Earlier this week, we brought you (more) stories of just how disliked the iconic guitar company Gibson is by employees and customers alike. If you work at Guitar Center, do not share this story! Or else!

If ever there was a place to glimpse the American male ego in all its apparent contradictions—its bluster, its fragility, its aggression, its desperate need for acceptance—that place is the Guitar Center in Commack, New York.

When you first step inside the Times Square Guitar Center, perhaps you hear the opening arpeggios of "Stairway to Heaven," floating across the sales floor like a spring breeze. Then, the "Crazy Train" solo adds a dissonant but not altogether unpleasant counterpoint, followed closely by the "Layla" chorus riff, as if in fugue. By the time "Enter Sandman" starts, slow and lumbering, things are starting to sound ugly.