Fog City Bluegrass

San Francisco's bluegrass marketplace: book paid gig slots, buy used banjos, mandolins and fiddles, rent stage sound, travel to bluegrass country, wear the music and get tickets to the next show, all from local pickers and producers.

Category: Music & Performance

Sellers: LanternHallProductions, SawmillStrings, IronwoodSoundRentals, HighLonesomeJourneys, HollerThreadSupply, SaltboxConcertSeries

• Used 5-String Resonator Banjo, Maple — A 2014 five-string resonator banjo with a maple neck and resonator, an 11-inch tone ring and a bright, punchy bluegrass voice. Light play wear on the armrest, frets in great shape, and a fresh setup from our workshop with new strings and a new bridge. A strong banjo for a player moving up from a starter model. Choose a gig bag or a hardshell case. Price: $1,450.00 Category: Musical Instruments
• Stage Monitor Pair — Two powered wedge monitors so the band can hear itself: 10-inch speakers in a low-profile wedge with their own volume controls, plus cables to run them from your mixer's monitor send. Quiet enough for acoustic music and loud enough for a crowded bar. Price: $45.00 Category: Equipment Rental
• Blue Ridge Bluegrass Road Trip, 6 Days — Six days in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, built around the music. Front-porch jams, a fiddle and banjo workshop with local old-time players, a visit to an instrument maker's workshop, a Friday night jam at a country store and a Saturday barn dance. Departs Sunday, April 18, 2027 from Charlotte. Price per person, shared room: 5 nights' lodging, ground transport, most meals and every music event. Airfare not included. 16 seats. Price: $2,895.00 Category: Travel Services
• Mandolin Over the Bay Tee — A vintage-style illustration of a mandolin as a sailboat crossing the Bay at sunset, printed in three warm colors on a soft, unisex 100% ring-spun cotton tee. Designed by a local illustrator who plays in a Mission jam every week. Choose your size and shirt color. Price: $32.00 Category: Clothing & Apparel
• Juniper Hollow Ramblers at Fernhill Ballroom — The Juniper Hollow Ramblers bring their hard-driving five-piece bluegrass to the Fernhill Ballroom in the Inner Richmond for one night only, with San Francisco's Seacliff Pickers opening. Saturday, October 24, 2026. Doors 7:00 pm, show 8:00 pm. General admission with seating on the floor and standing room at the back. All ages; full bar. Price: $28.00 Category: Events
• Pitch Your Band for a Headline Night — Ready to headline a Friday at The Lantern Room? Send us your band, a link to a recent live video and the months that work for you. Headliners get a guaranteed fee plus a share of the door, our house sound engineer, and promotion on our weekly lineup and social channels. We review every pitch and reply within 10 days. Free to apply. Category: Music Performance
• Used A-Style Mandolin, Solid Spruce Top — An A-style mandolin with a hand-carved solid spruce top, solid maple back and sides, and a sunburst finish. It chops well in a jam and has a sweet, woody tone for melody. A few small finish checks on the top, otherwise clean; set up in our workshop with a new bridge fitting and fresh strings. Choose a gig bag or a hardshell case. Price: $650.00 Category: Musical Instruments
• Upright Bass Backline Rental — Flying in for a gig or tired of hauling a bass across the city? Rent our 3/4 laminated upright bass with an adjustable bridge, a pickup, a small bass amp and a padded bag. Set up for bluegrass with medium-height action. Delivered to your venue or picked up from Dogpatch. Price: $75.00 Category: Equipment Rental
• Kentucky Bluegrass Heritage Week — Seven days through central and western Kentucky, the home ground of bluegrass music. Hear the story of the sound where it began, take a mandolin and guitar workshop with regional players, visit a family-run instrument workshop, ride through horse country and end the week at a small-town bluegrass jamboree. Departs Sunday, June 13, 2027 from Louisville. Price per person, shared room: 6 nights' lodging, ground transport, most meals and every music event. Airfare not included. 14 seats. Price: $3,250.00 Category: Travel Services
• High Lonesome Trucker Hat — A structured mesh-back trucker hat with an embroidered front patch of a fiddle crossed with a pine branch over a foggy hill. Snapback closure, one size fits most. Built for long days at outdoor festivals and late nights at the jam. Price: $28.00 Category: Clothing & Apparel
