Gift Ideas

Interests > Gifts for Guitarists

November 20th, 2025

Remember: your beloved guitarist is an enthusiast. This means your gift recipient has strong brand preferences and can discern details you can’t. Thus: ask them what they want! And they might not want anything! Making music is not a hobby that requires constant purchases.

Some things are almost always bad gifts:

1. A new instrument. You should definitely discuss this first. They probably like their current guitar, and a cheap guitar is generally crap. Even if their current guitar’s crap they probably have an emotional bond with it.

2. Things decorated with guitars, music, or chord charts. Mugs, T shirts, notebooks, etc. Guitars and music aren’t decoration. Guitars are tools, and notation has meaning. You wouldn’t buy a reader a book covered with random letters; don’t buy a musician something with random music on it. They can read it! They see all the mistakes.

   If you do buy something with musical decoration, I think it must be well-designed, and be subtle, and have an extra joke or double meaning. Threadless have a few shirts I don’t hate. (Also this shirt if your recipient is also into Animal Crossing.)

3. Chord charts. A beginner already has a chord reference, and anyone who’s played for a few months knows their chords already.

4. Gizmos. Hand exercisers, string winders, cleaning oils, pick holders, pick punches, stuff like that. People don’t use these.

Guitar World’s gift guide has some more thoughts about what to avoid.

There are different kinds of guitar enthusiast, though these categories overlap. Identifying your recipient will help you pick a good gift.

• Loves to play. They’re into playing music – at home, with friends, or gigging.
• Loves to write songs. They create their own music, not just playing other people’s tunes.
• Loves recording. This is probably the most uncommon guitar enthusiast, but they’re out there. They chase new sounds, tweak microphone positions, and have strong opinions about tube amplifiers.
• Loves gear. Sometimes guitars, sometimes guitar pedals and/or amps. If they own more than four guitar pedals or two identical-looking guitars, chances are they’re a gear lover.

Lessons

I think the best gift you can give a guitarist is in-person guitar lessons. Even a couple of sessions with a teacher will pay off. The teacher’s style needs to match the student’s – classical guitar lessons are wasted on a rock guitarist, because they’re playing in completely different worlds.

Tell the teacher how long your guitarist’s been playing, what kind of guitars they use, and what music they play. The teacher should know if they’re a good fit based on this. Not every teacher will be open to one or two one-off lessons.

If your recipient already has a guitar teacher, ask the teacher if a) you can prepay for a lesson and b) if they can suggest any books/accessories for your recipient.

Books

I’m a big fan of paper music books. Sheet music is nicer on paper than a screen, and a book is a surprisingly effective teacher if you sit down and work through it.

Hal Leonard is the main music publisher today. Their “Guitar Recorded Versions” series has a yellow triangle on the cover, which means it’s a transcription from the record. If your recipient likes a fairly mainstream album, chances are there’s a matching book. A songbook is also useful if your recipient’s into songwriting: seeing a song written out makes it easier to analyse.

There’s also the Guitar Tab White Pages series. This is the same size and paper quality of a phonebook, but full of guitar music – a lot of music for your money. I would avoid the “Easy Guitar Tab White Pages” unless you have two musicians to hand. It’s mostly notating just the vocal melody – so unless you have a second musician to play the chords, I think it will be unsatisfying.

Unfortunately the main instruction books I like are now out of print. I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of How To Play Rhythm Guitar from Backbeat Books. Everything I’ve read from Backbeat’s been great. Guitar on Tap was also a good intro to scales, modes, and altered tunings. There’s nothing unique about these particular books, and I’m sure there are similarly great books in print now. I just don’t know what they are.

Fretboard Theory is still in print, and is pretty good if your recipient has an interest in music theory.

If your gift recipient has an interest in songwriting, I highly recommend How To Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby. It’s great: clear, straightforward, full of specific advice and examples. All of Rooksby’s books seem to be like this, and there’s a whole series of “How to write…” songwriting books, but this is the one to start with.

