Guitar Accessories

In addition to the guitar itself, players rely upon a wide variety of guitar accessories that can help with everything from cleaning the guitar to basic guitar maintenance to more accurate tuning. While relatively inexpensive, these accessories can make playing, practicing, and gigging a lot easier.

Boss TU-3 Tuner Pedal

Guitar Tuners

One of the most popular accessories is a guitar tuner. While all guitarists should know how to tune their guitars by ear, it's simply a fact that a good guitar tuner is far more precise than the human ear. Any professional guitar rig will include a good tuner. Tuners are available in a variety of formats - pedals, standalone units. Personally, I prefer the clip-on tuner. These types of tuners are unobtrusive and have become very accurate in recent years. If you have a pedalboard, I would recommend a polyphonic tuner like the TC Electronic Polytune, allowing you to check tuning of all six strings at once.

Cables

If you play an electric or acoustic electric instrument, then you'll need to purchase some quality cables to carry your signal. While you don't need to go overboard and spend hundreds of dollars on cables, you don't want to skimp either. Good quality cables can make difference between a muddy sound and a powerful, clear one. If you use a pedalboard and have lots of patch cables, using quality cables can make all the difference.

Gig Bags

For guitarists who gig regularly or need to travel locally with their instruments, a quality gig bag can make transportation much easier and is another popular accessory with many musicians. Although they generally don't provide the same level of protection that a hard case does, there are many well-padded bags that do offer superior protection. Another common accessory that gigging guitarists rely upon is a guitar stand, many of which are vast improvements over traditional stands where the instrument is prone to tip over.

Dunlop Jazz III Guitar Pick

Strings and Picks

Perhaps the most common accessories that guitarists reply upon on a daily basis are strings and picks, both of which have a dramatic impact on the sound and feel of the instrument. Fortunately, both items are inexpensive enough that players can experiment to find the best combination for them. Many guitarists also like using some sort of dedicated string cleaner, which not only improves the lifespan of the strings but can also contribute to increased playability.