George Way sold to DW

[bellbrass]

I disagree, he’s designed some cool stuff and has good fabrication skills .

Yes; like Ronn or not, I really admire what he did with the Way brand. He really tried to stay faithful to what George did, and made some fantastic drums, from reviews I've read and videos I've seen. I have a Way mahogany snare that's the bee's knees.
He also made some great drums under the Dunnett name.

 

[blueasajewel]

Perhaps with George of of the Way, he will have time to focus on expanding Milestone.

Or perhaps he's just going to wind down towards retirement.

 

[clowndog]

It's a fair question that's never been explored much. I'm sure he knows all of the inner workings of building a drum, but my understanding is that once he has a prototype (which he may or may not build himself) he's always had things manufactured elsewhere (i.e., shells, hardware, heads, etc) and then he assembles the finished parts himself. Edges are something he's always been sort of ambivalent about on his own Dunnett line of drums, but the George Way stuff definitely had era-appropriate style edges, so I don't know. They're fine looking drums, from what I've seen in person. So if he was doing all of those himself, then kudos. He's a polarizing figure, but he does have knowledge and reverence for drums, so I'll give him that. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about this top-secret "DaVinci" pedal he's apparently been developing for years. Maybe that'll be his crowning/swan-song achievement?

Being vague seems to be his thing- one step away from misleading, and appearing to be quite calculated at that approach.
Equally as alarming is the years of competitor bashing he constantly started on forums. This is the main reason I’ll never own anything from him. It is low class and completely unnecessary.

 

[KingLudwig]

DW now have the turret lug design back to themselves. I hope it's more than just that and that they continue with the brand. However, as of now, there's no mention of the transaction on any DW site that I access.

The bigger news (to me) in Ronn's announcement today is that he's no longer doing artist signature series snares. While not a huge deal overall, that means no planned production of any of the Stanton Moore models which are amazing (and popular).

I guess between advancing age and dealing with US importation issues, Ronn is winding down a bit.

There's still 1 Signature snare drum he'll produce, his own! (I call it the Ti Max!) Plus he's still working on his own pedals.

 

[Madmarian]

I can't remember, is DW an independent company or under Roland? ie does Roland now own DW?

yes.

 

[KingLudwig]

Well played sir!

Roland : YES, Way!

 

[Madmarian]

DW is becoming/has become the great American drum company of our era.

DW is too big to fail, which is why they went nearly bankrupt 3 times were rescued, and lead deeper into problems by the new owners who have no clue about drum biz. The brand will always be there, like Gretsch, like Premier, but they now are a japanese lead company, making e-drums too. I'd be careful.

I spoke with GEWA at the 2016 fair where they announced that they will now have DW brandes sets made in Asia, too, when I told them that over short those will drop in price signifficantly under 2000 USD (becase, made in china, $1000 is the maximum customers usually spend; selling them for 1200 would mean a sucess already; but that would mean losing about 2k of profit per set - 3k was a regular serial drum kit price for the low end series back then). They insisted that this will not happen, and were proven wrong just months later.

DW were also lead into this price war by GEWA in 2013 when DW was in trouble previously, and were rescued, not by GEWA but by the then-Head of Gewa (same person I spoke to on NAMM). He called me when I publicly told that GEWA rescued DW, and made clear it was his "personal money", not GEWA. WHich was technically true, because of the company structure which did not allow GEWA as german company to become shareholder, but a private person could. Anyhow, shortly after, DW was made to take over the 25% share of BASIX in china, a company founded by GEwa and ludwig, the latter wanted to leave the deal and gewa was looking for a fool to take over the share from them.

GEWA was until recently the distributer of DW, only when Roland took over this changed. They were a bad choice for distributer, as they also had numerous other brands especially after taking over the Fender Brands in 16, Gretsch, KAT, Gibraltar etc. They always pressured DW into making low end kits because this is where the sales sit, and while DW was trying to focus on qulity Gewa had a chinese company with 500 employees making drums for as little as $60 per drum kit, and they needed volume. First, DW got away with making PDP drums in Mexico (GEWA started the chinese company in 2002, urging DW to also manufacture there, but DW insisted in manufacturing in America, so mexico they went). Later they started making the mainstage series in china, at Basix. The number of drums sold rose, but the margin shrunk so dramatically, especially because GEWA was single handed pushing up to 600.000 drum kits anually into a market that only sells about 300.000 drum kits worldwide. How did they do it? by shortly replacing used drum sales with new ones. Back in the 2000, it was common sense to buy a cheap used drum kit first, start playing, and then save up until you can afford a good drum kit starting at 2k upwards. Now, 23 years after Gewa disrupted the marked, you only sel cheap drums anymore, especially the past 3 years have shown a free fall in premium drum sales, because there are plenty good used drums for a bargain in the marked. So retailers who were so eager to make more sales with drums still sell the same number or less of drum sets, but only make about 10% of the margin compared to 23 years ago. Ten Percent. The market for drum kits itself has, with about 10% less kit sales, shrunken by 70% in turnaround, which means a drum kit today is in average selling for 60%-70% less than 23 years ago, and I did not even calculate the inflation into it!

