A&G Music Purchases House of Woodwinds
By Alec Rosenberg
Business Writer Alameda Newspaper Group

OAKLAND -- A&G Music Products Co. in downtown Oakland has widened its reach, adding lines of instruments, by buying House of Woodwinds.

A&G Music will expand the San Ramon House of Woodwinds store but has closed the Oakland House of Woodwinds store because of its proximity to A&G's store -- the shops were only five blocks apart.

A&G is at 564 14th St., next to the federal building.

A&G is part of a 24-employee company that includes Best Instrument Repair Co., also at 564 14th St., and Union Music Co. in San Francisco.

Partners Dick Akright and Bob Gross bought House of Woodwinds from Walt De Hope.

DeHope will stay with the company, working as a repair technician in the San Ramon store.

"It's going to be a good relationship," said Akright, 56, who started fixing instruments at Best Instrument Repair in 1969.

"It expands our business."

Inventory from the Oakland House of Woodwinds is going to A&G, Union Music and San Ramon House of Woodwinds.

A&G is adding lines of instruments such as Buffet clarinets, Haynes and Powell flutes, and Cannonball and Yanagisawa saxophones, giving customers more choices.

House of Woodwinds was established in 1950.

A&G, which offers new and used instruments for beginners to professionals, started in 1988 but its roots go back to 1938 with Best Instrument Repair.

The company used to make instruments, including trumpets for former "Tonight Show" bandleader Doc Severinsen, but stopped in 1998.

Best Instrument Repair fixes about 15,000 brass, woodwind and string instruments a year.

The service and retail sides complement each other, Akright said.

"(Customers) can ask questions and we can give them answers," he said.

A&G Music Products Co. can be reached at www.agmusic.com or (510) 832-2452 or (510) 832-0381.

Back