Hey everybody,

Hope you’re doing well. I’m back for another live look at what’s going on in the shop, and yes, you can probably expect me to say what I always say lately — it has been very busy.

I’ve found myself literally running around the store a lot more than usual between back-to-school season, some new hires, Labor Day weekend, online shipping, repairs, and everything else happening at once. It’s been hectic to say the least, but honestly, it’s been fun. There’s a lot of energy around the store right now, and it feels like we’re moving into fall at full speed.

Before getting into gear, I want to start by giving a shoutout to a couple people who have recently moved on to new opportunities.

Our photographer, Will, has officially headed out (of the country!). He’s currently living and working in Spain for a couple of months and will eventually be making his way to Nashville. Will has been a great friend and an incredible asset to the store for a long time. He put a ton of work into our product photography, helped keep the website looking good, and was always willing to jump in when we had some crazy idea that needed to be photographed. We’re really grateful for everything he did here, and while we’re definitely going to miss having him around the shop, we’re excited for what’s ahead for him. We know he’s going to go do some big things, and luckily, I don’t think we’ll have any trouble keeping in touch.

We also recently said goodbye, at least officially, to Gage Banks, who has been heading up a lot of the drum department work with us. Gage took a new position with the South Carolina Arts Commission, which is a great opportunity for him. He’s an incredible drummer, but even more importantly, just an incredible guy, and I’m very grateful for everything he did to help me keep pushing the drum department forward. I don’t think he’s completely getting away from us. I have a feeling you’ll still see him around the store helping out here and there, but he’ll definitely be missed on the regular schedule. We wish him nothing but the best.

Of course, when people move on like that, it creates the next problem — finding people to fill some very big shoes. We started with photography, and I honestly could not believe the amount of interest we received. We had a ton of people reach out, and there were some seriously talented photographers in that group. We’ve now got two new people joining forces with us on the photography side, and so far it has been going really well.They jumped in quickly and have already been helping us play catch-up. We’re reshooting snare drums, getting new guitars photographed, updating older images, and generally trying to keep up with the ridiculous amount of inventory that moves through the store. You’ll start seeing some of those refreshed photos on the website now, and we’ll do more official introductions on social media soon.It’s exciting to have some new creative energy coming into that side of the store.

We also added a new face to the sales floor this week — although he’s definitely not a new face to us…Our longtime friend Adam Whitehead has joined the Sims crew.A lot of you probably already know Adam. He’s a great guitar player and singer, he’s played in a ton of bands around town, and his whole family has been close with the store and close with me for years. So honestly, having Adam working here feels a little bit like adding another family member to the shop. He’s only been here a short time, but he’s already doing great. He’s going to be able to help in pretty much every department, although guitars are obviously right in his wheelhouse. So when you come in, find Adam and make him work for it. Break him in properly. We’re really excited to have him here.

Speaking of new things around the store, if you’ve been coming into Sims for any amount of time, you know we apparently cannot leave the building alone. There is always a wall coming down, a display getting moved, something being repainted, rebuilt, expanded, or completely torn apart because my dad or I had another idea. This time, we’re focusing on the keyboard department. We’ve designed a completely new display setup for that section, and it’s currently being built. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks, we’ll start moving everything in and getting the new department put together. When we did the major renovation last year, the keyboard section lost a little bit of floor space, so the challenge has been figuring out how to maximize what we have. The new design should allow us to display more keyboards while cleaning up the overall appearance, hiding some of the clutter, and making the department feel much more intentional. The timing should be perfect with the fourth quarter and the holidays coming up.

And because apparently one renovation isn’t enough, as I’m writing this, I’m pretty sure my dad and the crew are still at the store around 11:00 at night working on the bathroom. Yes, the bathroom. It was already a pretty nice bathroom for a music store, but my dad decided it could be better. And once Jerry gets an idea like that, there’s really no stopping him. So now even the bathroom is getting upgraded.

