SCHECTER Guitars Interviews Drum City Guitarland Ownership

Tim Wenger | September 1, 2014 | 0 Comments

courtesy of Schecter Guitars and Drum City Guitarland

The 4000 sq foot ‘mecca’ to electric guitars has been the winner of our ‘Independent Dealer of the Year’ for eighteen consecutive years.

Founded in 1965 by the late Ronny Kae, the store is now owned and operated by his two sons, Tim and Jason Kae. This Wheat Ridge, Colorado store is known far and wide for their impeccable customer service; before and after the sale. Each instrument sold is meticulously inspected and set-up to the customer’s specs by their in-house master technician Ross Lawson. This type of service seems to be becoming a ‘lost art’ in today’s market, but it does separate Drum City GuitarLand from the norm.

DCGL is the world’s largest Schecter Dealer with over 250 instruments in stock at all times, including a massive selection of Left Handed guitars and basses. The store’s specialty is Custom instruments and they are our largest Custom Shop dealer in the country. You can find over 40 Custom One-Of-A-Kind instruments in stock and ready to ship, or Jason Kae can walk you through ordering your dream guitar from our Custom Shop.

And did we mention? DCGL is now one of our EXCLUSIVE pickup dealers as well!!

To top things off, Drum City was also very instrumental in introducing both Jeff Loomis and Gary Holt to our brand! We had the opportunity to get a little personal with the guys at Drum City GuitarLand and asked them a few questions of our own…

SCHECTER: Here at Schecter, we all have a favorite Schecter Custom Shop model, do you have any one in specific that you’re fond of and why?
DRUM CITY GUITARLAD: I sent a sample photo in to Shigeki ( Schecter master builder) of a carved flamed guitar that I wanted to order for our store stock. You guys did a killer job on it. I did a few of them in different colors. The whole thing was carved by hand.

S: Lets get a little technical, you know we create some pretty incredible Masterworks guitars…if you could build your own concept guitar through us, what would it be?
DCGL: Ross Lawson- PT w/ AAAAA Flame Maple neck, Black Iron Cross inlay, T(b),ST(m),P-90(n), Red Baron Airbrush Graphic
Jason Kae- Alien Aircraft Aluminum 7-string, Crop Circle inlays, Alien Pilot in Space Ship lights up with on-off switch, Spaceship lights light up and you can adjust how fast they move. You made this one for a NAMM Show years ago. Guitar was so off the charts cool. I bought it for my personal collection!

S: We take pride in not only our guitar building, but also in the relationships we make. Can you think of a time that stands out to you, when someone came in looking for a Schecter Custom shop guitar and they left ecstatic?
DCGL: I sold a Left Handed S PT guitar that I had in stock to the late Paul Gray (Bass Player) from Slipknot. I ran into him at the NAMM Show in CA a few years later. He told me that was the best guitar he ever owned. Said it sounded incredible and played even better. Told me he used it to record some tracks on the Slipknot record they were working on at that time. How cool is that?

S: If you know much of our history, you know a big part of it was Schecters’ pickups. Are you looking forward to or excited about any one in specific that we’re loading into our USA guitars?
DCGL: The Pasadena Humbucker is a great sounding pickup. The Z Plus is killer as well. We can’t wait to hear this one: New San Andreas-8

S:You guys have been around, how do you see the future of electric guitars headed?

DCGL: Thanks to my late Father for being super cool, I’ve been selling guitars for the last 30 years. The last few years have been rather tough to sell guitars and drums. Most young kids want to press button on their phone or tablets, EDM rather than play OR learn to play an instrument. When I was a kid MTV played music videos. This really helped sales here at our shop. We need a guitar hero like EVH to come along again, something to get these kids interested in playing. Repairs are still strong as most players are getting their current guitar set-up by our in house tech instead of buying a new guitar.

S: What’s something you would like to say to the family at Schecter and to our players around the world?

DCGL: When a Custom Shop Schecter arrives here at our shop, we all get pretty excited. They are the finest guitars we carry…… hands down. And we carry quite a few! The attention to detail, fretwork, choice of wood, is outstanding!!

Thanks Jason Kae Co-Owner and all the staff at Drum City-Guitar Land Inc. for your time and support! As always keep rockin!