If you’re buying your recipient a book, why not get them some index tabs as well? These ones are paper (ie. recyclable and biodegradable) but your local stationer will have some cuter options.

Accessories

Strings

Maybe the best gift for a guitar player is new strings. You’re supposed to change your strings regularly – every few months, at least once a year. Fresh strings feel and sound better. Unopened strings last forever, so it doesn’t matter if your recipient has spare sets already. Strings cost $10-15 a set – more for fancy coated types. For some reason – probably because they use a lot more metal – bass strings start around $35.

Electric, acoustic, and classical guitars all use different kinds of strings. You’ll also need to know three things: Gauge, variety, and brand. Do not guess any of these. Ask your recipient if you can’t find the packaging for their current strings. Gauge is most important, both for feel and health of their guitar¹. Every brand has a variety of strings that differ in material, coatings, and shape. I like Daddario strings, because that’s what I started playing. Ernie Ball are also popular. If you ask a guitar player what they use, they’ll say something like “Daddario 10s” (10 being the gauge); double-check the instrument too (“electric, right?”).

A Tuner

Your guitarist probably has a tuner already. All tuners are fine, and every guitar gizmo has a built-in tuner. But if your recipient always tunes using their mobile phone, a dedicated tuner is a good gift. I like clip-on tuners: these pick up vibrations from the instrument, so they work for acoustic and electric instruments and in noisy environments.

I’ve used a cheap no-brand tuner and liked it a lot. I like how the whole display changes colour when your string is in tune, and how it has a “guitar mode” so it knows the target pitch of each string. The screen folds out of the way when not in use. If this was rechargeable it would be perfect.

I’ve never used a Snark tuner, but they’re basically the same style and are USB rechargeable. I’ve also never tried a Polytune tuner, which lets you tune all strings simultaneously. Strum across the strings and it’ll detect which strings are off. I think this feature is more a novelty than a useful time saver, but it’s a neat trick.

If your guitarist is into pedals they would probably prefer a pedalboard tuner. They probably have one already – it’ll be written on the pedal – so check their pedalboard before buying. (Remember that tuners are common “bonus” features, so check all their pedal button labels for text like “hold for tuner” too.)

Plectrums

Plectrums (AKA picks) are very affordable, but also something your guitarist already has. Popular culture suggests I should be losing plectrums all the time, but I rarely do. Maybe your guitarist plays gigs or travels a lot, so loses them more regularly? Still, I wouldn’t buy them a 12-pack every Christmas. That’s too many picks.

Just like strings, guitar players have a strong brand/type preference for plectrums, so find out what they currently use. The text specifying this often wears away, so sneak a picture after they’ve bought new picks.

Plectrum manufacturers often sell variety packs, which can be good gifts. Your recipient gets a couple of their favourite plectrums, plus some extras to try. I like Tortex picks, so bought this variety pack with two picks of each thickness. Dunlop also makes more varied packs, like an acoustic pack or a jazz pick pack. Other manufacturers also make variety packs, but often just colour variation – all these picks have the same shape and thickness. So make sure you’re matching your recipient’s preferences if you get these.

Fingerstyle guitarists often use a thumb pick. Individual thumb picks are expensive online but your local guitar shop will sell you one for a couple of bucks. I think this is a nice stocking filler for a guitarist; it’s a low-stakes way of trying a new playing style. (Here’s a good intro video for playing fingerstyle.)

Gift websites often have stone plectrums and “plectrum punches” that let you make picks from old credit cards. Don’t buy these – no guitarist will use them. A plectrum needs a little flex, and isn’t just a teardrop-shaped bit of plastic. The thickness and edge profile is important too. Punching out random picks sounds like a frustrating scavenger hunt to me.

Earplugs

Guitarists won’t need these at home, unless they love cranking up the amplifier in the garage. Even then, would they use earplugs? They could just turn the volume down². But earplugs are great for gigs – both attending and playing. I love my earplugs. I can stand at the front and leave a show without ears ringing.

