Steve Maxwell's Rules!

Jeff Almeyda

Senior Consultant
I bought a Pre aged K 20" light ride last week and was speaking to Jess in the NY store about how a recording engineer recently asked if I could get a 40 strand snare for my 13" Guru.

He took my name and say he'd get back to me. Today he calls, and tells me that he has located a source. Apparently, there is a small drum company (In Europe?) that sells a 13" snare with 40 strands. He says that he spoke with them and they agreed to send just the snares over for like 25 bucks.

Of course I said yes.

That is some serious customer service, it's not as if this was a big ticket item yet he spent the time required to satisfy a customer.

Go there, buy from them. As a matter of fact, sit in one of their two cymbal rooms and play some of the best sounding cymbal selections anywhere.

I'm impressed.
 
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best drum shop service of any shop I have ever been to .... and that is why I frequent the shop and send everyone I know there

one example..... I really wanted a nice Medium Thin Low K Con before I went on this one tour and in perfect me fashion I procrastinated going to the shop until the day before leaving .
they had 2 in stock and I wasn't particularly fond of either .
Jess told he me was expecting a shipment of them in a few days and that he knew what I was looking for in the cymbal and would pick one and send it out to wherever I would be .
Then he says wait a second .... and goes to the office ... makes a call and tells them to put a rush ship on the shipment .... they tell him if they do that they can only send half the order ... he says fine but make sure this certain weight range is in the shipment .
The dude rushed the shipment ... tried all the cymbals ... and picked the best one for me .

long story even longer.... when I arrive at the first gig of the tour there is a big flat box there waiting for me of the most beautiful wobbly 22" Med Thin Low you ever heard

I could go on all day telling stories of things that Steve, Jess and Jeremy have done for me over the years.

Steve recently spent about a week with me via email, phone calls , and in person designing a USA Custom that I ordered.... the man has the patience of a saint and made everything that I wanted happen.... that kit should be coming in very soon

love those guys and rep them every chance I get

glad you had that experience Jeff

we should meet up at the shop sometime
 
I purchased my 68 Ludwig kit from Maxwell's. Great service!
I have also gotten much informative advice from the videos that Steve and his crew upload to YT. I learned about things like the availability of a redesigned strainer for my vintage Gretsch snare. There are informative videos from Maxwell's about the history and construction of vintage drums.
When you deal with Maxwell's you are interacting with knowledgable informative folks who know about both modern and vintage gear.
 
Maxwells, good to the last one drop.
 
Wonderful to hear. I love his videos, his passion for drums.
So how do they do it, and survive?
It must be these kind of people combined with being located in a world renowned urban entertainment centre?
 
I bought a couple of rides at Steve Maxwell's Naperville, IL store....not as well stocked as the NYC store but
still had a lot of wonderful drums and cymbals. I spent the day there and everything about the
experience was 1st rate and could not have been improved.
 
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Fixed.
In my ongoing effort to make 8Mile as jealous as possible of me, Steve recently spent about a week with me via email, phone calls , and in person designing a USA Custom that I ordered.... the man has the patience of a saint and made everything that I wanted happen.... that kit should be coming in very soon


2020202020202020202
 
It really does my heart good to read stories like this.

And Ants, you MUST share the details of your new kit!
 
Awesome stories gents.

My local shop - Drum Central - have always been the dogs danglies with me. Have been there 100% of the way with my career, thrown gigs and students my way, allowed me to support Thomas Lang in clinic, got me my tama starclassic on trade (about £1k less than it should have been) and let me pay it of over months as it arrived early. Have lent me cymbals for sessions and just recently sourced me one of the last impression dry jazz rides in the country which was sitting in the back of the distributers warehouse.

Local shops can be pants or great. Luckily my local shop is in the latter

Dave
 
Good to hear about the service!
I've had good experiences shopping there online from Canada. I also like what I see in the Youtube videos when Steve is demonstrating drums and relating certain history about them.....very interesting and informative...Great that him and his staff are out there for us.
 
I've purchased many drums, cymbals and accessories from Steve over the years. I am a repeat and happy customer. If Steve is good enough for Charlie, he's good enough for me.

GJS
 
Another vote for the NYC store and staff, I am not a jazz player, just a weekend tub thumper, but every time I have been there, mostly for small purchases, the staff have always been so helpful, willing to spend time, offer advice and I can only commend both Steve and his staff for this welcome.

Any drummer making a trip to NYC should stop by, you will not be disappointed.
 
