US west coast places of interest (guitar, mandolin, fiddle...)?

[Arnt Rian]

I'm travelling with my wife and kids to visit my sister and her family, who live in the Seattle area, this summer. The first week we'll be staying at their house, for the next two weeks we'll be driving down the west coast, and then flying back home from LA. What are the must-see, places of interest, good shops etc for a guitar / mandolin nerd like me, that I should try to sneak away to? Oh, and my daughter is in the market for a good violin bow, recommendations for a good shop are welcome.

[Jim Bonnell]

I would start out at Dusty Strings in Seattle. I'm sure others can lead you from there. The north west is one of my favorite areas. Have a great trip.

[Arnt Rian]

Thanks, Jim! Dusty Strings looks like an interesting place, thanks for the tip. We are leaving tomorrow, so we're pretty pumped up (not about the flight, tho; Trondheim-Amsterdam-Denver-Seattle, yikes!)

[Paul E Buerk]

Emerald City Guitar is an interesting shop. You'll probably be in Pioneer Square anyway. Trading Musician in the U District/Ravenna area too.

Rosewood Guitar in Greenwood area is nice if you're into nylon. Go around lunchtime so you can hit Mr. Gyros across the street.

[Randy Roberts]

Arnt,
I think you will love the Pacific Northwest, and you're hitting the right time of year.
If you are taking your time, definitely drive the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). It runs along the coast and is a beautiful drive if you aren’t trying to hurry. Beats the Interstate all to pieces
In Seattle, I’d recommend stopping in to see Rick Davis and Cat Fox at Running Dog Guitars down by the Ballard Locks. Really nice folks. (If you stop in there, I'll bet you will end up putting in a glass garage door in your shop)
If you get up to Bellingham, Dake Traphagen (classical builder) has a really nice workshop.
There are a huge group of really good builders in Portland Oregon
If you are spending time in San Francisco, Irvin Simogyi is across the bay in Oakland.
North of San Francisco up in the Napa Valley wine area there’s LMI in Windsor (north of Santa Rosa), and Tom Ribbecke has a really, really nice small workshop in Healdsburg. After seeing your shop posts, I think you would enjoy his shop a lot.

[Jim McConkey]

If you pass through San Francisco, Frank Ford's Gryphon Stringed Instruments is just to the south in Palo Alto, where I went to school (but didn't know who he was at the time!).

[Stephen Bacon]

For two of the biggest west coast's bow inventories try David Kerrs Violin in Portland and Ifshins in El Cerrito. Seattle as well has the "Experience Music Project' Jimmy Hendrix museum. It is interesting and fun for all.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Too bad you aren't going to be down in San Diego. But it's quite a way past LA, and by that point in your trip you might not be willing to take a 4-hour round-trip detour.

[Steve Senseney]

So, are you giving shop tours, or did you have something else to suggest?

[Chuck Tweedy]

I'd gladly give a shop tour - I do all the time, actually - but my shop is nothing compared to a real shop. It's a converted garage. Whoopie.
I'd just like to meet Arnt, and there are a few things to see down here - Buffalo Brothers, and there is the Taylor factory tour which is real fun.

[Matthew Lau]

I'm up in Sacramento on weekdays and SF Bay on weekends.

For SF:
Guitar solo. probably the best source of classical guitars on west coast. recording studio underneath.
Numerous world class eateries.
Yank Sing. The best dim sum that I've ever had. Even better than Hong Kong, China, Japan, and Vancouver.
North Bay:
Eric Schoenberg's guitar shop. More good vintage guitars for sale than you'll probably see anywhere on the West Coast. Also has premier luthiers like Bruce Sexaur. Also has some of the greatest performers in the world come and perform
East Bay:
Ervin Somogyi. Berkeley. IMHO, one of the greatest acoustic guitar builders alive. Likes dark tea and stories. Bring something from your hometown. He'd like that.
Michihiro Matsuda. Oakland. Ervin's top apprentice of all time, and his favorite. Great guy.
Blue bottle coffee. Oakland. Some of the best coffee that you'll ever have.
Chez Panisse. Berkeley. World famous.
The 5th String in Berkeley--where I learned to build guitars from a guy called Jim Hyatt. Not very high profile, but guaranteed to have at least two prewar Martin guitars and one Gibson Mandolin at any time. Sporadic, random jam sessions.
South Bay:
Gryphon guitars. Palo Alto. Frank Ford, developer of tools for Stewmac and uber-repairman. Contrary to popular belief, he's not at 6'4 strapping giant of a man. Worth visiting for shop tour alone.

