Hoffman Guitars

These guys do a great job, I've had them do a number of repairs, recently repaired a back crack on a 1940 martin d-18 for me, they've also done some great fret replacements, and just recently had them re-fret a 1959 strat, was a great job, guitar feels and plays fantastic, always great service, thank you guys!

Beware of getting work done here. They broke tuners on a guitar of ten years and blamed it on the tuners. Never had a problem with this guitar. They constantly lied about how long the work was going to take, and what parts were ordered. Poor communication all around.

This was my experience with Hoffman Guitars as a first time customer. I dropped off a guitar on January 4th for a setup and for them to give it a once over. At that time they said it would take about a week. A week goes by and I call just to check in and they say they haven't gotten to it yet, should be by the end of that week. I wait the second week and I don't hear anything from them.

I give them a full third week plus a day before driving over and picking it up. Maybe they do really good work since they obviously take their time (I wouldn't know since they never touched mine), but don't expect any communication on their part or put any faith in their turnaround times.

After nearly 20 years of abuse, electric heat, camp fires and childish use I relied on these guys bring my Taylor 314CE back to life. With three large cracks, a split across the bridge and a pickup that hasn't worked since 2007 they fixed it all. The work is fantastic and I'm extremely happy. The workmanship was expert work along with a price that was less than two other shops I brought it to. Highly recommended!

Went in there initially on a whim from google to have a new guitar set up because I was frustrated with the store I purchased it from. Phenomenal. What a wonderful, knowledgeable place to do business with. These guys are top notch professionals and produce results. Its a great environment if you are serious about your instruments. I HIGHLY recommend Hoffman over any other place and definitely over a big box instrument shop. Could not be more pleased. I will be bringing all further business here indefinitely. Thank you!

I discovered Hoffman Guitars while researching guitar luthiers. I was very impressed by Mr. Hoffman's guitar building skills and the longevity of his employees. I had purchased an ES-335 from Guitar Center at a really good price back in 2014. Gibson had been raided by the feds for allegedly using illegal imported wood, even though their competitor C.F. Martin was importing the same wood with no problems.

Because of the threat of bankruptcy, Gibson was shipping guitars as fast as they could make them and some of the guitars weren't setup correctly. My ES-335 had intonation problems and some other issues. Even though it was a 250+ mile trip I decided to take my guitar to Hoffman's shop. Michelle did the repair work on it and my ES-335 was flawless. Michelle has worked on an acoustic of mine too. When I need guitar work done, I have it done at Hoffman Guitars. "They are some of the best in the guitar building and repair business."

Hoffman did an amazing setup job on my Martin acoustic and the difference was clear as day. They were friendly, professional, and courteous. The repair was a little spendy, but worth it though. It played like a brand new guitar when they were done with it.

Excellent experience with a repair two years ago. The high-end guitar I took to Charlie's shop on short notice was repaired in one week. It plays and sounds much better now than when I bought it. The repair charge was so low, and they treated me so well, that I left thinking I had ripped them off. I can't understand how other reviewers could choose to say anything negative about this venerated and still great guitar shop.

I don't know who wrote the other reviews other what your experience has been, but in my view Hoffman is the very best guitar repair shop in the Midwest. Always knowledgeable, always honest, always dedicated to high quality and service, always on time and keep their commitments. I own a 30 year old Olson guitar, and I know Jim Olson refers repairs to Hoffman. They are the only shop I will trust with my guitar. Just had it re-fretted there.

CUSTOMER BEWARE I had a neck reset that was covered by warranty done on my guitar by Hoffman Guitars, a factory authorized warranty service center. After 1-2 years, it developed a hump in the neck at the 12th fret and is now considered unbuyable by many reputable guitar shops in town. I should have known something was wrong because even when I originally got the guitar back, because there was dried glue that had been pressed out and never wiped away.

It just looked sloppy. I've had multiple guitar shops to look at it and all they say it looks like a job done "on the cheap". Hoffmans seems to have a history of poor craftsmanship on warranty repairs. From what I understand, they don't get much money from the guitar companies for warranty work, so they understandably try to push them out as fast as possible.

I have, however, heard reports of even their paid repairs being overpriced and again showing signs of poor craftsmanship. When I asked Hoffmans for options about how to fix the hump, they suggested to file down the frets! I've contacted Martin guitar support and other guitar shops and they all agreed that would be the worst possible solution. Why file down the frets when the real issue is a bad neck reset?

I have not worked with Charlie Hoffman himself, but multiple of his employees. These employees think it's a good idea to put a bandaid on work was done improperly, instead of fixing the root issue. Because of this, I would be very wary of taking expensive guitars to people with that mentality. You usually only have one shot to repair something properly, otherwise you've just caused damage.

They didn't repair my guitar, they damaged it. This may have been a great guitar shop at one point, but that time has passed. I would recommend Brown's guitar factory for any of your Martin warranty repairs. It's certainly worth the extra drive.