About Us

Evolution Music is a family-run music shop. We buy, sell and trade used gear, teach lessons, repair and set up instruments, and rent out what you need for the weekend. If you have played an instrument in the south suburbs or on the northwest side of Chicago, there is a decent chance it passed through our hands at some point.

It started in a basement

Before there was an Evolution Music, there was RT Guitars — Ree Teeter’s shop. He started building guitars at his parents’ house in 1971, when he was seventeen, and kept at it for more than fifty years. His son Jon grew up in that shop and now runs this one.

In 2025, when it came time to move our Orland Park store, Jon went looking for a space near where it all began. Evolution Music in Midlothian is two doors down from where RT Guitars used to be.

Read the whole story →

What we do

Buy, sell and trade — bring in what you are not playing anymore. We make offers on the spot.
Lessons — private instruction and Rock Academy, our group band program.
Repairs and setups — restrings, full setups, and the harder jobs most shops send out.
Rentals — band and orchestra instruments for students.

Come see us

Evolution Music Midlothian
14736 S. Cicero Ave, Midlothian, IL 60445
Call or text: 708-468-8158

Evolution Music Logan Square
2621 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60647
Call or text: 872-206-2485

Evolution Music Rock Academy — lessons only
417 Ogden Ave, Downers Grove, IL 60515
Call or text: 630-541-5022

Help us fill in the history

We are collecting photographs and stories from fifty years of RT Guitars and Evolution Music — guitars Ree built, people who hung around the shop, bands that came through. If you were part of it, we would like to hear from you.

See the photo wall and add what you remember →