Things you need to play guitar effectively:
-Guitar Pick
-Tuner (optional; recommended)
-Guitar
-Extra set of strings
-Capo (optional; recommended)
-Guitar Strap
-Cables (if electric guitar)
-Amplifier (if Electric guitar)
-String winder (for changing strings)
-Wire cutters (changing strings)
Guitar Pick:
Not very expensive, the brand and quality matters, but just try out what feels right to you. Ranges mostly about $2.50 for a 12-pack, not much. I suggest a Dunlop Tortex for absolutely any style, level of playing, or experience. I play yellow and green ones. (.73mm, .88mm), I also use Dunlop Jazz III Sharpo?s (1.38 mm). I suggest for starting people to go with a regular pick or try many types. I find it easier to play rhythm with the tortex picks by Dunlop. For the shredding I like a stiff pick (1.38 or anything in that caliber). The thicker picks give you a lot more control on the strings.
Tuner and Metronome:
This is usually a small device you can find at any musical shop or online. It is where you can in some cases plug it in, or just play into the small speaker. Make sure you understand how to use the tuner; they work differently depending on brand. The kind doesn?t really affect anything, just depends on what you like the most, estimated about $20. It is essential if you are not experienced with tuning a guitar or you want to tune to a different setting like dropped-d, or a half-step down.
Metronomes are basically a device sometimes with tuners that give you a tempo and it teaches you to have good timing on guitar. It gives you the beats per minute and those types of things for you to start slow with a riff and build your way up. Some of them also go as far as saying the BPM and what range it is. Like Adagio, Andante, Allegro, Presto (more will be explained in later lessons)
Guitar:
This goes without saying you need this. Choose the type you want, go into a musical shop and test them out, ask your friends, look at online reviews. If you are just a beginner you don?t need anything fancy just a simple electric will do. I strongly recommend a starter pack that will fix all of this above mostly. It will give you the strings, guitar, amp, maybe a capo. Definitely a strap and all of that. So I strongly recommend a starter pack. They are about $300. If you want to go really cheap and get a decent guitar, but might want to replace the picks; try out a Behringer V-Tone starter pack. The guitar is extremely light and has a very good feel for its price, or any price really. It is only 109.99 for this package at www.zzsounds.com/ Along with that you can do what most people do, it may require a little bit more money but it is well worth it. Instead of getting a pack and having a crappy guitar, get a starter guitar, decent amp. I suggest for the starter guitar an SX, or like mine which I had customized, it has amazing feel on the neck and frets, a BC Rich Bronze Warlock. The amp thing has to be careful about because you want an amp that will not produce an over-distorted tone. Even if you are a beginner, if you go into intermediate you just won?t hear the notes. So to combat that get a ?Roland Micro Cube?, quite inexpensive and I?ve heard amazing things about them. I will cover things in the amps/effects section of ways to make your sound perfected.
Extra Strings:
This is not required, but recommended. Strings will always break, and always get dull. No guitar string never does, it?s just a fact of life. Depending on your style, try out some different strings. They aren?t that much either maybe about 2.50 a pack for some GHS strings, which are pretty good. I recommend more for D?addario strings as they are a lot more versatile then GHS; it will only cost you an extra dollar. Plus they last a lot longer, I had some that never really went dead and its life span was over 3 months. Dean Markely is a very good brand of strings. I am currently using DR Dimebag Darrel High Voltage (.09-.42) and they are pretty nice.
Capo:
This is a small metal clamp basically. To make this easy to remember, it is a guitar clamp. It simply holds all the strings down on one fret to change your key; it makes it easier to play some songs. It also will help you keep your strings in tune. Prices range, I guess maybe about $15 at least. A very good brand I know for this is Dunlop and Planet Waves.
Guitar Strap:
This is basically just the thing that goes over your shoulder as you play guitar. Depending on your guitar and price range, straps vary. The best way to go is to go get a strap that is at least 3? wide, or maybe a 3.5 or something of that sort. Nylon straps tend to be kind of uncomfortable, the suede leather is very comfortable and has good price. I use an ?Onori? strap, it?s very good quality, it doesn?t slip and looks great. I only paid about 11 dollars for it at a local guitar shop, very worth it.
