The Guitar Center

You need a fine guitar to enjoy popular genres of music, and you need to know "Guitar Center" to get the finest of guitars. Guitar Center is your place to buy the excellent quality guitars. It is the chain of musical instrument stores, located throughout the United States.

Headquartered in Westlake Village, California, Guitar Center is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in the world. The story of Guitar Center began in 1961 in Hollywood when Wayne Mitchell founded 'The Organ Center' for retailing electronic organs for home and church usage. It became the top retailer of Vox electric guitars and guitar amplifiers, and became 'The Vox Center' in 1964. However, Mitchell once again changed its name, to Guitar Center, when Vox's line popularity declined due to popularity surge of Marshall Amplifier users Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. In the wake of amplifying popularity of rock and roll in the 1970s, Mitchell opened Guitar Center stores in San Francisco and San Diego, as well as several suburbs of Los Angeles.

Ray Scherr took over Guitar Center from Mitchell in the early 70's and operated it from its Westlake Village headquarters until 1996. The sales of guitars surged in 1980s due to "guitar rock" revival led by Van Halen (American Rock Band), Guitar Center flourished remarkably and commenced an ambitious program of expansion across the entire United States. It became the largest musical instrument retailer in the country in 1997, and made an initial public offering of stock.

Guitar Center purchased mail order and Internet retail house Musician's Friend for $50 million in 1999. Guitar Center got further boost in 2003, when one of its principal rivals, Mars Music, the Florida based chain of music stores ceased to exist, leaving Sam Ash the sole competitor.

Guitar Center acquired Music & Arts Center in 2005, and combined their subsidiary Band and Orchestral chain American Music Group into Music & Arts Center. In the same year, Guitar Center set up the Guitar Center Music Foundation, a non profit organization that supports music education.

Guitar Center purchased 4 stores in Texas from the popular South Texas and Central/South American company, Hermes in mid summer 2006. It took over the Indiana based company Woodwind & Brasswind (WWBW), including its sister company Music123 in the February, 2007. In a separate transaction, Guitar Center also did acquire Victor's House of Music in 2007. Presently, Guitar Center's sister companies incorporate Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, and Harmony Central.

Currently, Guitar Center also operates online. The Center has over half a dozen of its online sites offering the finest musical instruments online. If you are looking to buy Guitar Center guitars online, you may buy guitars from musiciansfriend.com, guitarcenter.com, music123.com, musician.com, privatereserveguitars.com, and giardinelli.com. Guitar Center/Musician's Friend employees answer all inquiries as well as ship products for all these sites.

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