Wheat Ridge’s Drum City Guitarland music store is celebrating 61 years of business this year.
A feat in both the small business world and music store industry, owner Jason Kae credits their hard work both at the store and online for the business’s longevity.
Kae and his brother Tim run the business their father started in 1965.
Their father moved to the Denver area from Brooklyn to work in hotel management but shifted into the music business. First starting it from their house, the business then moved into its current building.
A drummer himself, he first started the store as a drum store and added guitars in 1970.
Growing up around the shop, Kae remembers touring bands stopping in for equipment and instruments.
“If the Rolling Stones needed something, The Who needed something, they’d come by,” Kae said. “My dad even had a run-in with Elvis.”
Kae’s father received a call from Lakewood police in the middle of the night asking if Elvis could come to the shop.
Kae remembers his mom dropping him off at the store after school from as early as elementary school. As soon as he got a car he would drive himself to the store—on the days when he wasn’t in band.
“I’ve been here every Saturday since the early 80s,” Kae said.
Kae jokes that he wears his hair long in part because he struggles to get in for a hair cut on his days off, which are Sundays and Mondays.
First launching their website in 1997, Drum City Guitarland was one of the first music stores to open online sales.
Their Instagram account, which features videos of the instruments for sale, has 55,000 followers. Kae also posts daily on the Facebook account and puts videos on TikTok. He posts merchandise on Reverb, which currently has 1,600 listings.
Known for acquiring rare and high quality instruments from all around the world, the Kae brothers sometimes wait years to receive specialty instruments.
Last year John Mayer bought a $15,000 electric guitar from the online store. A week later Post Malone bought a $13,000 guitar.
The answer for their success? Kae thinks it’s in the hard work they put into the business. The business is open five days a week, but the online side never takes a day off.
An employee of the store for six years, Parry Matte has been shopping at the store since he was 15, when his mom bought him a LTD EC-1000 guitar for his birthday. He has worked at the shop for six years and says it stands out from the other retail jobs he’s held.
“It’s the most wild thing because it’s so old school in so many ways,” Matte said about the store. “It feels like you’re in a time capsule, but they’re operating at such a high level in 2026. I think that’s part of the charm of it.”
The store still uses an old school calculator instead of a POS system, and customers often question if they can even pay with cards. The receipts are handwritten.
“I don’t know if my wrists like that, but it’s cool,” Matte jokes.
One of his favorite aspects of working at the shop is meeting customers who have been shopping there since they were kids. Some customer relationships span 60 years.
Customers feel comfortable staying at the store for five-hour stretches to visit with the Kae brothers and find their next instrument.
“I love musicians,” Kae said. “Growing up in the 80s with MTV, I just love music. I love guitars. I love drums.”
Behind Kae’s desk hangs a pricey guitar modeled after every ding and scratch of one of Eddie Van Halen’s guitars.
The shop is known for setting up and inspecting new instruments for customers before they receive them, a service offered by few music stores.
The store’s guitar tech, who has worked with the business for 40 years, sets up the guitars—whether it’s worth thousands or a couple hundred dollars.
“We make sure they’re playable,” Kae said. “That’s what we’re known for. All these guitars have been gone through because Colorado is so dry. Sometimes wood does crazy things when it comes here.”
The shop rarely sees a return because of this business practice.
Without children to give the business, the Kae brothers are thinking about retirement and what it will mean for Drum City Guitarland.
“It’s going to be weird when I do,” Kae said.
When he’s not working Kae enjoys his hairless cats and playing drums along to 80s music.
