Last weekend, INDe was on the road, attending the Twin Cities Guitar and Drum Show . First of all, I want to commend the guys from Twin Cities Drum Collective and Capitol Guitars for creating such a cool event. Located at https://modistbrewing.com/ in Minneapolis (Very cool venue, and GREAT beer), it struck me how cool it was that that all nearly of the companies represented were small, independent manufacturers.
The guitar builders on each side of me (Whalehazard & MPLS guitars) both blew me away with some of the coolest designs I have seen. Super creative original designs with well thought out details, and excellent craftsmanship.
While Gibson guitars is suing people trying to protect decades-old designs, these people are out there creating NEW designs, and innovating in ways that musicians want- not shareholders or disconnected CEO’s.
On the drum side, our friends at Jenkins-Martin were showing off their killer spun fiberglass drums, and Twin-Cities Drum Collective and the British Drum Company was showing off some well designed and constructed drums. All of them of better design and quality than I have seen out of any of the major manufacturers.
It became incredibly clear to me during the show how independent businesses are the future of the music instrument industry, and small, open-to-the public shows like TCDGS are the how us independent creators should all be spreading the word. Meeting and discussing products directly with musicians is absolutely the best way to understand their needs, and discuss how we can meet them.
