Guitar Center, the country’s largest guitar retailer, is getting into the guitar-building business.
CEO Gabe Dalporto announced the project via TikTok, framing it as an open, collaborative process with customers. “We are about to do something insane,” he said in the video. “We are going to build a revolutionary guitar and guitar brand from the ground up. Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years, and we’re about to change that.”
The company has set up channels on Instagram and Reddit to collect player feedback, asking guitarists to weigh in on three questions: what frustrates them most about current guitars, what they love about the best guitar they’ve ever played, and what they wish a guitar could do that remains uncommon today. Prototypes, Dalporto says, will be shared publicly as the project develops.
@guitarcenter It’s time to throw out the rule book and build a new guitar with no constraints, and you’re the designer! Follow @ gdalporto on Instagram to stay tuned in the guitar building journey, and join the subthread, r/GuitarLab, on Reddit to see the whole conversation unfold—link in bio. ——— By submitting your idea, design, suggestion or feedback (collectively, “Idea”), you affirm that your Idea is your original creation, and that any Idea submitted by you is wholly original and owned by you, and cleared for use by Guitar Center, Inc. (“Guitar Center”) without the need for additional licensing. By submitting your Idea, you assign, transfer, give and relinquish to Guitar Center all right, title and interest in and to the Idea or any material based upon or derived therefrom for no consideration. Guitar Center may use and exploit, without any payment or attribution obligation of any kind, any Idea you provide to Guitar Center. You waive any moral and similar rights you may have in such Idea. If requested by Guitar Center, you agree to execute and deliver all documents needed to confirm the assignment and transfer of your Idea to Guitar Center.
♬ original sound - Guitar Center
Early response on the subreddit has been a mix of genuine engagement and some skepticism. On the constructive side, players have floated ideas ranging from hot-swappable pickups and onboard effects modules to better trem systems, piezo integration, and carbon fiber neck reinforcement as standard features. Several respondents pushed for sustainability in materials, smarter electronics layouts, and pricing accessible to working musicians rather than boutique buyers.
The subreddit does include standard IP disclaimers: submitted ideas become Guitar Center’s property, with the company retaining the right to use them without payment or attribution, and contributors waiving moral rights to their submissions. The terms generated conversation in the thread, along with broader questions about whether crowdsourcing guitar design can produce something truly new—or, as one commenter put it, something closer to Homer Simpson’s car.
Guitar Center has not yet elaborated on manufacturing plans, pricing, or other specifics.
For now, Dalporto is leaning into the ambition. “Be part of the biggest guitar innovation since Les Paul nailed a neck and pickups to a railroad tie,” he wrote. Players can follow the project and submit ideas at r/GuitarLab on Reddit; updates are also being posted to @gdalporto on Instagram.
