Best Electric Guitar Amps

I genuinely feel that at times, that a lot of emphasis is placed on buying an (electric) guitar, but not enough space is given to what usually needs to be bought with one – something that is just about as essential as the guitar itself, if not more. An amplifier!

As has been discussed at length in previous posts, an amplifier is vital for an electric guitar to function. An electric guitar produces no sound of its own (unlike its acoustic equivalent), and hence needs to be paired up with a good amp to produce sound.

In simple terms, an electric guitar has multiple pickups on its body, and these electromagnetic pickups are actually responsible for producing sounds. When a string touches these pickups, the pickups convert these mechanical vibrations into electric signals, which go through the amp and produce the desired sound.

So we see that the amplifiers are extremely important as far as electric guitars are concerned.

Whether you’re buying your very first amp, or getting rid of that old practice amp, the question remains, which amps out there are the best? Here are my picks of the crème de la crème of guitar amplifiers:

1. Marshall MA50C

Marshall is, by far, the biggest amp manufacturer in the world, and they make some of the most instantly-recognizable amplifiers in the world today. Marshall amps therefore, are understandably expensive, such as the MA50C, which will set you back by a good $600-$800! It comes with 50 watts of power under its hood, 12-inch speakers, and dual channels. Other features include independent volume and 3-band EQ controls per channel, gain, crunch, balance controls, master presence, resonance, reverb controls, serial effects loop and an included foot switch. It looks absolutely breath-taking, and sounds as good as it looks as well! Which, as you’ll discover, is a rare combination when it comes to amps.

2.  Fender Deluxe VM

Another, beautiful piece of equipment, and another that is one of the most instantly-identifiable amps in the world, the Fender Deluxe too will set you back by around the same price as the MA50C. The VM, or Vintage Modified, has a real-tube amp, with a whole range of essential effects. It houses two 12-inch speakers, pumping a combined power of 40W, and produces a rich and responsive tone. A great amp for a small pub, bar or jamming in your own garage, and ideal for Rock, Country and Blues genre guitar players.

3. Randall KH75

One of my personal favorites from the list, mainly due to the 75W of power that it is capable of delivering, its two channels with its 3 modes, and partly due to the fact that its named after one of my favorite guitarists in the world: Kirk Hammett of Metallica fame! The KH75 is the perfect amp for the road, and has three intuitively and aptly named channel to boot. It also boasts a  spring reverb, an effects loop, a Tape/CD input, and a footswitch. The onboard equalizer controls let you create your very own rock sound, with bass, treble and middle and contour controls. A fantastic amp for the budget-minded.

4. Fender Frontman 15G

A small, basic amp, which is cheap and just perfect for newbies or someone looking for a cheap back-up amp. But nonetheless, one that has great reviews in the community, and one that comes with the reliability and awesomeness of Fender! The Frontman 15G will set you back by around 50-90 of your greens, and apart from being a good backup/second amp, or a cheap startup amp, it is also perfect for backstage practice or warm-up sessions. It has great, signature-Fender tone, 2 channels including normal and drive, a headphone jack, and an auxiliary input with which it can be hooked up with either a CD, tape, or drum machine. It is low on power however, with an output of 15W on its single 8-inch speaker. However it does provide an excellent low-cost solution for beginners and learners. And with Fender, you really can’t go wrong.

5. Peavey 6505 Plus

A very popular amp (and an extremely popular and well-regarded company), the 6505 Plus is a common sight at a lot of gigs, especially rock and metal gigs, all over the world. This particular amp packs a real punch! The Peavey 6505 Plus is a great amp for hardcore rock and metal guitar players, it houses no less than six 12AX7s Preamp tubes and as many as four 6L6s power amp tubes, giving at an astonishing output of 120 watts! In addition, the 6505 has foot-switchable controls, allowing it to switch between lead and rhythm channels easily. It also has an effects loop, a three-band equalizer, presence and resonance control, the Peavey 6505 Plus are the amps of choice for all rock and metal guitarists, because of their power, raw tone, and of course, reliability on the road.