sorry... my rant over gewa is over. They are like the evil empire. they single handed ruined drum biz, and the wird part is, I personally know several of the people involved. Like the one guy who was proud to help develop the series and sell them directly from containers, not realizing that by ruining the used marked for drums they ruin the high end market for drums.

this is some background info you might need to understand what is going on and how a brand that is so well known as DW can be doing so bad.

The years where drum sales were high and retailers and manufacturers met after the NAMM and Musikmesse to celebrate their businesses is long gone. When I joined MI in 2007, it already was a thing of the past, and it only got worse since. But we all pretend it is fine.

 

[Matched Gripper]

It's a fair question that's never been explored much. I'm sure he knows all of the inner workings of building a drum, but my understanding is that once he has a prototype (which he may or may not build himself) he's always had things manufactured elsewhere (i.e., shells, hardware, heads, etc) and then he assembles the finished parts himself. Edges are something he's always been sort of ambivalent about on his own Dunnett line of drums, but the George Way stuff definitely had era-appropriate style edges, so I don't know. They're fine looking drums, from what I've seen in person. So if he was doing all of those himself, then kudos. He's a polarizing figure, but he does have knowledge and reverence for drums, so I'll give him that. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about this top-secret "DaVinci" pedal he's apparently been developing for years. Maybe that'll be his crowning/swan-song achievement?

IIRC, once upon a time, Dunnett said that his titanium snare drum didn't have a bearing edge. Not sure what that was supposed to mean.

 

[bobsyouruncle]

All they need now is a great drum

Judging by the sound of the backline kits I get, I would tend to agree

 

[multijd]

DW is too big to fail, which is why they went nearly bankrupt 3 times were rescued, and lead deeper into problems by the new owners who have no clue about drum biz. The brand will always be there, like Gretsch, like Premier, but they now are a japanese lead company, making e-drums too. I'd be careful.

I spoke with GEWA at the 2016 fair where they announced that they will now have DW brandes sets made in Asia, too, when I told them that over short those will drop in price signifficantly under 2000 USD (becase, made in china, $1000 is the maximum customers usually spend; selling them for 1200 would mean a sucess already; but that would mean losing about 2k of profit per set - 3k was a regular serial drum kit price for the low end series back then). They insisted that this will not happen, and were proven wrong just months later.

DW were also lead into this price war by GEWA in 2013 when DW was in trouble previously, and were rescued, not by GEWA but by the then-Head of Gewa (same person I spoke to on NAMM). He called me when I publicly told that GEWA rescued DW, and made clear it was his "personal money", not GEWA. WHich was technically true, because of the company structure which did not allow GEWA as german company to become shareholder, but a private person could. Anyhow, shortly after, DW was made to take over the 25% share of BASIX in china, a company founded by GEwa and ludwig, the latter wanted to leave the deal and gewa was looking for a fool to take over the share from them.

GEWA was until recently the distributer of DW, only when Roland took over this changed. They were a bad choice for distributer, as they also had numerous other brands especially after taking over the Fender Brands in 16, Gretsch, KAT, Gibraltar etc. They always pressured DW into making low end kits because this is where the sales sit, and while DW was trying to focus on qulity Gewa had a chinese company with 500 employees making drums for as little as $60 per drum kit, and they needed volume. First, DW got away with making PDP drums in Mexico (GEWA started the chinese company in 2002, urging DW to also manufacture there, but DW insisted in manufacturing in America, so mexico they went). Later they started making the mainstage series in china, at Basix. The number of drums sold rose, but the margin shrunk so dramatically, especially because GEWA was single handed pushing up to 600.000 drum kits anually into a market that only sells about 300.000 drum kits worldwide. How did they do it? by shortly replacing used drum sales with new ones. Back in the 2000, it was common sense to buy a cheap used drum kit first, start playing, and then save up until you can afford a good drum kit starting at 2k upwards. Now, 23 years after Gewa disrupted the marked, you only sel cheap drums anymore, especially the past 3 years have shown a free fall in premium drum sales, because there are plenty good used drums for a bargain in the marked. So retailers who were so eager to make more sales with drums still sell the same number or less of drum sets, but only make about 10% of the margin compared to 23 years ago. Ten Percent. The market for drum kits itself has, with about 10% less kit sales, shrunken by 70% in turnaround, which means a drum kit today is in average selling for 60%-70% less than 23 years ago, and I did not even calculate the inflation into it!

