Discover the top 20 music shops in East Palo Alto

Yas

Amazing acoustic store best I’ve been in

Thanks for answering all of my son’s questions. He’s got lots of talent but his focus is a little off. You guys are patient and willing to really listen. Highly recommended.

This store is incredible and I recommend it. The staff is as good as it gets. Thank you

Gryphon is world class when it comes to their musical instrument repairs and beyond that they have a very good selection for their size.

All that being said I haven’t been in there in years as the last experience I had was unpleasant. I was there to buy an amplifier and although I had been in the shop less than 15min, I checked, I was encouraged to move along. I confronted the clerk that had tried to rush me out and he denied it. After a heated exchange I bought the amplifier apologized for the exchange and left. Over the years I have bought and sold multiple boutique instruments but none of them have been from Gryphon. I’ve thought about going back but even after almost 5 years the sting of being made to feel like a 2nd class citizen is still there.

I brought my bass for a setup and was told that their setup was within ‘limits’ of what was possible, was charged 80$ for minimal improvement. My local luthier did a better job. They have a wonderful store with a great selection of instruments and serious repair dept. but I wasn’t happy about the repair job.

There is no place for hateful ideology at Gryphon Strings.

Their employee Parker Mankey is very, very disrespectful.

Terrible hiring practices

Worker’s are verry disrespectful

Good app

As far as know, this is the only store which sells professional grade brass intruments in the silicon valley. I tried several cornets and bought a Getzen Eterna here. I have been quite satisfied with both the intruments and thestore.

This place is good if you have a high end musical instrument. I went in to repair my sons trumpet and they basically told me that they wouldn’t service it because it wasn’t a high end thousand dollar instrument. Too bad, I was actually looking to buy him a new intermediate trumpet for his birthday here in the next few months but they will not be getting my business.

Steve Boughman went out of his way to degrade and mistreat me. The man was incredibly rude and condescending when he tried to sell me a saxophone in poor condition. Worst experience I have ever had in a music store. Disappointed and ashamed as a local musician that these are the types of repair people we have to deal with. Take your business ANYWHERE else.

Easy way to get a movie and put Blockbuster out of business.

Best bass selection in the Bay Area. I drove over the hill from Santa Cruz and bought a Bergantino amp. The best bass amp I’ve ever owned! The guys were friendly and helpful.

For 23 years, Gelb music has been a regular touchstone on my musical journey. I’ve seen how every customer receives VIP service, every time. Big names or no names… A special place for people who make music.

Great staff

Selection is really good. Nice instruments, And I like the atmosphere. A classic old store, kinda historic. A little pricey (for this I blame the insanity of real estate in the area, not them). Some music store staff are great. Some are typical.
I have found that music store workers are mostly of two varieties: the typical kind, who tend to have this undercurrent of rather sexist, judgmental pressure, and those who just love to connect people of all kinds to what they need.
Sigh – this place has both.
Unfortunately, there are a LOT of the typical kind in this world, and female (or otherwise not “Rock Star” types) really feel it. It is like they somehow need to prove that they are more knowledgeable than me, or something. Very tiring. I want to tell them, “look, I know you wanted to be a professional performer and it feels degrading to be working in a music store, and that you feel like selling stuff to female musicians makes you feel even further from your standards of your own self-image. But you really need to heal that, not surround yourself with a bubble of asserted wannabe dominance. It is not helping you at all. this is actually a really cool .”
To be fair, I only really got this attitude a little here, and it was pretty subtle (but there). Everyone else has been fine. But even a little makes it hard to want to come back. I think music store owners need to screen this, and train people out of it. Or better yet, hire some good female staff.
But I do come back, because the location is good and they have good stuff and they are historic and small. I like them overall. And it is very rare to find places that do not have that phenomenon. So they are not losing my business any time soon. I just hope that one issue gets fixed. Everywhere.

