Horrible horrible customer service. Consider other places for repairs to your Martin or other guitars. I dropped my Martin DM guitar off on 25 April 2003 asking Acoustic Axis to raise the action a bit. They called me within the hour saying the frets needed to be reshaped. I agreed and allowed them to do the work. They told me it would be 5 weeks as they were backlogged with repairs, my needs weren't pressing so I agreed. Two months later I heard nothing from them and decided to call and check on the status. After leaving several unanswered voice messages over the span of a week I finally got in touch with a person. This person told me they sent my guitar to some Steve person and they couldn't get in touch with him to check on the status. The next day I called back, same result. finally, and after several more unanswered voice messages, I got in touch with someone who said "oh yeah, it's finished." When were they going to let me know that? NO answer. Then they told me a price that differed from what the original estimate was. Why? because they didn't reshape the frets they just raised the action; also not informing me of that little fact during the 2 month duration of repair. Good news is I have my guitar back and in working order.

I will never go to Acoustic Axis Instruments again. Nor, will I ever recommend them to anyone. Very unprofessional. My and your money will be better spent elsewhere.

It pains me to have to write a bad review about Steve's shop. I have been doing business with him since the mid '90s and have purchased two very special guitars from him in that time. When it came time to have some minor work done on one of my guitars, I knew he was the man for the job. Unfortunately that's where the story sours. I took my guitar in for two pieces of work; a truss adjustment for buzzing, and to have an under bridge pickup installed.

Today is the 2 month mark since I took my guitar into his shop. I have called and emailed the shop at least 5 times and each time I speak to a kid named Mike who has no business answering phones. His demeanor is poor, he has no information nor does he have any authority to make decisions. I've asked to speak to Steve each time and each time I'm told he's giving lessons. I've asked for a call back, and never get one. So two months later, I still don't have my guitar back, and when I told them I was going to go pick it up immediately, Mike informed me the guitar wasn't at the store but at some shop elsewhere and suddenly the guitar couldn't be picked up because it already had a hole in it for the pickup installation. I've given them 1 business day to complete the work or I will call my lawyer.

This is really unfortunate because Steve used to run a great boutique guitar shop. Now it seems he's understood the economics of the DC area and has shifted his focus to simply cramming kids through the doors for lessons instead of providing ongoing support to long time customers. Good luck in all your endeavors Steve, but my business is going elsewhere.