Recently, Ciravolo spoke passionately alongside other women retailers on the trend panel "Pretty Good for a Girl" at Anaheim's International Music Products Association NAMM show — the music industry's largest trade exhibition.

Twenty years ago, when Ciravolo started out as a musician, she said she didn't feel welcome in guitar stores. Now guitar-playing singers such as Avril Lavigne and Miley Cyrus of Disney's hit show "Hannah Montana" are making guitars more popular for younger women. Lavigne has a signature model Fender Telecaster set to come out later this year.

"My company has started a revolution," Ciravolo told the audience, to cheers.

Added panelist and hit singer-guitarist Lisa Loeb, who works with the Hello Kitty campaign, "Daisy Rock's guitars are definitely fun."

But the company's guitars, which range in price from $279 for a daisy-shaped guitar to $699 for a sleek custom black Rock Candy special, are not toys.

"They play professionally," said one-time guitar seller Dell Burchett, 51, who checked out Daisy Rock's sprawling pink booth at NAMM. "When Daisy Rock first came to the NAMM show, in 2001, they may have been considered toys, but at that time I thought they had beautiful finishes. The way they play is fantastic, and they're affordable."

Fender and Gibson acknowledge Daisy Rock's place within the industry.

"No doubt Daisy Rock was an influence in our decision" to start making the Vixen and Goddess guitars last year, said Gibson's Juszkiewicz.

Juszkiewicz emphasized, though, that his company's high-end guitars do not directly compete with Daisy Rock. The Les Paul Vixen retails at $1,429, and the Les Paul Goddess at $2,499, according to Guitar Center's Web site.

Hello Kitty guitars — which go for roughly $333, both in acoustic and electric form — have tapped into the tween and teen markets, according to Richard McDonald, Fender's senior vice president of global marketing.

"Just to invite girls to the guitar party was important," he said. "It's more interesting for us right now because of community building with the Internet."

Fender, unlike Daisy Rock and Gibson, also made the decision not to change the size and weight of Hello Kitty gear from regular Fender guitars.

"We have 12,000 skews of guitars. To say to the female market place, 'Here are three models that are right for you,' ... It's an attitude that we refuse to take," he said.

Juszkiewicz, however, noted that both women and men have complained about playing standard heavy gear. Hence, the need for lighter options.

There's even a rave from the Cure's Robert Smith about Daisy Rock's small, heart-shaped $279 Heartbreaker guitar on its Web site: "I'm smitten, I'm bitten, I'm hooked, I'm cooked/ I'm stuck like glue/ The Daisy Rock red hot red Heartbreaker electric is too good to be true."