Hit Songwriter Skylar Grey

Recording artist, songwriter and composer Skylar Grey, whose touring and recording activities have been expanding, thanks in part to gear and support from Guitar Center Professional.

— Skylar Grey, who co-wrote the hugely successful “Love the Way You Lie” for Eminem and Rihanna, is making moves, and GC Pro is there for her, on the road and in the studio —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, May 17, 2016 — “Love The Way You Lie” entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the number-two position in July 2010 and then spent the next seven weeks at number one. For Skylar Grey, the co-writer of the career-milestone hit for Eminem and Rihanna that ultimately garnered five GRAMMY® nominations and won a Teen Choice® Award for top Rap/Hip-Hop Track, it was a defining moment. Since then, the award-wining composer has set her sights on new career highs, and for her technical needs to make that happen, Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, has been there for her.

With more hit tracks written for and with top artists – and as a guest vocalist on such tracks as Dr. Dre's “I Need a Doctor,” Fort Minor's “Where'd You Go,” Diddy's “Coming Home,” T.I.'s “New National Anthem” and Nicki Minaj's “Bed of Lies” – the Park City, Utah resident has been helping make hits for years. She’s already on tour in 2016, and much of the backline her band uses was sourced through Guitar Center, while GC Pro has been her go-to resource for professional live gear, such as the Shure in-ear monitors she and the band use, along with the Behringer X-32 console used to mix them, as well as an Akai sampler and a MOTU interface.

On the recording side, GC Pro has sourced items such as Focal loudspeakers for her needs. “Skylar started at Guitar Center for instruments, such as the custom Gretsch drum kit and road cases she got there, but as their professional audio needs grew, GC Pro stepped into the picture for them,” explains Jud Powell, GC Pro Account Manager based at the Salt Lake City GC Pro office. “Skylar is an amazing songwriter and singer, and she’s been expanding the scope of her career, with touring and with a vocal studio for her home, which we helped design and build. As her career continues to develop, GC Pro will be there for her.”

Todd Mandel, President of the Mandel Music Group, Grey’s management company, says GC Pro has become integral to their workflow. “Since relocating to Park City from Los Angeles, it was imperative that we found someone who worked on the pro level for both studio recording and touring,” Mandel explains. “Jud has such an amazing understanding of gear and has been able to fulfill all of our needs. We have been able to get gear in a short notice with a quick turnaround, which is helpful in our situation. As Skylar continues to grow, her needs will only become greater. With GC Pro being in every city, we will always rely on them to get us what we need for both recording and touring.” This, says Powell, provides the perfect example of how GC Pro can address all of the needs of the professional client and build a relationship that helps build careers. “We’re there for sales and service, as a technology guide and, in the long run, as friends,” he says.

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

Springsteen Associate Toby Scott

Audio veteran Toby Scott.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, May 9, 2016 — Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, fosters close relationships with many of the music industry’s top artists and their engineers, producers, management and other key staff. One of these individuals is audio veteran Toby Scott, whose resume includes credits on records from such varied acts as Bob Dylan, Robert Palmer, Blue Öyster Cult, The Replacements, Booker T. & the MG’s, and dozens more – mostly as an engineer or mixer, but also as a production coordinator, musician, or tending to any number of other details. His most notable association, since the late 1970s or so, has been as part of Bruce Springsteen’s inner circle – Scott has a credit on nearly every one of Bruce’s releases (and there have been many) since The River and also on the re-masters of the earlier classic albums.

Although his official title in the organization is hard to pin down (“‘Primary Recording Engineer,’ or ‘Production Supervisor,’ or something else entirely, depending on the project. I’m a man of many hats,” he notes), his status as Springsteen’s chief archivist has been emphasized in recent years, with the release of retrospective box sets The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story and The Ties That Bind: The River Collection; re-masters of the first seven albums; and the ongoing Bruce Springsteen Archives live album series – all projects released to nearly universal acclaim from fans and critics alike. The Archives series has become a particular treat for fans – considering Springsteen’s legendary status as one of the greatest performers of all time, relatively few official live releases existed until a few years ago when the series kicked off in 2014 with Apollo Theater 3/09/12, available as a download or a CD set from Springsteen’s website. Since then, Scott has prepared releases from 1975, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1988, 2005, 2013.