sorry... my rant over gewa is over. They are like the evil empire. they single handed ruined drum biz, and the wird part is, I personally know several of the people involved. Like the one guy who was proud to help develop the series and sell them directly from containers, not realizing that by ruining the used marked for drums they ruin the high end market for drums.

this is some background info you might need to understand what is going on and how a brand that is so well known as DW can be doing so bad.

The years where drum sales were high and retailers and manufacturers met after the NAMM and Musikmesse to celebrate their businesses is long gone. When I joined MI in 2007, it already was a thing of the past, and it only got worse since. But we all pretend it is fine.

I don’t know. This sounds like a lot of business school double speak. I’m talking about sone thing more elemental. Like Ludwig in the 1920’s and 1960’s or Slingerland in the 1940’s even Camco and Rogers in their own way, DW has been innovative during the time that Japanese drum manufacturers took over the market. The fact that they rose from making thrones and pedals to designing their own unique shell and hardware sets them apart. Singlehanded ruined the drum business? Wow that’s a lot of power.

 

[bobsyouruncle]

I don’t know. This sounds like a lot of business school double speak. I’m talking about sone thing more elemental. Like Ludwig in the 1920’s and 1960’s or Slingerland in the 1940’s even Camco and Rogers in their own way, DW has been innovative during the time that Japanese drum manufacturers took over the market. The fact that they rose from making thrones and pedals to designing their own unique shell and hardware sets them apart. Singlehanded ruined the drum business? Wow that’s a lot of power.

My take away was Gewa's involvement was the straw that broke the back, not DW

 

[Madmarian]

I don’t know. This sounds like a lot of business school double speak. I’m talking about sone thing more elemental. Like Ludwig in the 1920’s and 1960’s or Slingerland in the 1940’s even Camco and Rogers in their own way, DW has been innovative during the time that Japanese drum manufacturers took over the market. The fact that they rose from making thrones and pedals to designing their own unique shell and hardware sets them apart. Singlehanded ruined the drum business? Wow that’s a lot of power.

not DW. GEWA. Gewa put out 50.000 drum sets a month for a while, flooding the market with cheap drums (in US under ludwig brand btw). THIS destroyed the market. Because retailer used to sell entry level drums like pearl export for 1.800k, and lots of high end drums for 3-6k, and today, 90% of drums sold are under 1k. The number of premium drums above 2k is laughable small, and when you remember, manufacturing in most countries outside asia is expansive, so you can expect more than 95% of all drums sold new today coming from asia. This leaves mere 5% of drum sales for all the premium brands like Sonor, DW, Dunnett, but also Adoro (my small brand) and all the other small drum manufacturers trying to make a living with a shared 5% of the market. It is crazy.

I think my point is, you have no idea how small drum biz is. In order to understand this, you need to know that, compared to guitars, drum sales are 168 times smaller! Guitars see a whopping 50-55mio sales annually, drums about 0.3 mio. So when a company that usually sells, like, Guitars, Bags, Pianos, starts making and selling drums with the sae mind set it does with guitars, is is so easy to destroy the market for good. What they did not take into account is that drummers do not buy more drums simply because they are cheap. Most drummers limit their spendings on drum kits because they have no space for more drums. Even worse, while most guitars are being kept decades after people stopped playing them - simply because they look nice on the wall, drummers who stop playing drums instantly try selling their gear to make space. Since you also need a room to play drums, the price of the drum set never was a real factor in whether or not someone would buy a drum set. People disagree with me here, but all stats back up my statement: we had way more drum sales when they cost twice of what they cost today, or more. In the 50s, a drum set was worth as much as a decent car or two, today $860 can buy you a month of rent for a VW Van, or a full drum kit. So when Drummers dont buy more drums when they get cheaper, why make them cheaper? Gewa did this because they were new in this market, and had success with this strategy with their cheap guitars. but someone who bought a $30 guitar is not going to use it professionally, unless he wants to smash it on stage, where as the cheap drums ended up on stages everywhere. Because Sound is done by sound engineers, people insist. Drums sound loud anyway, so why spend much on a better sound when you can fix it in the mix.

i think you get the picture. And I am talking about averages, i know that probably 90% of drummers here (if not 99%) do not apply for this, you surely spent more on drums, new and used, and appreciate good instruments. Still, music stores go out of business because simply sales drop and leave us moneyless.

