Kickaxe Guitars - Calgary

Absolutely top notch service and expertise, and very friendly, too. Months ago I came here a couple times, undecided, not sure I needed a new guitar. I could have gotten talked into buying a guitar in the moment that later on I probably wouldn't have needed, but instead I was given space and time, able to try out different guitars, have guitars played for me, and given non-biased advice when asked. I was never pushed into buying a guitar, an opportunity I'm sure other places would have jumped at. Very honest and fair people here, I couldn't have asked for more. I also had my strings on my older guitar changed here, and the job was done well. The difference in sound was night and day. Jay, you wanted to know what I'd choose - I've moved towards piano rather than strumming guitars. I'll pick one up again some day, I'm sure. Thanks for running an awesome store.

Had a great experience bringing in my ailing Fender Twin here for repair. Nick went through the amp with a fine toothed comb. My amp has never sounded better! Quick, friendly service.

Been playing guitar for about a year. Stumbled into this shop to get get a small item once and noticed they gave lessons there. Ive been going for the lessons for 8 months now and plan to continue for quite some time. Been very happy with the service i receice here both in lessons and with the equipment i have bought. Would highly recommend this store for all your guitar needs.

I needed a repair for my Crate VC 30 and tried THE OTHER amp repair place in Calgary because they came first alphabetically in Google Search. Horrible choice. They said they were too busy to help, I should maybe come back in a week and expect to wait 3-6 months. Sigh. So instead I went over to Kick Axe and sonofagun, Nikk Orritt works there. I had heard about this guy way way back, literally decades ago, when I worked in music retail and fellow players raved about his amp mods. So I dropped off my Crate that day and Nikk had it fixed , cleaned, tubes replaced or repositioned, killer spider webs removed (no word of a lie, Nikk can spot a Brown Recluse Spider web when he sees it.) just a couple days later and at a very reasonable price. And it sounds amazing!! I couldn't believe how much the sound had faded over the years, but it's back full blast now. So then I took in my Marshall JCM 800 50 watt head and finally got the mod I should have gotten almost thirty years ago. UNBELIEVABLE!! It sounds incredible, night and day difference! Even turned up really loud, i still needed a distortion pedal way back then to get a good rock sound. Now, its just straight into the amp, a beautiful hard rock even at the lowest possible in house volume. Not sure why Marshall didn't make it that way to begin with, but Nikk's genius reworking of the amp's signal path turned it into a serious beast. And in just a couple days wait again. It cost less than most distortion pedals but sounds a hundred times better. Now it doesnt have the uber monster gain like a Boogie or Diezel, but this also isn't a $5000 amp. Just $300 in 1983 dollars and two hours of shop time from the famous Nikk Orritt. Thanks so much for the fantastic customer service from Nikk and team at Kick Axe. I'm seriously grateful you're here to keep our amps running.

I was especially impressed with the work that Jay and Nikk did on my Peavey Raptor Plus; it started out inoperable, and when they had finished, it played beautifully. The action and the intonation on my Squier Strat and my Ion Strat copy are awesome now. They took my cheap guitars and made 'em sing.

This is the way a guitar shop should be. No anonymous, big-box music store service here! NO ONE cares more about making sure you're happy with your instrument than Jay. He is an extremely skilled and knowledgeable guitar tech who will do everything possible to bring your guitar or bass back to life as quickly as possible without cutting any corners. I can't recommend Kickaxe highly enough.

Had a guitar set up. Jay was great. He walked me through what he was going to do and had it back to me in a couple days. Guys do great work. Support your local shops, not because they’re local but because they’re great at their jobs.

Yeah I can see why this place is so highly rated. I came in to get some work done on my guitar and Nikk and Jay were extremely helpful to a beginner like me. Good prices, Fast work and outstanding customer service. Professionals in the true sense of the word.