KC Fret Shop

KC Fret Shop is an acoustic- and folk-instrument shop and repair bench in downtown Merriam, opened in 2024 by the family behind K.C. Strings in the storefront that violin shop first occupied in 1992.

Description

KC Fret Shop sells and repairs acoustic and folk fretted instruments from a storefront at 5826 Merriam Drive, just off the Johnson Drive intersection in historic downtown Merriam.¹² The stock runs to guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, banjos, and mariachi instruments, plus vintage and used instruments and consignment sales; the shop is the flagship retailer for the entire KRUTZ line of fretted instruments.¹

The shop was founded as a deliberate specialist rather than a general music store. Anton Krutz described the gap he was aiming at in December 2024: “There are no really acoustic fret shops for guitars, mandolins and banjos — just music stores that have a couple of acoustic instruments. 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.”²

Alongside retail, KC Fret Shop runs an instrument repair and restoration bench; repair consultations are taken during Monday hours or by leaving the instrument for a callback.¹ The shop also functions as a small venue and community hub, sharing K.C. Strings’ venue space up the street for acoustic-focused concerts and workshops, hosting a monthly jam session led by Jamey Logan on the first Sunday of the month, and publishing a monthly Kansas City acoustic concert calendar on its blog.¹³²⁴

Ownership and history

KC Fret Shop is owned by Anton Krutz, a violin maker and the owner of K.C. Strings, and opened with a grand opening event over Thanksgiving weekend 2024.² The shop is described on its own site as “a proud extension of K.C. Strings.”¹

The address carries the older business’s history. Krutz opened K.C. Strings at 5826 Merriam Drive in 1992 with his father, a professional bass player with the Kansas City Symphony, and moved the violin shop down the block to 5842 Merriam Drive in 1996, converting the original storefront into office and storage space.² KC Fret Shop reoccupies that founding storefront. K.C. Strings was among the first retail tenants of downtown Merriam’s redevelopment — “we were kind of the first stake in the ground of revitalization of that whole area,” Krutz told the Johnson County Post.²

Day-to-day management, the identity of the shop’s repair technician, and staff roster are “.

See also the separate Registry entry for the sibling violin business, krutz-strings.

Links

• Website: https://www.kcfretshop.com/

Services

• Acoustic and folk fretted instrument sales: guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, banjos, mariachi instruments¹
• Vintage and used instruments; consignment sales¹
• Flagship dealer for the KRUTZ fretted instrument line¹
• Instrument repair and restoration¹²
• Accessories: strings, straps, capos, cleaners and polishes, apparel¹
• Lessons¹
• Monthly jam sessions, concerts, and workshops, hosted in the K.C. Strings venue space at 5842 Merriam Dr³²

Sources

Footnotes

1. “About,” KC Fret Shop (official site), accessed 2026-08-26. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Lucie Krisman, “Guitars, mandolins and more — Longtime JoCo music shop expands with acoustic-only store,” Johnson County Post, 4 December 2024. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. “KC Fret Shop Monthly Jam Sessions,” KC Fret Shop (official site), accessed 2026-08-26. URL ↩ ↩²

4. “KC Fret Shop Local Concert Calendar,” KC Fret Shop blog index, accessed 2026-08-26. URL ↩