6. Jet City JCA2112RC

Another affordable amplifier, providing a no-nonsense, no-frills experience that is still big on power, the Jet City JCA2112RC provides 20W of power and is single-channeled. Ideal for small places, such as rooms, garages or pubs, the amp has preamp, bass, middle, treble, master, presence controls,  a solid state rectifier, and a 16 gauge, cold-rolled steel chassis. Keeping in view, ease of use, the JCA2112RC has its amp control on top of the amplifier, instead of the front. Each of its hand-built tube amp undergoes rigorous testing, which provides genuine and true British tone and of course, excellent reliability. This particular amp will cost you $350 on the dot.

7. Orange DA15H Dark Terror

Small, compact and portable, the Dark Terror guitar amp packs some serious firepower for an amplifier of this size! Its 15W Tube Guitar Amp Head has an unusually high amount of gain on tap, one of the highest in its class, with extremely high levels of responsiveness. The amp of choice for every hard rock and heavy metal guitar player, Dark Terror stays true to its name by pumping out a huge sound for its small size, backed by three 12AX7 preamp tubes and a 12AT7 power amp tube. It looks fantastic, as is the case with all Orange-produced amps out there, including another personal favorite of mine – the Thunder 30, and has one of the coolest guitar amplifier names in the industry!

Further Read

This is an excellent read on some of the best amps known to man today!

If you're uncertain about what kind of an amp you should get, or which amps fits the bill for you, I recommend checking this LearnGuitar piece on important questions to ask yourself before you make your decision.

Things to Consider When Purchasing a Guitar

Let’s face it, buying a good guitar – whether you do it online or offline – can be a daunting task. However if you have a passion for playing the guitar, and/or if you idolize some of the biggest names in the music industry, you might already know that finding and buying a good guitar is really important.

With a whole host of guitar companies, brands, types and model, and guitars coming in all shapes and sizes, buying your perfect axe is anything but an easy task.

And even though you might be familiar with Gibsons and Fenders, and know your Les Pauls from your Stratocasters, there are different aspects which need to be considered before you take the plunge. Here are a few:

Intonation and Sound

Detrimental to the quality of the sound produced by the guitar, intonation determines that the notes you play are in tune, when you move up and down the neck of the guitar. Therefore before making the purchase, make sure you actually use and play the guitar you want to buy, to check its intonation.

A good measure to determine this is to press down on at a fret, it should play the same note as it would play it unfretted. If they sound the same fretted and unfretted, it means that the intonation is alright.

For an acoustic guitar, if it feels great and sounds great, go for it. It’s that simple. For an electric guitar, make sure you hook it up with a proper amp before judging its sound or tone.

The Neck or Fretboard

For me, one of the most important things when picking up a guitar. Fretboards are made up of wood, and the first thing you would need to determine is what sort of wood it is made of.

Rosewood fretboards, for instance, have a smooth and hard surface, but guitars made of rosewood are rare, and a bit on the heavy side.

Maple, on the other hand, is comparatively lighter and has medium hardness, which makes the neck of the guitar much lighter. Maple is most commonly used in by Fender in almost all their guitars, and most notably, in the Fender Stratocaster.

Mahogany is the most commonly used wood-type in today’s guitars. It is extremely light, even lighter than Maple, and is a very long-lasting type of wood. It is for these reasons that Mahogany is used most commonly in almost all acoustic guitars. Mahogany also has a natural dark color, which gives the guitars an attractive, natural finish.

Pau Ferro is an alternative to rosewood and particularly Brazilian rosewood guitars. It is very heavy, almost as heavy as Rosewood, and completely non-porous, which is why people who customize their guitars prefer Pau ferro-made guitars. However it is known to cause allergies.

Apart from the type of wood, one would also need to check if the neck is straight.

Action

‘Action’ is commonly referred to as the distance between the neck and the strings. It should ideally feel comfortable to play and if it doesn’t, make sure it can be adjusted using a bridge adjustment or the turn of the truss rod. The spacing between the neck and the strings should feel just right.

Also remember that on an electric guitar, if the action is too low, it may cause the strings to vibrate against the metal frets on the neck.

