The drum shop no more...

Jeremy Bender said:

Do you have drum shop or music store that now only exists as a memory?

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Here in NYC - every shop I ever set foot in... Including the entire block on 48th street!

It’s funny because the first place I thought of when I was reading your story was a small music store that was downtown on Broadway. It was kind of dumpy, it wasn’t nearly as good as the big uptown stores, but it felt like an era was ending when it was gone.

I’m grateful that I had the experience of many years of visiting the music stores on 48th street and the great drum shops also in that area. I miss that whole scene - the energy - definitely lots of great memories...

I remember a drumshop/ teacher owned place in the Greendale section of Worcester Massachusetts. I can't remember the name but I bought my first practice pad and sticks from him in the 70's. Cool place.

Also Jack's drum shop in Boston next to Berklee College of Music was a great place. Long gone now...

Nate'sKit said:

Buddy Rogers? I can't say that they were all that great to me. Not terrible, just not that friendly. They still have the repair shop and one store in North College Hill. They only do school band stuff now.

Ray Lammers was downtown and they had a woodwind specialist that was super knowledgeable and often steered me in the right direction when I played sax. Spent a whole day in there trying out mouthpieces under his guidance. He said that he did alright. I didn't choose the most expensive mouthpiece in the store. Just the second most expensive.

They had been around for a long time back when WLW had all of those live radio shows which included live music of course. Then into the 70s when some of the local TV stations had live bands on the Ruth Lyons, Paul Dixon, and Bob Braun shows. Not the best place for Rock and Roll instruments though.

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Yep, Buddy Rogers. The one on Harrison moved a lot more rock equipment than NCH. And I loved Ray Lammers! Bought drums, harmonicas, trombone slide oil and other stuff there. Can still see it in my mind's eye...

brady said:

There was a cool shop in St. Paul that closed a couple years ago. Ellis Drum Shop. I loved going in there every time I was in town. They had a good mix of new and vintage stuff, plus a nice consignment area where I bought and sold quite a few items. He always had something I could use. On the rare occasion there wasn't, the employees in the shop were always willing to nerd out on drum talk for hours.

It was sad to walk up to the store and see that it was permanently closed. But in a town with 3 or 4 Guitar Centers, what to you expect.

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Oh man, you ruined my night. I used to go there 5-10 years ago when I was over there. Bought a really cool Mapex Pro-M Micro kit totally on a whim. other adventures were nearly as fruitful. It was a cool store.

Remember that lime green kit that was a custom Ellis? I wanted that so badly.

We had an incredible shop here in town (actually 2 locations) in the 80's and 90's. I spent every disposable penny there. Got absorbed by a bigger family owned store about 15 years ago. It's never been the same. They eventually dropped the name and now it's basic stuff.

My first DW short stack sat on the floor next to an Ayotte custom next to a Sonor Delite next to... you get the idea. Never more.

But on a cool note, both drummers that worked there still gig about town and I see them from time to time and reminisce. Those WERE the days!

There was a really great internet drum store that closed down. IDK but clicking the buy it now button was more special at that website than at others.

And the automated "thank you for your purchase" was heartwarming.

It had a really nice background color.

Sigh.

My town has never had a dedicated drum shop that I know of, but the local music stores all had cool drum departments. The last of those closed probably over 10 years ago, perhaps closer to 15 now, and all we have now is a Guitar Center. I don't have the issues with that place that some of other forumites have, but even so, it's not the same experience.

We do have a couple of small shops that sell primarily used gear, either outright or by consignment, but the selection is terrible and/or unappealing, the prices are ridiculous, and since they're basically just guitar shop that have some drum related items in them, the staff actually knows less than the typical GC employee.

One of my favorite things about travelling is finding if there are any actual drum shops near where I'll be staying. I'll generally try to find an hour or two to get to one and I make sure I've budgeted funds and space so that I can bring something home with me.

2 of the 4 music stores I worked in are just a memory.

Jeremy Bender said:

I remember a drumshop/ teacher owned place in the Greendale section of Worcester Massachusetts. I can't remember the name but I bought my first practice pad and sticks from him in the 70's. Cool place.

Also Jack's drum shop in Boston next to Berklee College of Music was a great place. Long gone now...