It’s funny, but that really is how we look at the building. We’re constantly trying to improve the experience, whether that’s a completely redesigned guitar department, a bigger drum room, a better keyboard display, or apparently making sure you have a nice place to wash your hands.

We’ve also got another project in the works for the drum department. I can’t share too much about it yet because we’re still finalizing the design, and it’s probably a month or two out, but it should give us even more room to expand the snare drum selection. And if you’ve been following along, you know I definitely do not need any encouragement to buy more snare drums.

Speaking of which, we’ve had a pretty unbelievable run of snares come through lately. One we’ve been waiting on for a long time is the Anika Nilles Signature Tama snare. We knew it was coming, then it got delayed, and we just kept patiently waiting. Finally, two of them showed up. As I write this, I believe we have one left. Anika is obviously getting a ton of attention right now with her heading out with Rush and stepping into some pretty enormous shoes behind the drum kit. Tama actually gave us an early look at this snare last fall, and even then they were extremely excited about it. The timing of the release lining up with all the attention around the tour certainly hasn’t hurt. It’s a great-looking drum. It has a simple, almost vintage or retro feel to it, but with some modern details and Anika’s branding incorporated in a really tasteful way. Definitely come see that one while it’s here.

We also had another DW Exotic snare come in recently, this time a beautiful Bubinga model with a gloss finish. I believe this may have actually been one of the last Exotic snares Gage helped spec before heading out. The wood on this thing is stunning. We’ve been working for a while now on making the DW snare selection something special, not just stocking a couple basic models, but actually showing customers what DW can do with shell construction, veneers, exotic woods, and custom finishes. This latest one inspired me enough that I went ahead and ordered four more DW Exotics plus four more Collector’s Series maple snares. So if you think the DW selection is pretty good now, just wait.

Ludwig has also been rolling in. We were able to grab a B-stock Supraphonic, which I believe may have actually sold while I was putting this blog together, so that one may already be gone by the time you’re reading this. We also got in a 5x14 brass snare with tube lugs that absolutely blew me away when I opened the box. It’s just a beautiful-looking drum. I sent a photo to one of our longtime Ludwig customers, and his immediate response was, “Justin, you are a drug dealer.” If that’s the case, he’s definitely one of the addicts, because I’m pretty sure he’s still thinking about it. We also finally got another 5x14, 10-lug Black Beauty in, which we haven’t had around in a while. There’s just something about that size and configuration. It’s such a classic drum, and it’s great to have one back on the wall.

Then over in the Slingerland world, I managed to get lucky. Normally, getting a solid-shell Radio King can take around four months, but one happened to become available, so I jumped on it. We now have a 5x14 solid maple Radio King in Black Diamond Pearl in the shop. Those solid-shell Radio Kings are hard to get, so when one pops up, you pretty much have to move on it.

We also had a really fun Ludwig moment involving a longtime friend of ours whose daughter happens to be one of Piper’s best friends at school. He had reached out to me about one of the new Ludwig Breakbeats kits in the purple/lavender sparkle finish. I was able to get a couple of them for the store, and he brought his daughter in to see one. She was so excited. He sent me a video later of her playing it, and it was just one of those really cool moments where you see a parent and a kid sharing music together. That’s the good stuff. Piper was probably a little jealous, although I should clarify that she already has a drum set, so nobody needs to start a fundraiser for her.

That actually ties right into something else we’ve continued to see a lot of lately — families coming through because of the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund program. We’ve mentioned it before, but if you’re approved for the program and looking for a musical instrument, please reach out. We’ve been helping families with drum sets, keyboards, guitars, and all sorts of other music gear, and it has been one of the cooler things we’ve gotten to be part of. Seeing kids who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to get started in music walk out of here with their first instrument is pretty awesome.

