Centaur Guitar

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Brautigan

Joined 4 years ago

Best Guitar Store in Portland. My sister gave me a fender strat for my son. Someone had painted the pickups and and knobs with pink fingernail polish. He hated it.

I took it to Centaur, hoping they'd just give me some advice. What I got instead was amazing service from someone who is 100% awesome, lol. I mean awsome with guitars, awesome with people, everything. Not only did my son's guitar come out of there looking practically brand new, it came out sounding brand new, and on top of it... I learned stuff. There guys are just great. So easy to talk with -- not pushing, very relaxed, very knowledgeable, and just oh so easy to deal with. I bought a bunch of picks, some guitar strings and some fretboard cleaner mainly because I didn't have cash and I had a real desire to pay for this amazing service somehow.

Man, I haven't seen customer service like this at any business anywhere for a long, long time. If you need anything in the way of guitars, I'd start with these guys. I mean, I'd bypass the internet completely and just head STRAIGHT to these guys.

Thanks, Centaur. You really do rock!

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swedish meatballs

Joined 3 years ago

Great local guitar store, super service. We needed new strings for my son's classical guitar, and weren't sure how to string it either. They weren't too busy, so they sold us the strings and then taught us how to string it, no charge. We had another, older steel string that needed the action lowered, my guitar-playing brother in law said to expect to pay over $100, but for this used guitar worth only about that much, they were able to do a darn good enough fix for $20. I've come here before, always got good service, and the prices are very reasonable. I'll keep coming here.

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Sklyrutan

Joined 3 years ago

Great Place to Buy a Guitar. I went to Centaur when I wanted to learn to play guitar because it was near my job. When I told them that I wanted to get my first guitar, but didn't know much, they sat me down and gave me an education instead of trying to sell me a guitar. They taught me what to look for, and how to research the instruments, and sent me home without a guitar, but with the knowledge to get the guitar that would suit me. I went back a couple days later and bought a guitar from them that I love, and that I was now educated enough to know was a great guitar.

I will definitely return here in the future because they were more concerned with me getting started the right way than making the sale.

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leftystratwhacker

Joined 4 years ago

Just a great guitar shop!. The guys who own and work at Centaur Guitar clearly love music, like sharing their knowledge with other players, and are exceptionally attentive to meeting customers' needs.

I went in there looking for a fairly obscure part for one of my pedals, and the co-owner of the shop told me he would make some calls to try to track it down. He called me back about a week later and said he hadn't been able to find it, so I thanked him and forgot about it. Several weeks later, he called me back and said he'd finally been able to track down what I needed. Incredible! Plus, the price was about 1/2 what I'd have paid to buy something similar online.

Thanks for running an excellent store for musicians!!

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moparscope

Joined 5 years ago

Outstanding service, lot of character, great vibe. I went in to get a new string for my acoustic and was stoked with the service and overal "feel" of this shop. It is a rarity to find a business like this nowadays and you can tell these guys truly love what they do. Highly recommended!

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tobias19

Joined 5 years ago

Defender of the Little Guy. I'm going to make a bold statement. Centaur Guitar is the best guitar shop in Portland. While it doesn't have the selection of Apple Music, nor the size of Guitar Center, it has something 99% of the other shops lack: soul. Every time I walk into the shop, Kelly and Jason welcome me like an old friend. They invite me to try out whatever gear I want, and welcome any questions I may have. The selection of gear ranges from high end Les Pauls, Fenders, and Marshalls, to low end Corts and Crates, to crazy custom built effect pedals and guitars. There are two particular experiences that summarize my overall experience with the place. The first was when I was playing a show with my band and our bassist broke a string and didn't have any replacements. It was fairly late in the evening and Portland Music, the first shop we checked, was closed. We then ran to Centaur. It too was closed, but Jason and Kelly were still inside and let us in, sold us some strings, and were generally awesome about the whole situation. The second experience was when I set out to buy my first electric guitar last year. Although they didn't have the exact guitar I was looking for, they offered to call me if any came into stock, and also pointed me to a few other shops around the city that may have had it. Fortunately, I returned to Centaur and purchased an Epiphone dot. They gave it a full tune up for free, gave me a hardshell case for half off, and threw in a free t-shirt too. As long as Centaur stays around, I'll never go anywhere else for my guitar needs.