The 25 Best Cities in America for Guitar Players (2026)

Not the most stores — the best being-a-player math. We scored every US city of 50,000+ with at least 3 guitar stores on two things that actually matter when you live there: how many stores you have per 100k residents, and how good those stores are (median Google rating across the city's shops). Multiply the two and you get this list. Updated 2026-07-15.

The ranking

Marietta, Georgia is the best city in America to be a guitar player — 11 stores for 63k people (17.4 per 100k) with a median rating of 4.7★, edging out Missoula, Montana (16.6 per 100k at 4.9★). Notice what's missing: the megacities. Density per resident is a mid-size-town game, and quality travels with it — every city on this list beats most major metros on both dials. 15 states place at least one city.

#	City	Stores	Population	Per 100k	Median rating	Score
1	Marietta, GA	11	63,122	17.4	4.7★	81.9
2	Missoula, MT	13	78,204	16.6	4.9★	81.5
3	La Crosse, WI	8	51,049	15.7	4.7★	72.9
4	Lancaster, PA	9	58,441	15.4	4.7★	71.6
5	Pensacola, FL	8	53,898	14.8	4.8★	71.2
6	Camarillo, CA	10	69,881	14.3	4.8★	69.4
7	Harrisburg, PA	8	50,649	15.8	4.1★	64.8
8	Idaho Falls, ID	9	69,523	12.9	4.9★	63.4
9	Eau Claire, WI	9	72,331	12.4	4.7★	58.5
10	Santa Cruz, CA	8	62,581	12.8	4.5★	58.2
11	Greenville, SC	9	74,371	12.1	4.8★	58.1
12	Loveland, CO	10	81,102	12.3	4.7★	58
13	Kalamazoo, MI	9	73,290	12.3	4.7★	57.7
14	Prescott Valley, AZ	6	51,440	11.7	4.9★	57.2
15	Rock Hill, SC	9	75,798	11.9	4.7★	55.8
16	Plymouth, MA	8	66,663	12	4.7★	55.8
17	Petaluma, CA	7	59,393	11.8	4.7★	55.4
18	La Mesa, CA	7	60,767	11.5	4.8★	55.3
19	Melbourne, FL	10	87,561	11.4	4.8★	54.2
20	Portland, ME	8	69,568	11.5	4.7★	54
21	Alpharetta, GA	8	67,275	11.9	4.5★	53.5
22	Burlington, NC	7	61,365	11.4	4.7★	53
23	Hendersonville, TN	7	63,947	10.9	4.8★	52.5
24	Chico, CA	11	102,911	10.7	4.9★	52.4
25	Summerville, SC	6	52,625	11.4	4.6★	52.4

Local angle for every row: "Marietta ranks #1 nationally for guitar players" is a data-backed sentence, and so is every other rank on the list. Click any city for its full store lineup.

Cite this data

Suggested attribution: “The 25 Best Cities in America for Guitar Players” — Guitar-Stores.com, 2026, linked to https://www.guitar-stores.com/guitar-stats/best-cities/. The tables are CC BY 4.0: chart them, quote them, publish them — just link back. Want a custom cut (by state, metro, or chain)? Email us.

Download the full CSV Data updated 2026-07-15

Methodology: store counts and Google ratings from our continuously maintained national directory (8,315 guitar & musical instrument stores, 1,374,173 player reviews; recording studios, DJ services, and lesson-only studios excluded). Eligibility: city population ≥ 50,000 (US Census 2024 estimates) and ≥ 3 stores. Score = (stores ÷ population × 100,000) × median Google rating of the city's stores. Cities are rolled up by the city name stores list on their address, so suburbs score separately from their metro anchor. More lenses: America's guitar capitals (raw counts and per-capita), the state stats hub, and the best-rated stores by state.