Guitar Cables (instrument cables):
This is what you use to hook your guitar to the amplifier. The guitar when you put it in the slot that says ?in? or ?line in?. With a distortion pedal or any effects processor, the guitar goes into the ?in? slot. The ?out? slot goes to your amp or whatever you want it hooked up to. There are many different styles, brands, lengths. The guitar cable does matter in some ways. If you are using regular beginner equipment it won?t matter much. For custom materials you may want higher priced ones that are longer and maybe woven (in nylon above the rubber) wrapped. Cables vary in price and brand. The good brands that I know that aren?t that bad on price are CBI, Whirlwind, and Monster. I must warn you, ward away from most store brand anything. I am not saying that all of the stuff that has the store name on it is bad, it just isn?t that good. I have heard mostly bad reviews about musician?s friend brand cables. It is very worth it to get a good cable, some make your signal clearer, better sound.
Amplifier:
This is very controversial on type, style and designers. Amplifier come in mainly three types: Tube (vintage amps with no channel switching usually; some come with channel switching but those are the higher end and are very expensive), Solid State (has a button to switch to overdrive or clean tone, and sometimes onboard effects and a 3rd channel for soloing), and Digital (has effects, reverb, and all of that built in). Guitar amps are mainly a big part of your style. So if you like blues get something that will fit that tone you like. If you want something loud and rock like, get something of that area. I use a Marshall Combo amp for my stuff and it works well. If you would like to have a better feel for your thing you can also get effects or distortion pedals. These will alter the signals from your guitar to amp giving you the sound you desire. A Stomp-box (effects pedal; comes in analog and digital) will give you an exact style like death metal, blues, and tube sounds. The brands really vary with effects though, so you may need more then one to complete your sound. Like if you want metal a good one would be something with boss, then get a noise gate, and a wah.
Combo Amps: Small-scale amps, used to practice with. It has 2 channels (clean and overdrive) which changes your tone. It also has a smaller ranged EQ (Equalizer, sets your sound direction up). It is a basic solid state amp. Usually come stock with an 8? or 12? speaker/s.
Tube amps: These are the classic area of guitar amps, main makers would be Randall, Marshall, Vox, ECT. Tube amps are different in the fact from solid state that they are not powered the same and they also have different characteristics. Along with that you will find that tube amps are run off of tubes or sometimes called ?valves?. These tubes need a few minutes to heat up and will give you a natural and dirty guitar sound. They are great for blues, classic rock, and pretty much all different styles. Tubes must be replaced every so often as they get worn out over time, but the sound of them justifies the changing. They run off of preamp tubes, and power amp tubes. They are just a bunch of technicalities to players.
Cabinet: Cabinets come in all different sizes, and sometimes shapes. They have mainly 2 types of cabinets (slanted/angled, straight). The angled/slanted cabs have a box that its front is slanted so the sound goes all around in 2 directions or more. Straight cabs are also good; these cabinets are basically straight as in flat, not slanted.
Head: The head has many different functions, they are used to power your speakers, along with control the tones with the equalizer. This is where the main solid state or tube factor comes in. As I said before solid state runs off a straight forward EQ, Tube runs through the preamps and all of those different areas. Note: Heads, cabs, stacks are kind of high for a beginner, but good if you are intermediate or gigging.
Full stack/Half stack: Full stack has two cabinets, Half-stack has one.
Tone Controls: Varies from amp to amp, read the owner?s manual. Not all amps have the same settings. In some manuals they will have exact settings for different styles. With my Marshall for heavy metal setting it is:
Bass: 10
Gain: 10
Contour: 2
Treble: 5
String Winders:
This is a basic, small, plastic winder. It is used to loosen your strings quickly so you can get the strings unwound, for you to change them. It isn?t much at all maybe about $5 at most. Dunlop makes the best in these I think.
Wire-Cutters:
Buy them at a hardware store; they are used to snap your strings when changing them. Also you need this to bend the string when you change strings. It is simple a device to snap strings and bend the tips of them when you put them on. This makes it much simpler to do string changing and it makes you have fewer cuts on yourself.
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