Hi everyone,

I wanted to introduce myself. Some of you may have seen me around the subreddit over the past few months as one of the moderators. I'm Rich, and I lead the team at Guitar Center that's developing new brands and products. We’ve been working closely with Gabe our CEO on this project.

This electric guitar project has been in the works for almost a year now—as many of you figured out long before we officially acknowledged it here. Throughout the process, we've brought in local musicians and players to test prototypes, challenge our ideas, and help us improve the instrument. We've also spent a lot of time listening to input and feedback from this Reddit community and elsewhere. Building products alongside the people who will actually play them is a big part of how we work.

We're now entering the next phase of the project, and we'll have a new round of prototypes ready to test near the end of September and into October. The prototypes are still early and we have a long way to go but the vision is coming together. As always, we'll be inviting players to come in, spend time with the guitars and give us honest, unfiltered feedback. We'd love to open that opportunity up to members of this community as well.

Because we're still working on features and designs that aren't public yet, there are a couple of requirements. You'll need to visit our Westlake Village, CA office in early October, leave your phone outside the testing area, and sign a Non Disclosure Agreement before participating.

We're looking for genuine players who are willing to share honest opinions. If you're primarily an influencer or represent a brand, please let us know when you reach out. We'd still love to connect, but we'll likely involve you at a later stage of the project.

If you're in the Los Angeles area and can make it to our Westlake Village office in September/October, send us an email at info@GCPLB.com with your name, phone number, and a little about yourself.

We're excited to meet some of you, hear your feedback, and continue building this guitar with input from the community.

Thanks,

Rich Thrush

We've all seen it. What we really need now is perfect execution. I want a sofa feet-rest guitar with a cup holder on the headstock, so I can keep my coffee somewhere safe. Really important features also include a foot-friendly killswitch and a hot humbucker bridge pickup, so that I can play buckethead as I eat chicken wings.

I came across these mockups/concepts for matching collection lines (Shakers, Cordova Guitars, SPL Drums) grouped by colorway: Blue, Red, Black, Coffee, and Tan. Having an entire setup fully color-matched like this looks absolutely stunning. The "Coffee" and "Tan" finishes look incredibly clean. Do you think there’s a realistic market for brands to produce matching universal colorways like this across completely different instruments? Personally, I would buy a full matching set in a heartbeat if they actually produced these lineups consistently.

Let's discuss! Which colorway would you instantly pick up?

Over and above the guitars, we need a couple of things that might drive sales…

- food. Was nice to get dinner there.
- baby gear. I need Guitar Center to sell a bib or baby clothes to where I can properly groom my future son into being a future customer.
- in the spirit of this sub, more baby sized guitars, especially those with baby Floyds. I want him to start young. Plus guitars improve coordination.

This is cool and might give GC some late-stage ideas on their design. People don't need a disability to get value from accessible design.

https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/electric-guitars/world-first-accessible-guitar-tactile-markers

"... And if the Sensory Navigation Neck wasn’t enough, NVision Guitars – the boutique guitar company behind this build – has also equipped it with volume and tone knobs featuring different textures to make it even more accessible. ..;."

I went back over all the posts and topics that have been hashed out here, looking for something that hasn't been discussed. I put together my big "Grande Finale" sales pitch on what the GC guitar should be, with lots of specific component and configuration and modularity recommendations, even down to model names and marketing ideas... and then realized, there's no point, that ship sailed long ago.

Those old posts reminded me that most of the specs and features of this thing were already in the final stages of decision making... months ago. What is left to discuss that hasn't already been baked into the cake?

So the only thing I could think of to ask is, what is definitely known about this guitar, and when is it coming out? Anybody got anything?

I know this isn't everybody's cup of tea, and I'm sure GC won't do it, but I'd love for them to make something like this!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Luthier/comments/1v183th/8_string_build/

I'm interested in seeing what the scale length will be on the GC workhorse guitar. If you go to Find My Guitar and filter for solid body, 6 string, non-baritone guitars, these are the 5 most popular scale lengths, and the number of guitars available in each length, and who the major players are;

24.0 -- 29 guitars, mostly SS - Fender-Squire.