Scale Length

Scale length, aka the vibrating length of a guitar string, is the distance between the bridge and the nut. It is this distance which determines sound and tone produced by the guitar. There are three different standards used by modern guitars: the 24-5/8” Gibson scale, the 25-1/2” Fender scale and the 25” Paul Reed Smith scale.

Tuning

Get your guitar tuned properly from the store before making the purchase. Most stores would have guitar tuners in their shops, and would be more than glad to tune your guitar for you, in case you do not know how to do it yourself.

Alternatively, you could get an app for your iPhone (such as the Guitar Tuner on the Apple iTunes App Store), which would assist you with the tuning process.

As explained earlier, it is extremely essential to have a properly tuned guitar.

Strings

Hold down each of the strings of the guitar, starting from the second fret to the twelfth one, and check if each string touches all the frets or not. There should be zero variation here, and all strings should touch the frets.

Finish

In an acoustic guitar, finish determines and effects the way the wood vibrates. And then, of course, there’s the aesthetics factor as well, especially in an electric guitar. A guitar with a good finish would usually stand out, and look attractive during a gig or a performance. Or get you bragging points on your next jam session with the band. 

Best Acoustic Guitars

Acoustic guitars sound just brilliant right? Good for just about any occasion, any place and any time, acoustic guitars might just be a man’s best friend! Whether it’s a road trip, a party, a trip to the beach or the park or simply to kill some boredom at home, acoustic guitars always seem to come in pretty handy.

Buying a good acoustic guitar used to be a tough task, but not anymore. And the best part is that you, in all probability don’t even need to break the bank in order to purchase a good acoustic guitar.

Choosing a good acoustic guitar however could still be a bit hard, as there is a lot to choose from. The following is a list of my personally-picked, favorite acoustic guitars, fit for beginners, intermediate, advanced or seasoned guitar players alike!

1. Washburn D10S

The Washburn D10S is, hands down, the best acoustic guitar in the world, and by far my personal favorite! It is simply, a great guitar to play, and above all, sounds absolutely fantastic! It is then not surprising, when you discover that it is the number-one, best-selling acoustic guitar in the world! Its back and its sides are made out of Mahogany-wood, the neck too is crafted out of mahogany and the fingerboard is made out of rosewood, all of which combine to give it an excellent tone and sound quality.

2. Seagull S6

Reviewed before as well on this very site as being one of the 3 best acoustic guitars for beginners, the Seagull S6 is another brilliant acoustic guitar, and a close call for being one of the best acoustic guitars in the world, right up there with the D10S. Built by the Canadian company Seagull, and reasonably priced at $400, its quality, in terms of build, sound and tone is right up there with guitars which are priced at a whole lot more – such as the expensively priced Gibsons (Gibsons are usually pretty expensive!). And if that wasn’t enough, it has a great finish and looks absolutely brilliant!

3. Yamaha FG730S

The FG730S was one of two Yamaha guitar that we looked at in an earlier post on the blog. The FG730S is a great all-round guitar for any and every guitarist out there – from a beginner to a pro! It offers a truly amazing guitar-playing experience, and everything on the FG730S – from the build, the finish and the sound – feels that of a much more expensive guitar, which also means that the Yamaha provides an excellent bang for the buck. In addition, it is very easy to play, making it the perfect pick-up-and-play guitar for all sorts of guitar players. But above all, the FG730S is well-known and well-regarded in the guitar playing community as providing the best tones and sounds of any acoustic guitar out there – something that we mentioned earlier as well. 

4. Morgan CCK

The Morgan CCK, short for Concert Florentine Cutaway, is a hand-crafted guitar, built and made by a company widely known for making the best hand-made acoustic guitars out there. The CCK is truly one of their best masterpieces, best in terms of both its sound as well as its looks! The CCK looks downright gorgeous, and rounds fantastic! All this is due to the fact that the different parts of the CCK are made up of different types of wood, which give it a unique and versatile tone. The neck, for instance, is made up of ebony and mahogany. Honestly, I have not come across another guitar which sounds as good as the CCK!

