— 231st Guitar Center location features on-site lessons and repair services, along with GC's vast inventory selection —
Westlake Village, CA (July 25, 2012) – On the evening of Thursday, July 12, 2012, Guitar Center held the grand opening of its new location in San Mateo, California, located at 53A W. Hillsdale Blvd., San Mateo, CA 94403. Guitar Center San Mateo is Guitar Center's 231st retail location.
Guitar Center San Mateo's grand opening introduced customers to a vast selection of products and a dedicated staff with unparalleled musical knowledge and experience. To celebrate the store opening, Guitar Center hosted a Grand Opening Weekend celebration featuring exclusive savings, gear giveaways and free events catered to local musicians. The grand opening events also included a free performance, in addition to ongoing workshops throughout the next two months.
Guitar Center's newest San Mateo location features showrooms equipped with the latest products for musicians – from guitars, amplifiers, percussion instruments and keyboards to live sound, DJ, lighting and recording equipment. The new store features Guitar Center Studios, an in-house, state-of-the-art lesson facility, which is creating unrivalled opportunities for San Mateo musicians of all ages and skill levels. Guitar Center Studios provides music lessons from beginner to advanced featuring certified instructors teaching world-class curriculum as well as one-on-one courses on Pro Tools, Logic Pro and GarageBand. Guitar Center Studios is now the most modern and affordable lessons facility in the area. Guitar Center San Mateo also features GC Garage, Guitar Center's on-site guitar repair service.
As part of Guitar Center's initiatives designed to educate and inspire artists nationwide, Guitar Center San Mateo is offering unique opportunities for musicians to craft their skills, maintain their instruments and experience many other aspects of the music industry first-hand. Musicians interested in learning about the industry will be able to come to the store to interact with and pick the brains of several industry leaders.
San Mateo shoppers are also able to enjoy Guitar Center's new multi-channel “endless aisle,” which includes multiple combinations of product options to conveniently choose from. Not only does the “endless aisle” include San Mateo inventory, but it also provides easy access to $400 million in new and used inventory located in hundreds of stores and warehouses across the nation. Customers have the ability to combine a myriad of in-store, online and phone options to purchase music equipment from anywhere they may be, allowing for a personalized and convenient shopping experience.
In addition to special programs at the new San Mateo store, Guitar Center offers nationwide programs designed to spearhead creativity and highlight the nation's most promising undiscovered talent. San Mateo residents will now be able to participate in these ongoing national events from their hometown:
Guitar Center On-Stage is an annual competition that provides unsigned artists the chance to open for established artists such as Motley Crüe, KISS and Jane's Addiction.
Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter is an artist discovery program that aims to find the nation's best unsigned singer-songwriter. The winner receives a career-altering prize package including recording 3 songs with accomplished GRAMMY® Award-winning Producer John Shanks, recording time at Converse Rubber Tracks studio and $10,000 cash.
Guitar Center's Battle of the Blues is a nationwide amateur guitar skills competition with the goal of finding the next great undiscovered blues guitar player. This year's winner, Jonathon “Boogie” Long, performed alongside GRAMMY-winning guitarist Warren Haynes at the Grand Finals in LA, and won an incredible prize package valued at over $50,000.
Guitar Center's Drum-Off, entering its 24th year, is the nationwide search for the next great undiscovered drummer. Drummers from across the nation compete in the world's largest drum competition, vying for thousands of dollars in prizes and the coveted title of Guitar Center's Drum-Off Champion. The grand prize package is valued at nearly $50,000.
Guitar Center San Mateo is open seven days a week. Store hours are 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Saturday; and 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Sunday.