Guitar Center

Taken from the Guitar Center history page on monster.com

The Guitar Center story begins in 1959 when Wayne Mitchell purchased a small appliance and home organ store in Hollywood, California. By 1961, he changed the name of the Company to The Organ Center. In 1964, Joe Banaran, President of the Thomas Organ Company, approached Wayne in search of an outlet to sell a new line of guitars and amplifiers, called Vox. The timing was right, and Wayne saw the chance to seize a new retail opportunity. He was in the midst of relocating his original Hollywood Organ Center location to a new site, and he agreed that rather than closing down the old store, he would stock it with Vox guitars and amplifiers. Wayne renamed the store The Vox Center. By the late sixties, it had become evident that the future of musical instrument retailing lay in guitars and amps, not organs, and The Vox Center was re-christened The Guitar Center.

In 1972, with the Hollywood store going strong, the second Guitar Center opened its doors in San Francisco. San Francisco was a city amidst an explosive musical transition, just exiting its heyday as the 60's "flower power" capitol. The classic building had a charm and character that attracted musicians from all over San Francisco. With a strong presence in two major California cities, Guitar Center opened its third store in San Diego in 1973. This location would later prove to play a pivotal role in the growth of the Company, as it was to become the home of the Guitar Center's first Central Management Office.

The 1970s was a key era in Guitar Center history. Not only was the Company expanding into new markets, it also spawned the rise of three key people who would later become the driving force behind the organization’s success. Ray Scherr started with the Company in 1975 behind the accessory counter of Guitar Center, San Francisco. He was soon recognized for his business savvy and his talent propelled him to a position as the Company's first General Manager in 1977. With Ray’s creative marketing ideas and innovative promotions, the Company’s path to success was on fire. 1977 also saw the arrival of another key player when Larry Thomas began his career with Guitar Center in the San Francisco store. With Larry's personal drive, his organizational skills and a tenacious approach to problem solving, he moved through the ranks quickly and played a crucial role in the development of the Company. In 1979, Marty Albertson started on the sales floor in San Francisco. Melding his intimate knowledge of the music industry with a keen sense of retail business acumen, Marty held a variety of positions in the Company and made major contributions along the way to fuel it’s expansion.

By the end of the 1970s, with a strong management team in place, Guitar Center was well positioned for the tremendous growth opportunities that lay ahead. After establishing a strong retail presence in California, the Company began to focus its expansion efforts on the national stage. The first such challenge was in the Chicago market. However, as the team soon found out, going head-to-head against very well entrenched competitors proved to be an exceedingly tough battle. During a few difficult years, the Guitar Center team endured some hard lessons, but also gained many valuable insights which would spur the generation of new concepts and lead to the development of the extremely successful business model that the Company utilizes today. One such innovative concept occurred in the North Chicago area when Guitar Center converted a location that was previously occupied by a large grocery store. The building, with its high ceilings and open floor space, possessed the ability to support massive merchandising and heralded the onset of the Company’s concept of creating musical instrument "Superstores."

In the 1980’s, Guitar Center enjoyed a steady program of expansion with new stores opening in other states including Minneapolis, Dallas, and Houston. With Company growth on the rise, tragedy struck in 1983 when Guitar Center lost its founder, Wayne Mitchell. Although Wayne’s passing was deeply felt throughout the organization, he left behind a skilled and inspired management team to continue the vision of creating the national music chain he had foreseen so many years earlier.

In the continuing quest towards further growth, by the mid 80’s, the Company's retail strength in the California markets was further solidified with the opening of the Oakland in northern California and two additional southern California locations - Lawndale and Covina. One of the major events of the decade occurred in 1985 with the grand opening of the new 18,000 square foot Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard. In November of that year, amidst gala festivities, the store was dedicated to Guitar Center founder, Wayne Mitchell.

The opening of the Hollywood Music Complex also gave birth to RockWalk, a sidewalk gallery honoring those who have made significant contributions to the music industry. Today, customers who enter the Hollywood Store can share in recognizing the accomplishments of such notable artists as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Doobie Brothers, BB King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Smoky Robinson, Roy Orbison, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Wonder and many more.

In 1997, with the superstore formula firmly in place and the momentum of expansion pushing the Company forward, Guitar Center marked the achievement of a major milestone by becoming a publicly traded company. It was at this point that Guitar Center began a period of growth that would be unprecedented in the music retail industry. New Guitar Center stores were being opened in both large and small markets across the nation at a rate of 1 to 2 each month. Amid great fanfare, store grand openings became major community events, drawing hundreds of kids and adults, local news media, and sometimes major networks like MTV, VH1 & CNN. The Musical Instrument Market was being taken by storm!

In the five year period between 1999 and 2003, the Company nearly tripled in size with the opening of over 70 new Guitar Center retail stores. On the strength of this success, the Company set out to build the business across different segments of the music industry as well. In 1999, Guitar Center acquired Musician's Friend. With corporate offices in Medford, Oregon and large call center and fulfillment house facilities in Salt Lake City and Kansas City, respectively, Musician’s Friend is one of the largest catalogue/Internet distributors of musical instrument products in the country. In 2001, Guitar Center acquired another major player in the industry - American Music Group, based in Syracuse, New York. With 19 stores in the portfolio operating in 8 states, American Music Group is a major retailer of musical instruments in the field of education.

Guitar Center is the nation’s leader in musical instrument retail sales and distribution. With a diversification of music instrument products serving a variety of markets and customer needs, the Company offers a unique retail concept, combining an interactive, hands-on shopping experience with superior customer service and a broad selection of brand name, high quality products at guaranteed low prices. With an ever-growing portfolio of retail outlets and an unparalleled quest to “Help People Make Music”, Guitar Center is strongly positioned to be the best in the business.