Black castle music - St. Louis, Michigan

Schnozzberries

Took in my main guitar, told him it had a ton of sentimental value. Asked him to change my locking nut, and swap my floyd rose, as well as route the relief cavity out, as it was too shallow to just swap the parts. It took a month to get it into his shop at all. The only part not catastrophic is he didn't alter any of the vital dimensions on my fretboard, neck, or nut shelf, that affect intonation. Just did lazy work.

That being said, he only swapped the parts.
- Left a gap between the fretboard and the locking nut, causing intonation issues down the whole neck. I checked with feeler gauges and it was approx 0.013" on the bass side, and 0.020" on the treble side. Any gap is unacceptable here. To address this he should have filled the original holes, and drilled new locating holes for the locking nut.

- I also asked him to either file the back of the locking nut down, or sand the bottom of the file down to match the original action. He didn't touch it. Completely clean surface. The nut shelf had the original factory finish.

- When I got there to pick it up, he told me it'd be ready, turned into an hour, with him putting the strings on he said were ready, and playing my guitar in front of me with his amp on tuning mode, going sharp and flat and all over the place, meanwhile he's bending most notes and just brushing it off - "the tuner only works on open strings." 😂 When I get ready to leave, he drops the string action to where I actually wanted it, and then sent me on my way, with the bridge absolutely buried into the relief cavity shelf. 0.3" additional material needed removed to allow for it to move freely, he even left the foam coating that was on the shelf, in place. Wife had dinner on the oven when I got there, so an hour later I didn't have time to look it over like I'd hoped to - but I gave him some trust, mistakenly.

- The friend who recommended him to me, also discovered he had some other friends who had their instruments damaged at Black Castle while being "serviced," hundreds of dollars of damage in one case. It was unfortunately brought to attention after I discovered the issues on mine.

I did the work myself, and documented it. I work in a guitar shop and build them every day that I'm on the clock. I asked my coworkers and the builders around me if things were done right, since I'm biased. They said they were not, I did it the way I thought he would do it in the first place, and the way my coworkers told me was correct. It's fixed now, but not by any part of Chris' work. 0/10. I was so stressed out about it after I discovered the issues. He even acknowledged it could have been done incorrectly in text the morning after I picked it up and he'd take it back to fix it, but with what I'd seen there was no chance in hell I was bringing it back to him. He knew I worked in a guitar shop before he took it, I told him how important the guitar was to me. New stuff in his shop is probably fine, but for service or modification, beware.

Ben L.

Black castle is awesome! I came in with a couple guitars that needed a couple minor things and chris hooked me up in less than ten minutes free of charge! Awesome guy who knows his stuff! Highly recommend black castle music!

R4M D.

He sold me a nice guitar a couple years ago that I liked very much. Unfortunately last month I brought a different guitar in for a nut replacement and setup, I was less than satisfied with the work. The nut was only about half way down the slot leaving a very noticeable gap, and causing serious tuning issues.

Chris W.

Thank you much for the great price on his new ( to him) guitar 🎸. Very helpful and great selection.

Kang J.

Absolutely outstanding! I have my daughter taking guitar lessons and my boy taking drum lessons and Chris is excellent at walking them through proper technique and also having some fun while learning. They look forward to their lessons and they always leave a better player than when they arrived. Money so well spent!

Angela L.

Chris is a great instructor! He made the lesson fun. Our daughter is excited to practice everything she learned at her first voice lesson. I enjoyed watching and was glad I was welcome to stay for the lesson. She couldn't wait to start practicing as soon as she woke up this morning and she can't wait for her next lesson!

Brittany K.

I absolutely loved my experience with Black Castle Music! They fixed up my sons guitar in no time at all. And even with a few hiccups in the situation (guitar wasn't cooperating very well haha) it didn't cost me an arm and a leg to have it fixed. Definitely would recommend to anyone needed instrument repairs or to purchase. Super friendly and an awesome little shop...we will definitely be back

James T.

Chris is an amazing instructor! My boy can’t stop talking about how much he enjoyed his first lesson. Chris was professional and connected well with him. Not just that, but my boy left there feeling proud of himself for what he has learned and eager to learn more. Great Job, Black Castle Music! I can’t wait to see what you do in the future.