The fate of local music stores The fate of local music stores (December 24, 2004)

No local sources left for many instruments

by Sue Dremann

The imminent closing of Draper's Music Store leaves a vacuum locally for most musical instrument purchases and rentals.

If you want to take up the saxophone, oboe or flute, you'll have to go out of town to find one.

It's only the latest in a long line of local, independent music store closures. The business has been in decline since the dawn of the digital age, often the victim of high rents, a sluggish economy, chain stores and the dissolution of school band programs, according to some local merchants.

"It's sad to see one more landmark go," said Paul Price, bandleader of the Paul Price Society Orchestra, a Palo Alto orchestra specializing in the music of Tin Pan Alley. Price said Drapers's biggest niche was renting instruments to students in school bands. He said he didn't know where kids would now rent musical instruments, but a survey of Bay Area stores indicated Palo Altans will have to shop in Mountain View and San Mateo for many kinds of instruments.

Garage band types can find some solace at Gelb Music in Redwood City, but they don't rent or sell school band instruments.

"We're a rock 'n roll shop. We sell what we know," store manager David Vogel said

At Gryphon Stringed Instruments, co-owner Richard Johnston has seen a parade of music store closures, including Swain's House of Music on University Avenue, which closed in 1995; Guitars Unlimited in Menlo Park; Dana Morgan in downtown Palo Alto; La Fosse, which specialized in violins; and Stanford Music on El Camino in Palo Alto, which closed in the late '80s. Melody Lane, the 1920s-era sheet-music store, went out of business in 2000 in downtown Palo Alto.

Johnston attributed the demise of local music stores to the rise in chain stores like the Guitar Center (in San Jose), cutbacks in schools' music and arts budgets and high rents.

"One thing you see with downtown locations is that it's difficult to have lesson studios with high rents. We consider it essential for music stores to survive. It's hard to have a space for lessons unless you charge $100 per hour -- a rate close to what a psychiatrist charges," he said.

Gryphon is in a good position because "we chose to be out of the downtown area -- to be a destination store rather than one you pass on the street."

The 35-year-old store has a strong customer loyalty, with generations learning to play stringed instruments such as electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, harp, dulcimer and ukelele -- which is extremely popular now, he said. "We're a music town square. Many times kids taking group lessons here are coming to where their parents met when they took lessons." Aside from Gryphon, the only music stores now left in town are Palo Alto Violins on California Avenue, and Carnes Piano Co. in Town and Country Shopping Center.

E-mail Staff Writer Sue Dremann at sdremann@paweekly.com.

Where to get musical instruments:
Carnes Piano Co. 73 Town & Country Village, Palo Alto (650) 328-3283 Digital and acoustic pianos
Drum World 1220 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo (650) 572-9900 Percussion instruments
Gryphon Stringed Instruments 211 Lambert Ave., Palo Alto Weekly (650) 493-2131 Guitars, mandolins, banjos, ukeleles, dulcimers, harp; group lessons
Haight Ashbury Music 151 W. Washington Ave., Sunnyvale (408) 732-8490 Woodwinds, strings, percussion, electronics, ethnic instruments
Palo Alto Violins 345 California Ave., Palo Alto (650) 327-8465 Rents, repairs violins, cellos, violas, basses and their bows; Makes violins, cellos and violas
West Valley Music 1350 Grant Road, Mountain View (650) 961-1566 Sheet music, rentals, sales, woodwinds, strings, brass instruments, school band instrument rental
Wollmer's Music 225 E. 4th Ave., San Mateo (650) 343-2788 School rental program; pianos, guitars, keyboards, percussion
Sheet music:
Music Music Music 60 N. Winchester Blvd., Santa Clara (408) 985-9677

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