GC bankruptcy is official

GregM

GregM

Member
Dear Greg,

Thank you for being a loyal customer of Musician's Friend. We genuinely appreciate your business.

I'm pleased to share that our parent company — Guitar Center, Inc. — has announced an agreement to strengthen their financial structure which will allow us to serve you better for the long term. During this time there is likely to be press coverage, so we wanted you to hear from us what to expect.
  • Our website and call centers are open and available to you as we continue to operate our business as usual.

  • We will continue to serve your needs as usual, therefore customer service, Musician's Friend Rewards, financing and Gold Coverage remain unaffected.
To facilitate this financial restructuring, we will voluntarily file for restructuring under Chapter 11. During this time, we will have ample financing to continue all of our operations without interruption.

Most importantly, we are staying focused on helping more customers make music. We continue to have the gear you want and need, with new gear arriving regularly and we are here to support your musical needs as we have exciting Musician's Friend holiday promotions ready for you!

If you have questions or concerns please feel free to email us at service@musiciansfriend.com or call us at 877-880-5907.​

Ron Japinga

Ron Japinga
Chief Executive Officer
The Guitar Center Company​
 
I know this simply means they'll restructure, but I would love to see this company burn to the ground.
 
My friend just tried to buy a pedal off them, and they wouldn't apply the 15% coupon they sent him, or even the 10% military discount.
He basically hung up after that.
 
I remember when Guitar Center arrived and was Heaven on Earth for those of us that used to have to beg the local shops to even let us touch a guitar with one finger. Then Guitar Center went from Disneyworld to a local carnival, complete with carnies in old rock shirts and the smell of corndog in the air.
 
I switched to Sweetwater after being a long time musicians friend customer around the covid timeframe. Couldn't be happier. I am getting the same prices as I would be at MF, and I get better service.

TBH though I don't really shop a whole lot at either place. I buy everything used other than essentials and expendables. IOW I have not boughten a 'new' guitar or amp in probably over 10 years. I have maybe bought a few pedals on a blowout but that's really it.

The one thing with Sweetwater is that I told my Rep not to call me for their 'do you need a new pair of underwear' calls and that if I need something I will get ahold of him. So far so good.
 
Meh, GC has it's place. Their staff is hit or miss for sure, but I still shop there on occasion for random stuff. Their online used inventory is great, and great return policy.

I also buy stuff from MF for their point system. 15% off coupons plus double points back for the holidays is a good deal. I'm hoping the restructure goes smoothly and they stick around.
 
skullfxr said:
The one thing with Sweetwater is that I told my Rep not to call me for their 'do you need a new pair of underwear' calls and that if I need something I will get ahold of him. So far so good.
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LOL, no doubt. I appreciate their dedication and all awesome but yeah those can get a bit nuts.
 
They had one Fender P bass I really wanted in stock, and it was a floor model that was used heavily. Asked for a 15% discount. Was told no discounts are ever given. Walked right out.
 
one of the only times i've ever absolutely lost my shit in a retail environment was at the Guitar Center in Omaha. I think years of incompetence from them finally just spilled over lol. Looking back on it I kinda feel bad about it, I shouldn't have let them trigger me, but the guys working there were useless tools.

Mixed feelings on this. They've killed a lot of great mom-and-pop stores, but there was a time that walking into a Guitar Center was a magical experience. They had the gear we all wanted that only existed in magazines at the time. Man, that's been a day or two ago....
 
panhead said:
They have done this many times. They need to close they suck.
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It would be a serious problem for working musicians if the most prominent national chain went under. For folks that don't tour it might be whatever but when you're driving from city to city every day GC is the only place you can reliably get strings/sticks/drum heads/etc... when something goes down. 9/10 times the local shop is closed by the time you get in to town or they aren't open on weekdays or whatever annoying thing like that. Small shops are fantastic for locals but tend to be very unreliable for people in town for one night and especially for non-guitarists.
 
I am all for local shops, but GC coming on the scene was both good and bad for the customers. In the 90's the only local shop in my smaller city charged list price. But I do know that GC drove alot of these small shops out of business.

I hope we can get to a balance between big shops and small shops that works. I know the local GC to me stopped doing repairs, which has sent lots of repair business to the small local shops of which I do repairs for one of them.
 
Yeah if there is one thing you need local infrastructure for its guitar and amp repair. I would never trust that kind of stuff to a chain because they never hire people with the requisite experience to work at the store level.
 
There were awesome music stores before GC tookover, lots of used killer gear lp`s marshalls fenders etc. used at good prices. lots of trading too and getting fair deals. Those days are gone but so is rock.
 
I've always had good experiences with GC. When they screw up, you can just return it and walk away.

panhead said:
There were awesome music stores before GC tookover, lots of used killer gear lp`s marshalls fenders etc. used at good prices. lots of trading too and getting fair deals. Those days are gone but so is rock.
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Not sure that's GCs fault. Craigslist and Reverb and eBay all give people other places to sell gear, and they make it easier to figure out the worth of what you have. GC maybe gets more than its share of cool gear because if you're desperate for cash, they will pay at least something on the spot.
 
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