Ottawa Folklore Centre

Would have been 4 or 5 stars except they went bankrupt & closed in July 2015.

I bought my ukulele and melodica here and I would highly recommend buying your instruments from OFC, especially if you are seeking advice. I was blown away by their famous «ukulele room» (for real, an entire room filled with ukuleles of every form). The employees are knowledgable, willing to answer any questions and capable of playing every instrument in the place. Most importantly, the entire shop is a musical petting zoo. Wanting to show them what they’d been missing, I went in with a group of friends and I swear there wasn’t an instrument that we didn’t pick up and play. The employees never complain– in fact, they encourage you to explore!

Dropped by here today, and fell in love. Fun store, with many interesing instrument options — accoustic guitars, bongos, bagpipes, accordians, violins to name a few. (I suspect some of the more unusual selections are used, with their main focus on fiddles, guitars and bongo-​type drumming.)
Quality is high on everything we saw — including the luthier built guitars (gorgeous). Lots of variety. Prices correspond to the quality — marking the
pricing rating as «moderate» — though I did see a $ 12,500 guitar in there — so it’s all relative! :-)
Their website is always interesting too, with lots of class offerings.
Happy we dropped by, and we will certainly be visiting here often — and taking the odd class too, I suspect.
Would I recommend: Yes
Would I return: Yes

The stretch of Bank Street where you find OFC Music is kind of a cliché. There are the green product stores, the aromatherapy/​crystal shops, and the natural food stores. So, when I saw this shop with guitars and bongos in the window and the word «folk» on it’s sign, I immediately sterotyped it another hippy-​dippy Bank Street store. But, I went in and discovered that OFC is a really cool place. Not only does it sell instruments (guitars, mandolins, violins, saxophones), but it offers lessons — and lessons by noted local musicians, not just the staff. They also repair instruments, sell strings, CDs, sheet music, etc. OFC really is more than a music store, it is indeed a centre of folk life in Ottawa.