Alright — we’re back for another weekly check-in to let you know what’s been going on around the shop. As always, it’s been busy in the best way possible thanks to new gear arriving and all of the support from everyone coming through the doors and keeping us on our toes. 

One of the biggest announcements this week is that we’ve officially launched The Search for the Coolest Acoustic Guitar in Columbia event. We’ll be hosting it on Tuesday, April 14th at 6 PM, and it’s shaping up to be an incredible night. We’ve got our friends from Gibson, Taylor, and Martin coming out — with Taylor already planning to bring a bunch of cool guitars, and we’re hoping the other brands will as well. There will be prizes provided by the companies, special sales running during the event, plus food and cold beer to make it a great time for everyone. Just like our electric guitar version back in October of 2023, we’re inviting customers to bring in their coolest acoustic guitars to be displayed for the night. Attendees and brand reps will vote to decide which guitar takes the title of coolest acoustic in Columbia. It’s always fun seeing the unique instruments people bring in, and this year should be even better in our newly renovated acoustic showroom. That week we’ll also be highlighting our consignment gear — especially used instruments — so if you’ve got a guitar you’re ready to move on from (or some other gear you’d like help selling), feel free to bring it in ahead of time. We can get it listed and ready to go for the event. You’ll see plenty of emails and social posts coming soon with more details, so keep an eye out. 

Speaking of renovations, the new Fender wall and Fender room are officially finished — and the feedback has been incredible. People have been coming in nonstop to check it out, and we’ve been taking a few glamour shots because it really turned out amazing. Credit to Jerry Sims for knocking out this entire project in just 3 weeks! If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ve got to come by. 

Over in the repair shop, John has been absolutely slammed — in the best way possible. If you follow us on social media, you may have seen a video on Instagram of John hanging out with Kel from Tokyo Joe while checking out the mountain of repairs about to be on the bench. We’re not even running setup specials right now — it’s just that time of year where everyone’s guitars are coming out of winter and needing a little love. As we move into warmer months, it’s a great time to have your instrument looked over. Dry winter air can shift necks, dry out fingerboards, and throw setups off more than people realize. If your guitar needs a setup, bring it in and hop in line — John’s been clearing the queue every week. And if it’s something quick like a neck tweak, restring, or basic adjustment (especially on a guitar you bought from us), don’t hesitate to walk in. We’re always happy to take a look and get it playing right again — sometimes it’s as simple as a quick adjustment or a little fingerboard conditioning to “de-winterize” it. 

Quick side note  — if you don’t already follow John on Instagram, you should. Not only does he post great repair content, but he also eats some of the wildest food you’ll ever see and takes pictures of it sitting next to whatever guitar he’s working on that day (don’t worry — nothing ever touches the instrument). It’s become a running joke in the shop and people love seeing if their guitar makes an appearance. 

Our consignment program is still rolling strong as well. We’re continuing to work through that big batch of 19 guitars that came in a couple weeks ago, and Luke has been absolutely crushing it getting them cleaned up, photographed, and listed. Right now, eight of the Fender Esprits that are for sale online are actually here in the store — which is wild considering how rare those guitars are. We found 11 of them for sale online and 8 of them are in our shop! We also had a really cool Fender D’Aquisto come through, a Hamer, and even a few brands we don’t see often — including one called Haywire that turned out to be pretty cool. On top of that, another customer brought in a beautiful used Taylor 314ce, which is always great to have in the used section. At this point, we’re sitting at over 40 used guitars in the store through consignment, which has been awesome for customers walking in and seeing something different every time. We truly appreciate everyone trusting us with their gear — and if you’ve got something you’re thinking about selling, keep it coming. 

In drumland, we had a very special guest in the shop on Friday — our buddy Kent Aberly, drummer for Blackberry Smoke and also our Dream Cymbals rep.. He was in town for a headlining show at The Township and stopped by the shop for the first time ever. He was absolutely blown away by the new drum department and cymbal showroom. Kent also hooked up one of our Freeway Music teachers — a longtime fan — with tickets and backstage passes to the show! While he was here, we spent time talking about expanding our Dream Cymbals lineup and something we realized we need to remind people about more often: the Dream Cymbals Recycling Program. If you’ve got broken cymbals laying around — at home, at your church, or anywhere else — bring them into the shop. You’ll get $1 per inch of cymbal in credit toward Dream products. And the cool part is, once you bring them in, we can give you that credit immediately in the shop. So if you walk in with 40 inches of broken cymbals, you’ll get $40 off your purchase that day. It’s a great way to recycle old gear and put the value toward something new.

Also in the drum department, we finally got the PDP New Yorker kit back in stock. We had one at the Slingerland event back in October, it sold immediately, and they’ve been on backorder ever since. The new one that just arrived has a twisted cherry red finish and looks fantastic. It’s a great bop-style kit — perfect for younger players or beginners, but also totally designed for pro drummers playing jazz gigs or small stages. It’s the first kit you’ll see when you walk into the drum department. 

DON'T FORGET: a reminder that we’re running a year-long special with Gator Cases. When you purchase any snare drum in the shop, you can grab one of their ICON snare bags for $49.99 — normally around $65. It’s an incredible deal, and we keep them stocked right by the snares. If we forget to mention it at checkout, just remind us.

Over in the acoustic department, we’ve just received our first of the next Generation Taylors! Taylor has started rolling out their new electronics system, which is much more natural-sounding and similar in concept to something like the LR Baggs Anthem — no big control panels on the side of the guitar anymore. Everything is clean and discreet, with simple volume and tone controls inside the soundhole. It sounds fantastic! They’ve also introduced their new Action Relief Neck design, which allows neck angle adjustments without removing the neck like the old shim system. On top of that, they’re now using scalloped bracing on these new models, which helps the guitars open up even more tonally. The 514ce is the first to arrive, with an 814ce coming soon — and going forward, most new U.S.-made Taylors will include these updates. (Technically the 514ce doesn’t come out until mid March so we can’t show it to you just yet. But come in for a sneak peak!)

And last but definitely not least — we just received our first big shipment of Orange amplifiers. It’s been about ten years since we’ve carried them, and after signing up at NAMM we were ready to mix things up in the amp department. The shipment literally arrived about an hour before I started writing this, and when you walk in you’ll see them right away with displays throughout the shop. We’re super excited to have Orange guitar and bass amps back in the store. 

All in all, another hectic but fun week at Sims Music — new gear, busy benches, events on the horizon, and tons of cool stuff happening across every department. 

Be sure to mark your calendars for April 14th for the Coolest Acoustic Guitar event. And if your instrument needs a little post-winter love, don’t hesitate to bring it in. 

As always, thank you so much for the support — and we’ll see you in the shop soon.

-Justin