 

[drums1225]

I have two Dunnett Ti snares (13x6.5 and 14x6.5) both purchased used in the early 00's. They are both absolutely killer sounding and feeling drums. The 13 is without question my desert island snare drum and goes with me on every gig. For 20+ years, I've gotten tons of unsolicited praise for its sound(s) from not only sound guys and recording engineers, but also from bandmates, audience members, other drummers, laymen, and even female singers (plural). I constantly have drummers come up to me during breaks or after gigs asking, "What kind of snare is that? It sounds great!"

Ronn is not everyone's cup of tea, I'll grant you that, but to dismiss his contributions to the drum industry by saying he's just an assembler is ridiculous. He obviously designed his drums, so even if he merely outsourced everything else to his specs (which I don't believe he does), including materials and labor, he picks the "right" specs. His name is on those drums and he is responsible for bringing a unique and high quality product to market, and has been doing so for more than 25 years. How many of us can say that?

Have a personal problem with him? Understandable, but objectively speaking, his drums are widely recognized as something special. I will own mine for life.

 

[retroplate]

Being vague seems to be his thing- one step away from misleading, and appearing to be quite calculated at that approach.
Equally as alarming is the years of competitor bashing he constantly started on forums. This is the main reason I’ll never own anything from him. It is low class and completely unnecessary.

I remember the feud he had with Tom Shelley of Universal Percussion about a decade back. Tom wasn't just some guy in his garage selling drums; he was a pretty important figure in the percussion instrument field.

Triplet Cookbook for Drumset Independence

This must have book breaks down the triplet rhythm, making playing them much easier and culminates with a basic understanding of four way independence. “Mi...

1stdrumlessonsonline.com

Mike
http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
https://drumcavedave.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/drummermikemccraw
http://twitter.com/mikemccraw
http://www.skillpages.com/mike.mccraw

 

[retroplate]

I actually was just telling someone the other day that gretsch was acquired by DW in modern times. Looks like I’m part of the problem lol.

I guess not having a business degree I don’t know the practical and material differences between “owning a brand”, and owning the “license to manufacture and distribute” the products that are sold under that brand. I mean - if you are building them and shipping them, isn’t it mostly your product even if some guy named Gretsch still gets a check every month ?

Same with the George way and Roger’s stuff now. Do we care who owns a name and logo, or do we care about who is actually making the stuff ? Depends on the convo at hand I suppose.

It's more of a matter of legality in issuing/granting licenses which does encompass business.

Triplet Cookbook for Drumset Independence

This must have book breaks down the triplet rhythm, making playing them much easier and culminates with a basic understanding of four way independence. “Mi...

1stdrumlessonsonline.com

Mike
http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
https://drumcavedave.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/drummermikemccraw
http://twitter.com/mikemccraw
http://www.skillpages.com/mike.mccraw

 

[retroplate]

not DW. GEWA. Gewa put out 50.000 drum sets a month for a while, flooding the market with cheap drums (in US under ludwig brand btw). THIS destroyed the market. Because retailer used to sell entry level drums like pearl export for 1.800k, and lots of high end drums for 3-6k, and today, 90% of drums sold are under 1k. The number of premium drums above 2k is laughable small, and when you remember, manufacturing in most countries outside asia is expansive, so you can expect more than 95% of all drums sold new today coming from asia. This leaves mere 5% of drum sales for all the premium brands like Sonor, DW, Dunnett, but also Adoro (my small brand) and all the other small drum manufacturers trying to make a living with a shared 5% of the market. It is crazy.

I think my point is, you have no idea how small drum biz is. In order to understand this, you need to know that, compared to guitars, drum sales are 168 times smaller! Guitars see a whopping 50-55mio sales annually, drums about 0.3 mio. So when a company that usually sells, like, Guitars, Bags, Pianos, starts making and selling drums with the sae mind set it does with guitars, is is so easy to destroy the market for good. What they did not take into account is that drummers do not buy more drums simply because they are cheap. Most drummers limit their spendings on drum kits because they have no space for more drums. Even worse, while most guitars are being kept decades after people stopped playing them - simply because they look nice on the wall, drummers who stop playing drums instantly try selling their gear to make space. Since you also need a room to play drums, the price of the drum set never was a real factor in whether or not someone would buy a drum set. People disagree with me here, but all stats back up my statement: we had way more drum sales when they cost twice of what they cost today, or more. In the 50s, a drum set was worth as much as a decent car or two, today $860 can buy you a month of rent for a VW Van, or a full drum kit. So when Drummers dont buy more drums when they get cheaper, why make them cheaper? Gewa did this because they were new in this market, and had success with this strategy with their cheap guitars. but someone who bought a $30 guitar is not going to use it professionally, unless he wants to smash it on stage, where as the cheap drums ended up on stages everywhere. Because Sound is done by sound engineers, people insist. Drums sound loud anyway, so why spend much on a better sound when you can fix it in the mix.

i think you get the picture. And I am talking about averages, i know that probably 90% of drummers here (if not 99%) do not apply for this, you surely spent more on drums, new and used, and appreciate good instruments. Still, music stores go out of business because simply sales drop and leave us moneyless.

Very informative! I knew about the drum market being very small, especially when compared to the guitar market. The mindset is similar to what CBS did at Professional Drum shop in Hollywood after CBS acquired Rogers, the difference being that the musical instrument market was still coming on and growing at that time.

Triplet Cookbook for Drumset Independence

This must have book breaks down the triplet rhythm, making playing them much easier and culminates with a basic understanding of four way independence. “Mi...

1stdrumlessonsonline.com

Mike
http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
https://drumcavedave.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/drummermikemccraw
http://twitter.com/mikemccraw
http://www.skillpages.com/mike.mccraw

 

[rocklawn]

not DW. GEWA. Gewa put out 50.000 drum sets a month for a while, flooding the market with cheap drums (in US under ludwig brand btw). THIS destroyed the market. Because retailer used to sell entry level drums like pearl export for 1.800k, and lots of high end drums for 3-6k, and today, 90% of drums sold are under 1k. The number of premium drums above 2k is laughable small, and when you remember, manufacturing in most countries outside asia is expansive, so you can expect more than 95% of all drums sold new today coming from asia. This leaves mere 5% of drum sales for all the premium brands like Sonor, DW, Dunnett, but also Adoro (my small brand) and all the other small drum manufacturers trying to make a living with a shared 5% of the market. It is crazy.

I think my point is, you have no idea how small drum biz is. In order to understand this, you need to know that, compared to guitars, drum sales are 168 times smaller! Guitars see a whopping 50-55mio sales annually, drums about 0.3 mio. So when a company that usually sells, like, Guitars, Bags, Pianos, starts making and selling drums with the sae mind set it does with guitars, is is so easy to destroy the market for good. What they did not take into account is that drummers do not buy more drums simply because they are cheap. Most drummers limit their spendings on drum kits because they have no space for more drums. Even worse, while most guitars are being kept decades after people stopped playing them - simply because they look nice on the wall, drummers who stop playing drums instantly try selling their gear to make space. Since you also need a room to play drums, the price of the drum set never was a real factor in whether or not someone would buy a drum set. People disagree with me here, but all stats back up my statement: we had way more drum sales when they cost twice of what they cost today, or more. In the 50s, a drum set was worth as much as a decent car or two, today $860 can buy you a month of rent for a VW Van, or a full drum kit. So when Drummers dont buy more drums when they get cheaper, why make them cheaper? Gewa did this because they were new in this market, and had success with this strategy with their cheap guitars. but someone who bought a $30 guitar is not going to use it professionally, unless he wants to smash it on stage, where as the cheap drums ended up on stages everywhere. Because Sound is done by sound engineers, people insist. Drums sound loud anyway, so why spend much on a better sound when you can fix it in the mix.

i think you get the picture. And I am talking about averages, i know that probably 90% of drummers here (if not 99%) do not apply for this, you surely spent more on drums, new and used, and appreciate good instruments. Still, music stores go out of business because simply sales drop and leave us moneyless.

To get back to the newsflash of DW buying Dunnett’s George Way brand asset, one cool way for DW to use the brand as a line would be to take the beautiful Tuxedo lug and make Club Date-style kits and market to the vintage-oriented Millennial musician’s …….. their interest in Jazz is surging ……in addition , their vintage sensibilities are a definible market segment…….and with the DW artist support machine as it is today,they could also pull some jazz drummers away from other brands to ,give the strategy some teeth .

