For the past two years Guitar Center has been quietly remodeling its flagship Hollywood, California, location.
Now that the job is done, the company's not being so quiet anymore.
On Saturday night in front of the company's Hollywood store, in a feat on par with diverting the river Nile, Guitar Center shut down all six lanes of Sunset Blvd., erected a giant stage and held a free concert with mesmerizing young rapper/drummer/singer Anderson .Paak and his stellar band.
In another attention-grabbing move—one that should thrill guitar lovers—the store has put some of the world’s most legendary guitars on display at the main entrance, including Eddie Van Halen’s famous “Frankenstein” guitar, Eric Clapton’s beloved “Blackie” Fender Stratocaster and Cream-era Gibson ES-335 and B.B. King’s Gibson “Lucille #15,” which hasn’t been played since the late bluesman performed with it on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1990.
Guitar Center has invested $5 million to knock down walls, raise ceilings and transform its flagship store from what was once a semi-ragtag, 30,000-square-foot amalgamation of disparate rooms into what I would describe simply as the ultimate guitar petting zoo.
The metamorphosis is dramatic, and if the aforementioned publicity stunts are any indication, Guitar Center clearly wants you to notice.
As a regular shopper on Sunset Blvd.’s “music row” (a group of retailers that includes Sam Ash, Mesa/Boogie, and, of course, Guitar Center), I noticed things were different at GC Hollywood the moment I stepped through its back door. (That’s right, L.A. regulars, you can finally enter the store from its rear parking lot!)
Once inside that door,