If you're in the area on a weekend, I'd love to see you in person.
I wish you and your family a great time.

[Arnt Rian]

Thanks again for all the great tips, folks! We're at my sister's place up in Moses Lake now, I'm going to Seattle to pick up the minibus that we'll use for the drive Monday (we're 9 people total!). Rick Davis, who I know a little bit from when he ran ASIA, has invited me over to the shop, and I'll try to squeeze in a few of the other things that have been mentioned as well. We'll definately check out some of the shops that have been mentioned. Chuck, I'd love to see come by and meet you, but I don't think we will be going to San Diego, as you say its a bit of a detour.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Pity, but have fun Man! Sounds like an interesting change of scenery from Norway. I'd like the opposite trip myself.

[Thomas Dooher]

May be too late to mention, but the Santa Cruz Guitar Company has the occational tour...at least they used to.

[Matthew Lau]

The Santa Cruz Guitar Company still has the tour.
Just call them ahead of time.

Richard Hoover is a really nice guy, and his staff is great.
Oh, and ask him about prosthetic limbs.

[Arnt Rian]

OK, finally back home. Well, actually we came back one week ago, but I went straight on to a bluegrass festival over here for one week, where I played, was the festival instrument doctor, and also sold a few instruments, so no time for Internet. Today is the first day behind a computer in a month, and I loved the break, really...


Anyways, what a wonderful trip we had! We could have spent a lot longer on it and probably seen even more, but it was pretty packed with impressions the whole way. The first week we spent with my sister and her family in the Seattle area, and got to see that area a bit. In Seattle we saw the EMP museum, which was interesting on many levels, as both my wife and I are architects. (Unfortunately I only had my phone camera on the trip, so the pictures are quite poor)



I thoroughly checked out the Dusty Strings inventory, of course. Rick Davis, who I’d already met a few years back, saw my post here, and generously invited me to the shop, which was a lot of fun.

In Portland we visited David Kerr’s violin shop, and found a nice bow for my daughter, which she borrowed until the next day, and we ended up buying. Super nice, professional people. One thing I always enjoy is a good book store, so naturally I went to Powell’s, which claims to be“...the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world”, and it sure seemed so. Oh, and yes, the rest of the town was nice too...

We camped for one night among the redwoods on the CA border, before we drove on south along the coast, including through the magnificent stretch of road they call “the Avenue of the Giants” (one of our party wandered off and got lost in there and we had to call the rangers and there was a bit commotion for a while, but that’s another story...).





San Francisco was mostly tourist stuff, but then its a great place to be a tourist. Before travelling on, I did call ahead to Santa Cruz Guitars, so we were met by Richard Hoover himself, who gave us a thorough factory tour. The place, tooling and order of operations were not that different from what you’d expect to see in a lot of luthier’s shops, only a little bigger, some more fancy pieces of equipment (like a Plek and a CNC),



and I guess, more efficient -- they make 500-600 instruments per year. And like many guitar makers, mr Hoover took pride in showing us some of the most precious pieces of wood in his stash, here he is, showing off some nice BRW.



We drove Highway 1 all the way to LA, and the scenery was breathtaking much of the way. This is somwhere in Big Sur, I think.


And a little farther south



In LA we did some of the usual tourist stuff, plus we saw some classic architecture,



and I hit some of the guitar stores. McCabes was particlarily interesting, and I played some really nice (and valuable!) electrics at Westwood music.

So thanks again for all the suggestions for places of interest and things to do and see! If you are ever in these parts, be sure to let me know, and I’ll try to return the favor.

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

Guitar Center in Hollywood. The Walk Of Fame!