The Horn Guys: Refreshingly great service!

[j1007hc]

Hi all,

A couple of colleagues and I traveled down to the University of Redlands this past weekend to watch the CSO Brass in concert. As we were already down there, we decided to plan a pit stop at the Horn Guys in La Crescenta, CA.

I know this may be redundant for many of you who have already done business with Steve Ferguson, but WOW. What great service! First off, it was a Saturday, so our visit was by appointment. It was after a long day (Steve was at the concert manning a booth in the lobby). I'm gracious that he took the time to entertain the seven of us from Northern California despite his very long day of traveling back and forth to Redlands, CA. It was very obvious that the operation he runs is NOT to make a quick buck, but rather to help musicians of all levels and affordability get paired with equipment that will LAST. One of my French horn colleagues fell in love with a beautiful Ion Balu mute and took it home. Steve was very gracious in letting us try the many different F tubas, CC tubas, bass trombones, and contrabass trombones. Due to his help, I've even found a bass trombone mouthpiece that actually made the bass trombone fun to play (as a tuba player, I need all the help I can get!).

This is an unsolicited independent review by a client who found absolutely great service. In a world where people are out to make a quick buck, it is so refreshing to find a business that has customer service high on the agenda (how great it is that it also is a brass store!).

Bravo Horn Guys,

Johnathan Hsu

[JohnMCooper]

Steve is a great guy! I have talked to him several times at the NAMM show but finally had a chance to deal with him just a few months ago.
All the bone players in the big band I play in thought it would be fun to get Pbones. They were ordering theirs online with mixed results. I sent Steve an email at about 11pm asking him if they had any pbones in stock at the Long Beach store that was closer to me. I got a response at about 12:30am, "don't have any at long beach store, but could get some down there in a couple days or I could just ship one to you for $10, what color do you want?". I called him the next morning, placed the order. The following day it was on my doorstep.
He didn't have to go to that much trouble for $50 order, but he did. I was happy to spend $10 to have it shipped, fuel would have cost me more than that for a round trip (20 miles each way) to Long Beach.

[Tubanapoleon]

Ditto to what has been said above, this is a great music shop and Steve and his staff all all really nice and friendly. I frequented Steve's shop numerous times while I was in LA studying at USC, and they were always very helpful, whether I was there to play-test their tubas, try out mouthpieces, ship an instrument or just buy music or valve oil. The service is wonderful, and they have a wonderful variety of brass instruments (It was very cool to be able to play-test the relatively rare YFB-821 Bobo F tuba and compare to my own 621). They helped me pack and ship my Edwards Bass Trombone when I sold it, and for a very reasonable price. When I was looking to buy a new mouthpiece, they were very helpful and let me play-test various mouthpieces right there in the store; I ended up buying a PT-48, which I still use to this day.

A highly recommended store and service, whether shopping online or in-person! For those in SoCal or otherwise within driving distance, it really is worth the time to drive and visit the store in-person!