The owner of a long-standing music store is expanding his reach with a new acoustic-focused endeavor.
Anton Krutz, violin maker and owner of KC Strings, officially gave his downtown Merriam shop a new neighbor with a grand opening event for KC Fret Shop over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
KC Fret Shop is at 5826 Merriam Drive
- The shop occupies a space just off Johnson Drive and Merriam Drive, across the street from Strip’s Chicken & Brewing.
- The space for the new acoustics shop was home to KC Strings when it first opened in 1992 — but Krutz moved the shop further down to 5842 Merriam Drive in 1996, turning the original space into an office and storage.
- KC Fret Shop is now open from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. (It’s open on an appointment-only basis on Tuesday and Thursday, and closed completely on Sunday.)
KC Fret Shop offers acoustic and folk instruments
Customers at KC Fret Shop can find instruments like guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and banjos.
Those instruments come in a variety of brands, including KC String’s own KRUTZ line of custom-made instruments.
In addition to new instruments, KC Fret Shop also offers instrument repair services.
KC Fret Shop will also share KC Strings’ venue space for acoustic-focused concerts and workshops.
“There are no really acoustic fret shops for guitars, mandolins and banjos — just music stores that have a couple of acoustic instruments,” Krutz said. “We wanted to provide a specific acoustic shop that had the type of expertise that we can provide for the boat strings and orchestral instruments, and the fretted instruments.”
KC Strings has been in Merriam for more than 30 years
Krutz opened KC Strings in 1992 with his father, who was a professional bass player in the Kansas City Symphony.
At the time, it was one of the first retail tenants to come on board as part of downtown Merriam’s redevelopment.
“We were kind of the first stake in the ground of revitalization of that whole area,” he said.
When the family opened their first store, Krutz said, there weren’t really any local stores that had the musical variety of KC Strings.
With KC Fret Shop, he said, he hopes to fill a similar gap in the local market for musicians with an acoustic focus — from beginners to seasoned players.
“There’s a lot of crossover in terms of knowledge and experience, you know, between (the two stores),” he said. “It just feels very comfortable and exciting to serve a whole group of people that really don’t have a place to go to in Kansas City.”
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