5. Fender DG100

Suited for all types of guitar play, the Fender DG100 not only feels great and sounds pretty good too, it comes with the reliability and excellent build-quality that has been a hallmark of any and all Fender guitars since a good few decades now. The DG100 produces bold sounds, with a rich and warm balance between its highs and lows. It also has a low action, and is hence easy to play. It costs below $300, and once your replace its stock strings with good after-market ones, you’ll end up with a great, reasonably-priced acoustic guitar, made by one of the biggest names in the industry right now.

6. Takamine G Series 340C

The Takamine G Series 340C is probably the one guitar that I’ve come across, which sounds almost as good as the Morgan CCK, and comes the closest to it in terms of sound quality. Which really, is saying something! In fact, you probably won’t be able to find any guitar below $1000 which sounds as good as this does! The Takamine G Series 340C is known to be a great guitar for beginners, as it is easy to play and has a great, comfortable action. It is also a very well-regarded guitar among pros, for its brilliant, warm tones and great sound. And of course, its great price as well.

7. Fender GA43SCE

The Fender GA43SCE is the Stratocaster of acoustic guitars! It shares the same features as the Fender Squier and the Stratocaster (both of which are electric guitars). Once again, and as is the case with just about any Fender guitar you pick up, the GA43SCE too has an excellent sound and tone. It has a rosewood body and fingerboard, and Fishman electronics.

8. Gibson Epiphone Masterblit

Gibson – another famous and well-recognized guitar manufacturer, makes the Gibson Epiphone AJ- 500R Masterbilt. As is the case with everything that comes out of Gibson’s factories, the Masterblit is a highly-functional, and a beautiful-looking guitar. It is made up of solid rose-wood, has a great-looking finish, and incorporates many features that are used by the musicians and guitarists of today. The sound produced is pure acoustic, with a beautiful tone and balance between its highs and lows (similar to Fender’s DG100). Above all, it is (or was) reasonably priced, but it has now been discontinued – one can still be easily bought second-hand off eBay. It is light (thanks to the rose-wood built), sounds great, and is generally a great guitar for beginners and pros.

Ending Words

So there you have it then, 8 great-looking, great-sounding acoustic guitars for any and all guitar players and musicians out there!

Regardless of your guitar-playing proficiency, all 8 would be great choices for you.


Buying a guitar, however, is just one step of the process, if you're looking for some great guitar courses as well, I recommend GuitarTricks. It is easily one of the best online guitar learning programs out there. Do check this review to learn more.

If this article was helpful, don’t forget to leave a comment in the comments section!

6 Famous Legendary and Expensive Guitars

The following is a list of 6 of the most iconic, beyond-legendary pieces of musical instruments, let alone guitars, in the world right now! My pick of 6 of the most instantly-recognizable and well-known axes out there!

1. Beatles Gibson SG 1964

This legendary Gibson SG was used by the Beatles when they were recording and touring for their infamous Revolver album as well as The White Album, between ’66 and ’69.  It was used by both John Lennon and George Harrison, and was later given to Peter Ham from the band Badfinger, rediscovered only upon his death in 2002. It was then auctioned off for more than half a million dollars in 2004!

2. Fender Stratocaster ‘Reach out to Asia’

As part of the efforts to raise money through charity for the 2004 Tsunami, guitar idols and stars including the likes of Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, The Malcolm and Angus Young brothers, Ronnie Wood, Sir Paul McCartney, and Bryan Adams (who was also the coordinator in these efforts), to name just a few, came together to raise money for the Tsunami victims. A charity called Reach out to Asia was formed as a result, and as part of the money-raising efforts, a Fender Stratocaster was signed by all these heavyweights and auctioned off for a cool one million dollars, bought by the Qatari Royal Family, and later for an even cooler $2.7 million, again for charity!

3. Fender Stratocaster Jimi Hendrix

This beyond-legendary piece of axe was donned and used by none other than Jimi Hendrix at the ’69 Woodstock. It has cigarette burns on its headstock (Hendrix was a chain smoker), and trademark-Jimi Hendrix reverse stringing. Until the 1990s, for almost 20 years, this Stratocaster was in possession of and taken care of by Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, but reemerged at the opening of Fender Artist Center in 1990. It sold later for almost 200,000 in 1998, and rumor has it that Paul Allen, a close friend and associate of Bill Gates, paid over a cool 2 mil for this in 1998!

