I bought a guitar from this shop last year. The experience with the rep at the shop was terrific. They shipped the guitar securely -- it left New York to arrive in California, so no small flight -- and arrived in good condition. Communication with the rep was clear, concise and quick. Overall, I would recommend this shop if youre thinking of purchasing from a distance. I have been playing the guitar purchased from them every day since and it is a great playing and sounding axe. Thanks, Howie!

Local neighbor to this store. If you’re a musician don’t expect to find anything but overpriced guitars. Literally can’t even get 1/4” inch wires from this place 😭Edit: sb: garbage store

I went in there last month, looking for a grown-up guitar for myself. First Sam, and then Howie gave me fantastic service. Spent a fair bit of time explaining the guitars, and pros and cons of each. Came out with the guitar of my dream, which has just been a joy to play every day since. Thanks guys, really appreciate the service, the patience and advice! Could not recommend this shop enough. Ill be coming back next time I make it to the US. Stu (from Singapore).

They had a lefty guitar which is rare, an old Fender. Needed work done on the input feed, no negotiation, as is. I find better things in pawn shops. Thanks no thank you

Ordered a stunning Heritage H-535 and I could not be more pleased. The guitar arrived very well packed and the condition was accurately described, which was in excellent condition, even more so for an ‘87! Working with Howie and Sam was a breeze. I would’ve written this review on Reverb, where I originally saw the item but due to limitations on my card, I didn’t actually order through the site. Howie was able to provide several ways to accept payment and once it cleared, he shipped the item promptly. Plays like a dream, sounds and looks like a million bucks and would absolutely do business with them again.Cheers!

Tried to enter Rivington and I got turned away at the door because I only wanted to browse and didn’t know if I was going to purchase. I get that it’s still Covid times but nowhere on the website did it say appointment only. I’m from out of town and walked a good bit to get there and I’m frustrated that I had no way of knowing it was appointment only beforehand.

Absolutely fantastic store! I just bought a 1904 Gibson A-1 mandolin and couldnt be happier with it. Top class set-up and a very reasonable price. Staff and management were extremely helpful and i now have a little piece of American history living with me in the Kingdom of Mourne in Ireland 🇮🇪Thanks guys!!

Some really good guitars

Amazing customer service super polite and helpful staff and for someone spending only 13 bucks. Definitely going to come back anytime I need anything. Also amazing Prices....

Had my telecaster serviced here and it feels like a new guitar now. Little things I always neglected had accumulated like polishing frets or the back of the neck. Plays significantly better now, holds notes longer and truer.

Rivington has done my guitar setups since they were on Rivington Street! Highly recommended. They’ve even talked me out of spending money on unnecessary things so I know they’re decent guys. They follow Covid distancing very well.

This place is the best....the coolest vintage gear in NYC. You can tell they care about what they are doing by the items that are on display. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable. A classic and a must see in NYC.

I picked up a 1986 Les Paul with tons of mojo that plays like a dream! These guys have great customer service and arent afraid to negotiate. They have instruments you wont find in a big box music store. Im pleased with my guitar and will definitely do more business when I get the itch for gear. -Andy, Maryland

This place is a guitar players dream. Tons of cool vintage gear, you can tell it has been hand picked. Apparently the owner travels all around the USA getting gear. I found a cool vintage Boss delay pedal, and its the best pedal on my board. The people working there were nice and friendly and down to earth. I will be back. A must see for any guitar player.

Folks I just bought a Gibson Les Paul Custom 2007 from Rivington on Reverb and I couldnt be happier. The description of the guitar was spot on and the price was right within the range of Reverbs buying guide.Packing and shipping were first rate and the guitar arrived safely in three days from the date of purchase. Spoke with Howie about the guitar by phone and he treated me like a long time customer and answered several questions about the guitar and his opinion about other equipment I was interested in.Cant rate these guys high enough, but if this helps you decide whether to buy from Rivington Ill tell you this I will be a repeat customer if for no other reason than their customer service.Thanks guys.

Really loved this place. Bought two wonderful guitars here.

This shop is a scam. I bought an acoustic guitar from them that they had listed as very good condition on Reverb. I received it and it literally had burn marks on the inside of it and it smelled like it was in a fire. I obviously returned it and paid for shipping to do so. They charged me a 5% restocking fee for returning an incorrectly listed guitar. I contacted them to refund the restocking fee and they are ignoring me. They just deny my request. This shop is a joke and I will never do business with them again. I suggest you do business somewhere else. These guys have no integrity at all.

Wicked shop for bass guitars. The collection was strong and diverse! The guys were super friendly too! 5 stars from me!

