Are there any drum and/or hardware companies that design and/or manufacture their products in the Southern California area? I am engineer by occupation and may be unemployed soon. (When I went into work today, my department was told to start looking for jobs because our contract was cancelled.) Thank you for any help and suggestions that you can give me.
Their are companies in Southern CA, but how many of them actually do their design work here in the US is suspect. Yamaha in Buena Park, Spaun, DW, Pork Pie, OCDC. 3 of these companies just buy shells from Keller and buy their hardware overseas. The Yamaha stuff is mostly designed in Japan.
I hear ya, Drums4fun. I've been unemployed for some time, now, although I kind of enjoy being a bum. Good luck on the job search. I've been looking, but nothing's jumping out at me. I want to be Donald Rumsfeld.
I already posted this as my experience trying to work in the drum industry as an engineer:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't know if drum companies in North America are all that old-fashioned. I know Yamaha is pretty high tech in design and manufacturing of drums but it's probably done in Japan. Anyway good luck and don't give up the search. There may be a place for you. TWhen I graduated in engineering physics I went to New-Brunswick with a friend who had an interview there. I thought I could stop by Sabian in Meductic to let my resume and see if I could work there as an engineer. Robert Zildjian was not there, so I met with Dan Barker who was the R&D VP at that time. I studied quite a bit about waves and metal physics so I asked if they would need someone like me who is also a drummer to work in the R&D department. Dan Barker pointed the corner of his office where there was a bunch of metal pieces, hammers and anvils, and told: "This is my R&D lab, I do the R&D here and I use my ears and experience. No fancy theories and computer modeling here. We do it the age-old way". He was kind enough to make me visit the factory which was actually in a barn. It was a dirty machine shop with old men seated on lugs hammering cymbals and talking about pick-up trucks. He told that the only job he could offer was that, if I was willing to learn. I said No thanks. But it was cool to see the process.
Good luck, brother...
...I've noticed for sometime now that increasing #'s of the nations companies are pulling chaulks & relocating in foreign countries, too...several friends are losing their jobs of MANY yrs+...[saving $ on foreign wages, perhaps?!]
Thanks Randy, T-Bo, Tombo, and Fuse for your replies. By the way T-Bo, you should be a comedy writer for Saturday Night Live. Your Donald Rumsfeld comment made me laugh. It's the first time that I have laughed in two days.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 06, 2004 04:51 AM: Message edited by: drum4fun ]</font>
Rummy was on CSPAN yesterday for like two hours, answering questions for the House Committee on Armed Services. He and Ted Kennedy got into a heated enchange, and I leapt from my coach and recorded it. That pretty much sums up my life.
Hilarious!! Go Rummy!!! I'll bet Teddy's Gin Blossom was in full bloom.
Other SoCal companies include DW, Paiste, Taye, Peace, Truth Drums, but as Randy mentioned, most drum companies these days do the Keller/Import thing. Didn't Remo just open up a new Artist Center in Burbank?
Best of luck Drums4Fun and let us know if there's anything we can do to help.
T-Bo, what is your line of work?
Danny
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 06, 2004 10:53 AM: Message edited by: ladanny ]</font>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Really too hilarious ! [img]biggrin.gif[/img] !Originally posted by jonthibault:
I guess "sitting on my ass eating Ben and Jerry's Whoopie Pie ice cream" doesn't qualify as a line of work, so I'll have to say I don't have one.
I'd say stand-up comic would suit you well!
We have a guy around here that tells jokes about unemployment and he makes a fortune!!
Check it out, and good luck man!!
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