4. Washburn 22-series Hawk Bob Marley

A piece of instrument that is declared to be a national asset by the government of Jamaica (true story!), this is only one of the 7 guitars used by Marley in his life. Guitar technician Gary Carlsen, founder of the ‘Different Journeys, One Destination’ charity has put this up as a prize for the lottery winner, after it was given to him by Marley himself in 1971 after one of his performances in Vancouver, Canada.

5. ‘Lenny’ Fender Composite Stratocaster Stevie Ray Vaughn

‘Lenny’ was a gift given to legendary blues artist and guitarist Stevie Ray, as a birthday gift by his wife on his 26^th Birthday, in the year 1980. He named it ‘Lenny’ after her. This Strat was his favorite guitar, a common sight at almost all of Stevie Ray’s performances until his death in 1990. It has Stevie Ray’s initials ‘SRV’ on its body, making it instantly recognizable, and a Stevie Ray trademark actually, as he had SRV on almost all his guitars – something that he picked up from his brother Jimmie. In 2004, Lenny was released by the Stevie Ray Vaughn estate in order to raise money for charity – specifically for the Crossroads Center in Antigua. It was able to raise in excess of $600,000 for the purpose.

6. Blackie: Strat Hybrid

Blackie was Eric Clapton’s Stratocaster, and actually has an interesting back-story. In the 70s, Clapton, along with a few others like Hendrix, switched allegiances from Gibson to Fender. Clapton bought six vintage Fender Stratocasters for hundred-a-pop from a local Texas guitar shop, he gave away three, and collected the best parts from the remaining three, which gave birth to Blackie, a hybrid Stratocaster named after the color of it body. Blackie was Clapton’s favorite guitar, used extensively by him for a good 12 years until he stopped playing it in ’85. It was auctioned off in 2004, fetching just under a million dollars.

Guitar Amplifiers 101

Amps, short for amplifiers, are the life and soul of any and all electric guitar setups.

We’ve extensively covered this on this blog before, electric guitars produce no sound of their own, as opposed to hollow-bodied acoustic guitars. Electric guitars, instead have pickups on them, which convert string vibrations into electric signals, which run through the attached amp, producing a sound.

Powerful amps also allow you to put different effects, and change the tone and sound of the guitar easily, such as different distortion effects. This, coupled with a good electric guitar, gives the player the freedom to produce just about any sort of sound as he’d want, and tweak it to perfection. A good amp, however, is instrumental in this.

There is no good or bad amps out there, it all really comes down to personal preference, what genre of music you play, and of course, your budget.

A few detrimental factors include brand, series or type of amps produced by the brand, which amp is best suited for a particular genre of music (such as for rock and its sub-genres, metal, blues, jazz, etc), the power on the amp, which amp offers the most powerful effects processor, and of course, which musicians promote or endorse which amplifier.

Amps produced by the likes of Fender, Peavey, Jackson, Marshall, Laney, Roland, Gibson, Yamaha, to name just a few, are usually good places to start. Almost all these companies are renowned for producing some of the best electric (as well as acoustic) guitars, amps, effects processors, pedals, tuners and other musical instruments.

It is usually a safe bet to pair an electric guitar and amplifier of the same brand. However Fender and Marshall amps are usually a safe bet with just about every electric guitar out there.

Some of the most well-known, renowned amplifiers, which are accepted industry-wise to be the best of the best, include the Peavey Ecoustic Series, Marshall AS50D and AS100D, and the Fender Acoustasonic series.

All of these deliver great power, come with powerful amps on-board, a whole plethora of functions, a lot of control, and of course, the reliability that these brands are known for. I’ll be doing an in-depth look at some of the best amps out there that money can buy, in a later post.

For beginners, it is a good bet to go for a smaller-sized and relatively lower-powered amp as your first purchase. In fact, according to LearnGuitar, you’ll be good to go with around 15-25 watts of power, especially if you practice indoors. The same applies if you play in a garage, in your home, in a pub or any other relatively-small place.

It is also important to note that there are two distinctly different types of amplifiers available out there – one that use solid-state circuitry, and on the other hand we have tube-bases amps. While it is generally accepted that the former produce a more cleaner and a much more superior, powerful sound while being less expensive, however pros and seasoned guitarists tend to go for tube-based amps. However thanks to technological advancement, we now have hybrids available to us as well.

