Thursday 4 August 2011

Guitar Accessories: Other Essential Goodies

Other guitar accessories or doodads you may want to consider throwing in your back pack, gym bag, or all-leather monogrammed accessories case include the following:

1. Tuning fork/Pitch pipe: Having one of these low-tech tuning devices as a spare never hurts, in case the battery on your electronic tuner fails or the tuner itself gets stepped on by the gravitationally challenged drummer. Both of these devices are like rowboats in a speedboat and sailboat world: After the gas is gone and the wind stops blowing, you can still function using your own power.

2. Penlight: You don't need to wait until night to use a flashlight. Shadows and small sizes pose as much a problem for diagnosing, say, a simple electrical problem as does the complete absence of light. You can hold a penlight between your teeth as you reach into the back of your amp to fix a broken speaker lead.

3. Cable tester and volt/ohm meter: These items cost about $12 and $20, respectively, and earn their keep the first time they diagnose a bad or reverse-wired cable. Learn how to use the volt-ohm meter with respect to your equipment - that is, know what power supplies you have and what the appropriate settings are on the meter. You can impress your friends with your new "aptitude."

4. Fuses: As always, a new environment can posses irregular wiring schemes that could destroy your gear - and especially your amp. Your amp's first line of defense is its fuse. If the house current is weird, the fuse blows, and you must have a replacement to get the amp working again.

5. Duct tape: This is considered as any guitar player's baking soda - as it is an all-purpose utility invention that cures a wide array of maladies. You can use duct tape to fix everything from a rattling tailpiece to a broken microphone clip. Even the roll itself is handy: You can use it to tilt your amp up for better monitoring. Use duct tape to fix your car's upholstery or even patch the holes of your jeans, onstage or off. In some circles, it's even considered fashionable.

6. Peg winder: This inexpensive ($2) crank turns your tuning keys at about 10 times the rate that you can turn them by hand. At no extra charge, these guitar accessories include a notched groove that's perfect for removing stuck bridge pins in your acoustic.

7. Wire cutters/needle-nose pliers: Strings are, after all, wires. When you change strings, use wire cutters to trim away any excess and use the pliers for digging out the stubborn remnants of a broken string from a tuning post.

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