Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Guitar Players
Article by Tim Coleman.
It’s that time of year again! Christmas is upon us and if you are like me you NEVER prepare early despite all those good intentions in early November. Actually if you are anything like me you are probably reading this on December22nd and you’ve only got two days of shopping left!. Fear Not! We are here to help! Here is the 2021 version of “ Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Guitar Players ”.
1. Gift Voucher for Music Lessons
Whether they’ve just started playing or they’ve been playing for a while, having someone with experience teach you something new is always valuable. You could check out Online Subscriptions such as “Fender Play” or you could find your local Music School and see if they do vouchers. Not sure how to find your local music school? Try ringing your local music store and see who they recommend!
2. Headphone Amplifier
For someone who plays too loud, plays at all hours of the night or maybe is just wanting silent practice, the Vox Amplug or Fender Mustang Micro is one solution. A simple item that plugs into any guitars input, all you need is to choose your tone and plug in some headphones. The Vox Amplug is available in Clean, Blues and Metal Tones plus more! Relatively inexpensive it provides the guitar tone of a legendary amplifier plus has an auxiliary input for plugging in external audio.
The Fender Mustang Micro is a more expensive unit but has many different guitar tones and effects built in as well as having Bluetooth Connectivity for jamming with your favourite music.
3. Dunlop Guitar Maintenance Kit
Whether you have one guitar or one very large collection of guitars maintenance is very important. The Dunlop Guitar Maintenance Kit come with great polishes for keeping your guitar looking good, fretboard conditioners plus a string cleaner and lubricant. This kit contains all the maintenance essentials and is another one of the great Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Guitar Players!
4. Fender Neon Glow Cable
Playing on stage and want to look cool? Or playing in the bedroom and want to turn out the lights? The Fender Neon Glow Cables are a great quality cable that glows in the dark and comes in 4 awesome NEON colours. Don’t just wear black!
5. Capo
How can you play “Wonderwall” without the capo? For beginners and experienced players, a capo is an essential item that makes a great gift. I personally have about 4 or 5 different capos and it’s the sort of thing you can never find when you need it, so one more wouldn’t hurt! Price ranges from your most basic at $15 to $100. Trigger capos from Dunlop and D’addario make a great Christmas Gift! For more information about Capo’s check out our “Who needs a capo?” blog here.
6. Looper Pedal
Since Ed Sheeran came onto the scene, the looper pedal went from used by some to almost universal adoption. Great for solo players to put down a rhythm, great for solo practice, but also a great tool for expanding your creativity and skills. The most popular are the BOSS loopers (look for the red pedal).
7. Mono Gig Bag
The Samsonite of the Guitar Bag world is the brand MONO. There was a trend a few years ago where youtubers would load up their guitars into a MONO gig bag and chuck them out the window to prove how awesome these really are. Please don’t try that. They are amazing bags and definitely the best you can buy in my opinion, but you are most certainly going to destroy your guitar throwing it out the window (with or without the bag). Want the best? Look for the Mono Vertigo Bag for Electric, Bass or Acoustic Guitar.
8. Guitar Tuner
If you are out of tune, the internet will know and the trolls on Youtube will punish you. Even if you aren’t they are dying to say “would help if you tuned first” so don’t give them a free kick. A good headstock tuner from D’addario, Boss or Snark is relatively cheap and like capos having many of them is good because it’s always hard to remember where you left the last one. A decent headstock tuner will set you back between $25-$50, or if your guitar playing friend has a pedal collection you could always look at the Boss TU3 Pedal Tuner. This floor based tuner is an industry standard, built like a tank and is great value at around $160.
9. Good Quality Headphones
Whether you are recording and need a great set of monitoring headphones or using these to practice from the headphone out of your guitar amplifier, a great set of headphones makes a huge difference. A good set of headphones has better clarity, definition of sound, better low and high-end response, is more comfortable to wear for a longer period of time and typically the best ones also have replaceable parts and cables. Check out the Audio Technica or Shure Headphones which will range from $99 to $300 for a decent set. Be aware the best headphones are many thousands of dollars, but a $300 set will be good enough for most general uses for a guitarist.
10. D’addario Guitar Strings
When all else fails and you already bought picks (plectrums) then guitar strings are an awesome stocking stuffer for any guitar player. Available in Single Sets, 3 Packs and 10 Packs, D’addario has you covered. Not sure what gauge to buy? Standard or Regular Gauge for Electric is 10-46, for acoustic is 12-53 and bass is 45-100. If you are buying Classic/Nylon Guitar strings then just choose Normal tension strings. You can’t really go wrong with these gauges, so if you aren’t sure what the guitarist in your life typically uses, choose these. You can also take a photo of the guitar and take it into your local music store. While they won’t be able to tell from looking at a pic of the guitar, they will have a better idea of what to recommend so that you get the right gift!
