“If you walk through a Guitar Center, you see an awful lot of $300 guitars. If I’m a serious musician, it doesn’t feel like the right place for me anymore”: Guitar Center’s new CEO explains why the firm’s future must prioritize premium guitars
Gabe Dalporto insists the firm needs to “evolve and execute better” in order to survive, and that it has forgotten who its core customer really is
(Image credit: VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
Guitar Center’s new CEO Gabe Dalporto believes “the world needs” the instrument superstore – but has conceded it needs to “evolve and execute better” in order to survive.
Dalporto was named CEO in October, and recently spoke to Music Inc Magazine about his vision for what he hopes will be a brighter future for the firm – one that must place a greater emphasis on high-end gear.
“If you want to experience musical instruments and start off or accelerate your journey as a musician, our customers and vendors need us,” he says. “But in order to earn the right to be here, we need to evolve and execute better.”
As such, he’s discussed why the firm will focus on expanding its premium range of electric guitars, acoustic guitars and beyond.
“Somewhere along the way, we forgot who our core customer was,” Dalporto states. “Our core customer is the serious musician – the gigging artist or passionate player where music is a big part of their identity.
“Over the years, we've evolved significantly into serving the beginner and entry-level customer – which is great – but if you walk through a GC store, you're going to see an awful lot of $300 guitars.
“We have some premium product, but we don't have enough, and it's very hard to experience our premium product because we have our best guitars locked on the top row where you can't easily get to them.
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“So, if I'm a serious musician and I walk into a Guitar Center, it doesn't feel like the right place for me anymore.”
(Image credit: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Instead, Dalporto says customers need to think, “This is a playground. This is where I belong,” when they step foot in any of Guitar Center's 300+ stores.
“And that means having a much more premium assortment that’s more easily accessible where I can get in and grab a guitar and plug it in and try all these pedals and effects and just geek out and have a great time.”
Dalporto also wants to utilize his vast digital business experience to pull Guitar Center out of “the dark ages”.
“Our competition has more engaging content and makes it easier to find and buy the right product,” he continues. However, he adds that Guitar Center has “the most amazing, most passionate people in the world,” and that therein lies a possible solution to their problems.
“We're by far the largest physical retailer of musical instruments in the country,” Dalporto enthuses, “and we've got an incredible brand. We need to get back to basics and deliver an incredible experience, with incredible product and really go and capture the digital world.”
Guitar Center: Up to 30% off Guitar-A-Thon sale There's big money to be saved on everything from beginner gear to premium brands like Gibson, Fender and Martin in the Guitar-A-Thon sale, until 1 May. Offers include a cool $100 off the stunning Fender Player Saturday Night Special Strat, loaded with custom Seymour Duncan pickups. This model and finish is exclusive to Guitar Center, too.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
