Guitar Center reviews

2.8

41% would recommend to a friend

(2,726 total reviews)
avatar

Gabe Dalporto

28% approve of CEO

24% positive business outlook

Guitar Center has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,726 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).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
Apr 21, 2026

Blame culture disguised as leadership

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Plenty of capable individual contributors doing real work. - The brand and the business itself are legitimate — the problems are organizational.

Cons

- Senior leadership is politically driven rather than outcome-driven. Strategic initiatives stall out, and leaders spend more energy assigning or shifting blame than actually diagnosing and fixing problems. - Some parts of the org operate on deference to the top. Honest assessments get softened into whatever narrative leadership wants to hear, which makes real cross-functional work difficult. - Senior leaders do not consistently advocate for their own teams. When things get political, self-preservation takes precedence over backing the people underneath, and capable managers end up exposed.

2.0
Apr 10, 2026

Bad company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Gig leave, flexible schedules, working around instruments, commission pay

Cons

Everyone higher up at the company is so disconnected from what it's like in stores and keep cutting hours also creating more workload from stores. Unrealistic expectations. Saw 2 female employees get treated so poorly by both the company and customers in my time here. A lot of the other associates and the sales manager did not care about anything. Some very unhappy people working here.

Viewing 16 - 18 of 2,726 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,790 Guitar Center reviews submitted anonymously by Guitar Center employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Guitar Center is right for you.