What gear do you need to learn guitar?
You can start to learn guitar by borrowing somebody else’s gear, but most students will very quickly want to get their own. Most guitar shops will want to sell you as much stuff as possible, which can make it hard to know exactly what equipment you actually need to learn guitar, and what can wait.
What do you need?
A guitar
Yes, you do need a guitar. No, it doesn’t need to be Steve Vai’s old Ibanez Universe currently on sale on ebay for $14,900 – something cheep and cheerful is fine. I tend to think it’s best not to spend too much if you are new to playing guitar, it can take a while to know exactly what sort of things you like in a guitar.
A strap
These are necessary to play standing up. It’s good to practice like this at least some of the time, as there are very few times you will actually perform sitting down, particularly if you’re an electric guitarist.
Some picks
These are necessary to, you know, pick with. They are available in all sorts of materials and thicknesses. Super thin ones are usually only good for chord strumming, while very thick ones can feel cumbersome for some players. The exact thickness is often a matter of taste, but if you are unsure exactly what to get then something about 0.88mm is often a good start.
Spare strings
Some spare strings will save trips to the shop when you break them. Be sure to get them in the gauge that your guitar is set up for.
Something to learn from
To learn guitar, it’s best to have some materials to learn from – these can be private guitar lessons, group lessons, guitar instruction software, dvds, books, or just playing along to your favourite CDs
Something to tune with
Guitars do go out of tune. Most guitarists will use an electronic tuner to tune with, but you can also tune by ear using a pitch fork, another instrument, or even from CDs or mp3s.
What don’t you need?
An amplifier
Yes, that’s right. You can learn guitar without an amplifier, even a solidbody electric guitar. Unplugged, is not going to be loud enough to play stadiums, but it will be fine for your bedroom. Amps are great, electric players will usually want one very soon after they start, but you don’t actually need one to start learning. For parents who are buying equipment for a kid or teenager to learn guitar on, I think it can be a good idea to just buy them an electric guitar, with the promise of buying them an amplifier if they practice regularly for a year or 18 months.
Effects pedals
Effects pedals, rack units and so on can be great. But when you’re first learning, they are only going to distract you from learning to play the guitar. For new guitarists, I tend to think it’s best to hold off for at least a year before buying effects.
Home Studio
You don’t any recording equipment to start to learn guitar. That said, you can get a lot of benefit from listening back to yourself playing – it’s a really good way to focus on any rough patches in your playing. But you don’t need a fancy home studio to do that – a beat-up old boom box from the 80s will work just as well simply for the purposes of listening back to your playing.
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