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REVEALED: Guitar center - The Real Truth

More people are visiting Guitar Center, but have its stores improved?

How have your experiences in-store changed over the past year? Has the company delivered on its CEO’s promises of improvement? Let us know your thoughts

Guitar World

“Very few people in the history of the electric guitar have pushed the design forward more than Paul”: John Mayer to induct Paul Reed Smith into Guitar Center Rockwalk

The esteemed guitar builder’s dedication to craftsmanship and innovation has been recognized

Guitar World

“These guitars are sacred things to me”: Guitar Center unveils its latest Eric Clapton charity collab, with the 2026 Exclusive Crossroads Guitar Collection featuring stunning Martin acoustics and the return of the Blind Faith Tele

Martin unveils a Brazilian rosewood $24,999 Custom 000-42, PRS paints the Silver Sky blue and more – all exclusive to Guitar Center with a portion of sales going to the Crossroads Centre

MusicRadar

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Guitar Center unveils Crossroads 2026 collection with limited-edition Eric Clapton and John Mayer models: “These guitars are sacred things to me”

An exclusive PRS Silver Sky that will see action at the festival and a recreation of Clapton's Blind Faith Telecaster headline the drop

Guitar World

“We made a lot of decisions that really pissed off our customers”: Guitar Center CEO explains how customer feedback is helping to turn the chain around

Mistakes were made, but now a community of players is guiding its direction , says Gabe Dalporto

Guitar World

Guitar Center names its best-selling electric guitar strings – and there’s a surprise silver medalist

An industry staple claims top spot, but there’s a few surprising inclusions elsewhere in the top five

Guitar World

“I think people got scared to play it”: Guitar Center CEO on why Stairway to Heaven was banned in guitar stores

All roads – or stairways – lead to a scene from a certain 1990s comedy classic

Guitar World

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“Most retailers simply make copycat products and charge a little less. That’s completely uninteresting to me”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto aims to defy skepticism with his new house brand – and insists we don’t need more Les Paul or Tele clones

The CEO’s Guitar Labs ambition – to create an in-house guitar brand that’ll last a century –has its detractors, but Dalporto argues his crowd-sourced approach is essential in achieving such a lofty goal

Guitar World

“We need our community’s help”: California music store appealing for aid following the theft of four Fender Custom Shop Stratocasters

Wild West Guitars is pleading for help recovering the guitars, two of which were made to commemorate its 25th anniversary

Guitar World

“I don’t know how to say this without bragging”: This guitarist butchered classic riffs at Guitar Center to rage bait fellow customers. Then Jack White sent her his guitar

Charlene Kaye's viral videos have bagged her one of the world’s most bonkers signature guitars

Guitar World

“A lot of guitar players are like, ‘Oh, well, Jimmy Page was fine with that, so I guess I don’t need more fret access, or I don’t need better balance’”: Tosin Abasi on the art of designing cutting-edge instruments that keep the guitar’s core

The Kaizen – which Abasi designed in collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man – looks to drag guitar design into a bold new future

Guitar World

“Would you rather we didn’t listen to customers? That we just hide in our offices and listen to some corporate shirts pontificate on pickup choices?” Guitar Center CEO responds to backlash over the brand’s in-house guitar project

Gabe Dalporto gives his take on why gearheads should contribute their ideas to Guitar Center’s new Guitar Lab initiative

Guitar World

“New S-styles from Ibanez? They company probably couldn’t believe its timing”: This week's hottest new guitar gear – including a pedal you can wear on your wrist (sort of)

New AZ models from Ibanez, a fresh baritone for Ed Sheeran, and the final piece of Misha Mansoor's Jackson Juggernaut jigsaw all headline this week's roundup

Guitar World

“We’ve got the company on a good trajectory. Now we’re playing offense”: Guitar Center has joined forces with the founder of Reverb – what does this mean for the retail giant?

David Kalt spearheaded Reverb for six years and has been brought onboard as Guitar Center enters a new era

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“I was on tour, doomscrolling. I got a targeted ad, and it showed a picture of this guitar”: The time Misha Mansoor found his lost Jackson Juggernaut signature guitar in a Guitar Center

Mansoor was left with seller’s remorse until social media saved the day

Guitar World

“You can get a little bit of everything”: Grace Bowers’ tone tips to get the most out of the Gibson SG

There’s one pickup position she hardly ever uses

MusicRadar

“These songs are played a lot. They’re often not played well”: Top 10 riffs played in-store at Guitar Center revealed

And Stairway To Heaven is conspicuous by its absence

Guitar World

“These songs are played a lot. They’re often not played well”: Guitar Center reveals the 10 most-played guitar riffs in its stores – and no, Stairway to Heaven isn’t one of them

CEO Gabe Dalporto surveyed GC staff to discover the riffs that torment them on a daily basis – but some surprisingly big names don’t get a look-in

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Guitar World

“I get a call from Guitar Center in New Jersey. They go, ‘Your Explorer was in here. We just sold it to some guy’”: Richie Sambora hired a private detective to recover his stolen Gibson

Sambora was recently reunited with his prized 1976 Gibson Explorer, 41 years after it was stolen out of a warehouse

Guitar World

Suspect linked to organized crime ring targeting Guitar Center stores across the US arrested

Police in Redmond, Washington, confirmed that the crime at the Redmond Guitar Center location is part of a concerted effort spanning at least three states

MusicRadar

“We are about to do something insane… and you're the designer!”: Guitar Center is launching its own guitar brand and it wants players’ input with its design

CEO Gabe Dalporto wants to build a “a revolutionary guitar” and would like you to slide into his sub-Reddit with some ideas

Guitar World

“Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years. We’re about to change that”: Guitar Center is setting up its own in-house guitar brand – and it’s asking players for their help

Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto says the retailer is going to build “the best guitar that has ever been made”

Guitar World

“I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play”: Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival announces 2026 lineup

Now in its seventh edition, the festival is set to take place in Austin, Texas – and features Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, and John Mayer, while Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage and Pete Townshend are all making their Crossroads debut

Guitar World

“I walked into a Guitar Center one day and took it off the wall. It launched 1,000 ships of people chasing that sound”: The guitar that changed Billy Corgan’s life

It soundtracked two of the biggest alt-rock albums of all time, but as the Smashing Pumpkins leader remembers, the guitar itself was far from expensive

Guitar World

“He said the first guitar was an accident of God. By the fifth one he said, ‘OK, you’re a guitar maker’”: Carlos Santana was one of Paul Reed Smith’s earliest champions – but he thought his first guitars were too good to be true

Smith looks back on his early partnership with Santana in Guitar Center CEO's new 'Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto' podcast

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