Hey everybody,

I’m back for another In the Shop blog, and once again I owe everybody an apology for the delay. The last couple of weeks have been pretty difficult on the personal side. Some of you may already know that I recently lost my father-in-law, Mr. Johnny, after a courageous battle with cancer. It has been a pretty brutal stretch for our family, and I’ve been in and out of the store dealing with everything that comes along with that. So if I was a little slow getting back to a phone call, email, text, or anything else, I really appreciate everyone’s patience.

More than anything, I just want to say thank you. The amount of support we’ve received from friends, family, customers, and people throughout the music community has been incredible. So many people have reached out to me, Jessica, Piper, and the rest of the family, and it’s hard to explain how much that means when you’re going through something like this.

A lot of longtime Sims customers may actually remember Mr. Johnny from the old Customer Appreciation Days we used to do at the store — which, by the way, I still hope we can bring back at some point. If you remember eating some unbelievable barbecue and chicken at those events, that was him. He made, in my opinion, the best barbecue in the world, and it was always one of the highlights of those days. He was also a drummer for many years, which made the connection to the shop even stronger. At his funeral I probably met twenty different drummers who came up and told me stories about how much of an influence he had been on them. That was really special to hear.

One of the more emotional moments came when my mother-in-law told me that Mr. Johnny wanted me to have his 1972 blue Ludwig Vistalite kit. It was the first year Ludwig made those drums, and he bought one back then. I’m incredibly honored to be able to keep that kit in the family and hopefully keep its story alive. I’ve already been thinking about eventually setting it up here in the shop so people can see it. It may be a little while before I actually get everything together and have it here, but when I do, it’ll be a very special piece to have around. More than anything, it’ll just be something I’ll always have to remember him by.So again, thank you to everyone who reached out, sent a message, donated, prayed, checked in, or just gave us a little grace during all of this. It means a lot.

Now, back at the shop, things have been absolutely wild.

We are officially deep into back-to-school season, which means the band and orchestra side of the business has been nonstop. We’ve had families coming in all day, every day looking for violins, violas, trumpets, clarinets, and just about everything else.If you’re a parent, you know how this works. Your child comes home and says, “I need an instrument tomorrow,” and suddenly you’re trying to figure out what instrument, what size, what book, what accessories, and where in the world you’re supposed to get all of it.

Luckily, we have an incredible rental program through our partnership with Veritas Instrument Rental Company. They’ve helped us make the process really simple for families, with good instruments, affordable rates, and an easy system that lets us get students what they need without making it a huge headache. So if you’ve already come through Sims for your child’s rental, thank you. We really appreciate it. And if you’re still figuring it out, band season will stay busy for the next several weeks, so we’re here to help.

We’re also trying to make sure we have plenty of the little things that everyone forgets until the last second — books, reeds, shoulder rests, strings, cleaning supplies, sticks, practice pads, and everything else. We know most people think of Sims as guitars and drums first, but we really want families and teachers to know that we are here for band and orchestra too. And honestly, it’s been really encouraging seeing so many kids coming through the doors excited to start playing. Every time you see a kid picking up their first trumpet, violin, or snare kit, it reminds you that the future of music is still very strong.

Another thing that has kept us extremely busy lately is the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund program. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a really cool program that allows qualifying students to use educational funds toward musical instruments and supplies. We’ve had families reaching out from all over the state, and I believe we’re currently one of the only music vendors participating in the program. Depending on the student and the program, families can use up to $500 toward an instrument. So whether a student is taking music in school, homeschooling, starting guitar lessons, learning drums, or anything else, we can help put together a quote for the instrument they’re looking for. Once the quote is approved through ClassWallet, the family can either come pick the instrument up here or, if they’re farther away, we can ship it to them.It has honestly been one of the most rewarding things we’ve been doing lately because we’re meeting families who may not have had access to these instruments otherwise. We’ve seen kids absolutely light up when they realize they’re getting the guitar, drums, or instrument they’ve been wanting to learn.

Between the rental program and the scholarship program, there have been a lot of kids walking through Sims lately, and that has been really fun to see.

Over in pedal land, we’ve had some good stuff rolling back in.

Greer continues to be one of the hottest lines in the store, and we finally got another shipment of Mori Drives. The last time I mentioned those in one of these blogs, they were basically sold out before the blog even went live. We’ve got a few back in stock now, along with a decent assortment of other Greer pedals, although we are still waiting on plenty more.