If DW used the shell recipe and bearing edges of the Way/ and Oaklawn era Camco drums ,they’d have a cool way to carve out a legit unique sound profile…….. something they never sought to do (in ernest )after acquiring the Camco lug and pedal design assets .

They consciously did not adhere to the Oaklawn or even LA shell recipe for very long as they sold thru the remaining shells they divvy- upped on with Ayotte , or whomever really got the remainder of the original Camco shells.

Anyway , Tama will likely never part with the Camco intellectual property.

In fact maybe Roland directed Lombardi to buy Dunnett’s Way assets because they were concerned that Tama might buy them first, assuming they might make a play …… who knows.

Knowing Lombard I’d penchant for buying other classic US drum brand assets, there is hopefully an interesting play to be made toward leveraging the unique Tuxedo design and Camco/Way shell recipe.

Lastly, it may give DW a price-point opportunity by cooking up a Geo Way brand incarnation that doesn’t have to be a big ticket investment , as we are seeing with Slingerlands re-cooked brand iteration.

 

[Utopian Glints]

I definitely don't want to re-litigate the past but I also know a bunch of guys who were treated really poorly by Ronn, especially in the Drumsmith era. I don't hold any hard feelings toward the guy but I also never really wanted to buy his stuff anymore. That said, i absolutely love the George Way aesthetic-- it "corrects" a lot of the things I dislike about DW, like the bulky floor tom brackets and spurs. I am really all set with drums now and probably have too many, but if DW keeps them pretty much the same I can definitely imagine getting a set.

 

[bellbrass]

If DW used the shell recipe and bearing edges of the Way/ and Oaklawn era Camco drums ,they’d have a cool way to carve out a legit unique sound profile…….. something they never sought to do (in ernest )after acquiring the Camco lug and pedal design assets .

They consciously did not adhere to the Oaklawn or even LA shell recipe for very long as they sold thru the remaining shells they divvy- upped on with Ayotte , or whomever really got the remainder of the original Camco shells.

Anyway , Tama will likely never part with the Camco intellectual property.

In fact maybe Roland directed Lombardi to buy Dunnett’s Way assets because they were concerned that Tama might buy them first, assuming they might make a play …… who knows.

If I remember my George Way history correctly, the Way Drum Co. Shells and edges were different than the later Camco Oaklawn shells and edges.
Oaklawn Camco shells were very undersized, and had 6-ply shells with 6-ply reinforcement rings. They also had that precise edge with the round over back cut. I don't know if anyone knows for sure what the layup was on the Oaklawn shells. Wasn't the earlier Way shell a Jasper Maple and Gumwood shell? If I had to guess, I'd guess that Oaklawn shells were the same layup.
Tama may want to keep the Camco name, but I don't know why they would. DW is owned by Roland, an Asian company....they should do a deal. If they made a faithful reissue of Oaklawn Camcos, they would sell more than a few kits, and probably a lot of snares.
DW could do their own reissue, of sorts...as a Way drum...but I'd bet they wouldn't do an undersized shell, at least not like Camco used to do it.

 

[Rich K.]

To get back to the newsflash of DW buying Dunnett’s George Way brand asset, one cool way for DW to use the brand as a line would be to take the beautiful Tuxedo lug and make Club Date-style kits and market to the vintage-oriented Millennial musician’s …….. their interest in Jazz is surging ……in addition , their vintage sensibilities are a definible market segment…….and with the DW artist support machine as it is today,they could also pull some jazz drummers away from other brands to ,give the strategy some teeth .

If DW used the shell recipe and bearing edges of the Way/ and Oaklawn era Camco drums ,they’d have a cool way to carve out a legit unique sound profile…….. something they never sought to do (in ernest )after acquiring the Camco lug and pedal design assets .

They consciously did not adhere to the Oaklawn or even LA shell recipe for very long as they sold thru the remaining shells they divvy- upped on with Ayotte , or whomever really got the remainder of the original Camco shells.

Anyway , Tama will likely never part with the Camco intellectual property.

In fact maybe Roland directed Lombardi to buy Dunnett’s Way assets because they were concerned that Tama might buy them first, assuming they might make a play …… who knows.

Knowing Lombard I’d penchant for buying other classic US drum brand assets, there is hopefully an interesting play to be made toward leveraging the unique Tuxedo design and Camco/Way shell recipe.

Lastly, it may give DW a price-point opportunity by cooking up a Geo Way brand incarnation that doesn’t have to be a big ticket investment , as we are seeing with Slingerlands re-cooked brand iteration.

Interest in jazz is SURGING among millennials?? I find that hard to believe.