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Rhythm Traders
4.8 ★★★★★ 169 Google reviews · Guitar & music store in Portland, Oregon
Sizable storefront featuring snare, African, Latin, acoustic & electronic drums, cymbals & hardware.
Plan your visit
- Repairs & setups a repair bench comes up in reviews and the store's own info — call ahead for turnaround, since good techs run a queue
- Buys & trades used gear they buy, trade, or consign used instruments — bring the case and any original parts, and expect trade credit to beat the cash offer
- Lessons lessons come up in reviews and the store's own info — call about openings, instruments taught, and rates before the first visit
- Instrument rentals rentals mentioned — the usual route for band & orchestra season; ask about rent-to-own credit
- Today see hours ·
- Phone (503) 288-6950
- Website rhythmtraders.com
Hours
| Monday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Tuesday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Wednesday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Thursday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Friday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Saturday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Sunday | 12–5 PM |
What's on the wall
“They both truly demonstrated that they really value our drumming community.”
“I bought a kick drum pedal from Rhythm Traders about a decade ago.”
“and a whole downstairs where you can sort through more rare used drums and hardware as well as some marching percussion.”
“They have an amazing selection of new and used gear, and they are constantly getting new types of gear that challenge me as a 20+ year drummer.”
“I have also started taking drum lessons with James and I couldn't be happier!”
“We had a snare drum dilemma involving our own backwards assumption that the bottom head should be tuned higher than the top head, as well as our inexperience with die-cast hoops.”
What players say again and again
“I bought my drum kit here last year and came in for a tune up last weekend.”
“Even though the place was very busy when we stopped in Nate took the time to fix it all up and was very knowledgeable explaining things.”
“Koby ended up assessing my snare drum which was off of an inexpensive set and provided sound council regarding investing in that particular drum.”
From the reviews
Got a great price on this bad boy a couple weeks back. I had the 20" version of the same model, which was never quite what I wanted it to be. The extra 2" makes all the difference in this cymbal. It is just perfect — speaks well without being overly pingy, and with a fantastic bell sound. Plus it's bendy and malleable.
I have been shopping at Rhythm Traders multiple times over the past month and each time has been amazing! James, Koby and Nate have been so genuine and helpful! I am new to drumming and have thoroughly enjoyed and learned so much each time that I stopped in!
i’ve been coming to this shop for over 25 years. of the drum shops in town, they’re going to have a way better selection of “latin” instruments like congas, cajóns, bongos, timbales, cowbells as well as African(mostly west) percussion like djembes, dununs, and related accessories.
I am so thankful for James and RT!! Over 20 years ago I found this pair of vintage bongos in a second hand store in San Francisco. They just needed new heads. I now have a 3 year old daughter who is expressing major interest in the drums and I wanted to finally bring these back to life to give them to her.
Selling or trading gear at Rhythm Traders
Rhythm Traders comes up for buying and trading used gear — confirmed on their own site. Two things make the trip go better. First, bring the whole package: the case or gig bag, the original tremolo arm or bridge parts, the paperwork if you have it — a complete rig is worth real money more than a bare instrument, and it saves the back-and-forth of "can you bring the case in?" Second, know that trade credit almost always beats the cash offer, usually by a healthy margin — if you're upgrading anyway, price your old gear as a trade against the new one before you take cash. Either way, expect the offer to be below what the gear sells for on the wall; the gap is the store's margin for setup, warranty, and sitting on it until the right buyer walks in.
Lessons at Rhythm Traders
Reviews and the store's own info mention lessons at Rhythm Traders. If you're signing up a beginner (or restarting yourself), a quick call ahead answers the three things that matter: which instruments they teach, whether the schedule has openings at the time you actually need, and what a first lesson costs. There's no wrong first guitar — a good teacher will happily work with whatever you walk in with, and a shop that teaches usually keeps affordable starter instruments and rentals on hand for exactly this reason.
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