Long and McQuade is a nationwide music store in Canada with stores from coast to coast.

Here’s a short history from wikipedia:

“Long & McQuade Limited was formed in 1956 when Jack Long set up a small store on Carlton Street in Toronto on the second floor of a house which would later be divided into music studios.

Long was a professional trumpet player who, in 1956, thought he could sell instruments to some of his friends in the music community. With the small store he set up on the second floor of the old house on Carlton Street in Toronto, he became a dealer for King Band Instruments. The store’s floor was later divided up into music studios so that Long could teach trumpet lessons on the side. About 6 months later, Long rented out a room to a local drummer named Jack McQuade, which the latter used for drum lessons.

In 1957, both Jacks decided to open up a small retail store on Yonge Street and named it Long & McQuade Musical Instruments. Many existing customer service policies sprang from these early days. The rental program began when the partners decided to start charging their friends for all the instruments they were “borrowing”. The financing program began when a customer asked if he could purchase a drum set but not pay for it all at once. Jack & Jack continued as partners until 1965 when McQuade decided to pursue drumming full time and sold his portion of the company to Long.

Long & McQuade began expanding in 1968. Currently there are over 82 Long & McQuade stores across Canada as well as an online store that opened in 2008. The company employs over 1,300 musicians and contracts around 1,000 music teachers across Canada. To this day the entire company is still 100% owned by the Long family.

Early Yonge Street store location, circa 1966

An affiliated company, Yorkville Sound, was created when Peter Traynor began building speaker cabinets and then amplifiers on the second floor of the store to meet a growing need for amplifiers and PA systems in the budding rock and roll industry.^[2]

Yorkville Sound continues to manufacture and distribute music-related products which are sold through Long & McQuade and other retail outlets throughout Canada and the world.

Jack Long is still active in the company’s day-to-day operations and has been joined by his sons Steve and Jeff. Jon, his third son, passed away 2018″

Long and McQuade is my favorite music store for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I know the Long family having worked at the Bloor Street location back in the 1990s. I have only good things to say.

Personal relationships aside, Long and McQuade excels in the following areas:

• Locations – more locations across Canada than any other music store
• Rentals – You can rent almost anything in the store and it’s relatively easy for any musician to rent from them.
• In-house Financing – This is awesome (and all too tempting at times). L & M provides in-house financing which is both easy and flexible. They want you to have the instrument of your dreams!
• Used products and trade-ins – L & M tends to have great used gear and is willing to take trade-ins towards your new purchases. And, they usually offer a fair prices for your trade in (and it comes off the price of the new product therefore you save the tax as well.
• Lessons – some locations offer lessons

And, one last thing – most stores have parking. Enjoy!