Small Business, Big Passion

Supporting Local Music Communities

El Cajon Guitars and Music is more than just a music store—it's a family-owned business dedicated to serving our local community with personalized service and expert knowledge.

As a small, owner-operated business, we take pride in:

• Providing exceptional customer service with a personal touch
• Supporting local musicians and music initiatives
• Curating a selection of high-quality instruments and accessories
• Offering expert repairs and maintenance services

When you shop with us, you're not just buying a product—you're supporting a local family business that is passionate about music and committed to our community.

El Cajon Guitars and Music - ECGMusic.com is a small guitar/music shop owned and operated by Maria and Cogliano.  Against all logic, we decided to create our small brick and mortar traditional “mom and pop” shop located in east San Diego county and in the age of online sales.  

Our first shop was a very small space partitioned off of a local donut shop.  With only around 750 square feet, it is a miracle that we survived the first few years in that space.  But, we had many meaningful moments there and created a space that was a destination for many nice people and musicians of all ages and levels of experience.   We’ve had many days with low or no sales, and it can be a daily struggle to survive in our space, and we realize this is a hard time in general for the industry.  We often say that our payment is seeing the smiles on the faces of the nice people that choose to come to our shop to purchase the strings, straps, and instruments.  We consistently encourage student learning and growth in the musical arts and serve as a resource for them and their families.  Daily, we specifically tell them to stay away from drugs and choose to study and practice playing an instrument.

We have earned a reputation for providing excellent customer service and we are proud to be a shop that offers lessons and repair services.  We actively seek opportunities to be resources for local bands and church musicians.  Local bands have performed in our shop, on our youtube channel, and on our  instagram.  We are always trying to find them opportunities to play at local businesses and help them with their careers.  
We’ve sent neighborhood kids home on bikes and skateboards with guitars and amps.  Maria has caught some of these moments on video on instagram and it brings a lot of joy to us to see them so thrilled.  Many have already turned into passionate young musicians that bring their younger brothers and sisters to the shop.  There are amazing moments when musicians of all ages are playing music together and discussing important aspects of life and music.  Many of our discussions are about the importance of music, education, working hard, while staying away from drugs.  

We are proud of the reputation we are earning.  This reputation is reflected in numerous positive google reviews such as; 

“Vibrant, engaging and lively.  From start to finish and a very fun shopping experience the owners are very knowledgeable and very fair on pricing.  Far superior to a major retailer like guitar center or Samuel Ash, a local business done right. I will definitely be back.” -Gerren Hall 

“Everyone working was so nice, helpful, and knowledgeable. Got a great guitar and will be coming back to try some accessories.” - Eli G 

“I was impressed by the personal attention I received from Frank and Maria, the shop owners. It's the kind of place you can walk into not knowing anyone (or anything about guitar for that matter) and leave feeling empowered and excited to try something new. They have a wide selection of guitars and equipment too. I'm glad to say I found a local one-stop shop instead of wasting time on the internet trying to understand something that should be experienced in person - music!”  - Michael W. Chandler 

“I was literally wowed at Frank and Maria’s store and their customer service. These 2 know their stuff, and are so kind and gracious with helping the mom of a couple budding musicians, I felt welcomed and left informed. I find it rare to develop such a strong and trusting relationship in such short order, but Frank and Maria are the real deal. They truly are happy to see each person that walks in the door, they greet their customers as though they’re all long lost friends, and it’s honest and authentic. I cannot recommend El Cajon Guitars and Music enough!!” & “Frank and Maria's level of customer service is one of the things that will make many people come back. I haven't seen a storefront on Main Street in El Cajon with this much passion in many years… They are revitalizing downtown El Cajon one very nice guitar at a time…” &  ”These owners have a great passion for music and people.” - Kimberly Stanford 

One morning, Jerry Douglas, Tommy Emmanuel, and Daniel Kimbro came into our little shop just before playing at the Magnolia Music Venue.  It was a surreal moment for us to meet some of our greatest personal heroes, people that are so gifted that they are absolutely the best at what they do.  To be able to talk with them in our small music shop was one of the best days of our lives and an example of the kind of magic that can only happen in a music shop.  We love telling our customers about that day and how the world’s greatest musicians are as nice and as kind as they are amazingly talented.  These moments inspire us and our customers in unquantifiable ways.  We tell them that we love these “stars” because they are real people with kind hearts that have not let their status as “stars” change them away from being the intelligent people of Faith and kindness that they exemplify, and that our hopes for them is that they become “rich and famous, while being like Jerry, Tommy, and Daniel.”  

Another meaningful day occurred this last year when we took a number of instruments to a small church in Tijuana.  The young preacher there was teaching a group of young teens how to play guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards.  It was another memorable and meaningful day.  They were thrilled to have some new gear to play and learn on and it was a joy to see them happy.  It was a reminder to us about the importance of music and access to quality gear and lessons.  We hope to have more opportunities to see these kids and meet as many as possible, soon.  

As we work toward a future, we hope to take the lessons from the last couple of years, build on them, and create more special moments for as many people as we can.  We are in the process of trying to find a larger space, with parking, and more lessons, performance, practice, repair, and retail space so that we can expand our abilities to serve the community in as many ways as possible.  

Our current website format, ECGMusic.com, is with Shopify and it is our 4th attempt at a website in 3 years.  We enter all of the photos, descriptions, pricing, and information ourselves, and it is a lot of work for two people to keep up on.  But, we are hopeful that it will  help us generate additional necessary sales so we can survive in an environment dominated by the large online corporations.  If you are reading this, we greatly appreciate you finding our small business.  We are always happy to special order, create new products, and price match.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

Although it is a struggle to operate a small music retail business today, we continue with our mission of educating the public about how to achieve their musical goals, with affordable quality instruments and instruction at a local shop.  We would love to be able to continue to exist and grow so that we can achieve our shared goals of strengthening the music products industry and promote the pleasures and benefits of making music throughout the broad community.  Thank you for your consideration.  Sincerely, Frank and Maria = ECGMusic.