Guitar Accessories? Which Ones Do I Need To Buy For My Guitar?

An article that lists all the guitar accessories you will ever need for your guitar. Most of the guitar accessories are listed in popularity order, so if you are not sure which brand to buy, you can choose one from the top of the list.

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 the most popular):

Guitar bag or case

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

Guitar Bags and Cases

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.

Guitar 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.

Guitar 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

Effects 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

Amplifiers

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

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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.

Guitar 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

Plectrums (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

Guitar 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

Guitar 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.

Guitar Capo

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.

Guitar 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.

Headphones

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

Metronome

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, you can find a comprehensive selection of guitar accessories here

*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 Soundsmusical.com – the leading UK musical instrument website. 

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