Christmas Gifts for Guitarists - Help wanted with article ideas

CaseOfAce

good suggestions from Roland above  ..I'll add...

• bullet guitar jack tightener - I bought one the other week for a loose jack on my strat - why did it take me so long?
• tiny allen key that sticks behind the headstock of a floyd rose equipped guitar
• Big bends nut sauce
• Blackstar Fly 3 mini-amp
• Marshall MS-2 - frivolous toy? absolutely - but looks good on the bookcase and who knows when you might need something quick and easy to plug into-  I'm sure I saw one in a picture of Eddie Van Halen's workshop as well.

Book wise I'm a big fan of the Complete Guitar Chord Songbooks that no one ever mentions. Receiving one of these, of an artist whose music I love, and learning to play and sing the stuff in them will VASTLY enhance your enjoyment of playing guitar way more than just endlessly buying and selling gear so endemic on here.

donbot

If it’s for people just about to pick up the guitar then:
 Peterson Stroboclip tuner. Might as well get it right first time.
 Guitar neck wall chart 
 A decent chord chart or book
 A guitar setup manual
 A few packs of strings  
 A tab book of their fave band
 Guitar maintenance tool kit.
 Guitar stand
 Music stand
 Guitar lessons
 A selection of picks
 A capo
 A slide

All the basics that they’ll want at some point I guess. 

stonevibe

CaseOfAce said:

good suggestions from Roland above  ..I'll add...

• bullet guitar jack tightener - I bought one the other week for a loose jack on my strat - why did it take me so long?
• tiny allen key that sticks behind the headstock of a floyd rose equipped guitar
• Big bends nut sauce
• Blackstar Fly 3 mini-amp
• Marshall MS-2 - frivolous toy? absolutely - but looks good on the bookcase and who knows when you might need something quick and easy to plug into-  I'm sure I saw one in a picture of Eddie Van Halen's workshop as well.

Book wise I'm a big fan of the Complete Guitar Chord Songbooks that no one ever mentions. Receiving one of these, of an artist whose music I love, and learning to play and sing the stuff in them will VASTLY enhance your enjoyment of playing guitar way more than just endlessly buying and selling gear so endemic on here.

A great recorded guitar tone is an MS-2 in a bucket, cranked with an SM57 with a cushion pushed in to keep it all in place.

 

stonevibe

CaseOfAce said:

good suggestions from Roland above  ..I'll add...

• bullet guitar jack tightener - I bought one the other week for a loose jack on my strat - why did it take me so long?
• tiny allen key that sticks behind the headstock of a floyd rose equipped guitar
• Big bends nut sauce
• Blackstar Fly 3 mini-amp
• Marshall MS-2 - frivolous toy? absolutely - but looks good on the bookcase and who knows when you might need something quick and easy to plug into-  I'm sure I saw one in a picture of Eddie Van Halen's workshop as well.

Book wise I'm a big fan of the Complete Guitar Chord Songbooks that no one ever mentions. Receiving one of these, of an artist whose music I love, and learning to play and sing the stuff in them will VASTLY enhance your enjoyment of playing guitar way more than just endlessly buying and selling gear so endemic on here.

Those bullet guitar jack tighteners are great and I have a magnetic Hexhider Allen key on the back of my headstock 

Jono111

A subscription to Songsterr or one of the guitar learning sites

Kittyfrisk

stonevibe said:

CaseOfAce said:

good suggestions from Roland above  ..I'll add...

• bullet guitar jack tightener - I bought one the other week for a loose jack on my strat - why did it take me so long?
• tiny allen key that sticks behind the headstock of a floyd rose equipped guitar
• Big bends nut sauce
• Blackstar Fly 3 mini-amp
• Marshall MS-2 - frivolous toy? absolutely - but looks good on the bookcase and who knows when you might need something quick and easy to plug into-  I'm sure I saw one in a picture of Eddie Van Halen's workshop as well.

Book wise I'm a big fan of the Complete Guitar Chord Songbooks that no one ever mentions. Receiving one of these, of an artist whose music I love, and learning to play and sing the stuff in them will VASTLY enhance your enjoyment of playing guitar way more than just endlessly buying and selling gear so endemic on here.

A great recorded guitar tone is an MS-2 in a bucket, cranked with an SM57 with a cushion pushed in to keep it all in place.

 

Galvanised or plastic?

Oor Wullie has an opinion...

blobb

When my nephew started out he had a guitar an amp (a sh*t amp) some lessons and buckets of enthusiasm.

I bought him:

an Orange crush amp - ok I didn't buy it for him. I already had it and it popped a cap so I gave it to him on the basis of 'If you can fix it, you can keep it' he fixed it and kept it. ~ £150

a joyo ultimate drive so he could have dirt in his life ~ one on ebay for £22

a Marshal Regenerator pedal ~ 5x modulation effects in one. £50

Not all at once mind. My logic was that he probably wanted to have some fun, let rip a little, sound like his heroes. Counter the 'learning' bit a little.

I think they went down well and allowed him to grow his sounds as he developed.

HAL9000

An empty gigbag. That way I’d be forced to buy a new guitar. After all I wouldn’t want to upset the giver by not using my new gigbag would I?

Brio

A guitar setup voucher from a local store/tech.

