Drum shops near San Francisco

Ethan01

Senior Member
Hey everyone, what are the best drum shops near S.F.? I'm willing to drive upwards of 2-3 hrs to get to the really really good ones. So, anywhere in N. Cali is okay for me.

Let me know, thanks!
 
i haven't been there yet, but there's Bently's in Fresno, which is probably more like 3.5 hrs. There is Gelb down in San Jose. A Drummers Tradition in Novato, but I haven't been there since the early 90s. Sam Addato's was the biggest local cat, but he moved up to Oregon.
 
I had a thread on this, when I visited in Dec. Can't recommend GC in SF. There is one across the Bay in Redwood..maybe thats Gelb? That was recommended me.
 
Gelb is in Redwood City south of San Fran. If you looking for something new, that's one of the best places in the Bay area. Not a big store so don't expect to see a bunch of kits set up, but the store is jam paced with stuff all at good prices.

If you are looking used, try Staving Musician in San Jose.
 
There used to be many places in and around SF. But most of them have closed down.

Yup, the music scene in SF is pretty much in limbo right now, if not completely gone. The tech industry has made it impossible for musicians to live there. Most come from the East bay, where rent isn't a nut, a leg, and forearm...but not far from it. DJ's and sequencers have pretty much taken over.
 
Yup, the music scene in SF is pretty much in limbo right now, if not completely gone. The tech industry has made it impossible for musicians to live there. Most come from the East bay, where rent isn't a nut, a leg, and forearm...but not far from it. DJ's and sequencers have pretty much taken over.[/QUOTE

There is not much difference in the cost of living between the east bay and the peninsula. In fact, some areas are even higher in the east bay than in the city.

There are a lot of musicians that are part of the tech companies btw. I dont recall a lot of music stores ever in the bay area, but in turn I think that the bay area in general has been more more internet savvy over the years for the same reason, all the high tech, which leads to less sales locally.
 
Yup, the music scene in SF is pretty much in limbo right now, if not completely gone. The tech industry has made it impossible for musicians to live there. Most come from the East bay, where rent isn't a nut, a leg, and forearm...but not far from it. DJ's and sequencers have pretty much taken over.

Sad.

There used to be DrumWorld (where I worked for 4 years), until Pearl hired away the shop manager for an R&D role. (yes, they guy who brought your the Pearl Reference lines used to work in SF). The name of the store got sold, and it was run in a different location until recently, when the recession did them in.

Sam Adato's opened in like 93. Weird place, but cool guy with cool stuff. But he moved away.

Lemmon Percussion near San Jose had a real good run from around 89/90 until the recession.

D'Amico Drums started in the Bay Area. Gene D'Amico left Gelb music and had his own retail store where he made the D'Amico drums in Hayward(?) until he moved to the East Coast.

And Starving Musician, and a few other smaller used shops were around. Guitar Center was a much smaller operation in the 80's/early 90's. I worked there for a while too.

After the Stone and Omni closed, I spent every Friday and Saturday at the Paradise Lounge, or the DNA, or such clubs. There were a bunch of venues all with live music the time.

But that was a long time ago.
 
Gene was in Fremont. I used to live a mile or so from the shop. I have a kit from that era.

Independent stores are Gelb in Redwood City, Bananas at Large in San Rafel and Starving Musician in both San Jose and Santa Cruz. None of which have a lot of kits set up, but there's usually something interesting on the shelf (I bought my D'Amicos at Starving) and lots of cymbals to pore through. Guitar Showcase is another independent in San Jose and B-Street Music in San Mateo but they don't have much drum stuff. San Jose Pro Drum split off from Lemon and they still exist. Cramped but you may find something interesting in there. They subsist mostly on teaching I think. Couple of buddies teach there when not on tour and I think they have 4 or more rooms.

I remember Drum World in Daly City. That was a drum shop. They had a bunch of 13" toms with every head imaginable on them so you could really tell what they sounded like.
 
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