• Fogbank String Band Album Release Night — Celebrate the new album from the Fogbank String Band, the Bay Area's favorite newgrass quartet, with a full set of new songs and old favorites at our home stage on Divisadero. Every ticket includes a download code for the new album. Saturday, November 21, 2026. Doors 7:30 pm, show 8:00 pm. Seated, 180 tickets. All ages; full bar. Price: $25.00 Category: Events
• Friday Opening Set at The Lantern Room — Book the 45-minute opening set at our Friday bluegrass night at The Lantern Room, a 120-seat listening room in the Mission. Your slot fee covers our house sound engineer, a four-mic acoustic setup, a house upright bass if you need one, and your band on our weekly lineup. The opening band keeps 30% of the door after the headliner's guarantee, plus tips and merch sales, paid at the end of the night. Acts of 1 to 6 players. Community members pay $25 a slot, everyone else $35. Price: $25.00 Category: Music Performance
• Used 4/4 Fiddle Outfit with Bow and Case — A full-size 4/4 fiddle with a solid spruce top and flamed maple back, sold as a ready-to-play outfit with a pernambuco-style bow, rosin and an oblong case. Warm and even across all four strings, with enough bite to cut through a jam. Freshly set up with a new bridge and soundpost adjustment. Add a bluegrass setup with flatter bridge curve if you play double stops a lot. Price: $480.00 Category: Musical Instruments
• LED Stage Lighting Kit — Warm, flattering light for small stages and private events: four LED wash lights on two stands with a simple controller and preset looks for amber, warm white and soft color. Runs from a single wall outlet and sets up in 15 minutes. Great for house concerts, weddings and bar stages with no lighting of their own. Price: $55.00 Category: Equipment Rental
• Sierra Foothills Pickin' Weekend — A long weekend of music three hours from San Francisco. We take over a lodge in the Gold Country foothills from Friday to Sunday: jam workshops grouped by skill level, a banjo and fiddle masterclass, a Saturday night band scramble where everyone plays a set, and campfire picking under the stars. Departs Friday, November 13, 2026 at 4:00 pm from North Beach by van. Price per person: 2 nights in shared cabins, all meals, transport and workshops. 20 seats. Price: $795.00 Category: Travel Services
• Banjo Patch Corduroy Cap — A soft, unstructured six-panel corduroy cap with a small woven patch of a banjo head drawn like a full moon over the Pacific. Adjustable brass buckle strap, one size fits most. Pairs with any of our tees. Price: $34.00 Category: Clothing & Apparel
• Holiday Bluegrass Hootenanny — Our annual holiday show: three bands, carols played bluegrass style, a sing-along finale and a gingerbread contest for kids. Featuring the Marigold Holler Girls, the Seacliff Pickers and our house band, with a final all-hands jam on stage. Saturday, December 12, 2026 at the Fernhill Ballroom in the Inner Richmond. Doors 6:30 pm, show 7:30 pm. All ages; kids under 12 free with a ticketed adult. Price: $35.00 Category: Events
• Saturday Brunch Bluegrass Set, 2 Hours — Two relaxed sets of acoustic bluegrass across a two-hour Saturday brunch at our partner cafe in Hayes Valley, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Your slot fee covers booking, a compact acoustic PA and a post on our weekly lineup. The cafe pays the band a $250 guarantee plus every tip in the jar, settled on the day, and brunch is on the house for the band. Duos and trios work best in the room. Price: $50.00 Category: Music Performance
• Used Square-Neck Resonator Guitar — A square-neck resonator guitar with a spun aluminum cone, mahogany body and a strong, singing bluegrass tone. Played lap-style with a steel bar, it is the sound that sits between the banjo and fiddle in a classic band. Light wear on the coverplate; new strings and a bar and finger picks are included. Comes with a padded gig bag. Price: $1,100.00 Category: Musical Instruments
• Acoustic PA System for Bluegrass Gigs — A clean, natural-sounding PA for acoustic bands in rooms of up to 200 people: two 10-inch powered speakers on stands, an 8-channel mixer with reverb, and all the cables you need. Light enough for one person to load into a car. Pick up free from our Dogpatch warehouse or add delivery and setup. Book several days in a row and get 10% off. Price: $125.00 Category: Equipment Rental
• Private Group Bluegrass Tour — Planning a trip for your band, your jam group or a bluegrass association? We design private music trips for groups of 8 to 20: the Blue Ridge, Kentucky, the Ozarks or a California weekend, on your dates, with workshops and jams at your level. Tell us your group size, dates and budget, and a trip designer replies within two business days with a draft itinerary. Category: Travel Services
