Having issues when choosing the perfect guitar accessories? Here's your guide when choosing the right picks, strings and straps.
You're sure, in your musical career, to lose, break, toss to adoring fans as souvenirs, and otherwise part company with hundreds of picks, so don't get attached (in a sentimental sense) to them. Treat these guitar accessories as the inexpensive, expendable commodity they are. Stock up by the gross with your favorite color and gauge (thickness) and always carry spares in your wallet, the car, the flaps of your penny loafers, and any other... er, convenient place. After you get used to a certain gauge, shape, and make of pick, you don't change around much, even going from electric to acoustic or vice versa.
Strings
You always need to keep extra strings on hand for the simple reason that, if you break one, you need to replace it immediately. To do so requires that you carry at least an extra full set - any one of your six strings could break. Unlike car tires, where one spare fits all, guitars use six individually gauged strings. Woe to the guitarists who keep breaking the same string over and over - they're going to have an awful lot of partial sets around! Fortunately, string sets are cheap - about 4 pounds/$7 if you buy them in single sets and cheaper still if you buy in boxes of 12 sets. Or, you can buy single strings for about $1.50 apiece.
The higher, thinner strings tend to break more easily than do the lower, thicker ones, so try to carry three spares each of the high E, B, and G strings (on an electric and nylon, the G is unwound).
Straps
Straps come in all kinds of styles and materials, from nylon to woven fabric to leather. The first rule in choosing a strap is that you get the most comfortable one that you can afford. Wearing a guitar on your shoulder for long periods of time can cause discomfort, and the better the strap is, the more it protects your muscles against strain and fatigue.
Appearance is a close second to comfort as a factor in deciding what strap to buy. You must like the look of your strap, as its function isn't just utilitarian but aesthetic as well. Because it drapes over your shoulder, a strap functions almost like an article of clothing. So try to match the look of your strap to your own look as well as to the look of your guitar.
You can get this particular kind of guitar accessories custom made with your initials embroidered in them, if that's your thing (a must-have if you plan on being a country music matinee idol). Or you can get them in all sorts of motifs, from Southwest patterns to lighting bolts and pentagrams. But if you're looking at strictly the price, a simple, no-frills nylon strap costs as little as 3 pounds/$5 and holds your guitar as securely as a $200/124 pounds one with your name embossed in leather. For extra insurance, purchase strap locks, which secure your strap ends to the guitar using a two-piece locking mechanism, kind of like what you find on earrings (the pierced kind).
If you own more than one guitar, you're best off with a strap for each type of guitar, electric and acoustic. That way, you don't need to keep adjusting it as you switch from electric to acoustic and back again.
You're sure, in your musical career, to lose, break, toss to adoring fans as souvenirs, and otherwise part company with hundreds of picks, so don't get attached (in a sentimental sense) to them. Treat these guitar accessories as the inexpensive, expendable commodity they are. Stock up by the gross with your favorite color and gauge (thickness) and always carry spares in your wallet, the car, the flaps of your penny loafers, and any other... er, convenient place. After you get used to a certain gauge, shape, and make of pick, you don't change around much, even going from electric to acoustic or vice versa.
Strings
You always need to keep extra strings on hand for the simple reason that, if you break one, you need to replace it immediately. To do so requires that you carry at least an extra full set - any one of your six strings could break. Unlike car tires, where one spare fits all, guitars use six individually gauged strings. Woe to the guitarists who keep breaking the same string over and over - they're going to have an awful lot of partial sets around! Fortunately, string sets are cheap - about 4 pounds/$7 if you buy them in single sets and cheaper still if you buy in boxes of 12 sets. Or, you can buy single strings for about $1.50 apiece.
The higher, thinner strings tend to break more easily than do the lower, thicker ones, so try to carry three spares each of the high E, B, and G strings (on an electric and nylon, the G is unwound).
Straps
Straps come in all kinds of styles and materials, from nylon to woven fabric to leather. The first rule in choosing a strap is that you get the most comfortable one that you can afford. Wearing a guitar on your shoulder for long periods of time can cause discomfort, and the better the strap is, the more it protects your muscles against strain and fatigue.
Appearance is a close second to comfort as a factor in deciding what strap to buy. You must like the look of your strap, as its function isn't just utilitarian but aesthetic as well. Because it drapes over your shoulder, a strap functions almost like an article of clothing. So try to match the look of your strap to your own look as well as to the look of your guitar.
You can get this particular kind of guitar accessories custom made with your initials embroidered in them, if that's your thing (a must-have if you plan on being a country music matinee idol). Or you can get them in all sorts of motifs, from Southwest patterns to lighting bolts and pentagrams. But if you're looking at strictly the price, a simple, no-frills nylon strap costs as little as 3 pounds/$5 and holds your guitar as securely as a $200/124 pounds one with your name embossed in leather. For extra insurance, purchase strap locks, which secure your strap ends to the guitar using a two-piece locking mechanism, kind of like what you find on earrings (the pierced kind).
If you own more than one guitar, you're best off with a strap for each type of guitar, electric and acoustic. That way, you don't need to keep adjusting it as you switch from electric to acoustic and back again.
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