Portland has more than 130 independent music gear makers, and a new advocacy group says most people have no idea.
Music Craft Northwest, which formed to promote the region's instrument and equipment manufacturing sector, found in its 2026 research that the Portland metro area's concentration of music gear manufacturers is six times the national average, according to Willamette Week. The group identified over 130 independent makers in Portland and Southwest Washington, including synthesizer builders, luthiers, and drum, brass and microphone manufacturers.
Music Craft Northwest will hold a free, all-ages launch party Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Jupiter Hotel, 800 E Burnside St., from 2 to 7 p.m. The event is part of ADX Fest, a monthlong festival organized by Art Design Xchange, a Buckman makerspace.
"The makers are the headliners," Jess Brower, a community organizer for the Jupiter Hotel and Music Craft Northwest, told Willamette Week.
The launch party will feature live performances powered entirely by locally made equipment. Featured manufacturers include Benson Amps, Allegra Drums and Ear Trumpet Labs microphones. Local acts Caicedo, the Apricots and Johnny Franco will perform.
A grant from the Central Eastside Industrial Council is sponsoring the event. Chris Benson of Benson Amps and Nalin Silva, owner of production company Silva Sound, helped curate it.
The group's co-founder, Meara McLaughlin, also co-founded MusicPortland and MusicOregon. She told Willamette Week she sees music products as the next major Portland economic success story, a sector that already exists but lacks coordinated recognition.
A separate study backs the broader trend. A Portland State University study that Willamette Week dated to 2023 estimated Oregon's concentration of music instrument and gear manufacturers is double the national norm. Music Craft Northwest's own website puts the Portland metro figure at four times the national average, lower than the six-times figure the group cited in its Willamette Week interview.
The site also counts more than 150 manufacturers across Oregon and Southwest Washington, a broader geography than the Portland-area count of over 130 reported by Willamette Week.
The discrepancies were not explained.
Benson told Willamette Week he hopes the event will push elected officials to support the sector. "The prospect of some real recognition from the city and state governments about our existence may get them to work a little bit harder to make this a good place to have a business," he said.
Music Craft Northwest says it eventually wants to host a multiday business-to-business expo attracting gear manufacturers worldwide. The group also held a recent town hall at Show Bar, moderated by Health Care for All Oregon, where music industry workers discussed access to health care benefits.