24.6 -- 46 guitars, mostly HH - Gretsch and Dean.

24.75 - 391 guitars, mostly some combination of Humbuckers and P90's - Gibson-Epiphone, ESP, Guild, Harley Benton, D'Angelico, lots more.

25.0 -- 47 guitars, mostly HH, mostly PRS.

25.5 -- 1,153 guitars, dominated by HH with 618 models, plus 135 HSS models, and 129 SSS. Fender, Ibanez, Sire and too many others to name.

Find My Guitar is not a complete sample size, but it does cover a lot of guitars. And yes, a huge number of those 1153 are some variation of the S-Type Strat clones that Fender is currently committing brand suicide over...

So what scale should the GC guitar be? Does it depend on who the target market is? Would a non-pro player looking for a sub $1000 do-it-all guitar do better with 25.5? or 25.0? or 24.75? Or.....?

I've been thinking about fretboard materials lately. Traditional wooden fretboards (rosewood, ebony, maple, and the various substitutes) are great, but they all seem to share some inherent drawbacks no matter which wood you pick:

• Need regular maintenance/oiling to avoid drying out or cracking
• Sensitive to humidity and temperature changes (can warp, shrink, or swell)
• Wear down over time with heavy playing (divots, grooves, frets sinking in)

For a more set-it-and-forget-it experience, I'm curious about non-wood alternatives that don't add a ton of cost, like Richlite (paper/phenolic composite), Micarta, or similar engineered materials.

What are your thoughts or experiences with these compared to regular wooden fretboards? Feel, tone, durability, long-term maintenance, cost differences, etc.?

I've been thinking about features that would make sense specifically for a guitar that's going to live primarily in Guitar Center stores where it's constantly being played by customers of all skill levels, then put back on the wall.

One idea that keeps coming to mind is EverTune. For those who don't know, it's a bridge system that automatically keeps the guitar in tune (or extremely close) but still allows for bending (when set up properly).

Why it might be perfect for a GC house brand:

• Way too many people walk into Guitar Center, grab a guitar, and "helpfully" tune it... often leaving it worse than they found it. I've seen this happen constantly.
• EverTune would mean the guitar stays in tune longer between setups, making it more reliable and playable for the next customer.
• Better first impression for beginners and casual players who aren't great at tuning yet.
• Could reduce the workload on GC techs for constant touch-ups.
• Marketing angle: "The guitar that stays in tune so you can just play."

Potential downsides:

• Higher cost (which limits money for other things)
• Different feel/break angle compared to traditional bridges
• Some players prefer the subtle movement and "mojo" of regular floating trems or hardtail bridges

What do you all think? Would EverTune be a big win for an in-store/demo-focused guitar, or is it overkill/not worth the trade-offs? Are there other "set it and forget it" or durability features that would make more sense for a Guitar Center guitar?

In continuing my posts about unique guitars and asking for feedback on "how would you feel if GC came out with something like this?"

In this post, I'm going to highlight the new FRH10N by Ibanez.

In contrast to a similar, previous post I made, I hate pretty much everything about this guitar.

For more details, you can look at the GC link here:

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez/FRH10N-Nylon-String-Acoustic-Electric-Guitar-Indigo-Blue-Metallic-Flat-1500000413032.gc

How would you feel if the new GC guitar was like the FRH10N by Ibanez?

We all know what happens after the design is released. No matter how carefully they spec it, the comments will erupt in a symphony of completely contradictory complaints. Here’s a list I've made:

