Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies (Details)	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2013 segment
Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies
Number of operating segments	3
Guitar Center
Nature of Business
Number of operated stores	253
Number of primary format stores	151
Number of secondary format stores	84
Number of tertiary format stores	18
Music & Arts
Nature of Business
Number of operated stores	117
Number of states in which stores are operated by the entity	22

Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

No definition available.

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Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration