The first day of class can be rough -- especially when it's something you tried hard to avoid, like "music for dummies."

In Livermore, the class was for fifth graders who couldn't make the cut for a "real" music class -- one using real instruments. The district simply didn't have enough instruments.

"Some kids really took it personally and felt embarrassed," said teacher Carrie Seng. "One day I had to face this class, and there were all these kids in tears."
So she turned to the man so many people in Livermore turn to, Michael Ferrucci, acoustic guitarist, social critic and owner of the music shop Fine Fretted Friends.

"I said, 'Michael, I've got to do something good for these kids to make them feel good about music.' "

Ferrucci immediately donated five guitars, and kept giving.

"People bring me guitars," he said. "They're old; they're broken; they're missing parts."

He'd refurbish them and hand them over. Soon Seng was toting 28 guitars to classes throughout the district.

"It finally gave them something to feel good about," she said. "The other kids were carting their trumpets and clarinets around. 'We're taking guitar lessons!' "
Ferrucci's connection to local schools runs deep: He has lived in Livermore for 24 years, his wife, Pam, is a longtime science teacher in the schools, two of his children passed through the district and the third is a junior in high school.

Over the past two decades, recently with the Livermore Rotary, Ferrucci has helped put on more than two dozen concerts to raise scholarship funds for budding music students, or to benefit the local schools.

The Rotary Club concerts have raised about $40,000 since 1999, Ferrucci said. Earlier concerts that he helped put on with the Livermore Folk Music Association raised about $20,000 for Livermore schools.

In August, a concert featuring Al Stewart ("The Year of the Cat") raised $9,000 for the Livermore Valley Education Foundation. The money was enough to save a part-time music teacher's job, said Kate Runyon, the foundation's co- chairwoman.

"Making music makes you smarter," Ferrucci said. "I think there's a lot of evidence to support that."

It was a busy August for Ferrucci. He also produced a concert featuring local musicians to benefit science programs in the schools.

"Everybody seems to call him," said Steve Patience, a guitarist who helps at the benefits. "Working with Michael is just a lot of fun -- it's not like he's a fun guy and all that. But he carries in a joyous atmosphere."

"It's a skill I have to do these things," Ferrucci said, "and it's a lot of work but I enjoy doing it."

"Music seems to pull everybody together," he says.

Besides offering classes, Fine Fretted Friends is a high-end guitar shop catering to doctors, lawyers, Livermore Lab scientists -- and many top acoustic finger pickers who are Ferrucci's friends.
His laptop always includes e-mails from some of them: "... would love love LOVE to schedule a concert with you," a current entry reads. "It seems like you're totally on top of your game when it comes to producing a guitar concert."

Ferrucci has lured guitarists Todd Hallawell, Muriel Anderson, Buster B. Jones, Chris Proctor and Laurence Juber to perform in town -- not household names, but important figures to fans of serious picking.

What's in it for the guitar stars, Ferrucci said, is the chance to fit in a quick gig between more lucrative appearances in Northern California. He pays them a fraction of their usual fee.

The musicians also like reaching people outside the acoustic music world. "They sell a lot of CDs to people who have never heard of them before," Ferrucci said.

They also appreciate helping a good cause. Hallawell, for example, told Ferrucci he got his start in music after receiving a Rotary Club scholarship.
The guest stars also enjoy the concerts themselves.

Big names step up
The Al Stewart affair, for example, was more than a big name strutting his stuff. "It was a very, very fun jam session thing, which Al Stewart didn't expect," said T.J. Gilmartin, Rotary Club president and a retired scientist from Lawrence Livermore Lab. "He had a ball."

Stewart's regular bassist, Doug Mann, who lives in Livermore and helped arrange the gig, played along.

So did Livermore violinist Jim Hurley, Seng and high school student Christa Mennitia on backup vocals -- even Ferrucci for a bit.

"Part of the deal I make with the guys is I get to play one song with them," Ferrucci said. And he always MCs.