The repair shop has also been absolutely buried. Every time I walk back there, Jon has guitars stacked everywhere. I’ve even caught him coming in on his day off just trying to get ahead of the queue. He’s been doing everything from normal setups and smaller repairs to some pretty involved projects. One he’s working on right now is a complete electronics upgrade on an Ibanez bass for a good friend of mine. He basically stripped the hardware out and has been rebuilding the electronics side of the instrument from the ground up. It’s still on the bench as I write this, but it’s coming together really well.

And while we are always grateful for the amount of repair work coming through, I do have one small request. If Jon has finished your guitar and we’ve called you, please come pick it up. His repair room is starting to look like a storage facility, and I’m worried he may eventually lose the ability to walk around in there. Jokes aside, we genuinely appreciate the trust. We understand what it means to hand someone an instrument you care about, especially when it’s something valuable or sentimental, and we’re always grateful that people trust John and trust us to take care of it.

On the guitar side, we also finally received a guitar we’ve been waiting on for months — the limited-edition PRS Silver Sky in Wild Blue. This was a run of only 1,000 guitars, done in collaboration with John Mayer, and the color is really unique. It’s somewhere between this light greenish-blue shade, and it has a matching painted headstock, which really sets the whole thing off. We waited so long for it that when it arrived, we almost didn’t want to immediately sell it. So if you saw the price online and thought we had lost our minds, there may have been a little bit of strategy involved there. We wanted to keep it around the shop long enough to enjoy it for a minute. Don’t be afraid to come in and talk to us about it. Obviously, we’ll sell it to anybody, but with something this limited, it would be really cool to see it end up with someone local who we might actually get to see bring it back through the shop every now and then.

We’ve also had a great run of Charvels come in recently. Some of the Pro-Mod Plus Dinkys have been especially cool, with finishes like Amber Tiger Eye, Blue Carousel, Zombie Fade, and Gloss Black. The tops on some of these guitars are wild, and one of the fun parts was that they were some of the first guitars our new photographers got to shoot. They absolutely knocked the photos out of the park. At least one of those Charvels has already sold, so obviously other people agreed.

We also got an Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Alex Lifeson 1976 ES-335 in Alpine White. That was actually one of the first guitars photographed by the new team as well, and unfortunately for anyone reading this hoping to buy it, that one has already sold. Hopefully we’ll see another one soon! We did, however, get in some of the new Epiphone Inspired by Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standards in several different finishes. Those continue to be a ridiculous amount of guitar for the money. They land somewhere around the $1,200 range and give you a lot of the appointments and feel people are chasing in a vintage-style Les Paul without having to jump into Custom Shop money. Definitely worth playing one if you haven’t yet.

Over in the acoustic room, nylon-string guitars have suddenly been having a moment. I’m not entirely sure what sparked it, but Cordoba and Yamaha nylons have been moving really well lately. We’ve been bringing more in and trying to keep up with the demand. We’ve also had another batch of Eastmans rolling through, some really nice Epiphones including Inspired by Gibson models, and several Gibson acoustics. At one point, I think we had three SJ-200s in the room at the same time, which is always pretty impressive to see. I believe one has already sold, but the acoustic room is still looking really strong right now.

Before we know it, the fourth quarter is going to be here, so we’re already starting to think ahead and build inventory. That’s honestly where a lot of our attention is right now. Back-to-school season is finally starting to calm down a little bit, we’ve added some new people to the team, we’ve got renovations underway, we’re rebuilding inventory, and we’re trying to get ourselves ready for what is always a crazy holiday season. 

And after everything our family dealt with last month, I’ll say that being back at work and having the store be this busy has honestly been good for me. It’s been wide open from the second I got back, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need. So thank you, as always, for the support. The steady stream of people coming through the doors, shopping online, trusting us with repairs, letting us help with special orders, and just hanging out with us means more than you probably realize. We’ve got a fun rest of the month ahead and what I’m sure will be a completely crazy fourth quarter.

If you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out. Give the shop a call, shoot me an email at [email protected], or just come by and see us.

I’m here to help, and so is the rest of the crew — including some of the new faces.

Thanks so much, everybody.

Be safe, and we’ll see you soon.

-Justin Sims