Is Guitar Center Intentionally lying ?

Hey Friends, followers & fans,
                                                       T here, In this blog I'd like to go over and give you guys the complete 411 on Wuhan/Agazarian/Guitar Center connection. It's kinda funny how things develop sometimes, I never realized how big apart of our business Wuhan would become. In fact I have become the go to guy for allot of people about Wuhan's, since there really is not a whole lot of info available on them considering how big of a brand they are. Now one question I get asked weekly is about what I stated in the first sentence. So much so I have decided to do a blog solely dedicated to that question. So I can reference people to this blog that will answer every question.
         First and foremost Wuhan and Agazarian are in no way connected. They are complete and seperate brands. Agazarian is Guitar Center's house brand, It has replaced Wuhan in their brick and Mortar stores. Almost always displayed NOT in their Cymbal vault, but at their percussion counter either in it's own display box or in counter space Wuhan's and now Agazarian's are put their intentionally for what is called spontaneous purchases. Because of their very affordable pricing this works, you'll spring for a $20 China or a $30 splash at checkout time on the spur. Laying out $200 + for a BIG3 pie is another matter altogether.
        If you've ever noticed there were always just a few Wuhan's on display, maybe their splashes and the old standby their immensely popular 12" china. As an impulse purchase you can't beat these. A year or two ago Guitar center replaced their Wuhan's with Agazarians, but only in their stores. They wisely still carried Wuhan's in the catalog and their Internet sites. It's called hedging your bets, I suppose if Agazarians bombed or for those of you who decided you wanted to stick to the original and ( IMO ) superior Wuhan's they could still be purchased from Guitar center. It's when one inquires about Agazarians or what happened to their Wuhan's the water becomes muddy. I have come to the conclusion GC has directed it's employees either indirectly or intentionally to deceive customers in giving out false information about Wuhan.
         This is what I have personally heard. " Wuhan is out of Business", Wuhan only makes Chinas anymore" or the best one "  Wuhan and Agazarian are the same brand " now these aren't isolated statements they have been made to me and others I know in more than one Guitar Center. The theme of the comments themselves are so similar that I begun to think this info was coming from GC's corporate offices. Could GC the largest Instrument retail chain in the country be intentionally misleading customers ( my fellow drummers) into giving out false information about Wuhan to steer any potential sales to their new house brand Agazarian ? I really began to wonder, it just seemed the info giving out by GC employees in stores to me in widely varying locations and states had too much in common to be coincidence.
        Of course Proof can never be conclusively established unless a GC whistleblower steps forward with some kind of internal memo instructing it's sales staff to do just what I have accused them of. It may never be proven conclusively but I just can feel it in my heart that I'm right. 2 weeks ago I was in a GC with a guitarist friend and while looking at the drums I asked what happened to the Wuhan splashes ? The sales clerk gave me an answer I heard before, but it was a hybrid of several of the misconceptions rolled into one. Well Wuhan and Agazarian are the same brands made in the same factory and Wuhan doesn't do splashes anymore, there only making China's. That's why we switched to Agazarians there better they make more stuff and Wuhan is kinda dead he said. Hmm I inquired didn't you just say they were the same brand ? Well he clarified his position there made by the same company. I smell conspiracy.
        Enough with circumstantial evidence let me give you guys some facts. :
1) Wuhan and Agazarian are completely separate brands. They are owned by different companies and have no connection whatsoever.
2) Agazarians are Guitar center's new house brand. By contracting a Chinese Cymbal maker to produce their own brand and purchasing direct GC has a higher profit margin than they do with Wuhans.
3) Wuhan last year during the development of their "New Traditional" series also consolidated Cymbal production to one factory. Previously Wuhan's were made in two separate factories.  One factory made their China's and one made their Western style Cymbals. In an effort to improve efficiency and streamline costs, in addition Wuhan felt if Cymbal production were in one facility,better quality control and consistency could be achieved. I believe they have improved immensely in both of those area's.
4) The factory Agazarians are currently produced in was producing Wuhan's before Wuhan consolidated it's manufacturing. I believe this is the root cause of much of the misperception about Wuhan & Agazarian. That and piss poor info given out by the staff at GC
So I can state for the record unequivocally that the only thing that Wuhan and Agazarian have in common is Nothing. It's really funny when I ask about What happened to your Wuhans at GC ? The last conversation I had with a sales clerk , I was told " Your getting some bad info bro ". Ok , right I just don't have the heart I own a percussion retail business. But there is the story, They're not one in the same. They aren't related, they are as different as Saluda and Stagg. OOHhhh ! Now that's a whole different post altogether. Till next time,             T.

