Awesome experience building a tube amp with my son! Amazing products. Just wow! We plan to be back for the guitar setup workshop.

Two days of classes with Ian were fun. Very informative! And some hard work. I loved it!!

Tremendous people

Great expert luthier !Been taking my guitars there for years.

Its not your stereotypical guitar shop and Ian is definitely not your stereotypical guitar shop owner. Hes a mixture of mad scientist and tormented artist. Ive taken a wonderful guitar building seminar there and am now and the proud owner of an acoustic guitar that I built with my very own hands under Ians wise supervision. I have also purchased two wonderful, custom-built intsruments.

I have taken a number of guitar building workshops and have found them incredibly wonderful. Ian is easy and giving of his knowledge. I found Ians craftsmanship so wonderful I have ordered a guitar of his for my own.

Specimen is the most competent shop in Chicago, especially if youve got a rarity or complex repair/restoration. Second to none.

I brought my Fender Delux here because it was not producing sound. The main tech, I think it might be the owner, said he would take a look and let me know. After two weeks, I called and emailed about an update and got no reply. I am a working musician so this was really inconvenient as I didnt know if I needed a new amp or what was going on. For the next 3 weeks, I called numerous times and an intern or younger kid would always answer and say he didnt know if the guy had looked at it and there was no notes about it.Finally (this is after 40 days or so), the person who answered said that he saw that there was a $30 bench fee on it, so this meant the main guy probably looked at it. I go in there, and the main guy said there is something wrong with the board and I cant do anything with it. So can it be fixed? Maybe if you replace the board, you should ask Fender. Ok...I brought it you in order that I would not have to ask Fender what was wrong, I knew beforehand that there was something the matter with the board, I was hoping that you could fix it or at the very least explain what might be wrong in some sort of detail. He didnt elaborate as to why he couldnt fix it and seemed frazzled that I asked. Moreover, He didnt apologize for the major inconvenience and Im now questioning whether he looked at it at all. I have no idea why I paid this guy a $30 bench fee as he did little more than hijack my amp for 40+ days and provided me with no service of any kind. I wouldnt go here.

This is the third guitar theyve brought back to life! I cant tell you awesome it is to have such a reknown tech right in chicago.They fixed my BC Rich Warlock, Dean 7 string, and my Ibanez RG. These were pretty much dead but they brought them back to life and made them just as great as when I first bought them. The tech is really good and theyre cheaper than Guitar Center. Theyve always given me a fair price and theyve made a customer for life.