Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What credit cards and payment methods do you accept?
A. We accept all four major credit cards: Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover. We also accept PayPal payments and these can be processed from your Web Browser. If you are shopping online the shopping cart will ask for your credit card information.

Q. Do you offer gift certificates?
A. Yes we do. These can be purchased in $5 increments.

Q. What kind of financing do you have? Do you do layaways?
A. We currently do not offer financing, but, we do have a layaway program. We require a 25% down payment and the rest of the balance on the guitar must be paid off within 30 days. With a layaway purchase, the 48 hour approval period is no longer available. If you need more specifics, inquire within.

Q. Do you offer appraisals? How much are they?
A. We can give you a guideline of what your instrument, amplifier or accessory is worth over the phone or email, but the only way to properly appraise an item is by coming into the store or sending it to us. There is no charge to give you an approximation of value, but due to legal concerns we no longer offer a written appraisal for instruments.

Q. Do you carry guitars, drum sets, keyboards, or other non-stringed instruments?
A. We are a bass instrument specialty store and we only deal with bass guitars, bass amplifiers and accessories and some string basses.

Q. What manufactures products do you carry?
A. We carry what we feel are the best products available. These include Acoustic Image, Aguilar, Allparts, Ashdown Amplification, Avalon Design, Bag End Speakers, Bartolini, Bergantino Audio, Boomerang, Boss, Comfort Strapp, Crest Audio, D'Addario, Demeter, DR Strings, Dunlop, EBS, Electro-Harmonix, Elrick Basses, EMG, Epifani Sound, Evidence Audio Cables, Fender, Fishman, Fodera, Fulltone, Gallien-Krueger, Groove Tubes, Hal Leonard Books/Videos, Hofner, Keeley Effects, Ken Smith Basses, La Bella, Lakland, Levy's Leathers, Mesa Boogie, Michael Kelly, Millennia Music & Media, Modulus Guitars, Monster Cable, Moog Music, MTD, Nordstrand, NS Design, Peterson Tuners, Pyramid, Radial Engineering, Rickenbacker, Ritter Bass Guitars, Roscoe Basses, Rotosound, Sadowsky Basses, Sadowsky Amplification, Seymour Duncan Basslines, Seymour Duncan Antiquity, Spector Basses, Tacoma, Tascam, Tech 21, Thomastik-Infeld, Turner-Renaissance, Visual Sound, Warner Brothers Books/Videos, Whirlwind, Zon and more.

Q. What shipping methods do you suggest?
A. UPS has proven to be the fastest, cheapest, most reliable method for domestic shipping and they also currently have the easiest tracking for domestic packages. For International Shipping we ONLY use FedEx for outgoing packages and require you to use FedEx for inbound shipments to us as well. FedEx has the best controls for Customs and will prevent excessive delays and returned shipments. We use United States Postal Service for smaller packages and most products shipped from our online store. Any other methods will require a conversation with us prior to shipping.

Q. Do you ship overseas? To military addresses? To post office boxes?
A. We do ship overseas and to military addresses (via USPS). We can ship to P.O. Boxes via United States Postal Service.

Q. What is your return policy?
A. If you buy a product and have it shipped to you, you can return it within 48 hours for a full refund/return, no questions asked. You must pay for shipping both ways, though. If there is any damage, modification or if a product is incomplete we will not allow a return. Any return must be approved before the item is shipped back to us. For in store purchases, there is no return policy.

Q. Do you take trades-ins? Do you buy products outright?
A. Yes! We do take trades, buy products and do a lot of consignment. If you need a trade or cash estimate, call, write or come on in. Before we can even give you an idea we will need to see the instrument in "person" or at least have some pictures available to us. You can email these to sales@bassemporium.com. along with a full descriptions including condition, extra items (case, gig bag, power supply, etc.) and an idea of what you would like to get for the instrument or item. Remember, we must buy at wholesale to be able to sell and make our part of the deal. We are pretty generous with our offers, but we cannot offer the retail price to you. One thing to understand when considering a trade is that your best purchasing power is still a cash deal.

Q. Do you have a repair shop?
A. Yes, we have a full service repair shop for instruments only at this time.

Q. Are you an authorized service center for my instrument?
A. We are an authorized service center for Fender Instruments.

Q. What warranties do you have on your products?
A. Used and consignment products do not have a warranty and are sold "as is". New gear carries the manufacturers warranty and each company has a different warranty period as well as what these warranties cover. We also offer a 60 day warranty on all work done on guitars at the repair shop.