                                             

B-L-A-C-K F-R-I-D-A-Y ! ! !

Hello Dear Friends, Subscribers and Lurkers,
                                                                                  It's T once again. I sincerely Hope everyone had an absolutely wonderful Holiday. Mine was just OK, Hopefully next year will be better for me. Well here we are once again and it's BLACK FRIDAY, The day that kicks off the Holiday shopping season. Contrary to popular Myth It's not the busiest shopping day of the year. That honor is usually bestowed upon Dec 23rd of every year, experts believe the last great " Surge " of last Minute Holiday shopping gets into full Blast. For an online operation like ours our " Surge " Kicks in about a good week before Christmas day so your precious goodies can get shipped and delivered before the " BIG " day.
       Although, we have had some operating difficulties this year, Your holiday orders will be shipped ASAP. I have several extra people trained to pitch in at a moments notice. So stock and staff wise were looking pretty good. I'm looking forward to having a stellar year end blitz for the company. We are sorting through and already laying out our game plan for 2011, New brands and more products will join C & S's offerings. Our long awaited and terribly overdue proprietary Website will be up and running in the early part of 2011, I'm going on record and saying sometime by February 15 th.
      As our Sophomore year ends we take with it many lessons any young growing company could learn from. We have made some big mistakes this year, but we realize that and we plan to learn from them. We have made mistakes dealing with Mistakes and accidents and other issue's. Like the Great Hack Attack, How we responded was admittedly poor. I was complete unprepared for it, severely underestimated it and didn't have enough cash reserves to deal with it properly. That will not happen again, Not on my watch. As long as I'm the Head Honcho here, Generalissimo T, We will not be pearl harbored again.
      We had alot of good stuff happen to Us also. Our ancillary sites really came into their own this year with a really active Blog and a very popular You Tube channel. When our own website opens shortly we will finally be able to bring all the C & S family of sites to a centralized Locale, that will be nice. I personally consider many of you friends, The regulars who frequent the store or YT channel and converse with me regularly. It's very cool, something I really didn't think about when I first founded C & S.
    OK enough BS lets talk about some product. We will be listing some new stuff over the weekend. A snare kit and Jr snare Kit, for you newbies and baby newbies out there. We are gonna Dissect a TKO 101 jr Drum kit for you with lots of Video and Pictures. These are one of the nicest jr kits on the market, If you or someone you know is looking at a " First Act" brand Drum kit stop Them !! These are so much nicer, really in a completely different league. A true drum kit only scaled down. So many times these jr drum kits are just absolute Crap. It's nice to no for even a very young starting player there is some decent and affordable equipment out there. Splash/Cymbal arm Packs will be available for both Wuhan and Silken.  There will be some additional Cymbal packs Available from Wuhan.
        We also will be permanently carrying TKO's 1200 series line of Cymbal stands, These are absolutely fantastic. For the money these are the nicest stands we have found. They are an excellent buy and we are happy to sell them, if your not happy with these you won't be happy with anything HONEST !! That is why we have decided to add these permanently to our inventory. We also will be unveiling Cannons 800 series HH stand, Like the TKO stands they are well built and very affordable. With some basic care and maintenance you should get years of use out of it. We like to cherry pick products from different companies, trying only to bring you what we feel is a good solid product and priced accordingly. That's the basic idea anyway. Lastly as the New Wuhan's become available we will be adding them to our line of products. So that ends today's Blog have a great weekend everybody.           T.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone !

Hey Everybody,
                           T here, Just wanted to fire off a quick blog and wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. So far this hasn't been the best year for Cymbals & Snares. I was sick and need a few surgeries in May/June which seriously sidetracked the company. My personal life completely crumbled with the separation and pending Divorce from my wife. The Hack Attack of September is still having repercussions as we still have a few discounts to issue. With the numerous neutral and negative feedback's we received from that complete debacle, it's amazing were still in business.
       I am very grateful for all the emails and messages of support we have received from our supporters, friends & subscribers to our Blog, You Tube Channel and our store Newsletter. We are just gonna have to work our way out of it and through it and put this disastrous year behind us. I can only hope and work hard to ensure 2011 is a better year for the company and myself ( personally ) It really couldn't get much worse. In fact for it to be any worse than this year the company would have to go belly up and I would have to die. Which lately doesn't really seem that bad of options. To be honest I would be more upset about closing the company than Being Deceased. Who would be the voice for the " Other Name Brands " ???
     Okay, enough with crap about me let's talk Drums & Cymbals. C&S has just signed on with a new distributor among the products were looking at to carry are moongel and some cool little knick knacks for your kit. Some novelty Items that I think, if not functional are totally cool, Dice knobs for the top of your Cymbals, Bass Drum tuning rods that are Hands holding the front drum head on, Nothing earth shattering but very neat little stuff. Hopefully we will be signing a distributorship agreement with PEACE drums and begin to carry their line Of drums after the first of the year. We also will be one of the first companies to carry a quick release HH clutch from a new company. They have some pretty interesting products which we think look really nice. However like all Products C & S carry we will give it a rigorous testing before putting it up for sale. We have always maintained " If we ourselves wouldn't use it then we won't sell it " that's not a line of marketing BS. That's a fact. and that's it for this blog have a great holiday        T.  Cymbals & Snares

The Great Hack Attack, It's aftermath Continues

Hello everyone T here,
                                          Just a quick update for our loyal readers and supporters. The true cost of the great Hack Attack continues to mount. The attack effected over 100 orders, and made our ability to operate and comunicate with our customers nearly impossible at first. As we slowly began to emerge from the damage that was done, It became apparent to me this was going to be far costlier than anyone had envisioned.
          Our reputation on Ebay is at an all time low. The flurry of negative feedbacks has effectively dropped our feedback rating to 98%, the lowest it's ever been. That in turn has resulted in a drop in sales, which then begins to affect our ability to operate effectively. We have finally cleaned up almost everything from our disaster. A few more refunds and we'll be completely passed the physical damaged incurred. However, building our reputation up is going to be a long and hard process.
         So here we sit, It almost feels the last two years were for nothing. All we put into building this company and the idea's we espouse sit precariously on the edge of oblivion. I hope we can fully recover. We are pressing ahead with Overdrive Cymbals, developing our Wholesale company and continuing with work on our own Website. I hope we can pull this off. I have never felt less sure of myself or Cymbals & Snares since I first hatched the idea of doing my own thing. I hope it wasn't for nothing. Till next time.        T

Stands, Pedals & Other Hardware

Good Morning Everyone,
                                              It's a cold dark and rainy morning here in Jersey, Perfect morning for a blog entry. I figured I would update you on our product selection this Morning. I was looking at a double cymbal stand from Pearl yesterday, It was beautiful and well made. ( Only a drummer could think a Cymbal stand was beautiful Right ?) Then I looked at the price take $179.00 !! Yikes ! Holy Shit I exclaimed to myself. That is a lot of money for a stand. I was checking it out for a reason, C & S is doing a major expansion into the hardware arena. It's probably our weakest area, One section of drumming that is poorly represented. That is about to change.
        
        We just got a delivery in from TKO. This company has long been associated with entry level drums and Hardware But late last year they introduced their 1200 series stands. These things are unbelievable for the money. Sturdy, well built double dipped chroming, Euro style on off  switches replace the normal wingnut tightening system , double braced there's really nothing to not like on these stands. The best part ?? The price their top of the line 1206 Boom stand with a telescopic lens and large counterweight so even your largest most precious cymbals are safe tops out at $79.00 retail. IMO it's a deal and a half. There are alot of inexpensive stands on the Internet and Ebay, be very careful because you often get what you pay for.

       We should have most of the 1200 series listed by the weekend. Anyone looking for stands whether it's a straight stand or boom should give these a good looking at. They are a fantastic value as is there entire 1200 series. We like variety and so we also will be bringing in Cannon's 800 series and Howitzer line of stands and bass drum pedals. Like TKO's both of these line bring excellent quality and value to the drumming community. There bass drum pedals in particular are single or double chained and have precise and smooth fluid like movement. These Pedals can compete with the big name brands in their categories very easily. Both TKO and Cannon offer great double bass pedals for under $200. This presents to every drummer a very affordable way to expand his capabilities by incorporating a double kick into his playing.

