At his record shop, Vinyl Revolution on Lighthouse Avenue, the walls trace decades of rock history and have changed little over the past 17 years: A large Motörhead Death Forever banner, Deep Purple T-shirts, old Family Dog concert posters and classic vinyl like Captain Beyond’s debut LP all appear. The sanctuary has become an embodiment of the Zeitgeist in the same way that City Light Books in San Francisco was in its early days: a place where artists gather, tell stories, find inspiration and expand their minds.

But eminent and authentic rock cred are not enough these days. Gamber, like many small business owners, is struggling to stay afloat.

When Keigan Skydecker, bassist of Serpico, first got wind that his favorite enclave was in financial danger, he enlisted the help of The Mystery Lights, Matt Baldwin, Gorpheriac, Valley Blue and DJ Raidian to play a benefit show this Saturday at the Blue Fin.

“Ninety percent of the bands in my record collection I got on Bob’s recommendation,” Skydecker says. “When I come into the shop, he knows everything he’s sold me for the last 10 years and makes these incredible educated recommendations based on my past purchases. Bob’s recommendations have created a local music scene.”

On a rainy afternoon, members from the bands playing the benefit show assemble at VR while the heavy-psych band Golden Buddha plays in the background. They talk music with Gamber – and about his influence on their lives.

Local guitar virtuoso Matt Baldwin, whose Paths of Ignition LP is displayed in the front of the store, says he was changed forever when Gamber introduced him to albums like the psych-blues of Blue Cheer’s Vincebus Eruptum at the age of 12.

“I’d come in and walk around and Bob would turn me on to things like Maggot Brain and Sabbath,” Baldwin says. “This was my education.”

More than 17 years later, Baldin continues to value Gamber’s opinion: As soon as he finishes a rough cut from an upcoming album, he gets a copy to Gamber for feedback.

Baldwin’s experience with Gamber is common; Gamber’s knowledge, insight and opinions are cherished by many musicians in the community and continue to help shape the music scene and the bands playing in it.

“After we recorded our first CD we brought it in here, and Bob was stoked on it; he really gave us a lot of confidence,” says Luis “L.A.” Solano, The Mystery Lights’ guitarist. “Since we’ve been coming here, he always has new bands to show us and it’s always super good stuff. Bob’s a rad guy.”

From his days as a kid – scoring now-rare LPs from groups like Icecross (a ’70s Icelandic psych-metal band) at flea markets in Florida and going to New York Dolls shows – vinyl has been Gamber’s second skin. He started working at a chain record store in 1978, learning about the industry and making contacts with the major labels, but the raconteur ultimately wanted his own place.

“It was my dream to have a mom-and-pop record store in California and do whatever the hell I wanted,” Gamber says. “In the chain stores you have to play what they want, like Saturday Night Fever and Frampton Comes Alive. If I tried to put on the Scorpions or Sabbath, they’d get mad.”

Gamber considers VR’s opening in 1994 and the early days to be some of the best times of his life.

“It was a really good time, getting the place going and having friends pitch in; I had to learn what I could sell and what I could collect,” says Gamber, who has a massive personal vinyl collection. (He won’t divulge the exact number.)

Though he appears partial to stuff from the ’60s and ’70s, Gamber is just as knowledgeable about newer bands.

“As soon as I close my mind to new music, it’s all over for me,” he says.

In addition to being an encyclopedia of rock history and obscure genres like Krautrock and doom metal, Gamber has some killer stories that place him in the midst of the history as it happened. One of his favorites stories is about meeting a young Lars Ulrich (Metallica’s drummer), before the band had formed.

“He told me he was getting a band together and they were going to be called Metallica,” Gamber says. “He sent me some concert flyers.”

On the wall behind the register is a tattered handwritten letter from Ulrich. In fact, when Metallica came up to play San Francisco in the early days, Gamber drove them around. In the recent book, Metallica: The Club Days, there’s even a photo of Gamber helping the band with its equipment.

As far as Gamber is concerned, closing up his rock-and-roll Shangri-La isn’t an option for him.

“I’ve been doing this for so long, I don’t know what the alternative would be,” he says. “This is what I do; vinyl is my love and it’s my life.”

Gamber will be doing what he loves at the benefit: selling records, talking music and listening to high-quality rock.

THE VINYL REVOLUTION BENEFIT SHOW starts 10pm Saturday, Feb. 6 at Blue Fin, 685 Cannery Row, Monterey. $9 (all proceeds benefit V.R.). Each ticket good for 10 percent off next purchase at V.R.