Gabe Dalporto had a huge task ahead of him when he became Guitar Center CEO in late 2023. There is still work to do, but he feels the stores’ recent success has come from player feedback helping steer its ship.
Dalporto joined in 2018, as part of its board of directors, before stepping up five years later. He landed the job after highlighting his expertise in digital transformation, customer acquisition, and overseeing customer service, but it hasn’t been plain sailing.
“We made a lot of decisions that, maybe, in isolation made sense – cut a little cost here, cut a little cost there – [but] in aggregate, really pissed off our customers,” he says of the brand’s early efforts to turn the ship around (via Modern Retail).
Customer feedback became a vital tool. Players sounded off about a lack of knowledgeable sales reps after cost-cutting left many stores understaffed. Store inventory was flipped from 70% entry-level to 70% “serious musician”. And guitars were unlocked and taken down from high hangers.
Events at Guitar Center stores, including one featuring Kiki Wong and Yvette Young, aim to re-establish a sense of community. Billy Idol and Steve Stevens were added to its Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“What we’re trying to do is to engage with all the incredible local musicians in all of our markets locally and provide a national stage for them,” Dalporto explains.
“The last thing we want to be is Best Buy – a completely and utterly standardized national box retailer. We want to feel like the local music store that has deep personal connections with local artists.”
Safeguarding physical stores was one of Dalporto’s key priorities. But more recently, he teased an in-house guitar brand that will be bringing anything but more clones to market.
The shape of its new brand also hinges on conversations with dedicated players. A subreddit called r/GuitarLab was even set up to kickstart conversations.
The idea was to “come build a guitar with us from the ground up,” with questions probed around hardware specs and what players like – and loathe – about guitar controls.
It’s all working towards Dalporto’s dream of making Guitar Center “a theme park for musicians.”
The changes appear to be working. According to Bloomberg, Guitar Center’s most recent quarterly sales are up 5.2%, and the time customers have spent in its 300 US stores has risen 16% year on year. An expected $16 million tariff refund is also set to be a shot in the arm.
