he A-Z Reference Guide to Choosing Guitar Accessories
Maybe you’ve just recently bought your first guitar…
And you’re scanning through the endless list of possible guitar accessories…
Wondering where to possibly start.
Or maybe you’ve already been playing for a while now…
And you think you’ve got everything you should have…
But there’s still that nagging voice in the back of your head that wonders…
Am I missing something?
Well no matter which of these two you happen to be…
For today’s post, my goal is to help you find all the answers you need, so that:
- you can get exactly what you actually do need…right now
- you can hold off on buying the stuff you don’t need yet
- you’ll know exactly when to add all that other stuff…later on
Sound good? Then let’s begin…
First up…
PART 1: Must-Have Accessories for EVERYONE
Regardless of whether you play acoustic electric guitar…
And regardless of how new you are to the instrument…
The 4 things you’ll need right away are:
- Picks
- Straps
- Strings
- Tuners
And up next, we’ll look at each these more detail, starting with…
1. Picks
While not all guitar players use picks…almost all of them do…
So until you discover otherwise, you should assume that you will as well.
And when you’re first starting out, literally any pick will do just fine. There’s no wrong choice.
However…as you get more advanced and your playing style gets more refined, it certainly helps to find the right pick best-suited to your playing.
To find about more about this topic now, check out this post:
2. Straps
Just like with picks, guitar straps are one of those accessories that everyone needs…
With the possible exception of an acoustic guitar player who plays sitting…always.
But since it’s highly likely that you already got one included with your guitar…
There’s really no need to worry about an upgrade for quite a while.
For the most part, a strap is a strap, as long as it can hold your guitar up while you play.
But if you’re unlucky enough to have a strap that doesn’t suit you for whatever reason, it’s endlessly annoying. And it will be all you think about until you find a replacement.
If you want help with that now, or you’re just interested to learn more about straps in general, check out this post:
3. Strings
Now even though your guitar certainly came pre-strung, and probably tuned as well…
One of the biggest mistakes that new players make is to think that this “problem” has been handled for the foreseeable future.
But the truth is the exact opposite.
Because ideally…learning to change your own strings (in my opinion at least) should be the very first thing new players learn to do, before even learning their first chord.
If they don’t…they will continue to use the same old strings for as long as they possibly can…
Avoiding what they suspect they probably should do, because they simply don’t know how.
Then when the strings finally break and they have no other choice…
They just get a friend or guitar tech to do it for them…and the cycle begins all over again.
Until years later they wake and realize how sad it is that they STILL don’t know how to string their own guitar.
On the other hand, if they learned from DAY 1:
- how to restring their guitar
- when to restring their guitar
- which strings to use, and why…
All of these problems can be easily avoided.
And so…if you don’t know much about strings yet, here’s an incredibly in-depth guide that will explain everything you could possible care to know:
4. Tuners
Just like with stringing a guitar…
Tuning a guitar is another essential skillset that many beginners actively avoid learning…
Simply because it doesn’t seem nearly as fun as just playing a guitar.
But what they don’t realize is…
If your guitar isn’t in-tune when you play…it DEFINITELY won’t be any fun at all.
So again (in my humble opinion)…it’s something that newbies should learn before ever strumming their first chord.
Of course, to do that you’ll obviously need a guitar tuner…
So if you need help finding one, check out the following post to compare your options:
So that wraps the list of essential accessories for EVERYONE. If you play acoustic guitar, and you’ve handled everything we’ve covered so far…you’re ready to starting playing.
However…if electric guitar is your instrument, you’ve still got quite a shopping list ahead of you. So keep reading…
PART 2: Must-Have Accessories for Electric Guitar
Since the electric guitar itself does not actually generate a sound of its own…
You’ll still need to connect some peripheral devices if you want to actually hear what you’re playing.
And the 3 things you absolutely must have are:
- Cables
- Amps
- Pedals
So up next, we’ll discuss each of these in more detail. Starting with…
1. Cables
Among the many accessories on this list…
The guitar cable is the easiest purchase of them all.
Because when you’re first starting out, there really is no “wrong” cable…
Providing that it at least:
- has the correct 1/4″ TS connectors
- is long enough to reach its destination
And that’s pretty much it.
Of course, if you know absolutely nothing yet, those two conditions were probably enough to confuse you already.
And so, for help finding a good starter cable, or to just learn more about guitar cables in general, check out this post:
2. Amps
Without a doubt, if there’s one accessory on this list to pay particularly close attention to…it’s guitar amps.
