“Good thing the custom shops are up high!”: Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks flooded after car ploughs into fire hydrant

Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks, California, was flooded on 5 November when a car careened into a fire hydrant, sending water onto the store’s roof and collapsing it.

Video footage inside and out show the extent of the flooding, with Traffic News LA reporting on YouTube that “merchandise and debris” could be seen pouring out of the back of the store.

Master Of Shred’s Instagram page posted footage of the flood inside the store, and if you are of a nervous disposition when it comes to the safety of your electric guitar, look away now: it looks like a river is flowing through the shop floor.

As one commentator noted, “Good thing the custom shops are up high!” That’s true. Maybe. They might be okay from the flooding on the ground floor. But they won’t if the water was entering from the roof as was reported.

Traffic News LA says the collision resulted in a male in his 50s crashing his black Subaru into the fire hydrant, outside the popular 14209 Ventura Blvd store.

The Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that two vehicles were involved in the collision. A 78-year-old man was taken to hospital but his condition was described as “fair”. The 911 call came in at 1.23pm.

By the time the fire department had shut off the supply to the hydrant, it had caused “a partial collapse” of the Guitar Centers’ roof. Thankfully, no one was injured inside the building.

The Sherman Oaks store has been closed since the accident, but is scheduled to reopen at as usual on Monday 18 November at 11am.

Early this year, Guitar Center’s CEO Gabe Dalporto described how the US-based gear retail giant was going to change strategy, promising that more focus would be placed on retaining serious and professional players.

In an interview with Music Inc. Magazine, he admitted that the company had focused too much on guitars for beginners, arguing that it had forgotten who its “core customer” was.

Sherman Oaks Guitar Center Flooded after Car hits Hydrant - YouTube

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Dalporto said he wanted to make premium products more accessible, to make it more easy for serious players to come in and get their hands on a high-end acoustic guitar or an electric and try it out.

“I want customers to walk into [a store] and have the same experience I had when I was younger and just be hit in the face with, ‘Wow, this is amazing. This is a playground. This is where I belong,’” said Dalporto. “And that means having a much more premium assortment that’s more easily accessible where I can get in and grab a guitar and plug it in and try all these pedals and effects and just geek out and have a great time.”