Published specs, live prices, and no claim we have played this gear
Six things matter in the first month. Everything else can wait, and most of it should. This is the order to buy in and what each thing is actually for.
A first guitar arrives with nothing. Not a tuner, not a spare set of strings, usually not even a strap. Then you open a shopping site and find four hundred results sorted by nothing useful, half of them bundles containing eleven things you do not need.
The honest list is short. A tuner, a few picks, a strap if you plan to stand up, something to keep the guitar safe, a spare set of strings, and a way to change them. That is most of it. Everything else — humidifiers, setup kits, wall hangers, pedals — is a real purchase at the right moment, and the right moment is later.
This hub is the order to buy in and the reason for each one. Every recommendation carries the specifications the maker actually published, a live price where we hold one, and a plain statement of who should skip it.
6
Things a first guitar genuinely needs. The rest can wait.
Snark
The first tuner on a first guitar
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The first thing to buy, before picks, before a strap, before anything.
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The complete first-guitar list in buying order, with what each item does and which ones you can genuinely skip for now.
What a first acoustic needs, including the two acoustic-specific purchases — humidity control and a bridge-pin puller — that electric lists never mention.
The electric-specific list: cable, amp or headphone amp, strings and strap locks — plus why a headphone amp is usually the better first purchase.
Five checks to run on a brand-new guitar in the first hour, so you find out early whether the instrument needs adjusting rather than blaming your hands.
1. A tuner. An out-of-tune guitar teaches your ear the wrong thing and makes practice sound like failure when it is not. A clip-on tuner reads vibration through the headstock, so it works in a room with a television on. This is the one purchase to make before you play a single chord — see the tuner roundup.
2. Picks, in several thicknesses. Nobody can tell you which gauge suits your hand, including us. A variety pack costs about as much as a coffee and settles the question in an afternoon. The pick thickness guide explains what changes between them.
3. Something to keep it in. Most beginner guitars die from being knocked over or stood on, not from being played. A gig bag is enough if the guitar stays home; a hard case is the answer if it travels. That decision is laid out in gig bag vs hard case.
4. A spare set of strings, and the tool to fit them. You will break one, and it will be at the worst moment. A spare set costs very little and a winder with a bridge-pin puller turns a forty-minute struggle into a ten-minute job. See strings and winders.
5. A strap, if you intend to stand up. If you only ever play sitting down, skip it entirely for now. If you do buy one, buy strap locks at the same time — a strap coming off a button is how most first guitars get their first crack.
6. A stand or a wall hanger. Not for looks. A guitar you can pick up in one movement gets played; a guitar in a case in a cupboard does not. This is the accessory with the largest effect on how much you actually practice.
A humidifier matters if you own a solid-wood acoustic and live somewhere with a real winter. It does nothing for a laminate guitar in a mild climate. Read do I need a humidifier before spending anything.
A setup kit is for someone who has decided to adjust their own instrument. Owning the wrench does not make the truss-rod adjustment a beginner job, and a professional setup usually costs less than the tools. Does my guitar need a setup is the question to answer first.
A capo becomes useful the moment you want to play along with a recording in a key your open chords do not reach — which for most people is somewhere in month two or three, not week one.
Pedals, amps beyond a practice amp, and anything with the word "boutique" in it are not beginner purchases. If you own an electric, a headphone amp costs a fraction of a combo and lets you practice at midnight, which is worth more than tone in the first year.
Every product page here lists specifications with the source we took them from. Where a maker publishes nothing for a row that matters, the row says Not published against the page we checked, rather than carrying a figure we invented. That happens more often than it should in this category, and it is worth knowing which brands are which. The full method is on how we research.