Alright everybody, it’s time for another In the Shop blog, and as usual, there is a lot going on around here. Before I get into all the gear and everything happening in the store, I do want to start with a quick reminder that our annual Halloween Uke Jam is coming up Monday at 6:45 PM. Jessica will be leading it as always, and this is definitely one of the fan favorites every year. Come dressed up in a Halloween costume and you’ll be entered to win a ukulele. It’s always a really fun night, so bring a friend, grab a uke, and come hang out with us.

A couple of weeks ago I was out of town for one of my favorite industry trips of the year. Every fall I get the opportunity to head out to California for DW’s OxFest. Normally the event is based around Oxnard, where the DW factory is located, but this year they changed things up and brought everybody into downtown Los Angeles. We stayed right beside the Crypto.com Arena — the old Staples Center — and the entire event was held at the Grammy Museum. It was a really cool setup. They had an open-air balcony overlooking downtown Los Angeles with a stage set up for a lot of the product demonstrations, and then we also got to use the theater inside the museum for some of the electronic drum presentations.

We spent the trip seeing what’s coming from DW, PDP, LP, Slingerland, DWe, and Roland. A lot of it I’m not allowed to tell you about yet, which is always the hardest part of these trips. Some things will launch fairly soon, but a lot of what we saw is being held until January. I did my best to grab pretty much everything I could, especially some of the limited pieces. DW has some really cool limited-edition snare drums coming, PDP has some updates on the way, and Slingerland has an absolutely incredible limited Radio King kit coming that is limited to only 35 sets worldwide. We were able to secure one of those for Sims, so I’m really excited for that thing to eventually land here. There are also some updates coming to the Studio King lineup, and LP showed us some really cool pieces, including a few limited items that I think people are going to love.

One of the best parts of Ox Fest is that they don’t just sit you in a room and show you PowerPoints. They bring in some absolutely ridiculous players to demonstrate the gear. Devin “Stixx” Taylor was there doing some of the DW demos, and if you haven’t seen him play, the guy is unbelievable. He’s also just a super nice guy. I got a chance to meet him and hang out for a little bit, and he told me he’s currently on tour playing with both Chris Brown and Usher, playing both sets every night. He said it works out to something like 71 songs in one show, which is just insane. They’re actually coming through Columbia to play at William’s Brice Stadium soon, so Devin and I exchanged information and we’re going to see if we can get him by the shop while he’s in town. It would be pretty cool to give him the tour, and I know there are a lot of local drummers who would be excited to see him. His own band, We the Band, is incredible too, so definitely check them out if you’re not familiar.

Gerald Heyward was also there, which was another huge highlight. Gerald is basically one of the godfathers of modern R&B drumming, and so many of the gigs guys are playing today trace back to what he was doing years ago. Mary J. Blige, Usher, Chris Brown — he laid the groundwork for so much of that style. He seems like such a humble, down-to-earth guy, and then he sits down at the kit and completely destroys the room. Everybody was losing their minds watching his right foot. He was doing things on a single pedal that most people can’t pull off with a double pedal. Just an absolute monster player.

Trips like that always remind me why we’re so close with the DW crew. We work with a lot of great companies, but the people at DW really do feel like family to us. We’ve known many of them for years, and you can tell how much they care about the product, the retailers, and making sure we actually understand what we’re selling. Some companies launch something, send you a PDF, and that’s basically the end of the conversation. DW brings us out, puts the products in our hands, lets us talk directly to the people building and designing them, and gives us a real understanding of what they’re doing. When you walk into Sims and see how heavily we represent DW, PDP, LP, Slingerland, and Roland, that relationship is a big reason why.

It was a very quick trip for me. I was invited to stay a couple more days and head back up to the factory, but I had to jump on a red-eye Thursday night. I left Los Angeles around 11:00 PM, got back home around 9:00 Friday morning, slept for maybe an hour and a half, came straight into the shop, and then played the Finlay Park concert series that night with Flat Out Strangers. So that was a pretty hectic stretch, but absolutely worth it.

