Karl and Jackie Dieterichs opened Bucks County Folk Music Shop in 1966 in an old farmhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Almost 60 years later, we are still family owned and operated.

We are proud to say that we are the oldest acoustic stringed instrument store in America with the same owner and operator since we first opened.

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s you may have visited our “store away from home” at folk and bluegrass festivals up and down the East Coast; heard Karl and Jackie and their group The Odes perform; or placed an order through our catalogue by sending us (gasp!) a letter. And if you visited our store “back in the day” you were helped by knowledgeable staff with a real love of folk, old time, and bluegrass music.

And if you visit us today you will still find us knowledgeable (heck, some of us are the same people!) with a real love for what we do.

A few of the things that make our store unique are our long-term, very knowledgeable employees (see Our Staff, below) and our extensive, on-site Repair Facility

We don’t just sell the items you see in our store, we also play them, repair them, and even make some of them.

Our Staff

Jackie Dieterichs – Owner, Repairs, Retail

Jackie is co-founded Bucks County Folk Music Shop with her husband Karl in 1966.  As a young girl Jackie was given a Gene Autry guitar and she never looked back. Fast forward to high school where, along with two others, Jackie started The Jay Walkers, a popular folk trio who recorded a 45 during the hey-day of the Cameo/Parkway record label (home to the likes of Chubby Checker and Bobbie Rydell). In 1964 Jackie became the newest member of Karl’s folk and bluegrass group The Odes, where she traveled up and down the East Coast and later made regular appearances on a television show. In 1966 she helped Karl open Bucks County Folk Music Shop and became our first guitar teacher, a position she held on and off for over 20 years. In 1968 she won Best Solo Folk Singer at the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival in Tennessee. During the ‘70s and ‘80s Jackie took time off to raise two daughters, although she continued to teach guitar and Autoharp and would perform in and around Bucks County. In the ‘90s Jackie began working in our manufacturing facility; making bodhrans, beaters (tippers), instrument straps, and Native American instruments. Today Jackie can be found talking with customers in our showroom and working on instruments in our repair shop.

Karl once said, “Jackie has put endless hours of dedication and hard physical labor into the rebuilding, maintenance, and upkeep of our many buildings – not to mention our landscaping, our Buck products, and customer repairs. She is also one fine flatpick guitarist with a voice that will melt a wall of ice.”

Kim Dieterichs – Office, Website, Computer, Retail

Kim is Karl and Jackie’s oldest daughter. As a child she was frequently “put to work” in the store and could be found counting and assembling banjo shoes, sweeping up the repair shop and helping her parents gut and rebuild much of the farmhouse our store is in (although not always willingly!). As a teen and young adult Kim distanced herself from the store – folk and bluegrass music just wasn’t “cool”. Then, in the late ‘90s she came to her senses and returned to her roots.

Karl said, “Kim’s priorities are always in order with her detailed mind and comprehensive notebook. And her explanations to customers and staff leave nothing unanswered in a tone of voice that is endlessly pleasant.”

Karl Dieterichs – Founder

Karl passed in 2023, but his legacy lives on.  He opened Bucks County Folk Music Shop to offer a one-stop-shop for musicians with a focus on folk, bluegrass, and traditional music.  It was important to him that we not just sell instruments, but that we also offer repair services, lessons, and that the folks working here are knowledgeable and have a desire to inform and educate our customers and students.

Repair Staff - Please visit our Repairs Page

Teaching Staff - Please visit our Lessons Page

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