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Guitar Accessories? Which Ones Do I Need To Buy For My Guitar?
There are a number of guitar accessories that you might want to
buy for your guitar. Guitar accessories are relatively cheap and
if you are buying a guitar, you might be able to pick up a good
deal if you want to buy a number of accessories as well.
Here is a list of guitar accessories to consider (in order of
popularity*):
Guitar cases and bags
Guitar tuner/pitch pipe
Guitar strings
Effects pedals/Foot Switches
Amplifiers
Guitar stands
Plectrums (also known as picks)
Guitar Leads/Cables
Guitar straps
Guitar Capo
Guitar Slide
Headphones
Metronome
Cleaning and maintenance (polish, nut file set, wrench set, fret
file set)
Footstool
Stringwinder (also known as a pegwinder)
Straplok set
Power adaptor for effects pedals
Gui
tar Cases and Bags
If you plan on gigging a lot or travelling on planes/trains etc.
I recommend buying a guitar case, otherwise a padded gig bag
will do just fine. The Kinsman guitar cases and guitar bags are
a very good quality and are also one of the most popular. The
Kinsman guitar bags come in three grades.
1) Standard - hardly any padding and one small pouch for music
books and accessories 2) Deluxe - quite well padded, with two
pouches 3) Premium - extremely well padded, with large and small
pouches and a shoulder strap.
The Kinsman guitar cases are made for Stratocasters,
Telecasters, Les Paul shape, electric, acoustic or bass guitars.
Gui
tar tuner/pitch pipe
There are hundreds of guitar tuners to choose from on the
market. The best brands in order of popularity* are:
Korg
Stagg
Yamaha
Intelli
Seiko
Qwik Tune
Boss
Ibanez
The two guitar tuners that stand out from the rest are the Stagg
Automatic Guitar/Bass Tuner and the Korg GA-30. These two guitar
tuners are sold more than any other guitar tuner on the market.
Guita
r Strings
It's always wise to have a spare set of guitar strings to hand.
You never know when one will brake and leave you in a difficult
situation. You will need to buy steel strings for electric, bass
or acoustic guitars and nylon strings for classical, Spanish or
Flamenco guitars
Here is a list of the top brands of guitar strings, in order of
popularity*:
Ernie Ball
D'addario
Martin
Fender
Elixir
GHS
Augustine
Earthwood
Dan electro
Gibson
Markley
Newtone
Savarez
Rotosound
Darco
Dean
Elites
Thomastick
Tonesearch
Maxima
Warwick
Rickenbacker
PRS
Legacy
John Pearse
DR
Eff
ects pedals
For some groovy sounds you will need to buy an effects pedal.
The two most popular are the Jim Dunlop GCB-95 Original Cry Baby
Wah Wah Effects Pedal and the Ibanez Tone-Lok Series SM7 Smash
Box Effects Pedal.
Here is a list of the top brands in order of popularity*:
Ibanez
Jim Dunlop
Korg
DigiTech
Vox
MXR
Yamaha
Dan electro
Amp
lifiers
Amplifiers are used with electric guitars, bass guitars and
electro-acoustic guitars. You will need to buy a lead to connect
up to your guitar. There are many types of guitar amplifiers
ranging from the smallest which is normally 10 watts up to 500
watts! or more:
Practice amps (these are normally quite small) Standard amps
(used for playing in bands or gigging) Bass amps (used only with
bass guitars) Keyboard amps (used with electronic keyboards and
stage pianos) Mixer amps Speakers and Monitors Combo amps (also
known as combination amplifiers) Amp heads
Which brand of Amplifier do I choose? There are a number of
brands of guitar amplifiers, here is a list in order of the most
popular*:
Marshall
Fender
Vox
Peavey
Laney
Line 6
Mesa Boogie
Kustom
Crate
Carlsbro
Ashdown
BB Blaster
Yamaha
Warwick
Dean
Crafter
Cruiser
Danelectro
All guitar amplifiers sound different. Some (like Marshall and
Line 6) are good for Rock and Roll, others have a softer and
less bright sound like the popular Vox amps and Mesa Boogie.
For beginners, I would recommend either the Peavey Backstage or
the BB10 blaster amp. The Peavey Backstage is by far the most
popular and best value for money beginner's guitar amp on the
market.
Gui
tar stands or Guitar Hangers
There are lots of different types of guitar stands, it really
depends on which stand is more suited to you. There is the
standard guitar stand, the universal guitar stand, the auto grab
guitar stand, the double and triple guitar stand and the wall
mounted guitar stand. The standard guitar stand is the most
popular and comes in three different types: i) electric/bass,
ii) classical and iii) universal.
The most popular* brands are:
Stagg
Hercules
QuikLok
Giraffe
Warwick
Fender
String Swing
Ibanez
Ple
ctrums also known as picks
Plectrums are very cheap and can be bought individually, or in
packs. Most commonly you can buy plectrums on the web in packs
of 6. Guitar plectrums come in different gauges. Usually the
thinner ones are used with Classical, Spanish or Flamenco
guitars, the medium gauges with Electric and Acoustic guitars
and the thickest ones with Basses.