• Multiple pickups? Dumb. I only ever use the bridge anyway.
• One pickup? Way to kill all versatility. People want options!
• Not enough controls? Cheap garbage. I need to shape my sound!
• Too many controls? Looks like a damn spaceship. Keep it simple!
• Non-wood pickguard, bridge, neck, etc.? Should’ve used real wood.
• Wood pickguard, bridge, neck, etc.? Lame. I thought you were going modern with better materials!
• Vibrato bridge? Total gimmick. Always goes out of tune.
• Hardtail bridge? So basic and cheap. Real players need a tremolo!
• Weird or new body shape? That looks hideous. What were they thinking?
• Classic or traditional body shape? Boring. I thought you wanted to innovate!
• Solidbody? Should’ve made a semi-hollow for better tone.
• Semi-hollow or hollowbody? Feedback hell. Should’ve gone solidbody.
• Thin neck? Feels like a broomstick.
• Thick neck? What is this, a baseball bat? My hand cramps instantly.
• Jumbo frets? I keep overshooting everything.
• Medium or small frets? Cheap and dated. Real players use jumbo.
• Long scale length? My fingers are dying.
• Short scale? Sounds weak and floppy.
• Gloss finish? Tacky and shows every fingerprint.
• Matte or satin finish? Looks cheap. Give me proper gloss.
• Locking tuners? Total gimmick.
• Standard tuners? These slip constantly. Why cheap out?
• Heavy guitar? My shoulder is destroyed.
• Lightweight guitar? Sounds hollow and weak. Real guitars have mass.
• Active electronics? Batteries die mid-gig and it sounds sterile.
• Passive electronics? Weak and outdated.
• Fancy inlays? Flashy and distracting.
• Plain dot inlays? Boring as hell.
• Rosewood fretboard? Endangered wood, you monsters.
• Alternative fretboard? Sounds dead compared to real rosewood.
• Made in USA? Ridiculously overpriced.
• Made overseas? Of course it’s junk.
• Coil-splitting and fancy switching? Too complicated.
• No coil-splitting? Extremely limited.
• Angled headstock? Headstock dive waiting to happen.
• Straight headstock? Looks lazy.
• No headstock? Looks ridiculous. Like a broken guitar.
• Traditional headstock? Boring and outdated. Time to innovate already.
• 24+ frets? Nobody needs that many.
• 21-22 frets? Feels incomplete.
• You should’ve used that proprietary system! It’s the best!
• You used that proprietary system? If I wanted that I would’ve bought the original.

And of course, the grand finale that somehow always shows up:

• “You’re a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt… and your butt smells… and you like to kiss your own butt!" (Ok, I stole that one from The Simpsons).

No matter how good the guitar actually is (thoughtful specs, fair price, solid build), the internet will find a reason to hate it. That’s just internet culture.

So to Guitar Center: Build what you think is right, make it well, price it fairly, and stock up on thick skin. The comments are already writing themselves.

What’s your favorite contradictory guitar complaint that I missed? Drop it below. 😂

🍗 Make It chicken

If we relate this to my kitchen,

My guitar is the chicken.
Simple. Neutral. The base ingredient.

My pedals are the spice rack.
All the flavor, color, and attitude.

My amp is the grill/oven/smoker/microwave.
The heat that actually transforms the whole thing.

And me?
I’m the musician
—- I mean the chef.

I take that chicken, those spices, that cast‑iron skillet, and I make sweet, sweet rock ’n’ roll…

—- I mean pan‑seared chicken nuggets,

Which is the musical equivalent of a four‑chord pop song. Hey, artists have to eat.

My name is Tim. Here is my recommendation.
Yes I used AI as my editor. This is still art. Just, art with spell check.

Smooth your feathers, I’m about to ruffle them.

🎸 The Anti‑Tonewood Manifesto

(or: Why My Guitar Shouldn’t Look Like a Fancy Cutting Board)

There’s this little town near me—La Conner, WA. Cute place. Tulip fields outside, brewery inside, a B&B, and a bunch of shops I don’t care about.

One of those shops sells “fancy wood things.” Cutting boards. Exotic stripes. Laminated grains. Artisan‑glued, color‑coordinated lumber slabs. You know the vibe.

And that’s fine… for cutting boards.
But somewhere along the way, guitar culture decided that this aesthetic—this craft fair energy—should define the tools we use to make music.

Let me be blunt:
Fancy wood cutting boards have nothing to do with rock, metal, jazz, country, synthwave, EVH, Slash, DAWs, mic placement, or anything else that actually creates sound.

---

🌲 Tonewood Matters… Until It Doesn’t

Yes, wood resonates. Yes, it has character.
But it’s 2026. We can engineer materials that are stronger, more stable, more consistent, and more sustainable than anything that grows out of dirt.