One of a kind store sells used and vintage guitars, great for the enthusiast. Two shops steps from each other, one electric and one acustic. Large inventory with some very unique finds.

Great shop, cool vintage guitars and amps! Nice alternative to the big box stores. Impressive collection of guitars in this little shop.

Renowned dealer displaying wall-to-wall classic guitars & gear from the 60s to today in snug digs.

Went in with intentions of buying a 1934 martin arch top, guy working there apparently didnt have intentions to sell the guitar. Looked at his computer the whole time, he did ask if I was Interested in anything I told him I saw the martin online his response was yup its here and that was that no offer to help me or let me play it. I would look elsewhere if looking for anything

Great place to see unique and wonderful instruments. Impressive pedal collection.

I had been searching for a vintage guitar online and located a particular model I was interested in at Rivington Guitars. I sent an email inquiring about the guitar and received an immediate response from Howie, the owner. One of my main concerns was whether Rivington would ship to Canada, and Howie assured me it would be no problem. I decided to make the purchase and arranged for payment. Howie indicated they would ship the guitar immediately upon receipt of funds. After I had sent payment, I continued some research on the guitar and discovered that the guitar being sold was actually a different model number than Rivington originally stated. I let Howie know and, once again, received an immediate response telling me I was correct and I could cancel the sale. It should be mentioned that the differences in the models are pretty subtle and I decided to follow through with the purchase. The long and short of it is that Rivington shipped the guitar to Canada immediately on the funds hitting their bank, and packed it up so well it took me half an hour to get it out of the shipping box! The guitar was in the exact condition described by Rivington and I am a very happy customer. I would definitely do business with Howie and Rivington again.

Son, there is beautiful music in everything, you just have to know how to find it.I smile and lay a pineapple slice on our record player.

Howie and crew are really great. They ask honest prices for good stuff and are willing to negotiate. They also pay good money for used equipment and are above all HONEST. It is a go-to spot to buy / sell / trade - and they dont have the snooty atmosphere (and stupid prices) that some of the hipster shops have.

Beautiful guitars and friendly staff!

Jason Momoa visited this place once. It is great and the staff is very kind.

The service is good, nice pepole. Cool guitars

Woohoo! As good as it gets! Never met someone so committed.Great customer service, good price- and the most important part,Our guitars sound like never before. Thank you for your hard work.

I have been going to to Rivington guitars for 15+ years, and in my opinion, there is no better store in NYC. Awesome selection of guitars at very reasonable prices. Howie and Alex are knowledgeable and extremely helpful.

Friendly staff. Repairs and tune-ups are a little pricy but the work performed is methodical and professional. Guitar re-stringing is usually $40 and can be done same day (if theyre not busy).

Superb.Nice staff, good selection and great prices.

Got a ukulele there. Great customer service.

They were really cool guys who simply allowed my sixteen-year-old to play a couple of their vintage guitars without interfering or being pushy or superior or even really saying much of anything beyond a sincere greeting.

Terrible attitude and service.Went in with three other friends to this vintage guitar shop. We had high hopes because of some of the positive reviews we saw. When we went in, the atmosphere was awkward and cramped. The guitars were nice looking vintage guitars but sounded awful when played. They were completely overpriced as well. Asked to play one of the guitars behind the counter and the worker wouldnt allow me to play it because it was a one of a kind guitar, he didnt think I could afford the guitar, and he didnt want to go through the nonexistent hassle of cleaning the guitar after a customer plays it. In a vintage shop, every guitar is a one of a kind guitar, no matter the price range. The vibe was so unwelcoming and negative I wouldnt want to go back. I understand that as a guitar salesman, you are making a living off of sales but giving off an uninviting and sour vibe to customers you assume wont be making a purchase is lowly. So unless youre looking into buying a one of a kind vintage tissue box for twice its worth, dont expect a helpful and welcoming salesman

Five star plus plus plus experience! GREAT store, excellent prices, great and very helpful people minding the store. Bought a vintage Gibson there that is even better than advertised or expected. VERY highly recommended store!

Gooooood!!! The first Time I almost broke my neck seeing all there. Good Prices and better attention!!!

Great selection of vintage gear with knowledge staff

Got a setup done here. The cost was way too high ($150) and I had a very unprofessional exchange over the phone with the guitar tech. I love the stores selection but if my experience is any indication of the way they treat customers then this store is not for me and I will probably never go back.