Of course, coming back from a trip like that gets me fired up about the drum department, so Adam and I spent about a day and a half tearing into that section of the store. We reorganized, shifted displays around, cleaned, dusted, filled hooks, and really tried to tighten up every little detail. I honestly think the drum department looks the best it has since we completed the renovation. It’s funny how a department can almost rearrange itself when you aren’t watching. Things move, boxes accumulate, displays get shuffled, and before you know it the whole area just needs some attention. I always say the little things add up, so we spent a lot of time getting everything back exactly where it needed to be. Huge thanks to Adam for helping me tackle it.

The timing was perfect because we also needed to make room for the newest addition to Drumland: Pork Pie. We are officially Pork Pie dealers.

This is one I’ve talked about doing for years. Bill Detamore, who owns Pork Pie, is a good friend of our longtime former Ludwig and Sabian rep Rick Murray. I was actually just talking to Rick one day and mentioned that I really needed to quit dragging my feet and finally get Pork Pie into the store. Rick basically said, “Hold on,” and the next thing I knew Bill was reaching out to me directly. Since then I’ve been working one-on-one with him, and it has been awesome. He’s been texting me photos of drums that are available and helping me hand-pick the first selection.

Our first shipment included around seven snare drums, with at least another one already on the way, and every single one of them looks incredible. I knew from the photos that they were going to be good, but when we opened the boxes, they were even better than I expected. Beautiful finishes, great hardware, great prices, and honestly, several of them sounded fantastic right out of the box before we even did much tuning. We’ll probably add Pork Pie thrones down the road too. There are already a lot of drummers around Columbia who love the brand, so this feels like a really natural fit for us.

That also ties into my ongoing snare drum problem. I think we’re sitting around 140 snares right now, and my goal is still 250 by next summer. Pork Pie is step one in getting there. We’re continuing to push Tama hard as well, especially some of the higher-end and signature models, and we’ve been expanding the DW selection beyond just the Exotic Collector’s Series pieces.

Speaking of Tama and signature gear, we also recently got in the new Peter Erskine signature snare, which is a beautiful drum, and the Anika Nilles signature model has been another really cool addition. There’s obviously a huge amount of attention around Anika right now with her stepping into the Rush world, and that leads into something else pretty special that showed up from Meinl.

We received the Anika Nilles Artist Concept cymbals from the Lunar Series — the hi-hats and ride. These have an incredible etched design across the cymbal and were produced in a run of 2,112 pieces each, which any Rush fan will immediately understand. Our ride is actually a really low serial number — I believe number 81 — which makes it even cooler. I haven’t even decided whether I want to take them completely out of the boxes yet because they almost feel like collector pieces as much as cymbals. They are here, though, and we’re honored to have them.

The DW holiday product has started rolling in too, and there are a couple kits I’m especially excited about. We received the limited-edition DW Design Series holiday kit, and it is absolutely insane for the money. The Design Series gives you DW’s North American maple shell concept but with overseas production, which keeps the price under $2,000 instead of getting into the $5,000 range you can easily hit with a Collector’s Series kit. For this limited run, they put an exotic Mapa Burl veneer on it — the kind of thing you’d normally expect to see on a much more expensive DW Exotic kit. We were able to get one of the four-piece sets in a 22, 10, 12, 16 configuration, along with four matching snare drums. They’re incredible. We’ve also got another special DW kit on the way in the Performance Series. They took a Collector’s Series-style Black Oyster FinishPly and put it on the USA-made Performance Series. I got to see one while I was in Los Angeles, and it looks unbelievable. We’ve got a kit coming along with a couple of matching snare drums. That one is going to jump out at you the second you walk into the department.