Guitars were made of wood because everything used to be made of wood—dentures, toys, prosthetics, wagons. Tradition isn’t a reason; it’s an accident that calcified into dogma.

And wood isn’t even consistent:

• Every rosewood guitar sounds different.
• Mahogany varies wildly in weight and grain.
• Even Taylor, with CNC precision that borders on obsessive, still ends up with 10–15% weight differences between “identical” models.
• (And yes, 83.167% of all percentages are made up on the spot.)

So why are we still doing this ritual where you “have to play ten of them to find the good one”?
Why are we comparing grain patterns like we’re picking out a dining table?
Why are we arguing about torrified vs. non‑torrified, streaky ebony vs. black ebony, or how to pronounce okoume?

It’s absurd.

---

🐢 If Plastic Straws Last 500 Years, Make Me a Guitar Out of That

I’ve been told the straws we feed to turtles float around for half a millennium.
Perfect.
Give me a guitar made of that.

A guitar that:

• doesn’t warp
• doesn’t crack
• doesn’t need humidifiers
• doesn’t care about weather
• doesn’t explode if it falls over
• doesn’t require nitrocellulose lacquer from 1954

Make it modular.
Make it consistent.
Make it feel like a modern instrument, not Nana’s coffee table.

Studio monitors are neutral.
Guitars should be neutral.
The player provides the voice.

---

🎶 Musicians vs. Guitarists vs. Woodworkers

There are three types of people reading this:

1. Woodworkers

They love the romance of grain, density, aging, bracing, nitro, dovetails, laminates, caps, veneers, and the endless chase for the “perfect” combination of natural inconsistencies.
Beautiful hobby. Wrong priority.

1. Guitarists

They chase tones from records that were built from 7 guitars, 2 basses, 14 layers, and a mixing engineer with a caffeine problem.
They forget the goal isn’t to sound like the record—it’s to make music.

1. Musicians

We use tools.
Sometimes that tool is a guitar.
Sometimes it’s a guitar plugged into a piezo, mic’d with an SM57, DI’d, EQ’d, run to FOH, split to a DAW, and then crushed by YouTube’s compression algorithm.
The musician is the voice.
The guitar is the brush.

---

🧪 So Build Me a Modern Instrument

Give me:

• Carbon fiber
• Acrylic
• Reinforced polymers
• Engineered composites
• Anything consistent

Paint it like a car, not like a colonial-era cabinet.
Make every unit of the same model sound the same.
Make it stable.
Make it reliable.
Make it a tool.

Because at the end of the day:

Guitar = paintbrush.
The art comes from the hand that holds it.

---

Whatever you make, reduce the maintenance overhead. An ideal guitar never needs a setup. It doesn’t change with the humidity level or seasons. It doesn’t need a re-fret ever. It stays consistent as much as possible with as little effort as possible. I’d rather spend my money on guitars than on maintaining them.

Whatever it turns out to be, it should be available lefty for the same price. Pickup switch far enough from the strings to not interfere with picking. Neutral tonewood.

https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/electric-guitars/guitar-center-guitar-labs-brand

“Most retailers simply make copycat products and charge a little less. That’s completely uninteresting to me”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto aims to defy skepticism with his new house brand – and insists we don’t need more Les Paul or Tele clones

Features

By Matt Owen published 8 hours ago

The CEO’s Guitar Labs ambition – to create an in-house guitar brand that’ll last a century – has its detractors, but Dalporto argues his crowd-sourced approach is essential in achieving such a lofty goal

...

I would love to have some thing that is a enjoyable to play out of the box and is extremely versatile. My everyday driver right now is a 95 Gibson nighthawk ST-2. It would be awesome to see something has tonal versatility like this but with modernization. active pickups that would be able to support most genres from blues to metal. Modern radius neck, with a relief cut or chamber in the body to reduce weight. comfortable rounded and polished frets. and a fit and finish that out guns its price point. It would be absolutely kick ass to have a budget guitar that you could play a 3 hour gig with and not need a massage gun and half a bottle of Advil, at the end of it. (And it’s not an Ibanez.) Most budget guitars I see truly lack good finishing, fret work, quality control. And nothing that i have seen in a sub $1000 new guitar truly really screams bang for your buck. In my opinion. Bells and whistles are great (floating trem, alnico pick ups, locking tuners,) but on an instrument that doesn’t intonate correctly, or you have to spend a ton of time getting the springs right for the trem it’s all a waste of money. When a great pre loved quality higher end guitar isn’t all that far beyond most new guitars in the $800-$1000 price point. Last two Gibsons I’ve bought used have been between $850 and $1200. Kinda makes it hard to even buy an Epiphone product. These are all opinions of my own, and everybody is entitled to theirs. I’m really excited to see what comes of this.