I had to return several times to have the same (minor) repairs done over. Finally I got a second opinion from a respected Martin Authorized guitar repairman who confirmed the work done by Neil was not only inferior but damaging to my guitar. STAY AWAY

Rivington Guitars is located on East 4th Street in the East Village of Manhattan, NYC.Rivington Guitars have 2 shops on the street, and both shops are located on the north side of East 4th Street between the Bowery and 2nd Avenue.The shops are well stocked, and have plenty of things of interest.They have tons of Guitars from all different periods of time, and they are priced fairly for what they are.The staff is quite knowledgeable and pleasant.

Very friendly guys behind the counter, tried a couple guitars, some fun player grade vintage, will visit again for that kind of instrument.

Great selection of cool used guitars. Jeff knows his stuff.

Wonderful guitars. Especially appreciated Adrian.

Great shop, fantastic gear, laid back knowledgeable staff, very cool vibe.

The shop is not so big, but the guitars are great.The staff is helping if you dont meaningless question.Ill be happy to go back there next time for some Epiphone I wasnt able to afford this time.

This is a well-run shop with a solid selection of foundational electrics (as well as a few curiosities). Staff is helpful, guitars are properly set up and prices are OK, especially considering Manhattans dearth of used musical instrument outlets.

Not that friendly, not much there, and a bit overpriced.

Amazing selection of guitars new and rare classic editions they have them all knowledgeable and friendly staff a blast

Dont trust anything they say. This store is the worst to pick up an instrument.I found out that the guitar I bought had loose bridge holes while changing the strings (hard to move the bridge with all the string tension). I found out that they filled the hole by tucking paper into it... Ridiculous.They offered to fix but basically how could you trust a mentality that tucks paper in holes to stabilize the bridge post.Please dont trust this store or at least bring a guitar expert with you to examine the guitar before buying...

Cool, old style guitar store with lots for every player

They have really good staff there and I really recommend you to buy your guitar from there .👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Excellent, knowledgeable service and a great selection at reasonable prices -- would give it an 11 if I could

My Name is Declan O`Connell.I am an irishman living in Germany.I have had a great experience with a transaction with Rivington Guitars in New York City.I saw the guitar in the internet and after a look at the shop video i felt i had just met with good people.Packaging and shipping went very well and the guitar is everything i hoped it would be.I even got a little reduction from the asking price.I never thought i would buy a guitar over the internet.This was my first but not my last dealing with Rivington Guitars.Thanks again lads and thanks for being a Vintage Guitar Shop.

Howie Statland has got to be the hardest working man in showbiz. The guy is on the road constantly in search of vintage guitars that people are dying to get their hands on. Ive always had great sales and service at Rivington Guitars. I go by sometimes just to peek in the door to see who is around and have seen some of the biggest names in the business come walking out carrying guitars with big smiles on their faces. Hes done repair work on several of my guitars that were really looking like a total loss and brought them back to life and hes really reasonable. Ive been playing for 50 years now and pretty much all the vintage guys are really greedy. Howie aint one of those. I love doing business there.KD

Nice and very kind...and the fastest delivery to düsseldorf/germany ever...

Lovely helpful people. Female friendly too which is a rarity in guitar stores

Nice little guitar shop. Expensive, but so is the rent Im sure.

After going into nearly every single small guitar shop in manhatten, Sam in rivington hooked me up with some killer pedals. But the pedals i could have found on the internet, it waw Sam that made this shop solid. Knowledgable and without the standard NY attitude!

Awful place. You think a pawn shop is bad to try and sell something. Try and sell a guitar here. Joke.

While the store was at the original location they fixed electronics of my old cheap guitar, when it stopped working 1 week later the owner of the store refused to consider fixing it again. Moreover, he was very arrogant and cocky .

Just got a 64 Fender Princeton that is as good as it gets! Its totally clean and sounds even better than the same model I kinda swiped from my cousin in the mid 70s?(lol)If youre looking for vintage gear thats in immaculate condition; this is great place to look. I know Ill keep looking for whatever the budget might afford and my ears and soul yearn for.Pretty sure this amp will be rockin at a retirement home in 30 years as long as my hands arent too arthritic to play, and the other inmates/guests dont totally object to classic rock and vintage blues.;PNot sure Ill ever play my Marshall again.You Guys At Rivington ROCK!I Always Will!!!John Lattimer