A totally legit local music shop selling name brand instruments as well as higher-end and vintage gears. There is a room full of just amps. Staff is generally very helpful and would let you try things out. Be careful reaching up for guitars and gears since it’s a small space. Always ask for help unless you want to drop something and end up paying for it.

Price is not the best

Tried to shop here but the entrance was barricaded with a table, alcohol gel, and a sign saying that masks were required to enter.
It’s late August 2022 and covid is as much past history as it likely ever will be. Get a grip or go out of business. Turning potential customers away at this point is crazy.

should be gleb, not gelb.

As someone who has been going to Gelb since I was a teenager all I have to say is “Please make it go away”.

What was once a well known piece of the music community of the bay area has become totally useless.
What was once a family of musicians active in the local music scene is now the Kmart of music stores, disorganized…impersonal…just another guitar store.

A couple of weeks ago I went there to get a couple of packs of strings and they couldn’t find them???

Today I went in to see if they had a couple of guitar boxes to ship a guitar I was selling, in the past the response was sure how many do you need, today the response was “We sell them for $15”, if they had said 5$ sure but $15? what exactly am I paying for? your stellar customer service?

Since the change this place has steadily gone downhill, please just let it go, make it go away, or at least change the name so you aren’t tarnishing the name of what was once an institution of the bay area music scene.

I love my little local Target!!

Oreo gotta catch them all This place is the best place for the pokemon special edition oreos! Bought 17! Amazing selection for oreos. Found the mew first try!

רשת חנויות שיש בה הכל

Small, quaint, clean, and normal.

Not the biggest Target, but it does the job.

Expensive

Teresa at register is extremely rude and disrespectful. Very condescending towards customers and treated me really poorly.. this store is horrible – don’t bother

Poor customer service, you are better off doing self check out.

Thought I was getting robbed when these people outside the store began demanding “dOnAtioNs”
Other than that, cool Target. Just needs security.

They were extremely helpful and friendly! They had so much to offer at the store and had a bunch of options to choose from. I had a peg that broke on my violin and quickly came in to see if I could get it fixed. Thankfully, they could and I even got to see some of their supplies, which is where I will be purchasing from now on. Highly recommend

Great place for rentals of string instruments, and the staff is incredibly friendly and considerate. Would highly recommend!

Went to Sono strings today because my daughter is coming in from out of town she needed her guitar strings changed in tune Jason at Sono hooked it up for free it’s good to see that the small things can be done without a price good job

We returned our violin after three months but they refused to give the deposit back to us 🙁

Bad quality violin!!!! We rented a 1/8 violin but wanted to cancel our 3-month contract the same day we rented due to violin quality issue (black paint all over my child’s fingers with strong chemical smells on the surface of the strings and the string board, never happened on her own violins we bought before).

But the Asian female staff there refused, we ended up paying over $90 without playing for a single day!! She was also angry that we have rented another violin from elsewhere without going to them first. But we are very disappointed with the quality and do not want to bother exchanging for another one. And she kept asking for my current address and also read aloud my address from my driver’s license as if to threaten me. Horrible experience!!

The female staff also refuse to give me information of the owner and insisted that she contact the owner directly and would not give me a call if the owner refused to give me back my deposit.

Saw them at St. James Gate this summer and had a great experience! Danced my shoes off!

I saw HI NRG perform as part of the Sunnyvale outdoor music series this summer. They were great! Their set list spanned genres and decades, and they made sure each song was danceable and fun. The large dance area was full of people having a good time. Plus – gotta love the harmonies!

I found Jermaine through my company’s perks platform, and when my partner who is a singer wanted to record an EP, we went to Jermaine’s studio in Palo Alto. Jermaine’s studio is well-equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and a vocal booth, but what we loved the most was Jermaine’s partnership, guidance and technical expertise – he tried to get an intimate understanding of our vision, while providing his perspective for what the final product should sound like, all the while providing a great recording experience. We’ve recorded 3 songs with Jermaine so far, and will continue to go him for all our recording needs!