• Five Strings and Fog Tee — Our best-selling tee: a five-string banjo rising out of the San Francisco fog, with the hills and a cable-car line drawn in the banjo head. Hand screen-printed in two colors on a soft, unisex 100% ring-spun cotton tee. Choose your size and shirt color. Price: $32.00 Category: Clothing & Apparel
• Spring Pickin' Festival Stage Audition — Audition for a paid main-stage set at our Spring Pickin' Festival in Golden Gate Park in April 2027. Book a 20-minute audition slot at The Lantern Room in November or December, play two contrasting tunes and a song of your choice for our three-person panel, and get written feedback within a week. Selected bands are paid a $600 performance fee for a 40-minute festival set. The slot fee covers the room, the sound engineer and the panel. Price: $25.00 Category: Music Performance
• Used 3/4 Upright Bass, Laminated — A 3/4 laminated upright bass, the workhorse of bluegrass bands: tough enough for outdoor gigs and festivals, with a deep, punchy pizzicato tone. Adjustable bridge, new strings and a padded bag included. A few honest scuffs on the ribs. Because of its size this one is pickup only from our Inner Sunset shop; we help you load it. Price: $2,400.00 Category: Musical Instruments
• Single-Mic Bluegrass Setup — The classic way to amplify a bluegrass band: one large-diaphragm condenser mic in a shock mount on a tall, heavy stand, with a pop screen and a long cable. The band works the mic by stepping in for breaks and back for rhythm, so the mix happens on stage. Plugs into any PA with phantom power, including ours. Price: $40.00 Category: Equipment Rental
• Tuesday Bluegrass Slow Jam — A friendly, slower-tempo jam for players who are learning to play bluegrass with other people. A jam leader calls standard tunes, shows the chords, and everyone takes a turn at a break if they want one. Bring a banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, resonator guitar or bass. Every Tuesday, 7:00 to 9:00 pm at The Lantern Room in the Mission. Loaner instruments available on request. Community members pay $8 a night, everyone else $12. Price: $8.00 Category: Musical Instrument Lessons
• Used Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar, Rosewood — A dreadnought acoustic guitar with a solid spruce top and rosewood back and sides: the big, booming rhythm voice and clear bass runs that bluegrass guitar is built on. Low action, frets recently dressed, a few pick scratches below the soundhole. Set up with medium-gauge strings for flatpicking and sold with a hardshell case. Price: $900.00 Category: Musical Instruments
• Fog City Bluegrass Community Membership — Join the community that keeps San Francisco picking. Members pay $8 instead of $12 at every Tuesday slow jam and $25 instead of $35 for Friday opening sets, get into our members-only jam on the first Sunday of each month, can book new gig slots and festival auditions 48 hours before everyone else, and are listed in our monthly pickers' directory and newsletter so other players and bands can find them. Billed monthly; cancel anytime. Price: $12.00 Category: Music Performance
• Bluegrass History Reference — New to bluegrass, or want to know where the music you love came from? This free encyclopedia article traces the style from its Appalachian and string-band roots through the first bands of the 1940s to today's progressive and newgrass players, and explains the instruments, the vocal harmonies and the way a band trades breaks. We point every new jam member here first. Category: Education
• Old-Time Music Roots Reference — Bluegrass grew out of old-time music: fiddle and banjo tunes played for dances in the rural South long before records and radio. This free encyclopedia article explains how old-time differs from bluegrass, where the tunes came from, and why so many of them still turn up at our Tuesday slow jam. A good read before your first old-time session. Category: Education
• National Folk and Traditional Arts Honors — Every year the federal arts agency honors master folk and traditional artists from across the country, from fiddlers and banjo players to singers, dancers and craftspeople. Browse the honorees, read their stories and find traditional musicians whose playing is worth seeking out. A free public resource we use when we plan our listening sessions. Category: Education
• Free Guitar Chord Reference — Most bluegrass jam tunes use a handful of chords in G, C, D and A. This free, community-written guitar book shows how chords are built and how to play the common open shapes, so you can follow along when the jam leader calls the changes. Practice the G, C and D shapes before your first Tuesday slow jam. Category: Education