In the studio with Springsteen, Scott’s job is “whatever’s necessary to keep the ball rolling. I make sure the studio is working and everything’s up to snuff, and all the equipment and the guitars and everything are in order.” For decades, he has relied on Guitar Center and GC Pro for a variety of things. He recalls a particular story where GC Pro went above and beyond: “There was a beautiful Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar that I owned for many years, and I gave it to Bruce for Christmas in 1988, and he used it a lot. That guitar eventually ended up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum. Well, when it came time to record again, we were really missing that guitar. I contacted GC Pro, and an Account Manager hooked us up with two or three replacement guitars to try out – two J-45s and a J-50. We actually ended up liking the J-50 more than the J-45, so we got it, and now that’s one of our go-to guitars for recording. GC Pro’s service was so customized that they knew what we wanted better than we did! And I’ve gotten so many other vintage instruments from Guitar Center over the years. GC Pro is a great tool for delegating certain tasks – I mean, I could personally track down vintage instruments across the country, but I don’t have time for that; it’s so much simpler to have an Account Manager handle it for us, and that’s the kind of customer service they’re there for.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

Customized Service for Top Broadway Plays and Musicals

John Miller, Music Coordinator for over 100 Broadway and touring shows.

— GC Pro’s Manhattan office is the go-to portal for music coordinators on hit Broadway shows such as Beautiful, Waitress, American Psycho, Hamilton, School of Rock and Finding Neverland for anything from computers to guitar strings —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, May 2, 2016 — It takes a lot to keep Broadway running. America’s theatrical capital, in and around Midtown New York, has 40 official venues, most of them hosting incredibly successful shows with nationally renowned actors. Keeping those shows going requires the right equipment, large and small, and customized service and support. Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, has become the go-to resource for Broadway’s league of music coordinators, assuring them that they’ll have exactly the gear they need, when they need it, and within budget. Guitar Center’s East Coast Artist Relations Account Manager Judd Goldrich, based at the flagship 14th Street Manhattan store, serves as the primary contact for many of these shows, serving their needs with expertise and enthusiasm.

John Miller, Music Coordinator for over 100 Broadway and touring shows, including Waitress, American Psycho and Beautiful, each of which need a wide range of items for the orchestra pit, as well as “tons” of cabling, notes, “The goal is always to find the one-stop vendor for everything — the place that can get what you need, deliver it on time when you need it, and do it at the right price. All of the decisions I have to make about equipment have to be based around finding what the conductor and the composer, as well as the sound designer and synthesizer programmer, feel the most comfortable with. You’re looking for the perfect fit for each group of people for each particular show. GC Pro has been that one-stop for me. They’re able to make appropriate suggestions and give me options that let me better suit each person’s and each show’s needs. They also give me the confidence that the gear will be delivered on time and for the right price. And with people like Judd there, I know I’ll always have someone I can work with if there’s a problem. Broadway works on an intense schedule, and if one thing goes wrong it starts a kind of domino effect. I want to know that when there’s a problem that I can count on GC Pro to take care of it, and they do.”

Michael Aarons, the Associate Music Coordinator on the huge hit shows Hamilton, The Color Purple and School of Rock, and who partners with Michael Keller in theatrical music coordination company M2, says that GC Pro has been instrumental in securing the exact right mix of products and instruments for his shows. “School of Rock is a complicated show — they needed three types of drum kits, all very specific, all very different,” says Aarons, enumerating a conventional trap kit for the pit, an electronic kit for a classroom scene and a kit with triggers for another scene on stage. Judd at GC Pro was great at finding exactly what we needed, right down to the colors they wanted,” he says. “GC Pro was amazing — I was throwing new stuff at them every day, and they came back with personal service. You can’t get what Broadway needs from a conventional store — there are returns and custom orders. GC Pro always went above and beyond for us, every time.”

Michael Aarons, the Associate Music Coordinator on the huge hit shows Hamilton, The Color Purple and School of Rock.

And when Hamilton makes its way to Chicago and the West Coast later this year, Aaron’s not concerned — there’ll be a GC support everywhere the show goes. “They’re just a great local and national resource,” he says. “When you need them, they’re there.”

“Guitar Center and GC Pro are glad to be a primary resource for the professional audio and M.I. needs of these high-profile theatrical productions,” stated Goldrich. “With two locations in the Big Apple, including our Times Square store, right at the doorstep of the theater district, we are able to customize our service on time and on spec for these complicated shows.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.