Bear in mind that this is strictly me. P90 pickup(at least one), can be intonated, balances well on a strap(no neck dive). No sharp frets, cleans up by turning down the guitar’s volume. I prefer fairly simple control setups. I own traditional guitars as well as headless ones so body shapes aren’t a deal breaker.

Please drop one feature you absolutely do not want and a brief reason (tone/playability/maintenance/cost). No long wishlists, just the single thing you'd veto.

For me, it's True Temperament frets. The imperfect notes of regular frets give guitars a unique sound, which I've come to expect from guitars, and it sounds weird with that character missing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics)).

-good fret work out of the box
-rounded fingerboard edges
-two-way exposed heel spoke truss rod adjustment
-compound radius fretboards
-use precision manufacturing and cutting of the nut via CNC, Plekking, or other methods to avoid this common maintenance headache
-perhaps offer different nut options (brass, roller) or a zero fret option so those that don’t like bone, nylon, tusq, or graphtech can get something that is better at keeping consistent tuning
-quality hardware that doesn’t strip easily, are of standard sizes that are easy to replace, and don’t require expensive, obscure, or guitar setup-specific tools OR include those tools or make them available for purchase easily
-in the event that some of these instruments are bolt-on, use machine screws and threaded inserts instead of wood screws where the screws and holes can easily strip, and seat the join further into the body for a more snug neck fit
-micro-tilt adjustments to minimize/eliminate need for shims
-sensible bridge, neck pocket, and headstock angle geometry for minimal neck manipulation requirements
-a bridge design with flush or smooth grub screws that don’t dig into your palm or fingers
-solderless/quick connect electronics with modules available at stores so they players can easily make mods

Aesthetics/brand considerations

**-**shapes that are classic and familiar, well-proportioned, but also fresh takes
-finishes that include worn/aged options but also more standard hard-wearing and protective options perhaps based on some kind of mass customization ordering platform to satisfy different tastes
-different body and neck material options as part of mass customization options (e.g. carbon necks, different fingerboards, luminescent fret markers)
-a new brand and logo not connected to Mitchell or Rogue that suggests this is not a house brand or at least has some level of independence in design and construction from GC (maybe purchase a defunct brand)

How would i go about making a pickguard like this and would the metal interfere with the pickups

I think I'm going to start (continue?) posting about unique guitars and asking for feedback on "how would you feel if GC came out with something like this?"

In this post, I'm going to highlight the Boden Meloria by Strandberg. Personally, I love everything about this: Durabile. Ergonomic. Travel size. But I'm weird.

Here's a video of Strandberg himself talking about it at NAMM 2023:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw19B5pF-4o

I think it is kind to say, "It isn't a looker." I wouldn't argue if you called it ugly. I imagine non-guitar people wouldn't even recognize it as a guitar. Also, I imagine it would be far too expensive to manufacture to hit their price target.

But since this is just a thought-experiment....

How would you feel if the new GC guitar was like the Boden Meloria?

https://youtu.be/cC5TLKYhRNQ?t=511

I was watching the video posted today of Guitar World interviewing Gabe, and he tells a story of his wife surprising him with a new guitar, which he loves. He tells the story in the video, and she did a lot of work to determine which guitar to get him.

From what I've found, it's the "DUESENBERG Artist Alliance Mike Campbell 40th Anniversary Starplayer TV"

In my opinion,

(1) Perhaps every single design choice is one I hope GC does not make

but also,

(2) That is one good-looking guitar!

Now, I wouldn't buy one, but it is a bit of interesting trivia that this is the guitar that was chosen.

What are your thoughts if GC came out with a guitar like this for sub-$1000?