What Just Drums Offers

Drummers are neglected.
Imagine your typical music retail store. Aside from a few display models, most drums sets stacked vertically and placed off in a corner. As a drummer, it is hard for you to go into a music retail store and try out the drum sets. You're limited to just a few display models. Even when you do manage to "try out" a drum set or cymbal, it's usually brief because of all the "noise" you make. You don't feel comfortable disrupting the conversations going on on the sales floor, on the phone, or you might even get dirty looks. You don't feel comfortable actually trying out the instrument you could possibly spend thousands of dollars on.

We are different.
At Just Drums, drum sets are fully set up and show-cased. Many will be set up on small stages under colored lights and shown in all their glory. Come play them all you want. Here - it's all about you, the drummer. This is your store.

When walking into our store, you will feel as if you walked into a sports car dealership and not a drum set warehouse. Dozens of drum sets, hundreds of cymbals, and countless items of percussion and accessories are all here for you to see, hear, and play. Just Drums is your dream drum shop.

Unique Features

The Show Room
Presentation is everything. Our show room contains an impressive display of drum sets, drums, and cymbals. Many drum sets are shown under colored stage lights up on small stages. Drum sets will be set up ready to be played and tested. It feels like a showcase of great drum sets rather than a warehouse full of stacked drums.

The Snare Trap
Once you're in the Snare Trap, you can't get out. Over a dozen top of the line snare drums are arranged so you can test and play each and every one from a single drum throne. Brass, steel, maple, bronze, acrylic,...they're all here.

The Studio
This is the ultimate private lessons studio. At your average music store, you will be taught in a generic room. A cold cinderblock room, a drum set, a music stand, and a door. That's it. When you come to Just Drums for lessons, you'll get much more. Here, you can expect a much better environment suited for drum studies. Mirrors, cameras, video monitoring systems, sound systems, and more. Just Drums offers a state of the art teaching facility unlike any in the area.

Head Testing Center (coming May 2008)
This is truly a unique solution. There are several of drum head manufacturers and dozens of models from each manufacturer. This gives the you literally over a hundred different types of drum heads to choose from. Since each drum head costs an average of $18, it's is expensive for you to refit your entire drum set and you will need anywhere from 5 to 20 heads. The challenge here is for you to be able try out something different. You could end up buying a set of heads based on a recommendation from a friend but not actually happy with the sound of the heads after you purchase them. This tends to discourage the purchase of an entire new set of heads unless it's the same old brand that you're used to having.

We solve this dilemma. The Head Testing Center is an area of the store reserved for testing various models of drum heads. Dozens of drum heads will be installed on identical drums giving you a chance to, for the first time, accurately test and try out numerous brand name heads before buying them. You will get a much better idea of what the qualities of the particular head are like before purchasing several of them.

Legends Library
This is an audio treasure chest. We know it's difficult for you find CDs of your favorite legendary drummers. Even the largest of CD music stores have a limited selection of these hard to find CDs. Most of them have to custom ordered. Just Drums will have stocked collection of CDs of your favorite legendary drummers. We have recordings of Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Dennis Chambers, Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Steve Smith, and many more.

24 Hour email response time
We're standing by to answer questions. Just Drums guarantees a 24 hour response time to all email inquires (except for Sunday). This might seem like a simple and expected service but we know from first hand experience that it's common for retailers to have very slow responses to emails (several days, even weeks) if any response at all. Go ahead - ask us a question and watch how fast we respond.

About The Company

Just Drums, Inc was created by D. Shane Fowlkes. Shane grew up in the Richmond, Virginia area and basically played drums and percussion all his life. Inspired by his father, David Lee Fowlkes, who also played drums, Shane took up drums in grade school. He was very active in the band scene all through elementary, middle, and high school. He competed in state wide competitions, attended honorary "all star" bands, played in orchestral, marching, and in jazz bands. Of course, he played in countless of garage bands hacking away at Rush and Iron Maiden tunes.

After high school, Shane was accepted in the School of the Arts and Music at Virginia Commonwealth University which he attended for a couple of years. Through out all of college and his early 20's, he played in various bands and taught lessons for additional income. Eventually, he began traveling and touring with a well-known regional Rock and Blues act and spent a couple of years traveling up and down the East Coast. Eventually, he would transition out of the career of being a professional musician and developed a successful career in computer programming. He mostly played local gigs around town on the weekends in a local band. Then, at the age of 30, being married and soon to have a daughter, he gave up music for good.

Seven years went by and one day he suddenly realized that he missed it all. So in March 2006, not having any gear to his name (had sold it all), he went out and bought a practice pad and pair of sticks. To his amazement, he had all of his chops back after only a couple weeks of practicing. So, without hesitation, he went out and bought a new kit and has been practicing hard (again) ever since.

Having wished Richmond had it's very own drum and percussion shop all his life, he decided to make one. So after almost a year of research, planning, and a lot of hard work, he opened Just Drums Inc. in February 2007. He set out to make the drum shop he always wished he could visit.