Is Guitar Center a good company to work for?

Guitar Center has an overall rating of 2.8 out of 5, based on over 2,796 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has decreased by 6% over the last 12 months. 41% of employees would recommend working at Guitar Center to a friend and 24% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about Guitar Center have been left by employees working as Music Instructor , Private Lessons Instructor and Music Teacher .

Does Guitar Center pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Guitar Center employees rate their compensation and benefits as 2.4 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Guitar Center. This rating has decreased by 2% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Guitar Center?

41% of Guitar Center employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Guitar Center 2.9 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.7 for culture and values and 2.4 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Guitar Center?

Sales Associate (598) , Operations Associate (86) , Store Manager (81) , Instructor (74) , Lessons Lead (69) , Assistant Manager (61) , Gear Advisor (57) , Retail Sales Associate (57) , Customer Service Manager (47) , Operations Manager (44) , Department Manager (40) , Sales (36) , Repair Technician (34) , Customer Service Manager (CSM) (28) , Operations (28)

What are the pros of working at Guitar Center according to real employee reviews?

"The direct people you work with are great and will help you in any way they can." ((in 234 reviews)); "Coworkers are great and helpful" ((in 150 reviews)); "The benefits are good and that's all I can say." ((in 66 reviews)); "The hours are flexible and based on your availability to GC" ((in 45 reviews)); "We swear like sailors in the warehouse and have a great culture as an ops team." ((in 36 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Guitar Center according to real employee reviews?

"Low pay compared to companies with similar store size Low amount of staff result in poor customer and employee experience." ((in 329 reviews)); "Terrible upper management that doesn't seem to have ever worked in a musical retail environment." ((in 95 reviews)); "Sales associates don't make commission for the first 90 days of employment but are required to make sales and achieve sales goals." ((in 77 reviews)); "Managers make less than $20 an hour in a state in which other companies pay managers $50k." ((in 72 reviews)); "No training to speak of." ((in 50 reviews))

What are employees saying about Guitar Center layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Guitar Center layoffs and their outlook for job security at Guitar Center in 2026.

What are the top reviewed Guitar Center locations?

Westlake Village , Los Angeles , New York , Westlake Village , Indianapolis , Chicago , Nashville , Draper , Austin , Houston , Dallas , Boston , Atlanta , Kansas City , Hollywood , San Jose , San Francisco , Knoxville , Rockville , Las Vegas , Seattle , Miami , Mobile , Salt Lake City , Brooklyn , Plano , Thousand Oaks , Concord , Wilmington , Brownsburg

Guitar Center reviews

2.8

41% would recommend to a friend

(2,732 total reviews)

Gabe Dalporto

28% approve of CEO

24% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.5

Diversity & inclusion

2.9

Work/Life balance

2.7

Culture & values

2.4

Compensation and benefits

2.4

Career opportunities

2.1

Senior management

Guitar Center has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,732 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Guitar Center employee rating is 21% below average for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

3K reviews

3.0

Mar 20, 2012

Many ups and downs but overall, a decent place to earn a living.

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Great environment and cool people. There are great opportunities for self directed individuals. If you a a musician it's like working in a candy store. There's no where better to work if you want to build up a nice collection of cool gear.

Cons

There is a mis guided sense of performance and accountability. The review process seems forced and not very genuine. Upper management is making great strides to correct the errors of the past however this is also accompanied by moving to quickly or not moving quickly enough. Management has a very unclear perception of how the customers view the company as well as how the line level associates view the company.

4.0

Mar 7, 2012

Fast paced, often low reward.

Assistant manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

If you are a musician, it will be tough to find a better place to work. The discounts are immensely helpful when it comes to gathering your gear. However, sometimes it is difficult to find a reward in the (often) large amounts of work you are asked to do. The concept is wonderful: Work in an environment where you are able to sell gear to people who need it. Commission makes sense in this workplace; sell a larger item, see a larger reward. However, this is about where the problems start.

Cons

Although as a GC employee you are working in the largest music retail supplier in the US, you are not readily equipped to sell that merchandise, which leads to the misconception that employees are ignorant. This is often not by choice. Without proper training on new items (which of course is supposed to be covered in the online certifications, but this feels more like homework than actual knowledge building), we are often left without an answer when a customer asks about a new piece of gear. This leads to wasted time using the dreadfully slow computer terminals to locate an answer. We are ill equipped, underappreciated, and under compensated.

3.0

Mar 1, 2012

Better Than Being Unemployed

Operations

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Work with fellow musicians/enthusiasts, random celebrities/celebrities pop in, vacation is easy to get when wanted, awesome discounts on ALOT of music gear, and even home audio equipment from select vendors.... it's a job and that's better than unemployment. lol

Cons

Commission/hourly for Sales seems to be pretty good for the most part, Operations gets treated like slackers, Sales guys are the true slackers, complaining when they cant find stuff, refuse to lift more then 15 pounds, schedule is constantly being changed, workers are more childish than professional, cracking tasteless jokes in front and away from customers.

Viewing 2650 - 2652 of 2,732 Reviews

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Guitar Center

Guitar Center reviews

Ratings by category

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

Many ups and downs but overall, a decent place to earn a living.

Fast paced, often low reward.

Better Than Being Unemployed

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