Coming from the land of "Very few drum shops" (Southern California) it makes me feel the need to tell you all to "support your local drum shop" so that it does not get overrun by a Guitar Center or other big box store that only cares about extracting your money from your wallet.

You won't get that kind of maltreatment from one of those stores at a smaller boutique store. Drum shops are a place you can drop off your snare drum, have a coffee with the crew and hang a bit, and get your drum cleaned/polished/tweaked while you wait. Not that I need any help installing new heads/wires/cleaning my own stuff but it's nice to have someone else put their energies into it and get in return a tone from your drum that you may have otherwise missed due to your own proclivities to tune it to "that place".
 
Without them, I would not have been able to restore my Gretsch kit or beloved Gretsch 50's snare. Best shop ever... Best staff anywhere...

On a dangerous note, the shop is around the corner from where I work in NYC, so it's a nice mid-day excursion - good thing I don't have buckets of money :)
 
Okay, guys. I am committing to making a trip out to Steve's store. I may place an order and then take delivery, or I might be too impatient and just drive up there one weekend and soak it all in just to check all the gear out.

I have a couple options.

A trek by car to NYC is about 10 hours from where I live. But the drive to Chicago is probably 4 1/2 hours. I could leave early on a Saturday morning and spend an afternoon at the shop in Chicago.

The trip to NYC would mean leaving the night before, and I'd probably feel the need to spend time in NYC to justify the long drive. Which is fantastic, but more difficult to plan with my busy schedule.

So here's my question: Do you really need to visit the NYC store to get the Steve Maxwell experience? I could swing a trip to Chicago almost any weekend, but a drive to NYC would take more planning.

Counting on you guys to let me know what's up.
 
Okay, guys. I am committing to making a trip out to Steve's store. I may place an order and then take delivery, or I might be too impatient and just drive up there one weekend and soak it all in just to check all the gear out.

I have a couple options.

A trek by car to NYC is about 10 hours from where I live. But the drive to Chicago is probably 4 1/2 hours. I could leave early on a Saturday morning and spend an afternoon at the shop in Chicago.

The trip to NYC would mean leaving the night before, and I'd probably feel the need to spend time in NYC to justify the long drive. Which is fantastic, but more difficult to plan with my busy schedule.

So here's my question: Do you really need to visit the NYC store to get the Steve Maxwell experience? I could swing a trip to Chicago almost any weekend, but a drive to NYC would take more planning.

Counting on you guys to let me know what's up.

8Mile,

I live in the west Chicago suburbs, very close to the Maxwell shop here. I've had intentions to go to it several times but life kept getting in the way. Anyway, I did talk to a sales rep on the phone once about having the bearing edges redone on one of my toms. They don't have a guy in Chicago that does that but they were very helpful and friendly and offered to have it shipped to their NY store to have the work done. They even had their bearing edge guy in NY give me a call. So from my phone interaction, I would say they operate with the same focus on customer service. A guy I purchased a snare drum from once told me that they have an amazing cymbal selection. Top notch. The local jazz radio station is sponsored by them too. If I can get there in the next couple of days (before the weedend) I'll let you know my first hand experience but I think you won't be disappointed in the Naperville, IL shop.

D
 
Coming from the land of "Very few drum shops" (Southern California) it makes me feel the need to tell you all to "support your local drum shop" so that it does not get overrun by a Guitar Center or other big box store that only cares about extracting your money from your wallet.

You won't get that kind of maltreatment from one of those stores at a smaller boutique store. Drum shops are a place you can drop off your snare drum, have a coffee with the crew and hang a bit, and get your drum cleaned/polished/tweaked while you wait. Not that I need any help installing new heads/wires/cleaning my own stuff but it's nice to have someone else put their energies into it and get in return a tone from your drum that you may have otherwise missed due to your own proclivities to tune it to "that place".

Same here. I'm stuck in Nebraska for now. At least they know what a drum shop IS in Southern California.

The only local drum shop--and I use that term loosely--has devolved into sort of a pathetic pawn shop. No new items, no real knowledge of drums, plus they "lost or sold" parts of a kit that I briefly had there on consignment. At least they eventually replaced them but it was a struggle and a huge PITA.

Anyway, back on topic. I've heard nothing but great things about Steve Maxwell's shop. I wish I lived closer so I could actually check it out...and subsequently spend all of my paychecks there.

If you're lucky enough to have a great local drum shop near you, like Maxwell's, please support them as much as you can.
 
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