78 years of music: Redwood City’s Gelb Music team fosters music community through accessible expertise

“It’s a fun thing once you get into music where you’re like, ‘Well, what does that pedal do?’” he said.

A guitarist himself, Craig said many musicians are “tone chasers,” a type of personality he described to be intent on finding the instruments and tools that will create the exact sounds they are imagining.

With electric and acoustic guitars hanging from the store’s ceiling and rows of amplifiers, drums and accessories of all shapes and sizes lining the shelves of the store’s walls, the store appears stocked to satisfy the interests of a symphony of musicians.

And the team of musicians that owner and guitarist Massoud Badakhshan has assembled are ready to help those who come to the store navigate the sea of merchandise. For Craig, working with a wide variety of musicians, like Don Frank, the store manager who has been an active rock band drummer, is a learning experience for him and customers.

“Everyone has a specialty,” he said. “These are guys where you bring in a screw and they’ll say ‘that’s from a 1975 drum.’”

Expertise

Though Craig said the store has become known for guiding enthusiasts toward electric guitars and drum sets, recording equipment such as software and speakers has become draw for customers in the last 15 years. Although home recording has allowed musicians to become less dependent on studios, they still rely on those who have used the equipment before to complete their projects.

“Now for a couple hundred dollars, you have all your software, the interface to your computer,” he said. “But you gotta learn how to use it.”

He has seen several customers come back to the store after purchasing recording equipment to discuss how to tweak their projects with Riley Bradley, who plays in a reggae band and specializes in professional audio equipment for the store.

Craig knows the meaning of learning from those who understand the difficulties and joys of learning to play an instrument. A Redwood City native, Craig became familiar with the store when, as a 10-year-old, he took music lessons with Sidney Gelb, the original owner. Craig worked at the store when he was a teenager, and since he’s returned to the store as an adult has enjoyed seeing the musicians who come to the store performing in the surrounding community.

“It’s great to see the power of music and how you’re helping develop musicians,” he said.

Having worked at the store for 25 years and managing it for the last 10, Frank has seen the role it has played as a destination for local artists and those traveling through the area.

“We have people who sometimes fly in the airport, and see what the closest store is,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘we have nothing like this in our country or our state.’”

But many of the customers Franks sees hail from cities in or surrounding the Peninsula. A refrain Frank often hears from customers is they have been to the store with their parents or grandparents years ago.

Redwood City resident Paul Prochaska said he has come to the store for guitar supplies for 45 years. Prochaska is the minister of music at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, and said the personnel and variety of merchandise are what keep him coming back for items like guitar cords and strings.

“It’s the best rock ’n’ roll store here in the Peninsula,” he said.

Loyal customers, dedicated owner

Now in its 78th year, the store has maintained a loyal customer base despite its shifting specialties over the years, which Craig said has ranged from accordions when Gelb first started the store to folk instruments. When Badakhshan took over ownership of the store in 2015, he became well aware of the connection local musicians had to it. Also the owner of the Haight Ashbury Music Center in San Francisco, Badakhshan agreed to buy the store from its previous owner, Kevin Jarvis, under the condition that he maintain the store’s personal touch. In the two years since he purchased it, Badakhshan has focused on showcasing the store’s varied merchandise and spending time in the store meeting customers.

“They’re used to old faces, they need to know who I am,” he said.

If anyone knows the lengths musicians will go to pursue their passion, Badakhshan does. Inspired by accounts he had heard about the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in the late ’60s, the 67-year-old immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1969 and hitchhiked from New Jersey to San Francisco with dreams of becoming a musician on Haight Street.

“I saw the pictures and said, ‘that’s where I’m going to be going,’” he said.

Badakhshan would study music for over four years before becoming a partner in what would become the Haight Ashbury Music Center. Though he said he hadn’t planned on owning another store, he has come to consider Redwood City his home, where he gets a chance to share his love for music with customers and employees alike.

“That was a goal for me when having a music store,” he said. “To have a place where people are happy together. Because when you are happy, people are going to really feel it.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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