Gift Ideas for Guitarists

Whatever your budget, there is always a gift out there for a guitarist. Check out these top gifts from under £1 and I’m sure many of these items will be on their wish list, especially if you’re buying for a beginner, these items will be a perfect shopping list. Smaller Fun Size Budgets! Plectrums / Pick Holders Plectrums are cheap and practical gifts, available in different thicknesses for different types of guitars and playing styles. By getting a good selection, you could better someone’s playing style for pennies! Pick holders are great for keeping them all together; they can be stuck to the guitar or microphone stand for easy access when playing. We sell the Fender Individual Plectrums as well as packs of them, like the Stagg and Dunlop sets. String Winders A very useful tool to speed up replacing guitar strings, especially on electric guitars as these can break often! Some winders also have a useful string cutter built in to aid in quick removal of old strings and excess string. The Stagg String Winder is a good, cheap one that works well, but you can also get the Planet Waves Pro-Winder and Cutter, which offers a string cutter as well, which is very handy when changing strings. Steel Slide Always fun to have a play around with! A steel slide could open up a whole new sound and style for someone for only a few quid! Replacement Strings Maybe not the most exciting gift, but very practical to have spare sets. Ernie Ball and D'addario are my favourites to use. We also have Classical and Acoustic Sets as well. Guitar Straps A great gift for the fashion conscious with many designs to choose from. The Fender straps are one of the most popular ones we sell, but you can get cheap alternatives and they are great for anyone who wants to stand up and play. Strap Locks I couldn’t live without these magic little things! They keep the strap where it should be and prevent the guitar falling off whilst jumping around the stage or bedroom! Potentially saving an expensive accident for a few pounds! A sensible small gift for a guitarist. We sell the Stagg Strap Locks, which are relatively inexpensive and work well with all guitars. Capos There are various capos on the market, most are quick release these days, again, one of these could open up a whole new world of sound for a guitarist and at the least change the key to suit a singers voice. So if you know someone struggling to sing along whilst playing… this is the perfect gift. You can get different styles like Trigger, Toggle and Screw. Average Budgets Chord and tutor books A perfect gift for the beginner and for someone who you know which bands and songs they like, here’s a good site to find some: www.mailmymusic.com Guitar Tuners A necessity for any guitarist, clip on tuners which attach to the neck of the guitar are perfect for acoustic players like the Rocket RT20. Pedal tuners are perfect for the electric guitarist and offer facilities such as bright LED displays which are a life saver when tuning up on dark gloomy stages and in bright sunlight for when they get to play Glastonbury. Although I’m not sure they work that well in mud! The Blaxx Pedal is a nicely priced pedal tuner. Some tuners have a built-in metronome feature to keep a tempo for perfect timing like the Stagg TUM-50. Guitar Leads and Cables A very practical gift that give a guitarist confidence when performing on stage because from experience there is nothing worse than having a cable that cuts out or breaks mid-set. Available in different lengths; short ones for connecting effects pedals together and longer ones for guitar to amplifier connection. I would recommend the Planet Waves and Fender Cables, these are good quality and ones I personally use. I also have a couple of Stagg ones as a back up just in case! Guitar Stands Lots of choice here… Wall mountable stands, single and multi-guitar stands are a great way to show off your guitar, rather than keeping it hidden away somewhere. They are designed to be seen, so let them be. A novelty guitar stand may be a fun option! Guitar Bags and Cases This may be a great gift to buy as part of a bundle, as there quite handy for putting stuff in. You can get hard cases, offering more protection, especially if travelling a lot or you can get padded cases, with varying amounts of padding, if you aren't travelling all the time. Music Stands and Adjustable Music Stand Lights This could be a stand out and enlightening gift choice! Lots to choose from; freestanding or table stands, folding stands, heavy duty and orchestral music stands. Add a clip on music light to any of these. You can get the smaller, more portable lights like the Kinsman KBL04 or the powered lights like the Konig and Meyer 112E. Headphones Always a good choice as they have a multipurpose use. Ideal for plugging into an amp so they can practice at any time without disturbing anyone. They can also be used as "normal" headphones to listen to music or even to use when recording. I would recommend the Yamaha HPH-50 as a good choice of headphone for a reasonable price and if you wanted something better in quality then the Samson SR850. Audio Interface / Mixer A guitarist requires one of these to record tracks, linking their guitar signal output into a computer. They can get quite expensive, but there are some great low cost and effective interfaces available. Perfect for the new budding songwriter. The Yamaha AG03 Mixer would be a great choice as it is compact and has everything you need. Just make sure you stipulate your cut off royalties when you hand over the gift ;-) Amps Getting an amp could be a good choice if you had a larger budget. The amp could be a practice amp like the Yamaha THR Series or the VOX Mini3, which are small and compact, ideal for home use. You could also get a bigger amp that could be used for gigging such as the Fender Mustang 100W. I hope this helps and if you have any questions then please let me know. Jack