This Week in the Shop – Ludwig Visits, DW Arrivals, and a Packed Week as Always

Alright — we made it to Week 6 of the “In the Shop” blog. I hope everybody’s doing well and having a great week. We’ve been having a great one here and it started off big!

Ludwig Visit and Drum Department Expansion

We kicked things off with a visit from Josh Touston and David Nelson from Ludwig Drums. Josh hadn’t been in the shop in about 10–12 years, so a lot has changed since his last visit, and David — who pretty much heads up the Monroe factory — had never been here before. Gage and I spent a couple hours with them talking all things drums, Ludwig, and where we can take things next. With the size of our drum department now, it was a great opportunity to really start pushing the Ludwig presence further in the store and Josh and David are excited to help. 

We’re working on bringing in more Classic Maple and Classic Oak kits, Ludwig hardware, and expanding our snare selection. In fact, just from that conversation alone, we got inspired and decided to build a brand new snare drum rack, which is being finished up now. That rack is going to feature our Ludwig Classic Maple snares, and our goal is to keep around 8–10 different finishes in both 5x14 and 6.5x14 sizes. It’s a great way to showcase not just the sound, but the variety of finishes Ludwig offers — especially since many of those finishes are also available in full kits. As always, I got the idea for the snare rack and threw a design together and then stepped back to let my dad knock it out. It’ll be completed and full of snares tomorrow!

Ludwig really covers a huge range of tones and price points, and honestly, between their Universal Series and their high end metal and maple snares, they just do it as well as anyone. We are always waiting on more Black Beauties (but we do have a 5” x 14” in stock now), as Ludwig can barely keep up with demand. Soon we should see some 6.5” x 14” models in smooth and hammered, with Imperial and Tube lugs! We are also working with Ludwig to bring in some more Acrolites (including one for Gage) and a variety of other great metal snare drums.

Overall, just a great visit and we’re excited to see where things go from here with Ludwig.

DW and Drum Hardware Arrivals

As usual, we had a ton of products coming in — especially from DW.

We’ve been waiting on a lot of orders from NAMM, and they’ve been playing catch-up, so boxes have been showing up steadily. A couple of highlights from the shipment were 2 DW Design Series 4 Piece Shell Packs in Cherry Stain Lacquer and Tobacco Sunburst Lacquer. These kits look and sound fantastic and are built for the stage but at a less expensive price point. With these kits arriving, Gage wanted to make an entire row of DW kits in the showroom, also including the Limited Edition Titanium Design Series 3 Piece kit and DW Performance Series Chrome Shadow kit that we have in stock. We also sold our Maple/Mahogany Collector’s Series kit, which is heading to a church up in the Fort Mill area. Always great to help place a kit like that in a new home. And of course, we can’t not have a Collector’s Series kit in the store — so instead of waiting 3–4 months on a custom order, we worked with DW and secured an incredible exotic 5-piece kit that’s already built. This kit is going to blow you away when you see it! The specs: 22” kick, 10”, 12”, 14”, 16”. It should be here in a week so keep an eye out on our socials for the reveal!

We also received a large batch of DW and PDP hardware, including the new Concept Series thrones — both hydraulic and manual spindle versions. It’s interesting to see how many companies are stepping into the throne space now — Roc-N-Soc, Gator, PDP — lots of great options at different price points.

Paiste Cymbals

We also did a social feature on Paiste cymbals this week after a fresh batch came in.

Funny enough, there was a small mix-up on one of our orders — we ordered a 16” 900 Series cymbal and ended up receiving a Color Sound black version instead. After seeing it, we decided pretty quickly… yeah, we’re keeping that. It looks super cool, and it’s got us thinking we may start expanding more into the Color Sound line across different series.

Between 2002s, Masters, 900 Series, PST7, and more, our Paiste selection continues to grow, and we’ve got new models coming soon that we’ll share once they land.

Guitar Department Highlights

We had a few standout pieces come through this week.

One of the biggest was the PRS SE Ed Sheeran Baritone Hollowbody I in Cosmic Splash. Only 1,000 of these were made worldwide, and it’s one of the wildest finishes we’ve had in the shop — a full splatter-style top that really stands out. Definitely worth checking out in person.

On the Fender side, we can finally talk about one of the guitars we mentioned last week — the 75th Anniversary Ultra Telecaster II in Liquid Gold, which officially released on St. Patrick’s Day. This guitar is unbelievable. It almost feels more like a Charvel than a traditional Fender. The Liquid Gold finish shifts in the light, and with the black nickel hardware, block pearloid inlays, and matching headstock — it’s just on another level.

We’ve got it up on the site now and will be posting it on Instagram as well. I don’t expect it to hang around very long. We also had a 75th Anniversary Cabronita Tele come through that sold before we could even get it online. But if you see that model or any other from the 75th Celebration with Fender that you are interested in checking out, please touch base with us as we may have them on order or can always special order if needed. 

Used Gear and Marketing Updates

The used gear section continues to stay busy. This week we featured a side-by-side of two Les Pauls on Instagram — one brand new and one used — and asked people to guess which was which. The used one was a 2013 Traditional Pro II, and honestly, it looked just as clean as the new 60s Bourbon Burst next to it. We’ve also started rolling out bi-weekly used gear emails, highlighting some of the best pieces coming through the shop. It’s a great way to keep everyone in the loop, especially since used gear moves fast. 

Pro Audio and Lighting Projects

Behind the scenes, we’ve been working on a large project supplying gear for multiple nightclubs across the country — Texas, Louisville, North Carolina, and more. We’ve had pallets of lights, speakers, and cables coming in, and now comes the fun part — organizing and shipping everything out to the right locations. Even though our lighting section isn’t as large as it used to be after the renovations, we still have access to just about anything within a couple days. So if you need lighting or PA gear, even if you don’t see it in-store, just ask — we can get it.

Amp Repair is Back

We haven’t made a huge announcement about this yet, but we are officially back doing amplifier repairs. We’re rolling it out slowly so we don’t overwhelm our techs, but we can work on tube amps and some solid-state gear. We had a great example this week — a customer from Turkey (now teaching at USC) came in needing his amp converted from 220V to 120V for a performance at the Koger Center. He brought it in late in the week, and our tech was able to jump on it, get it rewired, and have it ready in time for his show. That’s not always the turnaround time, but it shows what we’re capable of when timing lines up. Even if your amp is just noisy or not quite right, bring it in — sometimes a quick once-over is all it needs. You can learn more about our amp repair on the site or feel free to give us a call. We will make the official announcement soon but if you are reading this, you’ve got the inside scoop. 

Community and Events

On Saturday, I got to join the Freeway Music Downtown float for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in 5 Points — something I’ve been doing for almost 10 years now. Jessica led the Sip N’’ Strummers group, with Tony Lee on drums and Jeff Pitts on guitar, playing Taylor Swift, Fleetwood Mac, and Mr. Brightside on repeat for the whole route of the parade. We even had kids performing, including my daughter Piper jumping in on ukulele. This parade is always a ton of fun and a great way to represent Freeway in the community, giving students of all ages the opportunity to perform and have a blast. I am biased, but we have to be the coolest float in the parade every year! (except the year that a kids karate class was behind us breaking boards the whole time)

Upcoming Events

A couple reminders:

• April 14 – The Search for the Coolest Acoustic Guitar
  
  
• April 27 – Ukulele Jam (all ages and skill levels welcome)
  
  

We also just got confirmation that Taylor will be bringing a huge lineup of guitars for the April 14 event, including next-gen and Gold Label models. Taylor is bringing their “Tone Show” into our event so it should be a very special night!

Final Notes

Quick shoutout to James Gibson, who handles our shipping department — his band All Get Out is playing at The Senate this Saturday as part of a multi-city run. A bunch of us will be out there supporting him, so come hang if you’re around.

All in all — another busy week. Tons of gear coming in, great visits, cool projects, and the whole team staying busy and ready to help.

As always, thank you for the continued support! The comments section is open on the blog so feel free to drop in with any thoughts or questions!

If you need anything, feel free to call, text, email, or stop by the shop.

We’ll see you soon.

-Justin Sims