I hate to give a one star review to a small NYC business but I was compelled to write this after purchasing a vintage guitar from them recently.I walked into Rivington about two months ago and found a 1976 Tele that I lusted for immediately upon laying eyes on it. Had a killer look and sounded pretty great too. Though I thought it needed a bit of a setup, I was interested in buying it--the only holdback for me was that it was $3195--a very steep price for that particular guitar. Other Teles from that era that I had come across ranged anywhere from $2300-3000 depending on originality and condition. When I asked an employee why it was priced so high, he responded that it was probably all original and had to check the listing online. He pulled it up and confirmed that it was all original based on Howies description on the listing (Vintage Original 1976 Telecaster) and its high price tag. Under the impression that this guitar was all original and thus had more inherent value, I felt better about the prospect of buying it and I ultimately shelled out the extra cash to make it mine.After about a week and a half of having the guitar in my possession, I was disappointed to find that it couldnt stay in tune. I wanted to get it set-up to my specs anyway, so I took it to a friend of mine who does in-house repairs at the famed Gruhns Guitars in Nashville (who also happens to be one of their vintage Fender experts). He asked how much I paid for it and I told him the number. Within 10 minutes of running down the guitar, he informed me that the bridge was not the one that would have come with the guitar in 76 (additionally, it didnt even have the right screws for the saddles, which made the setup funky), one of the pots in the guitar was not original and the other was placed on the wrong knob (It also occurred to Gruhns that these pots had been rewired to settings that werent the way the factory would have made it), the strap pins werent original, neck pickup had been re-routed, and the plastic pickup selector was not stock either.To boot, part of the reason it wouldnt stay in tune was that it had pretty bad kick-up on the neck, a detail I overlooked when playing it in the shop--to make it play right it would need a refret. Sweet.Im a working musician, not a guitar collector, but I was pretty disappointed to find out that I had paid for a guitar that should have been sold for much less--not to mention I was lied to about the guitar I was purchasing.I sent Howie an extensive email explaining my dissatisfaction with the purchase and why I felt deceived by his business. I closed it out by asking for a full refund despite the stores no refund policy (gee, I wonder why that is...). He opened up his response with We are very careful about telling our customers that a guitar is all original... and then went on to accuse me of tampering with the unoriginal parts myself: How do we know if these parts are actually correct at this point once the guitar has left the store? ... Are you kidding me?Needless to say, no refund issued and instead I got a virtual middle finger from the seller.Between the whacky bridge and neck kick-up its gonna cost me even more to make this guitar play right, and I already paid a considerable amount more for it than I should have based on its true value.The takeaway is that this place either doesnt really know what they are selling and so they carelessly slap on high price tags and false claims to see if anyone bites, or they do know what they are selling, lie, and overprice it anyways--neither warrants anything more than a 1 star review IMO.

Externally the guitar seemed perfect, inside it was a disaster. Paid at absurd price

In my experience behind the counter in retail for over a dozen years, I always found the customer supplied roughly 90% of the attitude. Rivington Guitars is run by stone-cols pros who know their guitars and have an extraordinarily high level of accommodation and respect with every customer Ive ever see any Rivington guy deal with, whether in the main shop or Acoustic West. Like most dyed-in-the-wool vets and professionals, suffering fools is part of the game. They do that well, too. But, waaay more importantly, when you walk into either Rivington on East 4th, you are confronted with an array of unexpected offbeat vintage guitars, along with the choice Strats and Gibsons, that make you ahemmm break out the bucks. If old guitars mean something to you. This is a Must Visit shop. As for Derek Hamiltons experience directly below, I am genuinely sorry to read he wasnt happy regarding Neal Winkowski, Rivingtons Luthier/repair man. Neal has worked on my 54 D-28, 58 Coronet, 57 Strat, 60 Strat, 64 Hummingbird, 66 Guild Starfire, 68 Ric 360, 59 Country Club, 61 Casino, Neal BUILT my hybrid Srat Tel with all vintage Fender parts 57 - 68... I have been thrilled with every job hes done whether a repair, a sprucing-up, a modification. Vintage loonies like me are very persnickety about who we let near our gems with screwdrivers, glue, soldering irons... Neal is The Man. Thank you. Rivingtons entire team is non-pariel for dead-straight dealings with good humor. One of the joys of living in NYC is there is ALWAYS another guitar shop to patronize. I go to Rivington.

Pompous bunch but for all the right reasons, they are the best

Great place with really unique stuff

Good enough gear. Employee was a douche.

Not cheap, but a great selection of classic guitars and boutique pedals. For example: Ive never seen a vintage Fender Starcaster in person, and these guys have TWO.

Barely acceptable or overpriced gear.

Last of a dying bred. must come here at least once n your lifetime

Top shelf

Great guitars great staff

Great guitars!

Fun guitars

People are a bit pretentious here : /

Interesting selection!

Staff was disengaged with customers.

Nice people

Great store

Good

Top Shop!

Excellent

Solid selection.

Amazing selection

Guitarist friends run ...You have to see this store which is very very beautiful, even if you will certainly not be able to please you!

Good