AMS 30th Anniversary

To Our Valued Customers

This year American Musical Supply celebrates our 30th anniversary. We’re very excited to share this three-decade milestone with you, our customers, who are the sole reason we are in business. However, our family’s involvement in the music retail industry extends back much further, with brick-and-mortar stores dating as far back as 1955, spanning four generations of the Hovey family.

Started as “Strings Direct,” a simple guitar string and pedal sales catalog, operated from a college dorm room has grown exponentially over the past thirty years. The early days were a time where catalogs did not have much of a presence in the industry, and what began in a dorm room as a one-page flyer, would later move to a room over a garage and grow rapidly from there.

Thirty years ago, Strings Direct became American Musical Supply along with the introduction of a new 64-page catalog offering all musical instruments and accessories. It was strictly a mail-order business back then, with customers sending cash, personal checks and postal money orders! Along the way we’ve added services to support your needs as AMS customers, such as the original “Easy Payments” that have evolved into a full array of 0% interest payment plans, as well as free 12-month extended warranties, free shipping and 45-day money back guarantees. We built a second, and then a third warehouse, growing from a small single location to well over 500,000 square feet across the country today. We now employ people nationwide with distribution centers in New Jersey, Nevada and Mississippi. Because of this investment your orders typically arrive in two days or less regardless of where you live, and we continue to stand behind every purchase you make, just as we have for three decades.

While you’ll probably recognize the many major artists who appear on the cover of the AMS catalog, it is regular musicians from all walks of life that choose AMS, from the touring professionals to weekend warriors. We would like to express our profound appreciation for our customers and let you know how much we value your loyalty, input and opinion. We truly cherish the recommendations and feedback we receive from each and every one of you, and we listen when you talk to us. We exist because of you, and we will strive for the next 30 years to continue to go above and beyond to deliver what you expect, and deserve, in terms of courteous service and responsiveness. We have built our business on rock-solid customer service and will always put your best interests first. From the bottom of our hearts we want to thank you for your business and the opportunity to serve you for years to come.

Sincerely,

The Hovey Family