Hoshino Benelux will be the official Promark drumsticks distributor for the Benelux from January 1st, 2015. The Benelux part of the Hoshino Company already distributes major brands like Evans, Ibanez, Hughes & Kettner, Puresound, Tama and Zildjian in the region that includes The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Our guess is Promark decided on working with the Hoshino Company because former sticks importer, PB Music, recently went bankrupt. Promark is a D'Addario company.
Promark has a wide range of drumsticks and mallets. Their catalog includes: Drum Set Sticks, Concert Sticks, Marching Sticks, Marching Mallets, Timpani Mallets, Concert Bass Drum & Gong Mallets, Keyboard Mallets and a range of what they call 'Alternative Sound Sources,' like brushes, rods and timbale sticks.
Well known artists playing Promark are Evelyn Glennie, Neil Peart (Rush), Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour), Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall), Simon Phillips, Mike Portnoy (Winery Dogs), Anton Fig (Ace Frehley, David Letterman) and Wilco's Glenn Kotche.
Anton Fig on why he plays Promark drumsticks
The Hoshino company The Hoshino company was founded in 1908 by Matsujiro Hoshino originally as the Hoshino Shoten bookstore which mostly sold books and sheet music and then gradually over the years also began to import musical instruments into Japan. Matsujiro was succeeded by Yoshitaro Hoshino.
From 1929 Hoshino imported Spanish guitars of Salvador Ibáñez é Hijos, resident in Valencia, which company was bought in 1933 by Telesforo Julve, also from Valencia. In 1935, Hoshino began manufacturing their own stringed instruments, using the name Ibanez Salvador, later shortened as “Ibanez”. The company had little presence in the Western world until the mid-1960s.
In 1957 Hoshino Gakki manufactured what would be considered the first of the modern era Ibanez guitars. In 1962, Junpei Hoshino, Yoshitaro’s son, opened the Tama Seisakusho factory to manufacture electric guitars and amplifiers. The Tama Seisakusho factory produced a line of guitars that included clones of several popular guitars, including the Martin Dreadnought.
At the time they were also manufacturing Star Drums, available in either the Imperial or Royal models. Hoshino Gakki stopped making guitars at the Tama Seisakusho factory in 1966 (but continued making drums) and from then on contracted outside guitar factories, like their main factory and exclusive one in Japan, FujiGen, to make guitars.