Budget-friendly and basic amps (starting at around $150 a pop), which offer modeling, provide a no-compromise experience, including a clean rhythm tones, to must-have effects like reverb, chorus, phase, flange, delay and the like.

In the end, choosing an amp is all about personal preferences, and a combination of factors, such as those listed in this guide here. Make an informed decision before taking the plunge, especially if you are a new guitar player. 

The Online Guitar Buying Guide

Purchasing a guitar online is an easy and convenient prospect – pretty much like purchasing just about anything else online. Places like eBay, Amazon, Newegg and other online marketplaces have made this a seamless process. Not to forget many local stores such as Walmart and Best Buy are too jumping on the bandwagon by creating online stores and selling their merchandise online.

When it comes to guitar purchasing – whether it’s your first axe or your hundredth, I almost never recommend doing it online. The reasons are simple: buying a guitar is not like buying a computer, a phone or any electronics. You might be well-versed with the specifications of your purchase, however a good guitar goes beyond that. It is wrong to assume that every Les Paul or every Stratocaster will be the same, feel the same in your hand and play like you want it to. Unless you take it out for a spin first, test drive it, use it and see if you feel comfortable with it and if it sounds right. It is for these reasons that I feel a guitar purchase should always be done in person.

However if you do plan on purchasing an axe off Amazon, Musician's Friend or any other online website, for instance if it’s an axe you’ve used before and know that you feel comfortable with it and at home with it, and has a killer discount on it online, go for it.

It can actually be a good decision to purchase a guitar online. But before you make your move, before you take the plunge, do read up on some of the pros and cons, some advantage and potential drawbacks of buying a guitar online:

The Good Stuff

Well, convenience for one. Buying your axe online, like shopping for anything else over the internet, would be immensely convenient, especially if the nearest music or guitar shop is far from your location, you live in the suburbs or in a small town, and you don’t have any places to buy from in your vicinity.

You save money and time – money on gas and/or other expenditures, and time spent during commuting to and from the store.

Instead, all you need to do is log onto eBay, Amazon or any other online buying-selling website, browse a bit, look for what you want, choose, place order, make payment and voila! You’re as good as done. And your axe will delivered straight to your doorstep.

Another factor is choice. Even the biggest of the big retailer – someone who might have hundreds of different guitars available, will be hammered and crushed by the plethora of options and choice you will have at your disposal online. Simply search ‘guitar’ on Amazon and you’ll see what I mean!

Another aspect which is important when purchasing online is the price. Most of the guitars available online – new or used – will almost always be cheaper than what you will pay for the exact same model in a store – even if you factor in the shipping fees. The reason behind this is that online stores have significantly less running costs involved that a brick-and-mortar store, since they don’t have to pay shop rent, taxes, utility bills, salaries, etc. They are therefore able to price their items cheaper.

What’s more, you will have a much higher chance of availing a sweet discount or a huge rebate on your purchase online, as compared to if you buy from a store. Stores usually tend to put guitars on sale only once or twice a year. But you’ll find that online stores will often put a discount on their merchandise.

Time saving is another important aspect. With an online store, you could browse a lot of guitars in a short span of time.

And lastly, my personal favorite, you have a zillion percent better chance of scoring a rare piece of axe online. Imagine getting a hold of one of Hammett’s Fenders or Clapton’s Strats that someone was selling online on eBay! All you’d need to do is look harder, and you’ll almost certainly find something you will probably never find in a walk-in store. And if finding and collecting rare guitars is your thing, you should almost always look online.

The Not-So-Good Stuff

The biggest factor here, when it comes to purchasing your guitars online, is the fact that you won’t be able to test them out. A big drawback, especially if it’s your first guitar and you’d want to make sure its something you feel comfortable using for a long time. If you buy online, and it turns out to be a dud or a bad purchase (either uncomfortable to use, or not the sound you were expecting, or shoddy quality, etc.), you’re basically stuck with it, and you’d have no choice but to either live with your purchase or try selling it off online or to a friend. However it can be a huge downer, and you will have to bear a loss on it in all probability, especially if you paid a lot for it in the first place.

