Tracii Guns criticized Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto for his plans to focus more on premium guitars for what he called their ‘core customers.’ He recently wrote on X:
“Whoever the new CEO for Guitar Center is, is completely out of touch. Lawyers and Doctors buy high end new guitars. Guitar players that have that kind of bread buy used expensive guitars. Teenagers buy playable guitars and should not have to keep up with doctors and lawyers while simply loving the instrument for the right reasons. There is nothing more cringy than his comment.”
The CEO’s Controversial Words
Gabe Dalporto became the Guitar Center CEO back in October. He explained his vision for the company in a recent chat with Music Inc Magazine and said they were planning to expand their selection of high-end electric and acoustic guitars. He explained:
“Somewhere along the way, we forgot who our core customer was. Our core customer is the serious musician – the gigging artist or passionate player where music is a big part of their identity. Over the years, we’ve evolved significantly into serving the beginner and entry-level customer – which is great – but if you walk through a GC store, you’re going to see an awful lot of $300 guitars.”
Another Artist’s Issue With The Statement
Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello also reacted to Dalporto’s comments on X. The guitarist recalled using a cheap guitar to create the band’s first Grammy-winning song from the ‘Evil Empire’ album:
“Rage Against The Machine won our first Grammy for ‘Tire Me,’ a song on which I played a guitar costing 40 Canadian dollars. Though admittedly I’ve never really considered myself a ‘serious’ musician!”
Check out Morello and Guns’ tweets below.
Whoever the new ceo for @guitarcenter is, is completely out of touch. Lawyers and Doctors buy high end new guitars. Guitar players that have that kind of bread buy used expensive guitars. Teenagers buy playable guitars and should not have to keep up with doctors and lawyers while…
— Tracii ⨁ 🇺🇸🇩🇰 (@TraciiGuns) April 27, 2024
Rage Against The Machine won our first grammy for “Tire Me”, a song on which I played a guitar costing 40 Canadian dollars. Though admittedly I’ve never really considered myself a “serious” musician!
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) April 27, 2024