Musical Instrument Store Near Me for Hayes Valley Horn Players: Union Music Company

Union Music Company occupies 1710 B Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, between Gough and Octavia Streets on the edge of Hayes Valley. Its own welcome page calls it the city's premiere store for band and orchestra instruments, and the walls back that up with trumpets, saxophones, French horns and cellos instead of electric guitars. Anyone searching for a musical instrument store near me with a school band rental form or a worn trombone slide in hand will find a shop built around brass and woodwinds.

The story starts in 1922, when a musician and machinist named Dan Regan opened Union Music in a space inside the Golden Gate Theater. A 2002 San Francisco Chronicle column by Ken Garcia, reprinted on the store's website, describes a room so small it could barely hold a quintet. Regan built custom equipment for top players, and that reputation turned the Tenderloin storefront into a required stop for touring musicians from the Depression onward.

The visitor list in that column reads like a jazz encyclopedia. Count Basie and Duke Ellington came by, and Artie Shaw, Buddy Rich and Cab Calloway stopped in before the war. Donald Byrd made the trip more than once, and Arthur Fiedler and Clark Terry could not resist either. Members of the San Francisco Symphony became the biggest customers of all. Regan ran the shop for more than 65 years before selling it in 1989.

The buyers were Dick Akright and his partner Bob Gross. Akright, who grew up in Elk Horn, Wisconsin, the manufacturing home of the Getzen brass company, founded Best Instrument Repair in Oakland and became known as a brass customizing specialist. The Chronicle reported that he once partnered with Doc Severinsen of The Tonight Show to design a Bel Canto trumpet, and that he owns the rights to the venerable Parduba mouthpiece company.

Christopher Leaf, the manager quoted in 2002 and a longtime player in the Beach Blanket Babylon orchestra, summed up the philosophy: get people the right instrument, down to the perfect mouthpiece. The column also counted close to 500 instruments rented each year to students in San Francisco Unified School District programs. The store has since moved to its Market Street address, and its news page reports that the Oakland sister stores closed on June 15, 2024.

The instruments page lists a brass lineup that serious players recognize: S.E. Shires, Bach, Schilke, Stomvi, Kanstul, Getzen, Conn and King. Woodwind players will find Selmer, Yanagisawa and Cannonball saxophones, Leblanc clarinets, and flutes from Gemeinhardt, Armstrong and Sankyo. String students can choose Scherl-Roth, Glassel-Aristocrat and Cremona instruments, and the store's news page announced every level of Buffet B-flat clarinet, from the student Prodige to the professional R13.

Mouthpieces are a specialty here. The accessory list carries Reeves, Schilke, Laskey and Curry pieces for brass, and Otto Link, Meyer, JodyJazz and Berg Larsen for saxophone. Vandoren, Rico, Alexander and La Voz reeds cover clarinet and sax, and the wider brand roster adds Denis Wick, Warburton, Jo-Ral and Bremner. Method books include the Jamey Aebersold play-along series, the Hal Leonard Real Books and the Charlie Parker Omnibook.

The consignments page, updated in September 2026, is where the shop's history shows. Along with student horns, the list holds vintage King H.N. White Liberty trumpets, a Courtois Brevette cornet, a Hans Hoyer French horn and a Miraphone tuba with both upright and recording bells. Among the saxophones sits a Selmer Super Cigar Cutter alto from around 1936, priced at $3,000.

Students on a budget can find Buffet B10 clarinets, Bundy saxophones and Yamaha YSL354 trombones on the same list, so a beginner and a collector can shop the same rack. The store invites people to drop by and try instruments, which is the right move for a used horn: play long tones and a scale, listen for leaks and buzzes, and compare two of the same model if both are in stock.

Rentals remain the backbone of the business. The posted monthly rates run from $24 for a violin to $110 for a tuba, with a three-month minimum and a credit card required. Trumpets, clarinets, saxophones, French horns, violas, cellos and basses are all on the list, and a snare drum kit is available too. The first twelve months of rent apply toward buying the instrument, which takes the sting out of a commitment.

Every rental leaves the store ready for the first day of school or lessons. Brass instruments come with a mouthpiece, valve oil and slide grease, while clarinets and saxophones get two reeds and cork grease, plus a neck strap for the saxes. String instruments arrive with rosin and a full adjustment. One change matters: since the Oakland repair shop closed, Union Music no longer offers instrument repair services.

Doors open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and the store is closed Sunday through Tuesday. Saturday is the only weekend day on that schedule, so a Wednesday or Thursday morning is the better bet for testing a horn without an audience. Bring your own mouthpiece if you have one; comparing instruments with a familiar piece tells you more than any spec sheet.

Ask before you play anything on display, and keep practice bursts short when other customers are talking with staff. The store has practice studios used by its roster of independent teachers, and the teachers page lists instructors for everything from bassoon and French horn to bagpipes and accordion. Several listings include short biographies, so a parent can match a teacher's orchestra or Broadway background to a child's goals before booking a first lesson.

The block sits where Market Street meets Hayes Valley, so a visit slips easily into an afternoon in the neighborhood. Zuni Cafe on Market Street, open since 1979 and winner of the James Beard award for outstanding restaurant, is a short walk east and a classic stop for a long lunch. A few blocks north, Patricia's Green on Octavia Boulevard offers benches and rotating public art for a break with a new case.

Symphony players have been regulars for generations, and Davies Symphony Hall on Van Ness Avenue is within walking distance, as is the War Memorial Opera House. Transit is easy: the Van Ness Muni Metro station sits a few blocks east under Market Street, and F line streetcars run along Market past the door.