MusicNomad at home in Sonoma

When the stately house at 746 Broadway was built in 1911, it sat between France Street and Italy Street, now known as Chase Street. Over the years it has been both a private residence and a law office. The historic Craftsman style structure now serves as the world headquarters for MusicNomad, a musical instrument care manufacturer with products available in 40 countries around the globe.

The occupant of what was the parlor in that home is Rand Rognlien, the 40-something founder and owner of MusicNomad Equipment Care. Displayed on the walls of his office are a collection of music memorabilia, musical instruments and innovative prototypes. The other rooms of the home now serve as the offices for several employees. The old dining room now functions as a meeting room and features a large table piled high with the new products Rognlien hopes to launch in the months to come.

His company’s name implies a musician roaming, having no home. But MusicNomad recently celebrated its 10th anniversary in business, all here in Sonoma. The anniversary was marked by the addition of several new items to the product list. They they claim to be the world’s sales leader in the category of instrument cleaning and polishing, a small but important aspect of the musical instrument business.

As the world-wide pandemic settled in, dormant musicians began to play their instruments again. Casual collectors took notice of the gear they had accumulated. Working musicians, suddenly not working, began to spend more time “woodshedding,“ practicing or honing their skills. The repairs and improvements that were needed to return all those instruments to their best condition were difficult to arrange, as COVID curtailed that cottage industry, too.

Rognlien proudly spoke of his company while sitting under a huge walnut tree behind the offices. Rognlien said MusicNomad’s sales have been particularly strong during the last several months. Overall, the category’s sales have been up 140 percent since the pandemic, he said.

Knowing that a business like his is built one customer at a time, he mentioned one very specific target customer, the guitar player. Rognlien said, “40 percent of all guitar players have 10 or more guitars.”

That is a statistic that all guitar players should cut out and place prominently, wife-high, on their refrigerators.

With items like string winders, fret cleaners, fretboard polishers, nut files and truss rod wrenches, MusicNomad has over 100 products available. The list of where you can find their stuff is most impressive, and includes the online giants American Music Supply, Musician’s Friend and the Indiana-based Sweetwater Sound.

Sweetwater is a powerhouse online dealer. They stock everything MusicNomad has to offer and they are Sweetwater’s No. 1 brand in the category. Sweetwater founder and CEO Chuck Surack said this about MusicNomad via email, “They are totally unique in the products they offer. Sweetwater is proud to represent MusicNomad products and counts on them for being such a great supplier.”

Rognlien noted that Sweetwater orders and subsequently advertises new MusicNomad items for “pre-sale” before they are even in stock and available to the consumer.

Another online outlet that sells the company’s products is one some folks are familiar with, a little outfit called Amazon.

Rognlien and his wife Vanessa relocated to Sonoma in 2009 after living in the Los Angeles area all their lives. In L.A., Rognlien owned a car care product manufacturer called Carrand. Similar idea there, only the focus was cars not instruments. As a musician at heart, Rognlien took his deep knowledge about cleaners, tools and maintenance, and his already established working relationships with suppliers, and started MusicNomad.

The Rognliens and their three children, Ava, 19, Gavin, 16, and Eme, 10, have adopted Sonoma as their new home. The mantel in Rognlien’s office that originally held blurry daguerreotypes of early Sonomans now has color photos of his family.

Rognlien has handful of employees working in those offices, all longtime Sonomans. One is Morgan Miles, the marketing manager for the team. She is homegrown, having graduated from SVHS. Miles has worked for the company since 2017.

Three other Sonomans working at MusicNomad are Lisa Ziganti, who has lived here since 1998; Shannon Dewees moved here in 1999; and Susan Glamore has called Sonoma home since 2004.

Another shrewd signing to his team's roster is local Gerard Serafini, highly respected musician, store owner and sound engineer. The addition in 2015 of Serafini to Nomad's crew gave instant credibility to MusicNomad for local musicians, most of whom had been trading with Serafini since he owned Sonoma Music, just up the street on Broadway.

Rognlien and his team are always looking for new products to prototype and perhaps introduce to the market. They have an eye on the predicted market trends about 18 months into the future. He has local designers who can engineer and draw up specs for those prototypes. Production is mostly in China. Polishes and other liquids are made in California, then shipped in barrels to a bottle-filling facility in Long Beach. All products are stored in a warehouse in Sylmar, California.

Rognlien is proud to say that a portion of his company’s profits have gone to support the Northern California music community through various ways over the years. This includes donations to the Boys & Girls Club, Little Kids Rock, Luther Burbank Center, and the Sonoma International Film Festival.

Kevin McNeely of the film festival acknowledged Rognlien’s contributions and said, “Thank goodness Rand loves music, film, wine and fun!”

That love of music, “it’s always been a passion of mine,” Rognlien says, makes him a vibrant addition to the music scene in Sonoma. He and his MusicNomad aren’t going anywhere.

musicnomadcare.com