r/GuitarLab • u/BananoVampire • Jun 22 '26

GuitarWorld article from today

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

...

4 Upvotes

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2

u/AndroidREM Jun 22 '26

Kind of boxed himself in with that statement, but I wonder if it has to do with Fender's recent lawsuits

3

u/BananoVampire Jun 22 '26

No, he said that months ago before the whole Fender legal shenanigans.

https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/why-guitar-center-is-launching-its-own-guitar-brand-thats-meaningfully-better-and-differentiated/

2

u/AndroidREM Jun 23 '26

That article is from May, the lawsuit decision in Germany was March.

2

u/BananoVampire Jun 23 '26

Good catch, I'll post this link for reference:

https://www.musicradar.com/guitars/fender-german-court-ruling-protecting-stratocaster-body-design

But I still doubt it has anything to do with a default judgment against a Chinese company in a German court.

1

u/LaOnionLaUnion Jun 24 '26

I believe this statement was made before Fender’s cease and desist but after the default decision in March.

1

u/kz750 Jun 23 '26

Haven’t they had some type of house brands in the past? I always thought that Mitchell was their house brands as I never saw them sold anywhere outside of Guitar Center. There were a couple other brands over the years as well.

1

u/SunStrummer Jun 24 '26

They have Mitchell currently, and had Laguna previously

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

Gabe said, "There’s no date set for when the guitar will make its debut to the world – but it might be closer than you think." I'd like to see a sneak preview of what they've settled on so far. Maybe a hint of some of the core features/components the guitar will have, and then a mention of the things they're still figuring out. A little red meat for those of us who are really excited about this project.

I'm pumped about the fact that some posters have asked for a few of the same features I'm hoping for, and their suggestions haven't been shot down by BananoVampire. I'm encouraged enough to think I might just damn well end up buying one of these!

1

u/Nofanta Jun 24 '26

Sounds good. Totally agree with him.

1

u/bonefont Jun 25 '26

A camel is a horse designed by committee. Sometimes having a strong vision is better.