Which Guitar Store Chain Do Players Rate Best? (2026)

The chain league table

Music & Arts takes the crown at 4.35★ averaged across its 239 locations — a hair ahead of Guitar Center at 4.29★. Worth knowing before you read too much into it: the two sell to different players — Music & Arts leans lessons and school band & orchestra, Guitar Center is the gear superstore, and Guitar Center's locations carry vastly more reviews per store.

Honest framing: these are location-level Google averages left by players — a measure of the store experience, not a corporate scorecard. Sam Ash closed most of its stores in 2024 and no longer clears the 10-location bar.

The Guitar Center spread: worst to best

Here's the finding that surprised us. Across 299 Guitar Center retail stores, the gap between the best-rated location in America (Oak Ridge North, TX at 4.6★) and the lowest (City of Industry, CA at 3.9★) is just 0.7 stars. 112 of the 299 stores sit exactly at 4.3★. Whatever you think of the big-box model, the data says the experience is remarkably uniform — there is effectively no "bad" Guitar Center, and the standouts below earn their stars against 299,136 reviews chain-wide.

The 10 highest-rated Guitar Centers in America

Every one of the 299 locations, ranked, is in the CSV below. Comparing stores near you? The Guitar Center directory ranks all locations state by state, and the Music & Arts directory does the same.