Our Gator rep was also in the store recently, and Gator has been getting a little deeper into the drum world. Roc-N-Soc has obviously been one of our biggest throne brands forever, and we sell a ton of them, but Gator recently introduced their own hydraulic drum thrones. They took that familiar hydraulic concept and made a few changes that they would consider improvements. We’ve got them in black, red, and blue, and they feel really good. I just built a little display for them in the drum department, so whether you’re a drummer, guitarist, keyboard player, or just someone who wants a really comfortable seat, check them out next time you’re in.

The keyboard department is still looking great after the recent renovation. We posted some more photos online recently, and the response has been really positive. Opening that whole section up changed the feel of the store more than I expected. It gave us better visibility from the front door, helped get a lot of boxed product off the floor, and just made the whole department feel cleaner and more organized. We’re continuing to tighten it up and load it with the products we know people will be looking for during the holiday season, so if you haven’t seen the new layout yet, take a lap back there next time you’re in.

Over on the electric guitar side, we’ve had some really cool used pieces come through lately. One that we featured on Instagram recently is a used Duesenberg Paloma in this beautiful blue finish. Luke was playing it for the photos, and the guitar just jumps off the wall. That’s exactly the kind of thing I love seeing come through the consignment program — something different from our normal new inventory that gives people another reason to dig through the used section. If you’ve got something unusual, high-end, vintage, boutique, or just something cool that you’re thinking about moving, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Luke, or anybody else here. We’re always looking for interesting pieces.

On the new side, we got another limited Rickenbacker 660 in Fireglo. We had one of these before, and it basically disappeared immediately. A friend of ours had been considering a 620, saw the 660 when it came in, and decided on the spot that was the one. This latest one is beautiful — gold anodized-style pickguard, gold accents, and that classic Fireglo finish. Rickenbacker is just one of those brands where you take what you can get. You can’t call them and say, “Send me 100 guitars.” They build in runs, they protect the brand heavily, and inventory shows up when it shows up. That makes it even more fun when something special lands here. We’ve also had a nice run of Rickenbacker basses come through lately, so the overall selection is looking really strong.

Fender has had some big updates too. The American Professional line has been refreshed, with a handful of changes that aren’t necessarily going to scream at you from across the room but make a lot of sense once you actually play the guitars. One thing that immediately jumped out to me was something as simple as the saddle screws. Strat players have complained forever about those screws sticking up and catching your hand, so Fender recessed them. It’s a little thing, but it shows that they’re listening to players. The pickups have been updated as well, along with some colors and other smaller refinements. We’ve already received a handful and have more on the way, so we’ll be doing more with those online soon.

Fender has also been working on new noiseless technology in some of its newer models. One of the biggest complaints with a traditional Strat has always been the single-coil hum, and they’ve developed a new system that is supposed to dramatically cut that without losing the sound people actually want from a Strat. We’re still waiting on some of those models to arrive, but from everything we’ve been told, the technology is pretty impressive.

We’ve also had a couple truly ridiculous limited guitars come into the Select Room. One is a Gretsch G6136T limited model with a quilted maple top, handcrafted in Japan with gold hardware. The top on this guitar is wild. It’s one of those guitars that you walk past and immediately have to stop and look at again. Right beside that, we finally brought in another Gibson Custom Shop piece after admittedly letting that side of the inventory get a little too thin. We got in a 1958 Les Paul Standard Reissue, and it reminded me why we need to keep more Custom Shop Gibson guitars around. The finish, feel, weight, and overall quality are just on another level. We’ve got more Custom Shop pieces planned heading toward the new year, which is good timing as we move toward the 75th anniversary of the Les Paul.

