Elderly is good if you don't mind paying shipping costs (can be really high for a guitar and case).
I agree with Peter, Elderly is very good. Another one is Sweetwater, they have a massive facility excellent sales people on the phone that really know their stuff. They are all musicians extremely well trained and customer service is second to none.
I bought an instrument from https://maurysmusic.com and they were pleasant to deal with.
FWIW, I'm pretty sure Sweetwater owns Guitar Center (and therefore Musicians Friend)....
Do yourself and others a favour and deal with Sweetwater on the phone before lumping them in with GC & MF. I am a member of Acoustic Guitar Forum, these people are as crazy and knowledgeable about all things guitar as we are about ukes on UU. Huge support and positive feedback from the members buying guitars for Sweetwater.
I have not bought a guitar from them (live in Canada) but many other smaller items. I turned Luis who builds LfdM ukes onto them and he loves how knowledgeable they are and they excellent service.
Do yourself and others a favour and deal with Sweetwater on the phone before lumping them in with GC & MF. I am a member of Acoustic Guitar Forum, these people are as crazy and knowledgeable about all things guitar as we are about ukes on UU. Huge support and positive feedback from the members buying guitars for Sweetwater.
I have not bought a guitar from them (live in Canada) but many other smaller items. I turned Luis who builds LfdM ukes onto them and he loves how knowledgeable they are and they excellent service.
I was just responding to the OP, who seemed to be saying they didn't want to work with GC. I personally prefer not to support the mega-stores when possible, but I'm not telling anyone else what to think/do. And mos def I am not knocking any of the great folks who work at the mega-stores. Just was pointing out that Sweetwater is a mega, MF and GC are subsidiaries of Sweetwater....
Sorry, this is wrong and wanted to correct it. Ares Management owns Guitar Center, but Sweetwater is it’s own thing. Completely separate from Guitar Center or Musician’s Friend. They also send candy with orders, which is nice.
I have bought things like capos, Autoharp parts, inlay, fret wire. . . from on-line/mail order stores, but the idea of buying an instrument without first playing it seems strange. I've played D-18s (for instance) that looked identical, but played and sounded very different. When I bought my Eastman MD605 mandolin, I tried half a dozen 605s and 615s and they were all nice instruments, but one of them blew the others away. It's now mine. Had I bought through the mail or on line, I might have been able to request, "Send me the best sounding MD605 that you have," but might get someone who thinks, "They're all good."
My wife bought me an octave mandolin through Mandolin Brothers about 20 years ago and I am still quite happy with it, but I figure I just lucked out.
Perhaps people who say, "A J-45 is a J-45. Send me one," aren't as fussy as I am.