Bananas at Large

Great music shop. Employees go out of their way to be helpful and also educate. Huge selection of ukuleles, keyboards, guitars, electronics. A+

I’ve been shopping at Bananas for about 3 years, mostly at their old location in Santa Rosa. Staff is smart and personable (kudos to Zack for helping me). Prices are competitive. Example: I bought a hard case for my ukulele today at their new store on College Ave. (great new location, by the way! Bigger, brighter, and free parking, too). Case was the same price that is found at multiple online shops. But being local, I was able to take my uke into the new store and see if it fit the case I had identified as being a possible choice. Voila! It fit! So I bought it and saved shipping cost and time. It’s great to have access to a good local music store like Bananas.

Great place to buy musical instruments and gear. They are kind, know their stuff, and have a great selection. They have been successful in Marin for decades and it is because they are great!

I was loyal to Guitar Center for many decades until recently when a major customer service breakdown occurred at the Emeryville store which led me to Bananas At Large in Santa Rosa. Upon walking in the front door I was greeted very warmly by the staff. These folks are pretty incredible and it was very easy to get used to being treated this nicely. I can easily say that bananas has earned my business and I will be shopping local there. It really makes my heart feel good to be able to go to the local music store and have a great experience there. Bananas has more class than the big chain store and has just as much great equipment and better people there to help you out … I would highly recommend them.

Wow, very poor customer service!!! Very flakey management. I would never purchase anything from these guys.

Great place, great staff. I found all 3 things I was looking for and I offered to buy a cardboard box to ship a guitar in and they just gave me one.
That is customer service. Thank you.
Support your local music store.

I decided that I was going to try to get a new pair of Audio Technica headphones, so I started calling around. As I was calling around, I passed this store, which I had never heard of before, and I decided to call the store. The person I talked to was friendly, and competent about the product I was looking for. He put an item on hold for me, and I headed over there.
However, I didn’t realize that the store closed at 6:00, and I got here at 6:15. I got to the door right as the manager was walking out, and he was willing to re-​open things up to get me the headphones, since I had called ahead.
Service was excellent, as well as the prices. They match Musician’s Friend, and Amazon, where when I called into other music stores, they were charging $ 15-​$ 20 over what Amazon was listing.
I’m very happy with the experience there, and will gladly go again.

To bad I can’t give negative stars. Worst customer service and unwelcoming music store ever. We were not greeted, we were not helped. I needed a new guitar but I’ll go somewhere else. I will not be back.

I went in wanted a guitar, specifically a blue guitar. they only had had a black one. They said I could buy the black one and they would order me a blue one and it would be here at the end of the week, I said ok and did that. Well one week turned to three weeks. With no call back. I called them they told me the blue that I ordered was discontinued. So I looked and found they ordered me the wrong blue. So I fixed that and made sure they ordered the blue that I wanted. They said it would be in within a few days. After that I called a couple times (once a week to check) they said they would call me when it came in. So here I am three months later, I was in town so I thought I would stop by and see if what the deal was. Talk to the same sales person he asked his boss where my guitar was … «Coincidentally» it had just arrived like ten minutes before I got there… Weird (or bs you choose) they exchanged my guitars with no hassle (and no apology for the long wait or lack of follow up calls either). Will I do business with them again … Yes … But not much. They have good prices and friendly staff but I will never go with the hey you buy this and we will order that for you and call you when it comes again

Shitty experience. My boyfriend’s amp was dropped off there in January and only now after calling them many times and getting fed up (roughly 4 months later) — then calling Fender today– do we know that the amp was sent elsewhere to be fixed. Finally today it is starting to be worked on. The overall attitude has been arrogant and smug. They said they would call us back today, no call. Excuses left and right and no ownership of the lack of service. they took no responsibility for the fact that the amp has been sitting around for months. Anyhow, things happen and I get that and I’ve got a lot of patience but it’s pretty thin as of now. It seems to me that just because we didn’t spend a ton of money at the store, we are not a high priority. Listed by Fender as a reputable place to take the amp to be fixed, we certainly thought the experience would be better than this. I think it’s unprofessional and the attitude sucks. I hope that the store can get a clue because they have potential.

