San Fransisco Mandolin Store

[jenz]

Hi everybody

does anyone know where to buy mandolins in San Fransisco? Im going there in a few months (my first trip to US) and looking foreward to it :)

Thanks

[mandroid]

the city of San Francisco is small, 7 miles square, the greter S.F. bay area has a number of shops ,
Palo Alto and Berkeley worth a visit too.
[Caltrain south, and BART, to go lots of other places, no need to rent a car to get there]

'the 5th string' in Berkeley, for example, is right near the Ashby St. BART station.
{they closed the 5th string Geary St store in SF, I got a couple things there}

[barney 59]

North Bay Report: Tall Toad Music in Petaluma has a lot of midrange mandolins on their sales floor and a bunch of choice stuff in a secret (sort of) glass fronted cabinet up the stairs and on the left. Dawg sometimes lets some of his stuff loose through there.
Amazing Grace in San Anselmo usually has a few and a very nice guy.
Eric Schoenberg guitars in Tiburon has right now maybe 15 vintage mandolins and always has quite a few new Eastmans and Kentuckys. He also has crammed in that little space an astonishing number of the finest guitars you will ever see.
Check out --Players Vintage Instruments website. Banana Levinger works out of his home in Inverness and does mostly internet and private sales but if he has something you gotta have and your from out of town give him a call.
I've never been to their store but saw their set up at an instrument show - Bear Paw Music in Alameda --they had a bunch of vintage stuff including 2! Gibson "Centuries" that were a treat for me because up to that moment I had never actually had one in my hands(and they were as disappointing as I thought they might be)
There is a nice little instrument shop in the town of Sonoma when you do your required wine country tour.
This Summer sometime and sorry I don't have the dates-- is the Healdsburg Guitar Show and luthiers from all over will be there. Most of San Francisco is outside of San Francisco -as someone explained.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Gryphon (http://gryphonstrings.com/) in Palo Alto is worth a visit. At this time they have several Collings, as well as some Breedlove, a Big Muddy, a Jimmy Moon, a Clark A-5, a Summit A-5, and a few Webers.