Really??!? The only place I've found with a better selection than Sweetwater is DCP and drums is their sole business.I find their drum and hardware selection lacking to a certain extent.
Try them now. Just picked up/ordered a couple of 22” Sabian AA cymbals for $100 each.Interstate Music (Casio) in Wisconsin recently went under and MGR picked up a lot of their inventory.
Casio was sitting on a lot of Ludwig BreakBeats and Pocket kits among other things. Lots of Mapex stuff too.
MGR should do well around x-mas time.
I go to independent places and one man operations as much as possible. Revival Drums or Rhythm Traders in Portland. For mail order I usually use Steve Weiss Music, rarely Amazon or Ebay. I get sticks directly from Bopworks or LA Backbeats, and cymbals from Cymbal & Gong.
It ain't musician's un-friend. Their CS has been terrible, things take days to actually ship, and don't get me started on the unrewarding rewards program they have.
Sweetwater. I have a GC local, but they're mostly an actual Guitar center. The drum selection is crap, the cymbals even worse, and they may have 2 dozen sticks in the entire store.
The only other place in town is Guitar City Drumland but he carries the high end stuff that my frugal nature won't allow me to consider.
I'm a Sweetwater client too. I stopped trading with Musician's Friend some time ago. Whenever I tried to apply my "rewards points" to transactions, something would go wrong, and I'd have to call them to complete the sale. Their agents always attempted to sell me more products. The rewards glitches might have been ploys just to get me on the phone for sales pitches. Regardless, I don't deal with them now.
That Musician's Friend Rewards stuff is a complete joke.
As far as the OP, I buy a ton from Sweetwater. Grant Vitek has called me multiple times to check on orders I placed. I buy ALL sorts of things on Ebay. I don't sell much anymore, that's where you really get screwed. I do a lot of refurbishing, so Drum Factory Direct is another great shop to deal with.
I BUY NOTHING LOCALLY. The one locally owned store in town is ran by a deceitful a$$. I won't buy anything from that idiot.
That Musician's Friend Rewards stuff is a complete joke.
As far as the OP, I buy a ton from Sweetwater. Grant Vitek has called me multiple times to check on orders I placed. I buy ALL sorts of things on Ebay. I don't sell much anymore, that's where you really get screwed. I do a lot of refurbishing, so Drum Factory Direct is another great shop to deal with.
I BUY NOTHING LOCALLY. The one locally owned store in town is ran by a deceitful a$$. I won't buy anything from that idiot.
It ain't musician's un-friend. Their CS has been terrible, things take days to actually ship, and don't get me started on the unrewarding rewards program they have.
Sweetwater. I have a GC local, but they're mostly an actual Guitar center. The drum selection is crap, the cymbals even worse, and they may have 2 dozen sticks in the entire store.
The only other place in town is Guitar City Drumland but he carries the high end stuff that my frugal nature won't allow me to consider.
that is what sux about local stores....one or two bad apples can ruing the whole orchard!! We definitely had some shifty characters running A LOT of the stores around here back in the day. It made the bigger stores seem more "legit" at the time...I still buy local over online as much as possible, but also have a great, 5 Star drum shop in town - Columbus Pro Percussion.
Guitar City is a very cool place, his stuff is just out of my price range. Never heard of Rupp's, seems like a lot of Mapex but at least reasonable priced gear. Music go round doesnt have much lately.Are you in the Denver area? Guitar City Drumland is great! The owner has one of the largest cymbal collections (not for sale, but he'll gladly show you and let you play them)! Rupp's Drums is also local and is a great place as well. Also, there are several Music Go Rounds in your area. Great resource for used gear.
Did you call them and ask about a deal? I know they will deal when you call, nothing much can be done online.Tbh I didn’t like the part that they were not very flexible offering any discounts
True story:I didn’t like the part that they were not very flexible offering any discounts and were only offering their great service.
Another true story:
I got a marketing email from Sweetwater with a discount for some drum software (for those people who don't or can't record a drum kit, but can play all the other parts). I responded saying to only send me deals on real drums. I got a call from my sale rep a few minutes later and he asked what I wanted. I said a Tama Starphonic Aluminum snare drum. He gave me a deal that equated to 35% off their listed prices for the drum and a very nice Tama snare bag, plus free shipping.Plus, they toss candy into their shipping boxes.