You’re looking for earplugs described as “musician’s earplugs”, which means they reduce all frequencies roughly equally. The cheap foam earplugs don’t do this, so can muddy the sound. Musician’s earplugs leave everything sounding the same, just quieter. I have Elacin ER20 earplugs and like them. My wife has some Loop earplugs and likes hers. Most music stores will have something similar in this price range.

Protecting your hearing is worth it. I have at least two friends with persistent tinnitus thanks to loud music, and it’s the bane of their lives. One has spent thousands trying various therapies to get relief, and has to sleep with a white noise machine because the ringing is so intrusive.

Headphones

If your recipient is making do with some earbuds or cheap headphones, a good pair of headphones can make a world of difference. You need to use wired headphones when making music³ – wireless headphones have latency that makes them impossible to use. This delay is imperceptible when listening to music or on a phone call, but is absolute murder when playing an instrument. Have you ever been on a Zoom call where you can hear your own voice on a delay? It’s like that.

So: wired headphones. I find over-ear headphones the most comfortable. I like closed-back headphones, but I don’t think it matters much for guitarists. If your recipient uses the guitar to escape from the noises of day-to-day life, then closed-back is better. I really like my Sennheiser HD280 Pros but the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro⁴ and Audio-Technica ATH-M50x are also popular. RTings has a good roundup of studio headphones, as does Marco Arment. Not all of Marco’s picks are wired, though.

An Instrument Stand

If your guitarist always keeps their guitar in a gig bag and they have space to leave it out all the time, maybe a guitar stand would be a good gift. Unbranded stands are fine, as long as it has a cross-brace and padded arms. Be careful if your recipient has an expensive guitar – some guitar finishes (like nitrocellulose) can be damaged by extended contact with rubber foam. Cork arm coverings or some fabric over the arms will avoid this.

Miscellaneous

I mentioned index tabs/page flags before, but I think they’re a good standalone gift.

Not all guitarists have a slide. Much like a thumb pick, this is a low-stakes way to try out a new guitar style. Slides are available in glass, too, but guitarists only need one kind.

Guitarists need to keep their fretting hand fingernails short. A high-quality nail file would be an unexpected and useful gift.

I’ve never used this, but a friend of mine told me about the Airstep Play. It’s a playback control foot pedal. “So you’re not constantly losing your flow whilst practicing complex twiddly parts,” she said. “You can rewind, and play parts back in a loop, changing the speed while maintaining the pitch.” If your guitarist plays along to a lot of videos, this might be a good gift.

A Multi-Effects Pedal / Practice Amp

Earlier this year I stumbled across a Mooer GE-100 multi-effects pedal in the used section of my local music store. This was the best $75⁵ I’ve spent on music this year. I could already plug my guitar into my laptop/iPad and get a lot of the functionality, but it’s nice to have physical controls and get away from the screen when practicing.

A multi-effects pedal like this is for electric guitars. It simulates several different guitar amplifiers and effects so you get a wide range of tones from one box – a Chet Atkins-style clean tone, a Knopfleresque lead tone with a hint of distortion, whatever punk/rock distorted tone you want, effects-heavy 80s sounds, and more. None of these sounds are great quality – gearheads will pooh-pooh this unit, and there’s better options for recording. But as a practice tool, it’s incredible. Fun, too.

I used to have a Line6 Pod which probably sounds better, even though it’s 20 years older. But I’d choose the Mooer for practice, for a few reasons:

1. The Mooer has drum backing tracks. They’re terrible – better than the Bontempi backing tracks but not by much. But it’s great for practice – playing to a metronome will develop your timing, but playing to a drumbeat will develop your groove.
2. It’s got an expression pedal. So you can mess about pretending to be Hendrix, play ambient volume swells, etc.
3. It’s got a looper. It’s not feature-packed, but it’s still cool:
   • You can play with ambient layering while you play with your ambient volume swells.
   • It’s great for practice. Start your drum backing track, play a simple bass line into the looper, and then practice your chords while the bass loops. Or play chords into the looper and practice solos over the top.
   • The loop controls are footswitches, which makes precise punch in/punch out easier and you don’t have to take your hands off your guitar.
4. The screen is easier to read than LED numerals.

