhere on july 12. that means they had my unit for almost two moths. i called a few times to find out the status of my repair, and they always had an excuse. they never fixed the problem. i say, this place sucks, the attitude there sucks. screw this place. djs if you anything repaired do not go to this place!

I’ve had 3 different amps repaired at this shop. Each time, the bill was very reasonable and the problem was correctly diagnosed and resolved.
One of the three repairs was an intermittent issue that happened after many hours of listening. I took it in knowing it would be a tough one. They ran the amp for days and could not duplicate the problem, and gave the amp back to me unfixed. Back at home, the intermittent problem returned, and they agreed to try again. The second time they were able to duplicate the problem, and correctly diagnosed the problem.
I was very happy that they obviously gave it a good hard second try, and they gave me a very reasonable bill for their efforts.
I sold electronics for 5 years, and dealing with repair shops was always an issue. I’d say that San Diego Music & Repair is one of the best I’ve dealt with.
I notice that another comment is a complaint about a three week wait. I’m sure that’s true, but you’ll be hard pressed to find another service that’s faster.

Do not take your musical equipment there! I took a vintage synth there 3 weeks ago and am still awaiting it’s return. There is a $ 65 dollar non-​refundable policy, so you are powerless, unless you want to forfeit $ 65. When you ask when it will be ready they tell you «We’ll call you when it’s ready»…not good.

I hate to write a negitive review as there first review without actually having been serviced there but this is my experience. well first let me start with a paragraph from the front page of there website. Copy and pasted
«If your studio gear isn’t working right come see us. If it’s used in a studio, we can repair it. This includes hard disk recorders, reel to reel analog recorders, cassette recorders, DAT recorders, microphones and effects units.»
I placed a phone call to ask if they can work on a microphone I have.
Before I could let the guy know what microphone it was he answered back.
«we dont fix mics here» followed by a hang up.
I wouldn’t call them again.