A 1948 Musical Instrument Store Near Me in the Sunset: Sunset Music

Sunset Music has been selling sheet music, strings and student instruments on Irving Street since 1948, which makes it one of the longest-running music shops in San Francisco's western neighborhoods. The shop sits at 2311 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA 94122, near 24th Avenue, and owner Evelyn Masuda still works the counter herself. If your search for a musical instrument store near me starts with a child's first clarinet or a missing Chopin edition, this compact room on Irving is a good place for it to end.

The store began with a working musician. Jerry Thomas founded Sunset Music in 1948, and the shop's own history page explains that it started as a piano studio taking records on consignment before growing into a full music store by 1960. Records stopped being the main business long ago, yet the counter still carries record needles, a small holdover from the years when Sunset families stopped by for the latest pressing on their way home.

The business has moved more than once without ever leaving its street. A 2024 profile by George Brown V in the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon noted that the shop had changed locations a few times along Irving Street and had by then spent 41 years at its current address. That kind of staying power is rare in a commercial strip where storefronts turn over quickly, and it is a big part of why the place feels like a neighborhood institution.

Masuda's connection to the shop goes back to childhood. According to that same profile, she first walked in as a six-year-old customer, later bought her teaching books here as a piano teacher, and eventually began helping Thomas run the place. When he considered retiring, the two tested the handover for nine months before he stepped away in 1988, and she has owned and operated Sunset Music in the decades since then.

Her training shows in the way questions get answered. The store's about page notes that she holds a music degree from San Francisco State University and performs professionally as a pianist and violinist, so a question about which Chopin edition suits an intermediate student gets a considered reply. Yelp reviewers repeatedly single out her patience and knowledge, especially when a customer needs help identifying a song or choosing a book that matches a player's ability.

Printed music is the backbone of the inventory. The products page lists popular, classical and instructional books for piano and many other instruments, and reviewers mention finding several editions of Chopin's piano works side by side, which lets a teacher compare them before buying. Teaching aids fill another corner of the room: manuscript paper, flash cards, music dictionaries, charts, games and the stickers that teachers hand out after a good lesson.

Instruments here are aimed at players getting started or keeping a school program running. The shop stocks clarinets, flutes, guitars, harmonicas, recorders, saxophones, trumpets, ukuleles and violins, along with the accessories each of them needs. A recorder for a third grader and a ukulele for a curious adult can come out of the same shopping trip, and the method book to go with either one sits a few steps away on the shelves.

Families with a new band student often come for the rental program. Sunset Music currently rents clarinets, flutes, guitars, electric basses, autoharps and table top harps, which lets a beginner spend a season with an instrument before anyone commits to buying one. Rental terms are not posted online, so bring the student along, talk through the options at the counter and leave with the instrument and its first book in one visit.

Repairs follow the same practical approach. Staff restring and tune violins, violas, cellos, guitars, electric basses, autoharps and table top harps in house, and for deeper work on flutes, clarinets, saxophones or violins they refer customers to reputable local technicians. Onsite lessons cover guitar, piano, flute, clarinet and saxophone, and the services page also advertises two comfortable practice rooms available during the week for players without space at home.

Not everything in the shop is for sale. A 34-pound rubber band ball, wound between 2005 and 2023 by three former employees, sits encased in glass, according to the 2024 profile. It is an odd monument for a music store, but it says a lot about a workplace where people stayed long enough to wrap almost two decades of rubber bands into one sphere, and it makes an easy conversation starter while an order is rung up.

The gift section is the other surprise. The products page lists mugs, stationery, tote bags, jewelry, scarves, t-shirts, keychains, socks and ties, plus composer busts that look right on top of a home piano, and gift wrapping is free. For a recital present or an end-of-year thank-you for a music teacher, a small bust or a pair of socks from this rack lands better than a generic card from the pharmacy.

Sunset Music is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, which means Sunday and Monday are off the table. Because school schedules and lessons shape the traffic, weekday mornings are the likeliest quiet window, while late afternoons and Saturdays bring parents with students who need a book before their next lesson. For an unhurried talk about editions or rentals, arrive soon after the door opens on a weekday.

The room is compact and the shelves are full, so keep a large backpack in front of you while you browse the racks. Bring the title, composer and, if you can, the publisher of the piece you need, since classical works often come in several editions. Ask before test-playing anything, and when you drop off a violin or guitar for new strings, mention the string brand you prefer as you hand it over.

The shop sits on Irving Street between 24th and 25th avenues, inside a stretch of small restaurants and shops that serves the Sunset's long residential grid. Its contact page points to three transit links close by: the 7 bus, the 28 bus that runs along 19th Avenue and the N Judah light rail line, which runs one block south on Judah Street.

Golden Gate Park begins one block north at Lincoln Way, so a lesson pickup can easily turn into a walk through the park's western half. Irving Street itself becomes the stage for the Sunset Night Market, which runs from June through December 2026 between 19th and 26th avenues from 5 pm to 10 pm; the year's final edition, a Dong Zhi and holiday market, is set for December 11, a good evening to pair with a gift run.