There are lots of brands of plectrums. The most popular* are:
Stagg
Jim Dunlop
Fender
Gibson
Gui
tar Leads/Cables
Guitar Leads normally come in different lengths: The most common
is the 15 feet/4.5 metre leads. This
length is ample if you are
playing in a band.
Popular* brands of guitar leads/cables are:
Ibanez
Peavey
Stagg
Gui
tar straps
If you want to buy a gift for a guitarist, there is nothing
better than a nice leather guitar strap.
Levys and Gibson are the most famous brands of guitar straps,
Levys have the most comprehensive selection. Other guitar straps
to look out for are Dickies and Wrangler.
Gui
tar Capos
A capo is a clamp that you can use on different frets of the
guitar to change the pitch of the open strings. Each fret on the
guitar is a half step. If you place the capo on the 1st fret,
all of the open strings will sound a semi-tone higher than
normal, this makes changing the key of a song easy. Dunlop and
Shubb are the most popular* guitar capos.
Gui
tar Slide
The guitar slide is a tube of some hard material about one to
two inches long. Commonly, it's made from glass and metals. Each
type of guitar slide has distinct characteristics, tonality, and
overall sound. The guitar slide is pressed lightly against the
strings so as not to touch the strings of the fret, producing a
sustained tone which can be varied in pitch by moving the slide
across the neck. A quick side-to-side motion is often used in
this way to generate vibrato. The most popular brand to go for
is Dunlop.
Headph
ones
If you want to play at home but don't want to disturb your
neighbours, then a good set of headphones is recommended. Any
headphones will do, so take your pick from any of the following
leading brands:
Acer
Acoustic Research
Advance
Advent
Aiwa
AKG
Alpine
Altec Lansing
Amphony
Apple
Artwizz
Audio-Technica
Behringer
Belkin
Beyerdynamic
Bluetake
BoomGear
Bose
Bravo
British Telecom Clarion
Compucessory
Cornbow
Creative Labs
Denon
Design Go
Direct Sound
Dolphin Music
Etymotic Research
Fostex
Franklin
Gainward
Gemini Sound Products Genius
GN Netcom
Grado
Griffin Technology Grundig
Hama
Harman Kardon Hewlett Packard
Jensen
JVC
Jwin
Kenwood
Kinyo
Kondor Limited Koss
Labtec
Logic 3
Logitech
Macally
Maxell
Ministry Of Sound MM Gear
Nady Systems
Nesa Vision
Nike
Numark
Olympus
Panasonic
Philips
Pioneer
Plane Quiet
Plantronics
Power Acoustik
Pyle
Pyramid
Roland
Rosen
Samson
Sanyo
Sennheiser
Shure
Skull Candy Sony
Stagg
Stanton
Starvision
Technics
Toshiba
Trust
Ultimate Ears Ultrasone
Unwired
Vestax
Vic Firth
Vivanco
Wharfedale
XO Vision
XtremeMac
Yamaha
Zalman Tech
Met
ronome
If you want to play your guitar in time then you are going to
need to buy a metronome. You can choose from modern electronic
metronomes or traditional mechanical metronomes. Traditional
metronomes look very nice and are made from either plastic or
wood, they are also known as pendulum metronomes because the
ticking sound is produced by a small pendulum that swings back
and forth, much like the old Grandfather clocks. The Traditional
wooden or plastic metronomes tend to be a lot more expensive
than the electronic metronomes.
The leading metronome brands in order of popularity* are:
Wittner
Korg
Yamaha
Seiko
Qwik Time
Cleaning and maintenance (polish, nut file set, wrench set,
fret file set)
To look after your guitar you will need to at least buy some
guitar polish. Gibson produce a good guitar polish and also
Doctor Ducks Axe Wax is very popular. If you are serious about
guitar playing then you might want to have a nut file, fret file
or wrench set. You can keep your guitar in top playing condition.
Footstool
The guitar footstool is used mainly by Classical, Spanish or
Flamenco guitarists. Their style of playing and the way they
hold the guitar makes the use of a footstool quite important.
Stringwinder (also known as a pegwinder)
If you have lots of guitars, own a guitar shop, or tune guitars
on a regular basis, the guitar stringwinder comes in handy as a
real time saver. Instead of turning the guitar pegs by hand, you
can use the stringwinder to speed up the process.
Straplok set
For replacing the bolt that holds on your guitar strap.
Power adaptor for effects pedals
If you use effects pedals then you will need a power adaptor to
connect to the mains.
If you are ready to buy some guitar accessories you can find a
comprehensive selection here: Guitar
accessories, tuners, bags, cases, guitar strings, stands and
more...
*Please note that the above article makes references to guitar
accessories listed in popularity order. The popularity order of
these guitar accessories is taken from www.Soundsmusical.com -
the leading UK musical instrument website.
I hope this article has been useful and you are now more
informed about guitar accessories.
About the author:
About the Author Henry Genry is known as 'The Music Guru' and is
the chief writer at Soundsmusical.com. Henry has spent his whole
life in music. He has played various musical instruments to a
very high standard, learnt to build pianos form scratch, tuned
pianos professionally and run several music and internet
businesses. He loves to share with everyone his experiences and
immense knowledge of music. Henry hopes that the above guitar
article will
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