Ultimate Guide To Beginner Guitar Gear

How to choose the best guitar gear for beginners

Whether it’s for yourself, a friend, or a loved one, choosing that first guitar might be daunting. We’ve broken it down into simple steps you can follow to get the right beginner-friendly guitar equipment for you. Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:

• Choosing the best beginner electric guitar
• Choosing the best beginner acoustic guitar
• Choosing the best beginner guitar amplifier
• Choosing the best beginner guitar pedals
• Choosing the best beginner multi-FX pedals
• Choosing the best beginner guitar accessories

Ready? Let’s find you the guitar gear you need…

Best Electric Guitars For Beginners

Electric guitars are great for everything from pop to heavy metal, and buying your first should be a fun & easy experience. If you’re looking for the best electric guitars for beginners, we proudly offer a wide range suitable for every style. Whether you’re looking for your own starter electric guitar or buying for someone else, here’s a few things to consider:

• Style: What colour & shape of guitar suits your style?
• Sound: Choose larger humbucker pickups for a warmer, bigger sound; choose smaller single-coil pickups for a brighter, more versatile sound.
• Whammy or no whammy: the whammy (or tremolo) bar is great fun for bending notes, but it takes a little longer to tune up!
• Popular brands: EastCoast, Squier, Yamaha, Epiphone, Soloking

Beginner Electric Guitars on Andertons TV

Best Acoustic Guitars For Beginners

For a softer, more organic sound, acoustic guitars are great starter musical instruments. We proudly offer a range of different shapes, sizes, and styles of acoustic guitar that are ideal for beginners. Whether you’re just starting your songwriting journey or buying an affordable guitar for your child to learn with, here’s some stuff to think about:

• Shape: Bigger, more rounded acoustics have a deeper sound, but smaller acoustics might feel easier to play!
• Wood: Different woods have different appearances, but can also affect the sound of an acoustic guitar.
• Size: Acoustic guitars also come in 3/4 and 1/2 sizes, perfect for children to learn guitar with!
• String type: Nylon & classical acoustics have strings that feel & sound softer, while regular steel-string acoustics are a bit tougher, but more modern-sounding.
• Most popular brands: EastCoast, Alvarez, Fender

Beginner Acoustic Guitars on Andertons TV

Best Guitar Amplifiers for Beginners

To make the most of an electric guitar, you’ll need to connect it to a guitar amp. Some of the best beginner guitar amps on the market feature a huge range of sounds and features that are perfect for new guitar players. From crunchy stadium-rock guitar sounds to headphone-friendly amps for practice, there’s plenty to choose from. Consider the following:

• Size: Bigger amps with higher wattages don’t just take up more space – they’re often louder!
• Portability: Some amps are designed for playing anywhere, with compact designs and battery power.
• Features: Look for bonuses like built-in effects, audio inputs, wireless/Bluetooth connectivity, and more!
• Most popular brands: EastCoast, NUX, Positive Grid, BOSS

Beginner Guitar Amps on Andertons TV

Best Guitar Pedals for Beginners

Want to sound like your guitar heroes? Pedals are great for customising your electric guitar sound with fun effects like echoing delay, crunchy distortion, and even creating your own loops. You can connect multiple pedals to an amplifier, and eventually build a pedalboard to keep them all together. We offer one of the biggest ranges of guitar pedals in the UK, even including some DIY pedalboard kits that are great fun to assemble. If you’re looking for the best beginner guitar pedals, consider:

• Sound: Rock & metal-style distortion, shimmering chorus, spacious reverb… Learn about different types of effects pedals with our guide!
• Size: Mini pedals are compact (you might’ve guessed!), affordable, and fun to use - great for beginners!
• Pedalboards: If you want more than one pedal, check out our all-in-one pedalboard starter packs and build-a-board kits!
• Most popular brands: Tone City, Landlord FX, Behringer, TC Electronic, Valeton

Beginner Guitar Pedals on Andertons TV

Best Guitar Multi-FX For Beginners

If you want lots of different effects wrapped into a single beginner-friendly box, you’ll love the idea of a multi-FX pedal. Combine, customise, and experiment with a huge range of sounds that are great for every style of playing – some even include amp simulations that you can plug straight into your headphones or home speakers! To help you find the best beginner multi-FX for you, here’s some stuff to think about:

• Price: They might cost a bit more than your average pedal, but they often contain hundreds of effects!
• Connections: You might want to connect headphones, audio sources, smartphones and more.
• Footswitches: Some multi-FX have lots of footswitches for turning different effects on & off, while some have big ‘expression’ pedals for volume, ‘wah’ effects, and more.
• Popular brands: Valeton, TC Electronic, BOSS, Zoom, Line 6

Beginner Guitar Multi-FX on Andertons TV

Best Guitar Accessories For Beginners

A guitar is great fun to play & learn with by itself, but there’s a few extras that’ll make it that little bit more enjoyable. Ensure your guitar stays in tune, play comfortably stand up or sitting down, keep it proudly on display when you’re not using it, and more. To get everything you need in one go, you’ll want to check out our starter packs – but for now, here’s a few of the accessories we’d recommend for beginner guitarists:

• Strap: Every guitar needs a strap to play standing up!
• Tuner: Keep every note sounding sweet by tuning up every time you play.
• Cables: You’ll need a cable to connect your electric guitar to your amp, or multiple cables if you’re using pedals.
• Spare strings: Rocking too hard sometimes causes strings to snap – spares electric strings & acoustic strings are always useful.
• Picks: You can never have too many picks (plectrums) for fun strumming and plucky riffs!

Want To Learn More?

To find out more about beginner musical instruments, check out some of the links below:

• Best For Beginners - our hub for all you need to know about starter musical instruments!
• Electric Guitar Starter Packs
• Acoustic Guitar Starter Packs
• Bass Guitar Starter Packs
• Beginner’s Guide To Buying Your First Guitar
• Ultimate Guide To Acoustic Guitars
• Guide To Acoustic Guitar Shapes
• Andertons TV