Founded in 1959, the Guitar Center operates a chain of stores throughout the United States that sell acoustic, electric and specialty guitars. The chain s stores maintain a collection of basses, drums, keyboards and amplifiers. Its stores offer various types of musical instrument digital interface equipment and disc jockey lighting systems. The chain s stores provide the Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Roland and Shure brands of products. Its stores offer a selection of music instruction books and recorded music and entertainment videos. The chain s stores provide music CDs with several music styles, such as pop, rock, jazz and classical. Its stores offer a variety of piano, vocal and guitar songbooks. In addition, the chain s stores offer gift certificates of several denominations.