Guitar Center was founded in
Hollywood in 1959 by Wayne Mitchell as
The Organ Center, a retailer of
electronic organs for home and church use. In 1964, after a supplier required him to carry
Vox guitar amplifiers, to continue receiving organs, Mitchell added the amplifiers to his inventory and renamed the store The Vox Center, leveraging
the Beatles' association with the Vox brand. In the late 1960s, as other brands like
Marshall gained popularity, Mitchell renamed the store Guitar Center. ,
Pico &
Westwood By 1972, Guitar Center had expanded to eight locations, including stores in
San Francisco,
San Diego and
suburbs of
Los Angeles. In the late 1970s, Ray Scherr, the General Manager of the San Francisco store, purchased the company from Wayne Mitchell. The 1980s saw a resurgence in "guitar rock," led by bands such as
Van Halen and an influx of
Japanese-produced instruments. This period brought significant growth in guitar sales, prompting Guitar Center to expand nationwide, eventually becoming the largest musical instrument retailer in the United States. , Texas Scherr sold the company in 1996. The following year, with 30 stores on the West Coast and in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, Guitar Center made an
initial public offering of stock and opened more new locations. In 2000, Guitar Center acquired
mail order and
e-commerce retailer '''Musician's Friend''' for $50 million, and claimed the merged company was the world's largest seller of musical instruments. Musician's Friend became a wholly owned subsidiary, with its headquarters remaining in
Medford, Oregon. In 2005, Guitar Center Inc. acquired Music & Arts, the largest band and orchestra dealer in the United States, and merged it with their American Music Group chain of band and orchestral stores. The company was renamed Music & Arts. The same year, Guitar Center, Inc., started The
Fender Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supported music education. In 2006, Guitar Center acquired four stores in Texas from the South Texas and Central/South American company, Hermes. In the same year,
Activision partnered with Guitar Center, and all purchases made during game play of
Guitar Hero, beginning with the second installment, were made in a virtual Guitar Center store. In February 2007, the Musician's Friend division acquired assets of the Indiana-based company Dennis Bamber, Inc., which included band and orchestra retailer Woodwind & Brasswind, plus Music 123 and Lyons Music. In June 2007, Guitar Center agreed to a $1.9 billion buyout from
Bain Capital, totaling $2.1 billion including debt. The deal was led by
Goldman Sachs and amounted to a per-share price of $63, or a 26% premium on the June 26 closing price. The deal was approved by shareholders on September 18, 2007, and closed October 9, 2007. In the same year, Guitar Center began offering equipment rentals in one of their San Diego stores. Rental departments were extended to ten other locations, with plans to offer rentals across the country. In May 2013,
Standard & Poor's cut its debt rating on Bain Capital-owned Guitar Center Holdings Inc. to "
junk bond" status, citing struggles with "weak operating trends." The corporate credit rating on the company dropped from B to 'CCC+'. In April 2014,
Ares Management took a controlling stake in Guitar Center. Bain Capital, Guitar Center's former owner, retained partial ownership of the company, along with representation on the board. According to Mike Pratt, the retailer's previous chief executive, the deal would reduce Guitar Center's total debt and provide it with the resources to expand and invest in its business. In August 2014, Guitar Center opened a new 28,000-square-foot flagship location in
Times Square in
New York City. The opening included a concert featuring
The Roots. The Guitar Center Times Square location became the permanent home of
Eric Clapton's
Blackie Fender Stratocaster, which had been purchased at a
Christie's Crossroads Centre auction in 2004 for $959,000. In April, 2017, Moody's Investors Service revised the outlook on Guitar Center's B2 rating to negative. In the face of flat sales in the musical instrument industry as a whole, Guitar Center became overwhelmed by its $1 billion debt. Guitar Center filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and the Times Square location was closed. On November 13, 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Guitar Center announced that it planned to file for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after negotiating a debt-cutting deal with key investors and lenders. Guitar Center said it had received up to $165 million in new equity, and lenders agreed to reduce its debt by around $800 million. The company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 23, 2020, after a reorganization deal added additional equity and debt capital. ==Guitar Center Legends Collection==