Welcome to Steve Swan String Basses

Steve Swan String Bass is home of the largest selection of new and used doublebass instruments on the west coast between Los Angeles and Canada. Located in Burlingame, just south of San Francisco, our large retail showroom holds about 65 basses on display with several more in the two small warehouse spaces in the back. Our new basses all feature professional setups and come with a cover at no additional cost. Our used and consignment instruments receive any needed repairs and upgrades before getting a display position on the sales floor.

FEATURED INSTRUMENTS

OVERVIEW

Our basses range in price and function from new and used student level through old professional grade orchestral instruments.  We also have on hand a good selection of bass bows, string bass covers, K & M bass stands, a broad selection of strings, pickups, wheels, quivers, and rosin. Upgrade components such as tuning machines, bridges, endpins, and tailpieces, as well as repair parts such as ebony fingerboards, nuts, tailpiece saddles, sound posts, bass bars, and neck blanks are all kept in stock and are available for repair procedures with our allied group of professional bass luthiers, including Allan Droyan, Jeff Sahs, Nathaniel Rich, Hannah Mayne, Jason Brown, Tristan Cole-Falek, and Alex Friedman.

SHOP HOURS

Although the shop is usually open Monday-Saturday from 9 until 5 pm, with other times and some Sunday appointments available. It is always best to make an appointment 24 hours in advance, due to my travel schedule.so please call or text (650) 515-1014, or email steveswan@sonic.net

 

The shop is conveniently located near BART and CalTrain, just off of 101 Between Broadway and Millbrae Avenue in Burlingame, and only 2 miles south of the San Francisco International Airport.

Steve Swan String Bass
1519 Bayshore Highway (at Mahler)
Burlingame, CA  94010

NEWS

Latest incoming Shen Basses

 

Shen 3/4 size hybrid basses in stock

 

Smaller sized student basses in inventory

5/8 size: New Shen SB 300, New Xuechang Sun 420, New Shen SB 150 (2), New Shen SB 80

1/2 size: ca. 2015 Chinese all-solid woods “Borceto”

Looking for a specific kind of bass? Get on the want list.

If you are looking to find a specific kind of instrument that will best suit your playing, let us know and we will keep you in mind when one turns up. With regular travels that take us north to Oregon and Washington state, south down as far as San Diego, and east to Nevada or Arizona, we have developed a network of west coast players, luthiers, and estate resources that lead to some interesting and wonderful finds. We also have access to new custom basses or examples with unusual features that may be just the right combination for you. An email or a phone call can get the wheels turning to find just what you are looking for at a price that makes sense for your situation.

European or American made basses currently in stock

Some string bass customers have resistance to basses made in China. Though we carry three brands of highest quality Chinese-made basses, there are currently 58 string basses in stock that come from Europe and the United States. The price and functions range from a nearly new Upton hybrid model for $4950, to a ca. 1835 Abraham Prescott gamba model priced at $37,500. In addition to many older or more recent contemporary used instruments, we usually have in stock new instruments from Wilfer, Hofner, Paesold, and customized Swan Workshop model.

 

In our over 25 years of retailing string basses in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have been very pleased to have introduced a few major lines of instruments that have solidly found their way into the large student and performance bass communities based here. These brands are Samuel Shen, Hofner-Paesold, Xuechang Sun, and New Standard. Our shop has earned the exclusive retail distributorship of these instruments in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California.

Guitar website

The website dedicated to our guitar business is under construction and should be ready by about November 15, 2025.

We do cross-post the electric bass guitars to the guitar website for convenience. Please make use of our extensive “Want List”, as we are always tracking down specific guitar and electric bass instruments for our customers.

Most Recent New Arrivals

 

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Basses in the shop for setup

Performance-enhanced German 3/4 carved back from the mid-1970s. Due out for audition about August 1.

Basses in the workshop for major work

5/8 size “blockl;ess” 5/8 flatback from ca. 1885. Getting a newly fitted neck block.

New Wilfer-made Paesold 592-B: Top regraduation and bass bar remodeling already completed. Setup coming.

Romanian-made 7/8 gamba: Top regraduated, bass bar remodeled. Now in for setup.