Because it’s the one thing arguably more important than the guitar itself.
While much of the traditional advice you read online tells you to start with a small practice amp, then upgrade later…
I would argue against that philosophy. And here’s why:
No matter how great your guitar, your guitar accessories, or even your guitar playing….
If your amps sucks, none of that other stuff even matters. Because the sound you hear will undoubtedly suck as well.
And if the sound of your guitar always sucks, it takes all the fun out of practicing, and makes it MUCH more likely that you will quit playing altogether.
Which is why even if you’re a complete beginner, I still recommend spending a LOT of time researching amps to find the absolute best one you can realistically afford.
Luckily I’ve got a post to help you with that as well. And here it is:
3. Pedals
Of the 3 essential electric guitar accessories…
Guitar pedals are probably the least important…
Because they’re the only ones you don’t technically NEED to start playing.
Especially if you bought a really good amp, as I recommended in the previous section.
However…
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start with some anyway…
Because you’ll most likely need quite a few if you intend to mimic many of the sounds of your favorite guitar heroes.
And unlike the other accessories in this post, pedals are one of those items which you can never really have enough of.
Even after you’ve been playing for years, and have bought and sold dozens of different pedals, there will always be one more that you want, but don’t yet have.
So to help you get started down this never-ending journey, I’ve created the following guide that explains it all:
Up next…
PART 3: The “Maybe” Pile
By this point, if you’ve made through all the accessories we covered so far…
You should undoubtedly have everything you need…
To stop reading right here, and start playing.
However…
There are still a few more items to be aware of…
As you will likely need them one day, whether in the near or distant future.
And since you’ve made it this far, you might as well keep going. So here are the last 4 items:
- Stands
- Capos
- Pickups
- Slides
Now let’s get to them…
1. Capos
If you’re just starting out with guitar…
You’ve probably seen a capo before, but you don’t quite understand exactly what it does.
The short answer is…it allows you to essentially change the position of the open strings, by clamping down on all 6 strings at any fret position.
But we’re here today, not to learn how to use them, but to decide if and when we need one.
And while you don’t technically NEED a capo ever, they are extremely cheap, portable, and easy-to-use…
So there’s no good reason you shouldn’t just get one now…and simply leave it in your guitar case until the day when you need it.
For help choosing, check out this article:
2. Stands
Since your guitar almost certainly came with a case when you bought it…
You might be wondering why you’d even need a stand at all.
And it’s a fair question. Because many seasoned guitar players do just fine without them.
But here’s why I think as a newbie guitar player, you should DEFINITELY get one:
You see, the hardest part about learning to play guitar is simply forcing yourself to pick it up everyday and practice.
And if your guitar is packed away in a case in your closet, it’s very easy to forget that it even exists.
And it’s probably the most common reason people quit playing entirely. Even among those of us who have already been playing for years.
However…if it’s out in your living room, sitting on its stand, staring you in the face every time you walk by…
It almost feels as if it’s begging to be played.
Which makes it much more likely that you will actually pick it up and play it, any time you find you have a spare moment in your day.
For help finding a decent stand, check out this article:
3. Slides
Unlike every other item on this list…
The guitar slide is the one accessory I actually DON’T recommend for beginners…
Because they’re extremely challenging to use at first, even for advanced players.
So for beginners especially, who should be focusing on learning chords, scales, etc…
Playing around with a slide is just a distracting waste of time…
Unless of course slide guitar is the style you actually want to learn.
But either way, if you’re still interested in learning more about this accessory, check out the following post:
4. Pickups
While it might be weird to call pickups an “accessory”…
Since it’s a part of the electric guitar itself, and you can’t really play the instrument without it…
For the sake of the post…we’ll call it that. And here’s why:
With any decent guitar you buy…the included pickups work perfectly fine as they are…
And in many cases, are specifically chosen to compliment that particular model of guitar.
And so…many players go their entire lives without ever changing pickups, or even being curious as to what a new set might do to improve their sound.
However, if the topic still happens to intrigue you for whatever reason, here’s a post where you can learn more:
Now…
For acoustic players, the topic of pickups deserves an entirely separate opinion.
Because unlike electric guitars which come with pickups included…the vast majority of acoustics guitar do NOT.
And therefore, if you ever plan to perform in a setting that requires amplification, its an accessory you’re going to need to add on your own.
To learn how its done, check out this post.
And That’s It
So there you go guys, the A-Z guide on guitar accessories. Hopefully it answered all your questions.
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