A great gift that I received for Christmas when I was just starting to play guitar was a chromatic tuner. I had taught myself how to tune the guitar by ear, but my hear wasn’t really trained that well. So even though I tuned my guitar it was generally off. A chromatic tuner was an excellent gift because it helped me learn songs easier by having a guitar that sounded like it was supposed to.

A chromatic tuner has a lot of other uses, like introducing you to alternate tunings and lower tunings like drop d and half or full step down.

The Korg GT-3 digital guitar tuners are a great buy, but pretty much any chromatic tuner will do.

Continue reading Christmas Gift Idea: Chromatic Guitar Tuner

Well it is December, so I guess it’s ok to start talking about Christmas now. One thing about Christmas is I always get guitar stuff. People know me as a guitar guy and so they know getting me guitar related stuff is always a sure bet.

The good thing about guitars is there is a range of very expensive to very cheap stuff you can get. So I just wanted to go over some of the cheaper items you can buy your guitar playing friend for Christmas. As the title says, these things make great stocking stuffers.

1. Guitar Strings
Guitar strings are always a sure bet. The thing about strings is they wear out and they have to be replaced. Also, it doesn’t matter if buddy has spare guitar strings already, if you buy them they will always get used. There is one key factor though, you MUST make sure you get strings that the person will use. Guitar players can be very specific about what they put on their guitar. So, try and get an old package from strings they have used or better yet, just ask them what kind of strings they like on their guitar.

There are three things you want to know: type, gauge, and brand. The type refers to whether they are steel acoustic, nylong acoustic, or electric strings. The gauge is the thickness and is usually light, medium, or heavy. And the brand could be one of hundreds. These three things are very important. If you get your guitar player a set of heavy strings and they play light strings, they may never put them on their guitar.

Continue reading Stocking Stuffers for Guitar Players