Guitar shops worth the trip in San Francisco

The old Haight Street institution, family-owned since 1972 and now down the Peninsula on El Camino Real in Redwood City — new and pre-owned guitars, basses and amps with a real vintage streak in Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker. A famous name worth the detour off the SF-to-San Jose run.

The acoustic anchor of the peninsula and the reason this metro entry stretches as far south as it does. Flat-tops, banjos and mandolins dominate, the repair bench has a national reputation, and the vintage wall is the kind that rewards an unhurried afternoon. Lambert Ave is an unglamorous side street off El Camino — the building gives away nothing about what is inside.

Open since 1986, and its own claim — a credible one — is to be the oldest guitar shop still trading in San Francisco proper. Union Music is older by decades but sells across the whole band room rather than the guitar wall. Chris Cobb and Ben Levin deal in used and vintage — guitars, amps, speakers, and the sort of oddities that accumulate when a shop stays in one place for forty years. Setups, refrets and pickup work happen on site. South of Market, so it pairs with nothing in particular; go for its own sake.

Eric Schoenberg’s shop on Tiburon’s Main Street trades in vintage Martins and Gibsons at a level that shades into museum territory, alongside the tradition-based Schoenberg instruments the name is known for. Narrow focus, deep inventory, and no pretence of being a general music store. The site publishes no ZIP; the shop keeps limited hours and appointments are the norm for anything serious, so ring first — Tiburon is a long way to drive on spec.

Fatdog’s shop has been on the corner of Cedar and Grant since the late sixties and by every account has never been tidy. The stock runs to bargain, custom-assembled and retro rather than collector-grade, and the house speciality is parts-built instruments put together from a warehouse of necks and bodies. An acquired taste and proudly so — the sort of place that is either exactly what someone wants or entirely not.

Trading since 1922, which makes it the oldest music retailer in the city by a wide margin. The centre of gravity is band and orchestral rather than guitars, so this is a stop for the building and the longevity as much as the wall — worth folding into a Market Street afternoon rather than driving to on its own. Closed Sunday through Tuesday.