These guys are fantastic. They carry a great selection of gear, have friendly and knowledgeable staff, and are competitively priced. I have purchased many items over the years and expect to purchase many more. I highly recommend this store.

Every time Ive gone in here Ive almost immediately been asked what I’m looking for and anything that I asked i was either t6old where to find it elsewhere or shown it in the store. I bought new strings for my Warlock and they offered to put them on and tune them for free. Very clearly a group of guys that wants to keep their shop open. In my experience they are knowledgeable about the instruments they are selling and are themselves fans of playing music. I go to them first for all my guitar needs.

I went in today at about 1o’clock to shop for a new drum kit. They don’t have any set up, so I looked at the stacks of shells that were there. I found it difficult to find the pricing or any information about the drums in the store. The store was not busy at all, but still nobody greeted me, or asked me if I needed help or had any questions.
I don’t expect to be treated like royalty, but a little consideration would have probably led to a sale totaling more than a thousand dollars.

This is a great store! My boyfriend is learning how to play guitar. We went in for him to get some information, ended up with so much more. Zack was so helpful and nice. He spent a lot of time answering all are questions. He also spent a lot of time giving advice of how to begin learning. They even spent a good 45 minutes trying to help fix the hand me down guitar that he was going to use to learn. Before we decided it was not worth it. This is a great store and I highly recommend it!

A fine, independent musical instrument store. Name brands, cool obscurities, terrific selection of boutique guitar pedals. The staff can be a little off-​putting. Maybe not as friendly or knowledgeable as their San Rafael counterparts, but OK. They carry my favorite V-​Picks in stock, so big ups for that. It’s where I shop.

Knowledgable and friendly staff, they will help you find exactly what you are looking or give you space if you’re just there to browse. Best prices in town or anywhere for that matter as they will price match for you if you see it somewhere cheaper. Don’t waste your time anywhere else! This is the spot!

Be careful of on-​line orders. Their communication is very poor. They don’t inform you of out of stock items, delays, order status or shipping. I went through 4 weeks of not knowing anything about my order and they finally replied to one of my phone messages about the order status. I never received any replies for numerous email inquiries in all of the 4 weeks.

This past weekend my husband and I decided to check out some music stores, mainly interested in either drums or a cajon. We went to the first place in downtown SR, and after literally being ignored, left. We then wen to Bananas at Large. What a great experience! From the time we walked in and were actually greeted, they were nice, friendly, knowledgeable, and so happy to help us novice musicians. The first day we were helped by Nick. He demonstrated the cajon — his favorite one in the store– and we took it off his hands! We came back the very next day and saw Zack. Another great guy who helped us choose a metronome, also played the cajon for us, and even invited us back to let him show us some tricks. All I can say is don’t waste your time; go to Bananas at Large! So glad we went there.

I’ve had a few frustrating experiences here in the past with lack of follow through. There where a few times I had called looking for a specific product I was in the market for, they didn’t have it in stock, and nobody called me back to let me know if or when they could get it.
HOWEVER…I guess that’s been sorted out since then. I just bought an Orange Dark Terror guitar amp from the shop. Frank, Derek, and Nick where all very helpful. They even matched an incredibly low price from an online competitor. The purchase of the amp was super easy and I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun with a new amp. The Orange Dark Terror is simply amazing!!. These guys will get a lot more of my business in the future. Santa Rosa needs a good music store and this is it.

I’ve been a Bananas customer since the mid 1970’s when they opened the first shop in San Rafael. I still visit the current store on 4^th at E street San Rafael once per season to buy a gadget or 2. I have purchased $ 1,000’s worth of musical gear from Bananas since then. Always get a good deal.
I am so jazzed to have a real, full line, professional quality musical instrument retail shop in Santa Rosa! Yeah, this arrival will be a boon for all Sonoma county musicians.