Another aspect is shipping. Guitars are sensitive instruments, and shipping them could result in damage especially if it’s overnight or long-distance shipping. The guitar could be damaged during the transit process, or if it wasn’t packed properly, handled roughly and end up receiving a broken guitar.

Or could even have already been damaged when it was shipped, there’s really no way to know.

Lastly, buying from credible websites is one thing, but what about buying from (and trusting) an online website which is new and/or isn’t very credible. Would you trust them with your purchase, with your credit card information? Also, what happens if you end up with a fake? What if their after-sales turns out to be as shoddy as their buying experience? Pretty much the same applies to any seller on eBay, what if he ships you a fake and disappears? Online purchasing will always come with that certain bit of a risk-factor.

How To Proceed?

Well, for starters, it is generally a good idea to read reviews online and ask around – ask your friends or post on online forums. Forums could provide an immense wealth of knowledge in this regard, since you’d get opinions from people using the guitars you’re interested in, as well as people who’ve been in the business for a long time.

Make a wise, and an informed decision. Check different websites for ratings and reviews, and check multiple sources for the best deal that you could possibly get – maybe someone’s offering a greater discount and free shipping, or someone might even be offering a few extra goodies, for instance sellers often throw in their old amps into the deal, for the same price as the guitar. Look around for such deals.

Above all, ask your online retailer if they have a 24/48/etc. return policy. That way, you can easily return your purchase in case you want to, or RMA it if it is faulty, damaged or broken upon arrival.

Buying online could get you some major savings! I bought an Ibanez S Series guitar and a Jackson Warrior off a local store way back, and discovered that I could’ve saved almost as much as 500 bucks had I purchased them online instead!

Friendly tip: whatever you do, make sure you consider the consequences of your decision. If you want to play it safe and are not interested in rare or collectible guitars, hit your local (or nearest) guitar store and buy one in person. Test it out extensively before buying.


In addition, if you're looking for a good online guitar-learning course, going for the Learn and Master Guitar DVD course would be a good bet!

Disclaimer: 

The purpose of this post is wholly and solely to inform the reader about the pros and cons of buying online or from a store, so that he/she can make an informed decision. The purpose was not to discredit or promote either of the two methods of purchasing a guitar; how the buyer actually proceeds would be at his/her own discretion. Lastly, I am not affiliated with any online or offline guitar seller. 

Best iPhone Guitar Apps

The iPhone’s a pretty sweet bit of hardware right? For me, it’s proven time and time again that it is much more than just a smartphone. What makes the iPhone tick is that there’s an app for everything, and the iPhone can do just about anything and everything that there is to do under the sun – apart from maybe doing your dishes, mowing the lawn or doing your laundry, but I’m sure there’s an app on the way which does all that too!

Technology, and the way it’s progressed is just mind-blowing. Just a couple of years back, the ability to read your emails and browse websites on your phone was a huge deal. Now, there are now well over 600,000 apps available on the iPhone, with stuff ranging from star-gazing, to personal fitness apps, and games that leave today’s handheld consoles in the dust!

So it comes as no surprise then, when we see the plethora of music apps, and especially guitar-related apps on the iOS platform. Some of these apps are downright brilliant, and once you start using them, indispensible when it comes to guitar play.

I’ll be looking at and reviewing a few of these guitar-centric apps in this post. All of these are absolute must-have apps if you’re a guitar-guy (or gal), and should be put on your iDevice immediately – regardless of whether you have an iPhone, an iPod or an iPad!

All of the apps reviewed below can be downloaded off iTunes. Prices are correct at the time of writing.

1. GuitarStudio - $4.99

A great app when it comes to guitar play on your iDevice, GuitarStudio lets you learn and play your favorite guitar songs and tracks right on your iPhone. It is a virtual fretboard, which harnesses the power of iPhone’s brilliant capacitive touch screen capabilities to let you strum with your fingers like you would normally do. The best thing about the app is its ability to let you tinker around with chords and scale settings, change sounds (between 6 or 12 stringed guitar and nylon or steel strings as well), and comes with a whole host of other features as well – all of which allow you to play just about any song under the sun with ease, right on your iPhone!