Running a benefit requires more than finger-picking, though. Since he depends on the last-minute schedules of his stars, Ferrucci often has only a couple of weeks to secure a hall (often the high school, First Presbyterian Church, or the Eagles hall), and sell tickets.

"I get up in front of Rotary and say, 'I want to give a concert and I need help,' " Ferrucci said.

He also gets help from guitarists who crowd his store for lessons, to try out guitars, jam and chat.

"There's a core group of us here in Livermore," said Ken Robbins, who runs a cabinet shop when he's not playing with his band, Free Beer. "When something like this comes up, we're like a magnet. We're attracted to it."

Robbins spent half a day in the searing heat moving equipment and setting up the stage for the science benefit.

One-stop shop
Ferrucci never needs to lean on people to volunteer, said Lane Coker, who teaches guitar at the shop and plays with the band Boogie D. Blues.

"People bend over backward for him, because he bends over backward for them," Coker said. "Look at his store," he said. "Michael's very much a people person."

Ferrucci spent a recent afternoon in Fine Fretted Friends teaching Will Glossup, an up-and-coming 12-year-old electric guitarist, to change strings without getting whipped in the face. Pretty soon Will was doing the work himself.

Steve Patience, meanwhile, was strumming a guitar -- Ferrucci encourages customers to try out his wares. "You don't know a guitar until you've played it several times," Patience explained.

Robbins was kibitzing. Two lessons were going on in the back rooms. Strings and metronomes continued to be sold. And various mothers were taking in the scene.
Will told the crowd about having played guitar for Euros on the streets of Galway. "You have to play loud!" he said.

Patience discussed how walking into the store on a whim changed his life. He got back to playing guitar after 35 years -- and today is a regular at Ferrucci's benefits and at the store.

"There are some really incredible guitar players coming into this shop," he said. "I can come in here on Saturday morning and there'll be two or three guys sitting here who can blow me away."

Ferrucci was showing a young man how to care for a cello. It arrived in the shop in pieces, Ferrucci fixed it, and was lending it gratis -- charging only for the cost of repairs. He didn't want to repair it again.

"Treat it," Ferrucci prompted, "like it's made of ..."
"...glass!" Gabriel Cabrera answered.

Hobby becomes a career
Ferrucci, who grew up in San Francisco during the heyday of psychedelic rock, started out as a scientist with degrees in biology and botany, selling equipment to researchers at Lawrence Livermore Lab and Sandia. He also operated a recording studio in Livermore, and would tote along his guitar on sales calls. "It was good for business," he said.

A rumpled, slightly bear-like man with a beatific smile and tiny ponytail, he's always in motion in his crowded shop, which is the size and shape of two bowling lanes. Guitars, fiddles, mandolins and banjos -- some rare -- hang on the walls, and Beatles memorabilia are everywhere.

"I am your typical '60s refugee," Ferrucci said. "My son's name is Dylan. What can I say?"
A decade ago he came down with testicular cancer, went through chemotherapy successfully, then was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and underwent several surgeries. Ferrucci remains in almost constant pain, and was one of six plaintiffs who successfully sued the federal government to stop it from revoking the licenses of doctors who advise patients to use medical marijuana.

One reason he switched professions, he said, is because it's easy to close the shop when he needs a break. The business also keeps him active -- pain relief in itself, he said.

He also stays active politically. He ran for the Livermore City Council three times, on a platform of slow growth and support for the arts. In 1999, he lost by four votes. The Ferrucci home is almost as well known in Livermore as the Ferruccis. It's a large, recently expanded Victorian at the edge of downtown that's painted lavender trimmed with purple.

When he gets home at night, Ferrucci sits next to his dog Koa and pulls out his $35 acoustic model. "It's a comfortable guitar," he said, "and it has a lot of history."

Learn more
Michael Ferrucci's music store, Fine Fretted Friends, is at 2175 First St. , Livermore. The next Livermore Rotary Club scholarship benefit concert featuring finger-style guitarist Dorian Michael is scheduled for April 17, at a location to be announced. For more information, visit the store's Web site at www.frettedfriends.com .
E-mail comments to cocofriday@sfchronicle.com .