Thomas Musical Instruments

The Last Store Standing

Endurance: Last Store Standing . . .

Back in the days when brick & mortar meant just that, there were few options in the music trades short of ordering by mail from New York. Eventually there were three full-service music stores in our little corner of the central coast of California.

Three stores competed for the business of band and orchestra musicians, students in elementary, secondary levels, at our then-vibrant community college, and at the growing University on the hill.

One by one they faltered and closed, until we were the only place in town where you could buy an Urtext, a box of clarinet reeds, or get your brass instrument a chem clean.

And here we are still, using the tools that were the very downfall of our competitors. Some of these tools we bought when our competitors were going under.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a look around. If you have questions or concerns, use the Contact Us page in the menu, or call us at 831-425-0110.

We’re open Monday through Friday from 11-6, Saturday 11-5.
We close on Sundays.
1010H Fair Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 425-0110

Welcome to the web page of Thomas Musical Instruments on the west side of Santa Cruz, California. We strive to be a full-service music store minus the guitars, ukuleles, banjos and mandolins that are so ably represented by competing music stores in the area. Our market segment is brass, woodwinds and orchestral strings.

Like most businesses in this niche, we started as a repair business, and gradually added instrument sales and rentals, sheet music, and accessories accessories as we continued to move ever westward to our present location at the corner of Fair Avenue and Ingalls Street. We’re diagonally across from the New Leaf Market on Fair Avenue, and our door opens on Ingalls Street.

While we strive to have in stock all the needs of the local musical community in stock and at the ready, we pride ourselves in the ability to quickly special order virtual anything in the musical universe.