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Was Jack's the place across from the 150 Building on Mass Ave that's now a Guitar Center?

For me it was Scheerer's in Leeds.

Just randomly shut one day, no idea what happened to any of the stock or the great people that worked there. When I lived in Leeds this was pretty much where I was every week (due to gigging lots) and Chris Johnson (great surname) was the most helpful drum guy I've ever met.

I think I bought about 5 kits from there, yet he always gave me a great price for my old kit as I looked after it so well - this kept me coming back and buying all my gear from him.

Also used to be Musical Exchanges in Birmingham which became sound control, which then closed as well. I think it was all amalgamated into PMT.

Now I live in Bedford and there is a music shop where I can buy heads, sticks and stands, but if I want a new cymbal or snare or kit, I have to travel miles to London or Brum.

It's like pubs, it's like cd/vinyl shops, our culture is going down the pan and no-one seems to care

TheElectricCompany said:

Was Jack's the place across from the 150 Building on Mass Ave that's now a Guitar Center?

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Jack's was on Boylston about 1/4 mile around the corner from Guitar Center.
It was next door to Little Stevie's Pizza, which had a few rehearsal rooms in the basement (unlike Pizzagate).

Wurlitzer's music was just over the bridge at the corner of Mass ave and Newbury and Daddy's Junky Music was just across the street from the entrance of Berklee. All these stores within a one minute walk of each other.

I bought my SonorLite set from Wurlitzers and my Ludwig hammered bronze from Jack's. I still have them.

There's another mention in connection with these stores. Z Music Lab in Brighton (US) was owned by Mike Zavarreli (sp?). His tiny store only carried what he felt were instruments musicians would love. Coolest cat. My friend wanted to trade in his Yamaha amp and Mike put his hand on his shoulder and said "I'm sorry Paul, but that amp has no sound."
His store was about a one minute walk from my house and just across the street from the bank. A very bad combination when your father is drilling you every day to save your money.
I bought my first Ludwigs from him to replace the CB700s I had. He tried talking me out of the deep toms. He had a nice butcherblock set, but I was unconvinced and payed more for those deep drums. Mike was right.
Mike closed the store and then worked at Jack's Drum Shop as their instrument repair person for many years.

Last I heard the other Jack's Drum Shop in Hyannis is still open, but I don't think they're doing much.

ottog1979 said:

Yes! I can't be the only one...

Grew up 25 miles outside of Milwaukee. A drum teacher told me THE place to get your drum gear was Faust Music. The owner was quirky he said but "tell him I sent you". I ended up buying my high school drum set (1977 Pearl fiberglass shells) which I still have, re-wrapped and still use. He put his stamp on everything that came out of the store and is still on the drums. Mr. "Faust" died a couple years ago and the shop was sold and demolished for condos. Still, I have a great memory of buying drums and being a customer of a very old-school drum shop.

https://www.milwaukeemag.com/2013/10/24/oldschool-2/
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/2016/02/22/secret-stash-faust-music/

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Yup, remember Faust Music well. My parents bought me my first drum set in 1967 (Ludwig of course - because of Ringo). We lived 85 miles north but was told this is the place for drums. The store was hopping at that time.

When I was a kid in the 60s and 70s in my small home town there were three main family owned music stores. I took lessons at various times in two of them. Sadly just not the business model anymore. There is a family owned music store in the area I live now and I tried to give them my business but it just does not approach business in a customer centric way to offset prices and amazingly enough service wise that I can get at GC or on the net. Sad really.

Drum shops that have come and gone?

In south San Francisco off of Geneva was Drum World run by Gene Okamoto(Pearl Drums) and Don Sfarzo.

Lemmon Percussion San Jose

San Jose Pro Drum shop Jimmy DeGrasso

California Percussion

Drum World San Mateo.

We got two left in the bay area ,Drummers Tradition in San Raphael and Dubs in Dublin.

I feel bad for Dubs as there is a GC scheduled to open up in the near future down the street.

When I lived in New Orleans, the place to go was Ray Fransen's Drum Center in Kenner, about fifteen minutes outside the city. Great store, great salesmen, and absolutely everything a drummer needed at a fair price.

