The Top 10 Most Popular Guitar Riffs Played in Guitar Center Stores]

Spare a thought for Guitar Center staff. The poor folk who have to hear the same riffs over and over again, 9 til 5, ad infinitum. It’s enough to drive any guitarist mad. But what are those riffs sending GC employees up the wall?

Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto has named the 10 most-played guitar riffs in Guitar Center stores in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

To assemble the list, the head honcho reached out to stores’ leadership teams across the US and asked them to name their most overplayed songs. It’s by no means a scientific test, but the lists were surprisingly consistent from state to state – and largely tallied with GW’s own rundown of the greatest guitar riffs of all time.

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Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto (Image credit: Guitar Center)

What’s most telling, however, is the names that aren’t there. Stairway to Heaven – the eternal punchline of ‘Stairway denied’ guitar store lore – is nowhere to be seen. In fact, Led Zeppelin as a whole seem to have fallen out of favor. There’s no Hendrix. No Sabbath. Heck, no AC/DC. From the ’70s classic rock era, the time when guitar giants walked the Earth, Smoke on the Water is the only riff that’s still in top-10 rotation.

Whether it’s down to evolving tastes, TikTok virality or cultural events, these riffs echo throughout stores every day. Dalporto says he has a lot of empathy for the staff.

“These songs are played a lot. They’re often not played well. So you hear the songs over and over, but when someone nails it, you can tell. And the store staff really appreciates it when someone is awesome.”

The full list is below: