The Starving Musician

The Starving Musician is a northern California business with stores in Santa Clara, Berkeley and Santa Cruz. It sells a mixture of new and used gear, in proportions varying from store to store, and usually has a fair range of gear which is recycled around short-lived rock bands in the area. It offers a three-month guarantee on used gear, which is generous, considering how old some of it is. But it also sells bright, shiny new guitars, both electric and acoustic, keyboards and mics and PA gear, and brass band and woodwind instruments, and a range of drums and drumming supplies. School band rentals, tuition and repair services are also available.

Customers can also buy used and new gear direct from the website, and they'll ship free for anything under 50lbs.

The big shiny guitar shop down the road a way in San Jose is probably tough competition in some areas of trade, but it lacks the atmosphere of the SM and used gear there is limited. And anyway, no respectable local musician can go out to a gig without the immediately recognizable Starving Musician sticker on his guitar case. Well worth checking out if you're in the area.