As I’ve said probably a hundred times now, the Lightspeed continues to be one of the most popular pedals we’ve ever carried, and keeping Greer pedals in stock has become a full-time job by itself. But we’re working on it.

We also had Ben from Caroline Guitar Company stop by with a fresh batch of pedals, which is always fun. Having a great pedal company right down the road from us is something we probably take for granted sometimes. We place an order and, instead of waiting on a freight truck, Ben can literally drive over, drop the pedals off, hang out for a few minutes, and talk us through what’s new. While he was here, we were talking about needing some more Somersaults, and it turned out he still had a few of the limited-edition Columbia flag versions available. These have the Columbia city flag artwork on the enclosure, and they look incredible. There were only a very small number made — I believe fewer than fifty, maybe even fewer than thirty — and we managed to grab four of them. As I write this, I think we may only have a couple left. So if you’re a Caroline fan, a Columbia person, or just like having something that not everybody else owns, that’s a pretty cool one to grab. We’ve got a really solid Caroline lineup in stock right now, and it’s always great to keep supporting what they’re doing locally.

The electric guitar department has also had a pretty ridiculous stretch of arrivals.

One of the biggest standouts is a limited-edition Gretsch G6134T-58 Penguin in Light Blue Pearl. This thing is absolutely stunning. When we opened the case, none of us really knew what we were looking at at first because you just don’t see guitars finished like this very often. The Light Blue Pearl almost looks like something you’d see wrapped around a vintage Ludwig drum kit — kind of that Delmar-style pearloid look — and it fits the Penguin perfectly. It has an ebony fingerboard, TV Jones Classic Filter’Tron pickups, and a String-Thru Bigsby vibrato. It’s just a really high-end, classy Gretsch that somehow still manages to be a little wild. We were able to get one, and I can’t imagine it hanging around forever. Definitely come by and see it in person because photos don’t really capture that finish.

Then, literally today as I’m writing this, we received another guitar I’ve been waiting on — a limited-edition Fender American Ultra model with a roasted ash body. This thing is so sweet. It has the Ultra sculpted body contours, a roasted maple neck, the Modern D neck profile with that super smooth Ultra Satin finish, and Custom Shop Texas Special pickups. Fender gave us an opportunity to choose from a handful of limited models, and this was the first one I saw on the list where I immediately said, “Yeah, we have to have that.”As luck would have it, our buddy Blaine Williams happened to walk through the door right as we were opening the case. He saw it sitting on the bench, so naturally I handed it to him and sent him over to the Fender boutique area to crank it up. We got a little video of him playing it that we put on Instagram, so if you want to hear what it sounds like, go check that out. It looks and sounds like a million bucks.

We also had an unbelievable run of Fender special orders come in around the same time. One customer had an Ultra II Ultraburst model on order. Another customer had been patiently waiting on a limited-edition 1975 Telecaster, which finally arrived. Once it got here, he had us add a Waylon Jennings-style pickguard to it, and that absolutely set the guitar off. And then on top of those, we received an Ariel Posen Custom Shop Signature Stratocaster for another special-order customer. So for a little while, we basically had incredible Fender guitars laid out everywhere.

I’ve said this before, but I’m always grateful when people come to us for special orders. We know that in this day and age you can order just about anything from anywhere. But when you order it through us, we get to help track it down, put our hands on it when it arrives, inspect it, set it up, and make sure everything is right before you take it home. And sometimes when something is extremely limited or hard to find, we can make a few phone calls and use some relationships we’ve built over the years to find something that might otherwise be difficult to get. That part is always fun.

We’ve also got some changes happening behind the scenes. You may have seen our post that we are looking for a new product photographer. Our buddy Will, who has been working with us for a while and has been a huge part of getting the website photography looking the way it does, is heading to Spain and then eventually Nashville.We’re really excited for him. He’s got some great opportunities ahead, but we’re definitely going to miss him around here. He has been an incredible asset to the store, and a lot of what you see when you scroll through our website is because of the work he’s put in. We’ve had an amazing response to the photographer opening and have already heard from a ton of talented people, so we’re working through that process now and hopefully will have some new faces behind the camera soon. I’m not officially posting another job opening yet, because I don’t necessarily want to open those floodgates, but we may need some general help around the shop too. So if someone out there happens to be interested, feel free to shoot me an email.

