Victims of our free market system.

The last GOOD family owned Mom and Pop music store here was bought 9 years ago by Guitar Centers, Inc. They kept some of the staff on till they transfer was complete then canned them all. One lady worked there 30 years and was in her 60's. All gone and they unloaded all the extra parts and repair shop items. Changed the name of the store and hired a couple of kids with a new manager. Store in recent years has been downsized to half it's original size. Drum sticks are zip tied together tight at the tip to be sure they'll be warped for the buyers. Terrible selection for anything. They do lessons and school rentals. Pretty much it. My son used to do their repair work but they kept on hammering him on cheap prices, using cheap parts and need it yesterday timeframe. He got tired of the BS told them to go blow. Yup. Guitar Dude Man

Went to a guitar center today I did find another cymbal they didn't know what tension rods were I am not kidding. Small shops are best.

Oh man...if only you guys lived in the Portland area. We have Revival Drum Shop, the vintage and custom drum store. Not only is it a small store, but full of great vintage drums and a super-cool staff! The only problem is that every time you go in there, you end up spending money on *something* that you just HAVE to have...

http://www.revivaldrumshop.com

With GC it is a crap shoot and house rules. Yea, a lot of times I meet people who havent a clue OCDP wasnt the greatest drum builder ever. And I guess its just not a place for long term employment.

So, back to 2008, Thanksgiving Weekend. Black Friday. I was visiting family down below Fresno, and made the short drive to the Visalia CA GC. I had just received a 1965 Rogers Powertone in Wine Red Ripple, and it arrived the day we left Stockton. So I took the drum in with me, store was a mad house, drum room was so full of people you couldnt get around easily. I got to the counter and told the kid, I need some heads and puresound wires, and I got something to show you. Opened up the case, and the boys jaw dropped, it was like Oh God, ROGERS!!! He knew the quality, knew the vintage, and got everyones attention in the drum department to show off the drum. It was quite a scene, him holding the drum over his head and hollering for people to look and see a great quality beautiful drum that is not made any more. Yeah, that doesnt happen very often. But in all fairness, they arent all idiots.

Kudos to Bentleys in Fresno, CA. That is a wonderful shop to visit, and deal with. I often recommend Bentleys.

We dont have a local shop here worthy of mention, but lately, I have been doing most of my local business at the local Music Go Round. I gotta say that place has come a long way over the past several years. Ive gotten to know a couple of the guys that work there, and I get a drum question from them quite often. A couple weeks ago, the guy was trying to find parts for an old Slingerland strainer, then says, I got a drum for you. He took it out of the back of the store, Louie Bellson 75th Birthday Signature Drum for a great price. I ended up making a purchase.

Man, you guys are right on! I do however agree with RogerSling completely. Luckily, as a Canadian living right across the the lake from Buffalo, I was fortunate enough to visit Buffalo Drum Outlet on a few occassions. I was treated like old family the first time I walked in. Paul and his staff went out of their way to help in any way they could. I was allowed to rummage through the back room where I discovered a rim I wanted. It wasn't mint but, to me it was beautiful. When I asked the price, Paul replied, "Just take it. if you can clean it up, good for you!" That's the kind of people that that are truly deserving of respect and admiration!!!

Brian

I'm a lucky man, I reckon.

Columbus Pro Percussion in C-bus, Ohio is one of the Five Stars.

That place rocks. Jim Rupp and Bob Breithaupt, the owners, are "been there, done that"- type guys and they not only know the good and necessary stuff to carry but also the B.S. that's useless and NOT carry it.

Chris White is an amazing tech over there, also.

They've been above-and-beyond wonderful to me for many, many years. (No, I don't work there so this ain't just a gratuitous plug.)

In fact, right now they have a WMP set of Radio Kings at such a righteous price that they'd be mine already had the poverty gods not chosen me for a hobby project.:-)

One thing I miss is going to some of the old joints in outlying areas and rootin' around in their basements when they'd be nice enough to allow it. In one basement in Cincinnati, I found a Gretsch Cadillac Green zipper cover for a 5.5x14 SD. Inside it was a Max Roach SD in green sparkle. That same basement had a 9x13 dbl. tens. Radio King tom shell in Knotty Pine!, plus a stack of 9 unused Slingerland (by Amrawco, says so on the boxes) calf heads still in the pristine white-with-red-lettering boxes that had pics of GK on them. That was the best day I'd ever had doing the rootin' around thing.

Seems those days are prob'ly mostly gone.

Oh Yes West Coast Drum in santa ana..What years did you go to W.C.D? i worked at W.C.D in the very late 80's..Till some friends and me started up O.C.D.P. in 1990...Now i think the W.C.D. is called Jim's Music now or is that closed down too..Joe was a cool guy been friends with him for 30 + years..To bad that the owner Bob was killed back in the mid 90's.A side note on W.C.D this store was open back in the 60's under Coopers drums they were in G.G.,ca..The owner Woody Cooper's was the man that started inporting M.I.J. set's in the 60's..Check out my story post under history of M.I.J. drums.Mikey

You know that's funny. I went there a couple days ago for the same thing, tension rods. 2 guys back there setting up new kits. Nice guys and both drummers. They didn't have a pack in the size I needed. But he brought me 2 trays of assorted spare rods and said take what I need, free. I thought that was nice.

I used to enjoy going to Tommy's Drum Shop in Austin,, when i lived there in the 90's. Very reasonable and knowledgeable. Don't know if they are still around!