You can probably find a good second-hand deal on a multi-effects pedal. They’re easier than guitars to check – if the guitar input & headphone output work without crackling, the screen’s not bust, and the physical controls all work: you’re good to go.

New units are still good value, though tough to find in Canada. I really liked my Line6 unit and would happily buy their gear again, but their cheapest unit with an expression pedal is $300 on sale. Boss and Zoom also make similar units, but I’ve never tried them.

You can also get smaller headphone amps. A friend recommended the Fender Mustang Micro Plus to me. She said it’s “essentially an amp/FX pedal that plugs straight in your jack socket. Also functions as an audio interface if you want to record direct to PC or Mac. And a tuner. 100 quid well spent.” I’ve not tried it, but I like that it’s USB rechargeable. No metronome/rhythm tracks, but you can play music through it via Bluetooth.

A New Guitar

I’ll reiterate what I said at the top: you shouldn’t buy someone a new guitar without talking to them first. They probably want something more expensive than you want to spend, and have strong opinions about what they want. But if you’re buying a teenager their first guitar, or are willing to spend a couple of hundred bucks on the “other” instrument – an electric for an acoustic player, and vice versa – I have a couple of entry-level recommendations.

If you’re choosing between electric and acoustic for a brand new player, electric has a few advantages:

• You can practice unplugged/with headphones and not disturb everyone else in the house.
• Electric guitars tend to be easier to play. They have lighter strings and lower action (the distance between the string and the fretboard), both of which make playing easier.
• It’s cooler.

The Yamaha Pacifica PAC012 is a great Stratocaster-style electric guitar. It’s got three pickups so it can produce a wide range of sounds; it comes in multiple colours; it’s got good build quality. It’s adjustable if you know what you are doing, and it holds its tuning well. I’m very happy with mine. They’re common guitars so you can find some second-hand bargains. Electric guitars aren’t as finicky as acoustics, but you should still have someone knowledgeable check a second-hand guitar before buying.

On the acoustic side, I’ve borrowed a Yamaha F310P for a few months and it’s astonishing for the money. It feels good and sounds great. $200 gets you not just a guitar but also a bag, capo, a strap, an extra set of strings, picks, and more. It also holds its tuning fairly well. The action is a little high (and this is tougher to adjust on acoustic instruments than electrics) but it’s very playable and great value.

I’ve also tried a Fender CC-60S in a guitar store, and was cautiously impressed by it. The action was definitely better and it sounded pretty good. It’s got a solid wood top, which is important for acoustic guitar tone. I found the neck more comfortable, closer to an electric. And the headstock is the correct shape, not a strat-style headstock on an acoustic. That just looks wrong.

My reservation is Fender are often considered to be cruising on their name recognition, so read some other reviews before going by my first 10 minute impression. But I tried a bunch of entry-level guitars that day, and it was only the Fender that stood out from the Yamaha to me.

A Submarine Pickup

A Submarine pickup is a little dingus that attaches to your guitar and picks up one or two strings. You now have an extra output for the topmost/bottommost strings, and can process them separately. Add lots of delay/vibrato just to your high notes! Have a clean tone for chords, but heavy distortion on the bass.

I’ve never tried one of these, and it’s expensive if it’s not your recipient’s thing, but I bet someone who’s always chasing new sounds would love it.

Gig Tickets

Take your guitarist to a show! Live music is fun and inspiring.

Things on the internet

This isn’t a gift, but I also collect guitar exercises on another site.

• music
• art

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