According to a friend, Guitar Solo is a great place for classical and acoustic guitar. Its on Townsend near the ballpark. He recommends some place called Real Guitars for "rock n roll" guitars. Its on some alley off Mission Street called Lafayette St., which is probably not to easy to find.

Thanks for asking your friend. We will have a car one day and we will take our GPS unit so we can explore.

does he play electric or acoustic? Guitar Solo is mostly acoustic and classical.
WALK IN STORE HOURS: Mon-Sat: 10-6, Sun: 12-5
STORE TELEPHONE: 415 896 1922
LOCATION: 230 Townsend Street (between 3rd and 4th, near AT&T/Giants ballp ark and the Caltrain terminal)

Real Guitars is VERY easy to find,, Lafayette Street is off Mission, a main drag, between 11th Street and Van Ness Avenue.It's jammed with all kinds of guitars, not real helpful staff.


Haight Ashbury Music is in the heart of the haight, been around forever, again not helpful staff but lots of guitars and more used to 12 year olds coming in.
http://www.haight-ashbury-music.com/

Very Nearby to Haight Ashbury Msic is Panhandle Guitars, just across the Panhandle part of GG Park. Mostly sales, mot a lot of room to try guitars as they are mostly vintage and consignment guitars. But if you are thinking of buying they have the best prices.
http://panhandleguitarsf.com/Panhandle_Guitar/panhandleguitars.com.html

TO see really high end electric guitars, some played by famous people the place ot go is Rocker Guitars. Be prepared to be ignored if you are 12 years old.Its nearby to Real Guitars and harder to find.
http://www.rockerguitars.com/

PS My husband is a professional musician so if you have any other q's or want someone to take you around
post back here....

My husband is also a professional musician. For acoustic guitars, he recommends:
Amazing Grace Music in San Anselmo (near San Rafael)
The Fifth String in Berkeley
Gryphon Guitars in Palo Alto

John Pederson, the owner of Amazing Grace, is a great guy and probably would give personal attention.

just to be clear - none of the 3 shops above are in SF . Palo Alto is 40 min away; San Anselmo and Berkeley about 30 min away.

Wow. Great info. This is what I like best about Fodors Forums. We will load these locations in the GPS. We have five days in the SF area so I know we can hit a couple on the pennisula and maybe one that we have to drive out to.

My son has been playing since he was in first grade and in my unbaised opinion as a mom, he is awesome. He loves both electric and acoustic. Usually he plays 70's era rock but he is moving more into blues.

you'd have to drive to the peninsula as well as San Anselmo. Berkeley is the only one with decent public transport options.

Gryphon Stringed Instruments would be my recommendation for acoustic instruments of any type. http://www.gryphonstrings.com It's one of the best guitar stores in California.
If he's looking for an electric guitar, either Rocker, Real, or Panhandle should have what he wants.

Oh, forgot one other great guitar store in Berkeley - Subway Guitars on Cedar (http://www.fatdawg.com). It's incredibly crowded, but they have some really cool guitars there, and the staff is very helpful (especially with young people).

OK. We didn't have a chance to build a trip to a great local store, but we did visit the Guitar Center on Van Ness. (We were getting off our bus to get on the California St. cable car.) For a twelve year old it was heaven. I think he liked that it was so big they had an escalator.

I do have a SF story to share. We went to a small (six tables) restaurant on Columbus St. on Sunday. They had an open mike night. We listened to some great music and they invited newcomers to play. My son borrowed a guitar and played a song. That night made the trip.