       We can't leave out a mention of Taye drums. Taye who's drums are without question great. It also makes really nice hardware. In fact they have some really neat innovative hardware that you won't find anywhere else. Their Snare " Boom" stand is just one example. Other companies have attempted this type of stand but Taye has mastered it. The boom extends far enough and is stable enough to place your double kick pedals connecting bar INSIDE of the snare drum stand alleviating a real nightmare for alot of drummers including myself. No more trying to get the pedal configuration just right. Now there's nothing blocking it. I swear by that stand. What a great little idea. It has really had an impact on how I set my snare/hi-hat combo. My double kick is infinitely more comfortable. So look for some great selections in stands this holiday season.       T

Overdrive Cymbals Launches Website.

Hey Good Morning all,
                           Gonna be a quick posting today. I just wanted to let everyone of our average 600 readers a week here, That Overdrive Cymbals has launched a informational website. It has basic background info about the company. Expected launch dates, contact information and the like. We will be adding some video's to it this weekend. We will be keeping you informed about all the happenings at Overdrive over the next few weeks. So log on and to your favorites and check it out OVERDRIVE HAS ARRIVED !! the link to the site is as follows. www.overdrivecymbals.com  As always were are interested in some honest feedback. Just remember it's just an informational site. It's a work in progress.         T

The Great Cymbal Controversy To Clean or not to Clean ???

Hey everyone T here,
                                        I was reading a blog the other night and couldn't help think about how divided the drumming community is over Cymbal care. Do you clean your Cymbals or do you allow that much hallowed " Patina " to build up ? This of course is strictly a personal choice. One way is not inherently better than the other. It what you like to do. However there are so many theories around supporting both sides I find actually comical. Especially about buring your Cymbals. I'm not going into each theory but I did want to mention that one in particular. Sabian buries X amount of Cymbals a year and then sells them at an exorbitant price. Sonically it supposed effects the Cymbal from my understanding from lab test done it just gets the cymbal dirty.
         I like brilliant finished Cymbals, I like shiny Cymbals So I clean mine. It actually brings out the high end a bit. Supposedly not cleaning them has the opposite effect. I won't argue that it doesn't. It probably does. I just prefer nice clean and shiny Cymbals. Don't get me wrong it's a pain in the ass doing it. I'm currently using 23 cymbals on my kit, so I just gradually grab one or two a week and clean them. I work my way around my kit.
          A friend of mine is in the no clean camp. He prefers the Patina that builds up and says it mellows out his cymbals. I'm not so sure that's his reason or he's just lazy, he also doesn't clean his Kit, car, or anything he owns. perhaps he's hoping for a Patina to develop on his car ? Now if your in the not cleaning camp your done hear For those who do read on. There's all kinds of products to use to clean your cymbals, and all kinds of ways to do it. Here are some of the technique's and products I've employed successfully over the years.
         Every major cymbal company has a cleaner that is specially formulated to clean there cymbals. Bullshit, plain and simple. It's just some kind of metal polish they contract out and have their label put on it. Then they sell tiny bottles for $10 bucks a pop. I have used a brand called " Weinmans" It's available at Wal-Mart and it's like $2.00 for a large bottle. It works great I've used it for years with no adverse effect on my beloved pie's. This is not a recommendation I'm just telling you what I use. I also use their scouring pads for really stained spots. It's like those scrubby pads for pots and pans. But wait T !! won't that scratch my Cymbals ? NO just make sure you get the ones that are formulated to clean Glass cook tops. If they don't scratch glass they ain't scathing a Cymbal.
         If I'm really into it or got a good buzz going I take my car buffer and lightly I mean LIGHTLY buff your Cymbals I leave the buffer on a spot only a few seconds if you do it too long you can heat up your Cymbals and change the molecular structure and ruin your Cymbal. I then finish it off with a nice hand buffing One of those buffing pads they use for cars. Slip your hand into a holder on one side and buff away. In the end you get a gorgeous looking Cymbal. To me It actually sounds a little better coaxing a little bit of high end out of it. Just curious Are you a cleaner or not ? Till next time        T.