Twenty-eight brand guides to the instruments of the band room — drums and cymbals, drumsticks, mallet percussion, brass and woodwind.
Band instruments are made by a mix of family firms and large music groups. These guides set out who owns each name and where the instruments are made.
Who owns whom
Zildjian, the four-century-old family-owned cymbal maker, owns Vic Firth, which its guide calls the world’s largest stick maker. D’Addario owns Evans drumheads and ProMark sticks. Roland owns DW Drums. Conn-Selmer, under Steinway Musical Instruments, owns Bach, King and Musser, and Besson has been a Buffet Crampon brand since 2006.
Two Selmers
Henri Selmer Paris, the house of the Mark VI saxophone, is a company distinct from the American Selmer that became Conn-Selmer; the two split a century ago.
Still made at home
Some makers stay close to their roots: Vater makes its sticks in Holbrook, Massachusetts; Gretsch Drums are US-made in South Carolina; Marimba One says it builds all its instruments in Arcata, California; and Adams says it makes its concert percussion in-house in Ittervoort in the Netherlands.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Drums, cymbals and heads
Drum-kit, cymbal and drumhead makers.
- DW Drums — The American high-end drum maker that began as a teaching studio, builds its flagship kits in Oxnard, California, and is now owned by Roland.
- Pearl Drums — The private Japanese company that began making music stands in 1946 and grew into what is widely called the world’s largest drum maker.
- Gretsch Drums — The drum side of the 1883 Gretsch name, still family-owned and US-made in South Carolina, with its drum license now held by GEWA Music.
- Mapex — The mid-price drum brand launched in 1989 by Taiwan’s KHS Musical Instruments, an OEM builder that put its own name on the shells.
- Meinl — The family-owned German cymbal and percussion maker whose hand-hammered Byzance cymbals are made in Turkey and whose brass lines are made in Germany.
- Vic Firth — The American drumstick brand founded by a Boston Symphony timpanist, made in Maine and pitch-paired, now owned by Zildjian.
- Evans — The American drumhead brand born from 1950s Mylar experiments, made in the USA and owned by D’Addario.
Drumsticks
Drumstick makers.
- ProMark — The hickory-and-oak stick maker Herb Brochstein started in Houston in 1957, part of D’Addario’s family of brands since 2011.
- Zildjian — The four-century-old, family-owned Massachusetts maker that, alongside its own drumsticks, owns Vic Firth (bought 2010), the world’s largest stick maker.
- Vater — Founded in Boston in 1956 (by Jack Adams and Fred Maichle), now run by the Vater family and, unlike ProMark, owned by no conglomerate, made in Holbrook, Massachusetts.
- Regal Tip — The Niagara Falls brand of Calato, founded in 1958 by drummer Joe Calato, who introduced the nylon-tip drumstick that year (its ownership after Calato’s 2023 death is undocumented).
- Los Cabos — The independent New Brunswick maker Larry and Gillian Guay grew out of their furniture-parts business in 2005, known for its Red Hickory sticks.
- Tama — The Japanese drum brand (formalised 1974) whose owner, Hoshino Gakki, also owns the Ibanez guitar brand, so Tama and Ibanez share one parent.
- Ahead — The aluminum-core stick (with a replaceable sleeve) that engineer Rick Grossman designed at the Easton aluminum company, owned since 1997 by Big Bang Distribution.
Mallet percussion
Marimba, vibraphone and mallet makers.
- Musser — The mallet-instrument brand started around Chicago in 1948 by Clair Omar Musser, a former Deagan engineer, passed through Ludwig and Selmer, made in LaGrange, Illinois until 2013, and now a Conn-Selmer brand in Elkhart, Indiana.
- Majestic Percussion — The timpani and mallet brand that grew from a 1921 Heerenveen music shop, introduced the Majestic name in 1960, joined Taiwan’s KHS group in 2003, and whose mallet instruments KHS says were made in Tianjin, China.
- Marimba One — The Arcata, California marimba maker founded by Ron Samuels in 1986, which says it designs and builds all its instruments and mallets in Arcata and sources Honduras rosewood through its own arrangements in Central America.
- DeMorrow Instruments — The Arkadelphia, Arkansas marimba maker run by Doug DeMorrow, who says he sorts every rosewood bar himself, and which took on the percussionist Gordon Stout as an owner in 2016.
- Malletech — The New Jersey keyboard-percussion maker founded by the marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens, which sold to Zildjian in 1997, was bought back in stages, and joined the Eastman Music Company in 2024 with Stevens still at its head.
- Innovative Percussion — The Nashville stick and mallet maker founded by Erik T. Johnson, trading from 1991–92 and incorporated in 1993, which moved all production to its Nashville headquarters and pitch-matches its sticks.
