The main message to convey here is: If you want to begin playing guitar and don't have a lot of money, the greater Cleveland area has some excellent places to find affordable guitars.
And also, if you got the money, some gems too.
So, I haven't taken a complete look at each and every store in the Cleveland area, however, I have made a point to visit a few of the notable ones. Along with being the city of the Rock and Roll hall of fame, Cleveland is an immensely guitar-friendly city. There are likely more guitar and music stores here per population than any other city I've lived in. In fact, in most cities, you can count the guitar stores on one hand. Not true of the Cleveland area. This is a guitar city. And it should be. After all, it has seen some of the greatest guitar players on the planet play here. In fact, one of those greats, Joe Walsh, used to play the various venues here way back in the day before he came up with all those epic Hotel California guitar parts.
My first visit to a guitar shop in Cleveland was the Guitar Center out in Mayfield Heights. The main feature here is that they have all sorts of instruments and equipment as well as a large and affordable guitar selection. If you are on a tight budget, this is the place. You can buy a decent guitar in the $100 range. The electrics were a bit more pricey, but still, they were affordable. Of course, they had a nice acoustic room where I decided to play away in. I found the sales people to be very pleasant here and they were not intrusive or obnoxious.
Sam Ash was also an interesting visit. Located on Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst, this store is fantastic in terms of gear. It's got virtually everything you'll want as a guitar player, and I noticed that there were some gents cranking a guitar amp and tearing away. Everyone was cool with it and it was as loud as shit. This is a positive sign. Nothing worse than having sales people who are triggered and on edge. These types I make a point never to buy from. A guitar isn't something you can just go in and buy by looking at it. It's a major purchase and like people, each one is different. You gotta spend time playing around with it. And you need to do this with a few, if not many candidate guitars. A pushy salesperson is a major red flag and one should vacate the premises ASAP should one encounter one. Seeing that the electric section was occupied, I headed into the acoustic room.
The acoustic room was well humidified and rightfully so. There were a number of $5000+ guitars hanging right there on the wall. And the sales guy that was in there just asked me quickly if I needed any help. I told him that I was just checking things out and he politely left me to the room by myself. The great thing about Sam Ash was that they literally don't care if you pull the $5000+ guitars down to play. This is a green flag and a store like this should never be forgotten. I played several of them and they were all top-notch. All were well-intonated and sounded as much as they were priced. After some time, another sales guy came in and sort of got all over me about the acoustic bass I was playing. He was a nice fellow. However, although I am sure it was well-intentioned, before giving me a lecture which I definitely didn't need, he might have been better off to ask me how long I've been playing (27+ years, I think he might have been under the age of 27 himself). He proceeded to give me a tutorial on guitar set-up that was quite unnecessary. After all, anyone who is in touch with how a guitar should be set-up and hasn't seen this video here:
probably isn't as into guitar as much as they might let on. Despite this, if you walk around Sam Ash, you'll likely find a guitar to your liking. The prices range from $50 to $12,000.
Then there is Timeless Guitars out in Parma, OH. I was told by the owner, Clyde, that Joe Bonamassa regularly makes a point to visit. And it's no wonder Joe does make a point to visit. Timeless Guitars has probably the best selection of vintage guitars, electric and acoustic, basses and amps, anywhere that I have seen in a long time since the days of Ed's Music Workshop. For myself, it was staring on at the Les Paul Standards that were priced around $6500. It's shit like that that makes me wish I could win the lottery. Anyway, he had a guitar tech downstairs and from the people who kept coming in to drop off guitars, it was apparent that this tech was likely a pro. I then got to hear all about how Joe Walsh used to play in the Cleveland area way back in the day and how Joe was... if you watch the video above... always concerned about having a properly set up guitar.
If you hadn't noticed, besides being one of the greatest guitar players ever, Joe possibly has one of the best guitar sounds, too.
Makin' Music, also out in Parma is also another great place to go should you want to chose from affordable to fairly good guitars. Now, some and I say some of the guitars were a wee bit over priced for what they were, but, they were all set up nicely. An added bonus to this venue was that they also sold all sorts of other instruments. If I had of had more time, I would have made a point to go over all the other items they had for sale. The basses were pretty cool and they had a nice 5-string Jazz Bass that was quite fun to play. Overall, they offered affordable stuff and I would certainly consider from buying from them.
In summary, you can afford to have a guitar in Cleveland. It may not be a Vintage Standard Les Paul, but it will be enough to get you going.
And you'll have money for beer and pizza left over to celebrate your new purchase.
