Guitar Center Gives Undiscovered Drummers At Chance To Be Noticed

Guitar Center announced recently its Drum-Off Grand Finals, a contest bringing together thousands of the top undiscovered drummers in the nation.

The event, which kicks off on January 5, 2008 at the Music Box at Fonda in Hollywood, California, gives these undiscovered drummers a chance to compete for prizes, national recognition and the bragging rights of being crowned Drum-Off Champion.

The night will be hosted by Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, and will feature performances by the four Drum-Off finalists, as well as Angels & Airwaves, "Go Get A Late Pass!!!" featuring ?uestlove of The Roots, Street Drum Corps with special guests Adrian Young of No Doubt, Brooks Wackerman of Bad Religion, Shannon Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars, John Sawicki of Stomp and Byron McMackin of Pennywise.

"Guitar Center could not be more excited by the artists who are coming out to support the competitors as they come one step closer to being crowned Drum-Off champion," said Dustin Hinz, Manager, Event Marketing and Promotions for Guitar Center. "Drum-Off has become a staple in the drum community and in addition to providing emerging artists the support, encouragement and opportunity they need to succeed, Guitar Center's mission is to promote the development of community amongst drummers, encourage musicianship and further their passion for music."

The competition began over three months ago at Guitar Center stores across the country. Beginning with preliminaries in over 213 Guitar Center stores, drummers then advanced on from store preliminaries to store finals. Winners of store finals then went on to compete at district finals at 24 Guitar Center stores nationwide for the chance to advance on to one of the four regional competitions held at Guitar Centers in New York City, Hollywood, Chicago, and Houston, TX with the winner of each of these regions advancing on to compete to be crowned the Drum-Off 2007 Champion.

This year's winner will receive a prize package valued at more than $45,000 including a Toyota FJ Cruiser, $10,000 cash, a feature in a Guitar Center ad campaign, a $2,500 Levi's shopping spree, a custom designed drum kit from DW, Pearl, Tama or Gretsch, a Roland TD20 electronic drum-set, a set of cymbals custom printed with the winner's signature, a one year drum, cymbal, stick and head endorsement deal, and a write up in Modern Drummer magazine.

Additionally, store, district and regional winners will have walked away with thousands of dollars in prizes from Drum-Off partners.

This year Guitar Center will give one lucky person the chance to win a VIP trip for two to the Drum-Off Grand Finals. Starting on November 1st consumers can enter to win online at GuitarCenter.com. The winner will receive a meet and greet with Angels and Airwaves, ?uestlove and Street Drum Corps, $500 spending cash, a Drum-Off Grand Finals poster signed by artist Shepard Fairey and more.

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