Teyeplayer

I know you’ve done the budget pedals thing before, but that’s where I’d target. 10 pedals that are under £40. Cheap enough for granny or aunt Mavis, whilst still being a bit of fun. Possibly time to update that article? 

The other one that has already been mentioned is a guitar setup book. Wish I’d had one when I was starting out. 

drofluf

Strings or, <whistles innocently > that Blackstar Fly in the classifieds

stickyfiddle

In roughly ascending price order...

Strings & picks - but you need to get the right ones
Capo
Polytune Clip
Nice straps - anything but the boggo Fender ones and cheap nylon rubbish that comes in starter kits; Souldier, Levys, Heistercamp, etc 
Stewmac Guitar Tech Screwdriver set 
Groovetech multitool for guitar
Leatherman & small torch always useful for anyone gigging 
Polytune Mini
Mono cases 

YellowLedBetterMan

Polytune clip
Fender weightless strap

GoFish

stonevibe said:

mrkb said:

No guitar shaped kitchen objects!!!! Fender chopping boards and spatulas can Fxxx off!!

I'd take a Marshall Fridge full of cold lager, but f**k the chopping board shaped like a Telecaster body, etc

Reminds me of man-pals Elton John and Rod Stewart, discussing their differing present standards

R: I got him a mini fridge, filled with beer like. [satisfied grin]

E: I bought him a Renoir.

stonevibe

Kittyfrisk said:

stonevibe said:

CaseOfAce said:

good suggestions from Roland above  ..I'll add...

• bullet guitar jack tightener - I bought one the other week for a loose jack on my strat - why did it take me so long?
• tiny allen key that sticks behind the headstock of a floyd rose equipped guitar
• Big bends nut sauce
• Blackstar Fly 3 mini-amp
• Marshall MS-2 - frivolous toy? absolutely - but looks good on the bookcase and who knows when you might need something quick and easy to plug into-  I'm sure I saw one in a picture of Eddie Van Halen's workshop as well.

Book wise I'm a big fan of the Complete Guitar Chord Songbooks that no one ever mentions. Receiving one of these, of an artist whose music I love, and learning to play and sing the stuff in them will VASTLY enhance your enjoyment of playing guitar way more than just endlessly buying and selling gear so endemic on here.

A great recorded guitar tone is an MS-2 in a bucket, cranked with an SM57 with a cushion pushed in to keep it all in place.

 

Galvanised or plastic?

Oor Wullie has an opinion...

A Fire bucket actually

stonevibe

Some good suggestions, thank you all and a lot of these will be appearing soon on the site.


I'm moving house on Friday, so there may be a slight delay as I swear at boxes for a few days... 

EricTheWeary

Might have missed this but decorative tape eg Duck Tape. Always useful and you can go "that's my cable because it has the union jack tape on" at jam nights. Also put on it's side a great beer glass holder. If they give up guitar they can use it to wrap the stuff they sell on eBay. 

fretmeister

stonevibe said:

Sporky said:

I know the aim here is just to get more content to satisfy the algorithm, but when I played guitar I didn't want people to buy me random crap from a list. I had strings, and pedals, and straps, and capos, and a tuner, and cables, and I chose each very carefully and deliberately.

I like the Smiths' music, but a book about Marr would force me to smile and grit my teeth and wonder how much money the purchaser spaffed on it.

I am not the first person in the thread to say this, and I'm sure I'll be ignored like the others, but please don't encourage people to buy random crap based on the recipient having a hobby that is both wide and deep.

I agree that the algorithm looks for certain phrases.

I'm looking to create for people that aren't guitarists, and that have friends/family members looking to start out playing guitar. These lists/ guides are aimed at people who are not  'clued up' and probably not guys like us who have been playing for decades.

Still Money.

Or specifically ask the person what strings / plectrums etc they use.

Everything else is destined for landfill and your click consuming algo will just end up helping the environment burn. *






* Which I completely support, partly due to the existence of humans who think random guitar based gifts are a good idea.

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

stonevibe said:

Sporky said:

I know the aim here is just to get more content to satisfy the algorithm, but when I played guitar I didn't want people to buy me random crap from a list. I had strings, and pedals, and straps, and capos, and a tuner, and cables, and I chose each very carefully and deliberately.

I like the Smiths' music, but a book about Marr would force me to smile and grit my teeth and wonder how much money the purchaser spaffed on it.

I am not the first person in the thread to say this, and I'm sure I'll be ignored like the others, but please don't encourage people to buy random crap based on the recipient having a hobby that is both wide and deep.

I agree that the algorithm looks for certain phrases.

I'm looking to create for people that aren't guitarists, and that have friends/family members looking to start out playing guitar. These lists/ guides are aimed at people who are not  'clued up' and probably not guys like us who have been playing for decades.

Still Money.

Or specifically ask the person what strings / plectrums etc they use.

Everything else is destined for landfill and your click consuming algo will just end up helping the environment burn. *




* Which I completely support, partly due to the existence of humans who think random guitar based gifts are a good idea.

I don't necessarily disagree. I know I'm hugely picky, so would rather have money than some rando guitar-related ephemera - god knows we've all had plenty of that! 

But thinking more I don't even want most "proper" gear like pedals, strings, even guitars, so doing enough homework to know exactly what is useful to the specific person is going to be good advice

Offset

My daughter bought me this last Christmas because I'm always misplacing keys.

Before anyone asks - no, it hasn't :-)