Over in Drumland, we’re still working hard on growing our Slingerland selection!

We just placed a special order for a 5.5x14 solid maple Radio King in Black Oyster Pearl. Normally those are at least a few months out, but somehow DW happened to have one sitting there, so I was able to snag it. I also put another solid-shell 7x14 Radio King on order, which will probably take three or four months to arrive. If you haven’t looked closely at the new Slingerland lineup yet, it’s pretty cool how they’ve structured it. You’ve got the Studio King series, which is the more approachable price point. We’ve got the Lunar Blue kit sitting on the riser right now, along with several Studio King snares. Those drums are built similarly to some of the DW Design Series production and give you a really solid wood-shell drum at a price under $500. Then you move into the Radio King Artist series, which uses three-ply shells and gets you closer to that traditional Radio King sound. Those land around the $800 range, and we’ve got several of those in the shop right now. Then you get into the Radio King Solid models, which are the really special ones. Those use solid steam-bent shells made for DW by Craviotto, and they are not easy to get. When we have one, it normally doesn’t hang around forever. We currently have a beautiful Gold Glass solid-shell model in a 5.5x14 that is absolutely worth seeing if you’re a snare drum person.

Something else that is really nice with the return of Slingerland is the availability of parts again. They’ve released hoops, heads, tension rods, and all sorts of replacement hardware, and the parts are designed to retrofit older Slingerland drums. That’s huge because those parts have been very difficult to track down for years. We’ve already got a good amount in stock and a lot more on the way. So if you’ve got an older Slingerland kit that is missing something, give us a call. There’s a good chance we can finally help you find the right part.

Cymbals have also been moving like crazy. Zildjian, Meinl, Sabian, Paiste — everything has been busy. We’re continuously trying to keep the walls full, which is easier said than done when you’ve got as many hooks as we do. We’re putting a lot of focus right now into expanding the Meinl Byzance selection, while continuing to grow Paiste and keep the Zildjian wall loaded. Sabian always seems to have something new coming out too, so we’re trying to keep up with all of it.

And then there’s the snare drum situation. I think we’re somewhere around 140 snares in stock right now. My goal is 250. I’m going to say by the end of the year, although I’m not completely sure how I’m going to pull that off yet. We’ve got a couple new brands we’re working on bringing in, plus backorders with Gretsch, DW, Noble & Cooley, and others that should start arriving over the next several months.

It has honestly been a dream of mine to have the drum department become what it has become, and we’re not slowing down. None of that works without the support of the drum community here in town, so thank you. Every time somebody comes in, buys a cymbal, orders a snare, brings a friend, or just hangs out and plays some drums, it helps us continue to push that department further.

On the lesson side, we recently had the Freeway Music open house, which was a great event. I believe five of the six Freeway locations participated, and it was basically an opportunity for people who had never been inside a Freeway location to stop by, tour the rooms, meet teachers, eat some food, and learn how the program works. We met a lot of great families and had a nice number of new lesson signups come out of it.So just a reminder, if you or your child is interested in guitar, piano, drums, bass, ukulele, or voice lessons, please reach out. Freeway has locations all over town — Lexington, Cayce, Blythewood, Irmo, Forest Acres — and of course we have Freeway Music right here inside Sims.

If you’re interested in lessons at Sims specifically, reach out to me or Katie and we’ll see what availability we have. Last I looked, Brad and Niles had a little bit of scattered guitar availability, and Dave had a few piano spots open as well.

And for all of our Uke Jam people, I promise we haven’t forgotten about you.Jessica has obviously had a lot going on personally and has been getting her schedule back together, so everything has been on hold for a little while. But we will have another Uke Jam date for you soon. I promise.

There are probably a million other things that have happened around the shop that I’m forgetting, but between catching up after being gone and dealing with everything going on with the family, my brain has been in about twenty places at once. So once again, thank you for the patience, support, kind words, prayers, donations, and everything else people have done for our family over the last couple of weeks. It’s a reminder that Sims Music really is a community, and we don’t take that for granted.

As always, if you need anything — guitar repairs, drum parts, a special order, band rental help, lessons, consignment, or just want to come hang out and check out some gear — holler at us.

We’ll see you soon.

-Justin Sims