Great experience mixing in Jermaine’s studio. Jermaine is professional, easygoing, and has a nicely tuned studio environment. Came to mix an EP and am quite happy with the results. Thank you!

My son and I have been taking weekly violin lessons from Denise for almost a year and a half now. Before that, we’ve had another teacher as well, but we found Denise’s methods and attention to her students to be the best by far. She is able to teach both me and my son at different levels, encouraging us in our own unique ways, while challenging us at the right times to improve upon ourselves.

What is different about Denise is that she is constantly tuned to her students’ capabilities and progress, and as a result, she is able to adjust her teaching style accordingly, rather than blindly follow a set course. She is often creative in engaging her students, and while she can be demanding, she is always patient and fair at the same time. She reminds us of what we need to be paying attention to, and gives us a boost when we need it. All these make her lessons not only enjoyable, but also interesting and exciting to look forward to.

We feel very lucky to have found Denise as our violin teacher, and we are super appreciative of her time and energy in having us as her students.

I am an adult wanting to learn to play Violin with no prior musical sense, absolutely no knowledge about rhythm or harmony. And I was new to Bayarea so had no reference to find a teacher, as a result I called many online teachers and visited multiple music studios but quickly realized most of these classes were geared towards children and/or for adults who had already reached certain level of proficiency.
However, I feel lucky to have been informed about ‘Dr.Denise Chevalier Violin and Viola Studio’ and feel privileged to learn from Dr.Denise. She has this innate ability to mix Art and Logic – ability to convey complex information. As you would agree Violin is a difficult instrument to learn and having the right teacher makes all the difference. Dr. Denise uses analogies, gives creative practice exercises, refers music in history, tells a story.….all to help explain the material and help me understand the concepts before playing the music. Dr. Denise not only makes it fun to learn but also instills the discipline to practice. She is very strict who emphasizes the importance of practice and the right way to hold, learn, play an instrument.
Learning from Dr.Denise, I have deep appreciation for not only Violin but music itself and understand that I no longer want to learn Violin as a hobby but want to learn Violin as passion. Dr. Denise inspires you to learn and play.
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires” – William Arthur Ward

Konwledgable, great customer servce, A great place to buy a piano.

Greg is very knowledgeable and helpful.
Definitely recomend if looking for a piano. 5-Stars

Wonderful place. They have a great selection of pianos, both the old-fashioned ones and new digital models. They are knowledgeable about the instruments and very helpful. Prices are fair for renting and buying. A fabulous resource if you’re interested in learning to play the piano.

Had a used piano store smell to it. Not a bad thing per se. Just saying. Mostly used pianos on display. Pianos were displayed quite cramped together. But still had room to play. Went to try the Baldwin 252 as not many Baldwin dealers in the area.

Well not too many collections

Bought a digital piano here. The owner was responsive and open to negotiating price. The saleswoman was pleasant and helpful. The delivery service wasn’t great, though—I helped bring in the piano, when it really should have been done by two professionals or using a better dolly.

The sales person Carole at this shop is full of lies. She tried to sell us a pre-owned Kawai piano that she claimed was produced in 2015 and was made in Japan trying to make us believe that the piano is still under Kawai’s ten years warranty and of quality production. It turned out the piano was made in 2008 in Indonesia. She also trashed the brands Young Chang and Palatino because I mentioned I checked those somewhere else. Ironically the shop also sells Young Chang. I bet that’s not how she talks to customers who’s interested in buying their Young Chang. Very unprofessional way of doing business.

We have a baby grand that we have rented from them for over a year. We wanted to have the baby grand picked up and switched out to an upright piano. The woman who answered the phone insisted that I come down to the store to pick out an upright, when I told her I simply wanted to exchange it for something of equal quality, I was told, No I had to come down to the store. When I asked if we could do this over the phone or via email as it was for my client and not myself, I was told No again. I initially rented this piano via email and telephone calls and and when I explained this to her she still said no. I said ok.. should I rent the piano from someone else? and she said Yes that was a good idea… I find myself discouraged by their lack of courtesy, customer service.