The amp department got a pretty ridiculous arrival too. After months and months of waiting, the limited-edition Marshall Jimi Hendrix half stack finally showed up. This thing is wild. It has the purple Hendrix-inspired artwork, the matching head and cabinet, and even comes with the giant purple Hendrix Fuzz Face. It’s a $5,000 package and there aren’t discounts on it — it is what it is — but it’s one of those pieces that is as much collectible as it is amplifier. We finally put it on display, and if you want to come see it or even hear it, it is definitely worth the trip. That also reopened an ongoing debate between my dad and me. We have a 1997 Fender Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster that has literally never been opened. It is still sealed inside the original Fender shipping box from the ’90s. As far as we know, there probably aren’t many, if any, completely unopened examples like that left anywhere. We’ve talked about pairing it with the Marshall and creating one ridiculous Hendrix collector bundle, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it. The funny part is, whoever eventually buys that guitar won’t get to see it before buying it. You buy the sealed box, then you get the experience of opening a brand-new 1997 Fender Stratocaster. Let me know what you think — bundle it with the Marshall or keep hiding it away for another rainy day?

Over in acoustics, we are fully into holiday preparation now. Yamaha is always one of our biggest acoustic brands around Christmas because they make such great entry-level and intermediate guitars, so we’ve been ordering heavily. We’ve got a stack of the GigMaker packs sitting right up front. Those are great turnkey packages for someone who wants to start playing because you get a solid Yamaha guitar and the basic accessories you need to get going. Of course, we go through them before they hit the floor and make sure everything is playing the way it should.

I’ve also gone heavy on the FG models because Yamaha inventory can get tough this time of year, and I’d rather have too many than be staring at empty hooks in December. We’re seeing a lot of new players right now — kids and adults — which is really encouraging. If you have someone in your family who wants to start playing, send them our way. We want to have more beginner and intermediate options available this Christmas than we’ve ever had.

There are also some holiday promotions coming on brands like Taylor, and we’re going to have some really good financing options available. We’ve always been able to offer strong financing on Taylor and Martin, and this year we’ll have options on Gibson and Fender as well through Synchrony. Some of those promotions can stretch out to very long no-interest terms, potentially up to 48 months depending on the product and promotion. So if you’re looking at making a bigger purchase this holiday season — whether it’s for yourself or somebody else — talk to us. There may be a way to make that purchase a lot easier than you think.

Pedal land, as always, refuses to slow down. Believe it or not, we actually have some Greer Lightspeeds in stock as I’m writing this. We also got a very limited new Greer pedal called the Peacemaker, a dual Class A transistor distortion, and we were able to grab a couple of those. We’ve got fresh Cosmodio in, there’s another new Rainger FX pedal coming that I can’t talk about just yet, and we’ve continued to build out Fairfield Circuitry, Benson, and our local line from OpticToneLab. Jonathan at Optic Tone Lab is doing some really cool stuff right here locally, and we’ve got a big selection of his pedals in the showcase right now.

The used pedal case has been filling up too. The consignment program isn’t just for guitars and drums — we’re happy to help with pedals as well. We’ve had a nice wave of used effects come through recently, and you can usually find some really good values in that case. Used pedals tend to move quickly because they’re easy for people to experiment with, so if you see something interesting, don’t wait too long.

There’s honestly way more happening around here than I could possibly fit into one blog. The Los Angeles trip was incredible, but anytime I leave town for a few days, I come back feeling like I’m a week behind. So lately I’ve been running around trying to get inventory ready, displays dialed in, orders placed, and the store prepared for what we think could be one of our busiest holiday seasons ever.

A huge thank you to the entire staff because everybody has been working hard. Whether it’s the floor, shipping, repairs, photography, inventory, or everything happening behind the scenes, there are a lot of moving parts around here right now and everybody has been hustling.

And as always, thank you to all of you for keeping us so busy. We don’t take it for granted.

If you’re starting your holiday shopping, looking for something specific, trying to track down a limited piece, or just have a question, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or anybody on the staff. My email is basically open 24/7, and we’ll do everything we can to help.

And don’t forget — Halloween Uke Jam, Monday at 6:45. Wear a costume, come have some fun, and maybe go home with a ukulele.

Thanks everybody. We’ll see you soon.

-Justin Sims