Important Guitar Accessories - Get The Gear And Get The Tone You Want
Well it kind of goes without saying that to play guitar, you will
purchase and own a guitar. And furthermore, if you play electric guitar you will purchase and own an amplifier for the guitar. And most everyone knows the need for some gadgets to go along with the guitar. What's this all about, stop wasting time here. It's about the accessories. More often than not, folks overlook some important items they need to have along with their guitar, or they are unaware of some important accessory or gear item that would really help out and make life a lot easier. And that's what this article is about. It's about naming and describing some vital guitar gear that we should all have on hand for practice, studio, gigging, all situations where we are playing our instruments. A lot of these we be well know, but hopefully you see something you hadn't though of and this will be valuable to you.
So, here's a look at some of the very important items you can and should have for your guitar:
Guitar Tuner
Guitars tend to go out of tune rather often. (even more often on certain whammy bar equipped electric guitars... but that's another story.) Yes, they go out of tune, sometimes during a performance depending on how hard you are playing. And you want to be able to get them back in tune as quickly and painlessly as possible. While there are a number of ways to tune a guitar, including: tuning forks, tuning tracks on a CD, tuning the guitar to itself, etc. The best way to tune up is with one of the many types of electronic guitar tuners available. Here's an article on Learn Guitar Faster that has more in-depth
information about electronic guitar tuners. These are well worth whatever price you pay, as they are the one accessory that gets used all the time, sometimes several times a day. In light of this fact, it's worth getting the best tuner you can afford. You'll be glad you did.
Guitar Strings
It's best to keep an extra set of strings on hand where ever you play. If you play out you should always have fresh strings in your gig bag. It seems the next string break is always when you least expect it, and many times happens when you are out for a performance. Since strings loose some of their goodness with the passage of time, you ought to rotate stock and try to install your oldest set of strings whenever you change them out.
Capo
The capo is a great tool to have around when you're playing the guitar. It allows you to play great sounding open chords in a lot of different keys. There are several styles of capos available, and it's worth spending a little extra to get one that is going to work well and last a long time.
Extra Batteries
Do you use any battery powered stomp box guitar effects when you play? Some musicians can sense the sound change as the battery wears down. But it never fails that just when you are counting on them the most, the batteries will fail and let you down. Again, if you have a handful of batteries, rotate stock and always use your oldest batteries up first. That way you won't get stuck with a battery that ran out of shelf life.
Extra Guitar Cord
They can last a long time with the proper care but if one of them ever gets noisy or breaks altogether, you're in big trouble. Not worth the risk really. Just as easy to have an extra on hand. They don't take up much space and you never know just when it will come in handy.