- Adams Musical Instruments — The Dutch family firm founded by André Adams in Thorn in 1970, which says it makes its concert percussion and brass in-house in Ittervoort, Limburg, with no external investors.
Brass and woodwind
Trumpet, euphonium, saxophone and band-instrument makers.
- Bach — The “Stradivarius” trumpet line begun by Vincent Bach in 1918, made in Elkhart, Indiana, now a Conn-Selmer brand under Steinway Musical Instruments and John Paulson.
- Besson — The cornet-and-euphonium name Gustave Besson began in 1837 and built in London, now a Buffet Crampon brand since 2006.
- Henri Selmer Paris — The 1885 Paris house of the Mark VI saxophone, a company distinct from the American Selmer/Conn-Selmer that split off a century ago, family-run only until a 2018 sale to Argos-Wityu.
- King — The H.N. White Company’s line (named for trombonist Thomas King), maker of the Super 20 saxophone and the 2B trombone, a Conn-Selmer brand alongside Bach.
- Jupiter — The education-focused wind line KHS Musical Instruments launched in 1980, a Taiwanese maker (its pro-brass step-up is XO) that KHS America only distributes in the US.
- Cannonball — The independent, Laukat-family maker founded in 1996, known for the ornately engraved Big Bell Stone Series, designed and hand-customized in Utah.
- Yamaha — The 1887 Hamamatsu maker (reed organs first, band instruments since 1965), a Tokyo-listed public company owned by no parent group, and one of the world’s largest instrument makers.
At a glance: who owns the name and where it is made
Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership and production change; follow the link for sources and detail.
| Brand | Origin | Owner | Where made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adams Musical Instruments | Thorn, Netherlands (1970) | Family business (no external investors) | Ittervoort, Netherlands |
| Ahead | USA (1992) | Big Bang Dist. | USA (rep.) |
| Bach | USA (1918) | Conn-Selmer | Elkhart, IN |
| Besson | France→UK (1837) | Buffet Crampon | Germany/France |
| Cannonball | USA (1996) | Laukat family | Utah (claim) |
| DeMorrow Instruments | See guide | Doug DeMorrow; Gordon Stout (from 2016) | Arkadelphia, Arkansas |
| DW Drums | USA (Oxnard 1972) | Roland | USA + import |
| Evans | USA (Farmingdale NY) | D’Addario | USA |
| Gretsch Drums | USA (Brooklyn 1883) | Gretsch family | USA + import |
| Henri Selmer Paris | France (1885) | Argos-Wityu (PE) | Mantes-la-Ville |
| Innovative Percussion | Tennessee, USA (1991–92; incorporated 1993) | Innovative Percussion, Inc. (founder-led) | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Jupiter | Taiwan (1980) | KHS | Taiwan (rep.) |
| King | USA (1893) | Conn-Selmer | USA |
| Los Cabos | Canada (2005) | Guay family | Hanwell, NB |
| Majestic Percussion | Heerenveen, Netherlands (1921 (family firm); brand 1960) | KHS group, Taiwan (since 2003) | Timpani: Nijehaske, NL; mallets: China/Taiwan (KHS) |
| Malletech | New York / New Jersey (1982–83 (Malletech says 1983)) | Eastman Music Company (since 2024) | Neptune, New Jersey |
| Mapex | Taiwan (KHS 1989) | KHS Musical | Taiwan / China |
| Marimba One | Arcata, California (1986) | Ron Samuels (founder) | Arcata, California |
| Meinl | Germany (1951) | Meinl family | Germany / Turkey |
| Musser | Chicago area, Illinois (1948 (Conn-Selmer says)) | Conn-Selmer (Steinway Musical Instruments) | Elkhart, Indiana (since 2013) |
| Pearl Drums | Japan (Tokyo 1946) | Private | Japan / Asia |
| ProMark | USA (1957) | D’Addario | Houston/TN |
| Regal Tip | USA (1958) | Calato | Niagara Falls |
| Tama | Japan (1974) | Hoshino Gakki | Japan |
| Vater | USA (1956) | Vater family | Holbrook, MA |
| Vic Firth | USA (Maine 1963) | Zildjian | USA |
| Yamaha | Japan (1887) | Independent (TYO 7951) | Japan |
| Zildjian | 1623 (dynasty) | Zildjian family | Newport, ME |
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Vic Firth?
Zildjian, which bought Vic Firth in 2010, according to our guides.
Is Henri Selmer Paris the same company as Conn-Selmer?
No. Our guide explains that Henri Selmer Paris is distinct from the American Selmer/Conn-Selmer, which split off a century ago.
See also our keyboard and reed instrument brand guidelines.
Part of our Audio & Music brand guidelines. See also all collections.