東西便宜

Amazing

Very good selection of shoes and clothes at competitive prices. Excellent customer service too.

Always find something here. Super long lines can be frustrating though. Go with patience.

I really didn’t found variety in shoes

I love this Nordstrom Rack!

Items are well-organized here. Gone are the days of mad-house digging for bargain prices!

The staff ensures that the lines for both the fitting room and check out move quickly. Sometimes this Rack can get crowded during lunch time but it’s never unbearable.

Not sure how often they get new items but I usually stop by once a month or so and always see new things. They usually have all the sizes in stock which is an extra plus. Sometimes it’s a hit or miss, which is why I’m deducting 1 star. However, if you have patience, come back in a couple of weeks and surely you’ll find something great to buy!

Hit are miss on finding anything good and the place is always a mess.

Cashiers handle money, which is why they should be careful with the transactions. It took me almost 20 minutes to pay because of a mistake of the cashier – they kindly suggested that they could keep my money because it was the fastest solution. The discount wasn’t worth it after all.

Wouldn’t take back an item I purchased within 90 days even after the cashier told me it was okay to do so when I purchased it with the tags on. Very very dissatisfied with Nordstrom Rack.

Such a friendly place!

Tremendous selection of sheet music. Great selection and fabulous prices on musical instruments. Thoughtful and talented private instructors.

I’ve shopped a variety of music instrument stores and by far for the instruments I was buying West valley music had the best prices.

The employees here are very kind and helpful, and they all seem to enjoy being with each other. Walking into WVM is like walking into a family-owned business. You get a sense of camaraderie when you’re inside. I love this place; they seem to carry almost everything from Celtic soulstones to banjos to French horns. Their shelves are nearly swollen with all of their fruitful musicbooks, and instruments are in the open and ready to play on. There are adorable music trinkets aplenty here as well. This is my all-time favorite music place. It’s like a sanctuary of music education. Please visit.

I stopped in to buy new strings for my electric guitar and was surprised to find a good selection of accessories in addition to the brass and woodwind instruments they have on hand. They have a few guitars covering a decent price range, but they are definitely not what I would consider a guitar shop. The staff was knowledgeable and helpful, and I know that I’ll be going back for any other music related purchases in the future.

Average music supply store, at best. Staff is disorganized and has lost orders on multiple occassions. Stock is geared toward elementary music. Lessons are offered in the back, which leaves the main shop quite crowded with parents waiting for their kids. Acceptable, but not outstanding shop.

Place to buy or lease instrument for kids school music classes

Took my flute collection in for a possible tune up. Was told that all but one of the flutes were unplayable. Guess my looks or money weren’t what they accepted there. Took my ‘non playable’ flutes, and commenced to use them to busk, there in downtown Mtn View. Odd that they were declared unplayable, yet I was playing at least one of them not 30 minutes later. Care to explain West Valley Music staff ?

Love Teacher Minghua! My daughter’s first piano class was a magic! She was crying on the way to Opus1, but on the way home, she said “today was the best day ever” because she love piano class!

We’ve had a great experience so far. Kenta Shimakawa is one of the best guitar teachers. He’s been teaching my son for almost a year now and it’s been great to watch him progress from knowing absolutely nothing to playing fairly long complete songs. My son really enjoys his sessions with teacher Kenta.

My daughter started playing piano at Opus 1 music Studio. It’s been 5+ years now and we are still going strong. Opus 1 offers the flexibility to reschedule classes when things come up. I also enjoy their recitals – all kids can participate and they run that very efficiently. You do get to try different teachers when you start out which I found very useful when trying to find a good match for my daughter. Chloe Cheng is her teacher and we highly recommend her.