The original post had me wondering about Ray's; I'd started going there in the 90's but haven't lived in N.O. for a decade.

So I checked online - and Ray's is still there! Seems to be going strong, too.

Ask any drummer in New Orleans about Ray Fransen's and 100% of them will have purchased at least one piece of equipment from him. It's a real music institution in a real music town. (Well, right next to a real music town.)

PlayTheSong said:

In Ottawa, in the 70's, there was an awesome 2nd floor walk-up shop in the Byward Market called Drummers' Dream that sold only drums. To an aspiring teen drummer it was pure magic, filled with all the funky outrageousness that drum companies were putting out in the 70's. I don't think it survived far into the 80's, but I'd love to go back as see it as it was then.

Modern music stores seem devoid of imagination compared to that place.

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How does Dave's Drum Shop compare?

Oddly, one of my favorite guys to deal with on drums was a man named Dick Bardt at Washington Music Center in Bethesda, which was absolutely massive back before the chain store/internet takeover. He was sort of a laid back George Burns type. It was worth driving out of town for.

The Percussion Center in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Fred's Drums in Indianapolis and a shop I think it was called The Drum Center of Indianapolis or something like that. Also went up to Franks and Drums LTD in Chicago.

Here in the greater St. Louis area, back through the early-mid 90's (when I initially started playing) we had a lot of choices:

St Charles Guitar Exchange
McMurray Music
Drum Headquarters which was THE mecca for drums in the area with 2 locations. I still have a bumper that reads, " HEN I'M RICH AND FAMOUS, I'LL STILL SHOP AT DRUM HEADQUARTERS!" (Needless to say, I never became rich, nor famous and now Drum HQ is closed anyway....)

Mars Music came into town and they were a HUGE building with tons of gear. The first chain store in the area but I liked them. Then Guitar Center moved in across the street and EVERYTHING closed down.

The only shining light is a small drum shop call Fred Pierce Studio Drum Shop (Bermuda knows the place.)

Music shops in general over here.

We have PMT which is probably the biggest chain store in the country and my nearest store but it involves a trip to Birmingham which is a nightmare to drive in.

The recession in 2008 killed them all off and none of them show any signs of returning. Birmingham Drum Centre went in 2011 and that place was huge.

My favourite local drum store used to be a little 1st floor shop in Wolverhampton called Drum Attic. It was a drummers drum shop. They catered for the gigging drummer so on a Saturday the place would be heaving with guys getting essentials for the weekend.

They also had great 2nd hand stuff and spare parts for pedals/hardware. It was run by a couple of pro drummers who didn't give you all the patronising salesman crap you get now.

I feel really lucky by comparison.
Within a 10-20 minute drive of my house I've got-
The Drum Shop in Washington Tyne and Wear. It's been going for years and moved to larger premises a few years back. Lots of stuff on display, great staff, a strong online presence which I think is essential as it becomes more difficult for 100% bricks and mortar shops to survive. The shop runs regular Sale Clubs at which really good gear is sold at ridiculously low prices, they've pulled me out of trouble several times without breaking the bank, a Paiste Alpha Crash and PST8 hi hats happily appeared at knockdown prices almost simultaneously as my own crash cymbal and hats developed cracks, a Natal aluminium snare was added to my armoury just before Christmas and scratched my itch for an aluminium drum at a reasonable price.
Newcastle Drum Centre. Like the above but on a smaller scale. The shop went out of business a couple of years back and was bought out by the Drum Shop since when it's thrived. I bought my most recent kit from them a year ago for £375 as opposed to a retail price of about £550.
Willy's Drum Shop. A tiny Alladin's Cave of second hand gems, essentials like sticks and skins and genuine collectables, not to mention always ready with a good story and time to chat. Not much brand new stuff there but the ability to buy sell and trade adds to the fun. A new "D" Case for my bass drum for £25 as opposed to more than double that on Amazon, a brand new PS3 bass drum skin for £15 (again less than half retail) and a selection of barely used 13" skins to experiment on my snare drum for a fiver a throw are recent highlights, not to mention the used 12" Black Panther snare drum that's still my "go to" snare after I think 6 years that could still pass for new.