2. iShred Live – Free

iShred is a virtual amplifier for your electric guitar, that can be used as such once you connect your electric guitar with your iPhone through the ‘GuitarConnect interface cable from Griffin Technology’ or another similar cable. Once done, iShred acts as a virtual amplifier, and performs just as any electric guitar amplifier would perform. It adds all sorts of effects and other tools to your electric guitar, comes with a variable overdrive feature, and has two effects for starters – the HK-2000 and the Q-36. In addition, you have other guitar tools available at your disposal, such as 48 user-defined presets, metronome, a chromatic guitar tuner, and a looping music player that lets you play parts of your favorite songs from the music app in loops. And that doesn’t even begin the mention the ton of other effects available as in-app purchases (don’t worry, theyre all pretty cheap). All in all, a great, portable amplifier that complements your electric guitar setup, and one that’s absolutely free!

3. OmniTuner - $5.99

Hands down, one of the best guitar-tuning app on the iPhone, at least for me. OmniTuner is fast and extremely simple to use, has a great LED and/or stringboard-based interface which is very newbie-friendly yet powerful and robust, and comes with a whole slew of options like the ability to tune both the guitar and other instruments. But above-all the app uses the iPhone microphone, eliminating the need to purchase additional accessories that might be needed otherwise. This, coupled with its sophisticated pitch detection engine that works with all sorts of stringed music instruments, makes it a kickass portable guitar tuning app, useful and extremely practical on the go.

4. FourTrack - $4.99

A ‘studio away from the studio’ is probably the best way you could describe FourTrack! Or maybe even ‘a studio inside your pocket’ would be a more apt description. Either way, FourTrack is the perfect app for any musician, useful for when musical inspiration hits you at the most inconvenient of times! This multi-track audio recording app lets you have all the facilities of a studio (well, not all, but you get the point!), by giving you a fully-featured fourtrack right in your phone – unlimited multitrack recording with 16 bit, 44.1 kHz recording quality, pan control, timeline-based setup, and the ability to record songs within the same session. All things considered, FourTrack is a great, multipurpose and a nifty app for today’s singer, guitar-player, pianist or any musician!

5. GuitarToolkit - $10.49

Quite possibly, the swiss army knife of guitar apps on the iPhone, Guitar Toolkit offers just about everything under the sun needed by your average guitars player. It is a collection of essential guitar tools, such as a highly-accurate chromatic tuner, a metronome with tons of features, and comes with a massive library of chords and scales for every instrument. Speaking of instruments, it has 6, 7 and 12 stringed guitars, 4, 5 or 6 stringed bass guitars or even multiple stringed, ukulele, banjo and mandolin! A must-have for every iDevice owner!

6. 7 Chords - $1.99

Endorsed by Gibson as being one of the five most essential iPhone applications for musicians, 7 Chords is a large and comprehensive chord repository right on your iPhone. The app has over 1500(!) of the most common chords for electric and acoustic guitars. Extremely newbie friendly (in terms of usage and the interface), and suitable for both beginners and seasoned guitar players alike. 7 Chords makes use of clear and easily-understandable tab notations, and shows the chord name, the frets to play and the fingers to be used to do so. And if you want to listen to a chord, simply tap it to hear it play from your iPhone’s speaker.

7. Gibson’s Learn & Master - Free

A guitar app by the legendary and iconic Gibson Guitars – known for producing some of the best axes in the world, such as the bestselling guitar of all time, the Gibson Les Paul. The app would (and should) be another great addition to the guitar-based apps on your iDevice. The Learn & Master puts a wide range of guitar playing tools at your disposal, all of which enable you to become a better guitar player. But the good stuff doesn’t end there, since Gibson gives you access to full-length lessons from its critically-acclaimed and award-winning Learn & Master guitar course! This course is designed to take you from being an absolute novice to an intermediate guitar player and ultimately a guitar-pro. And the best part of that the app, as well as the course is totally free! And that’s not all, since the StudioShare component of the app allows you to record, mix and share your music with friends. Overall, a fantastic app which gives you excellent value for money!