Snark Chromatic Guitar Tuner
I’m starting to see this nifty little clip-on guitar tuners all over the place. They have a nice, unobtrusive design with an easy-to-read display. The Snark Guitar Tuner clip to the headstock and pick up the wood vibrations. So they’ll even work if you’re tuning your guitar — acoustic or electric — in a noisy room. Best of all, they’re reasonably priced.
Buy the Snark Clip-On Chromatic Guitar Tuner at Amazon.
Keith Richards Biography: A Life
“Life” a fine title for an autobiography of the rock star who was number one on New Musical Express’s “Ten Most Likely to Die” list for 10 consecutive years. A simple and effective title, like the riffs and chords that have come out of Keith Richards’ guitar for the last 50+ years.
This is a compelling book and a great read. And it better be, the book is 547 pages long. Sure, it covers the glamour of the rock ‘n’ roll excesses, the booze, the broads, the celebrity hangers-on, and of course, the drugs, but the essence of the book, and the essence of the man, is really the music.
Buy Life in hardback, paperback, audiobook or for the Kindle at Amazon.
Ukulele
I had my daughter pick up a ukulele for me back in the 90s when she was on vacation in Hawaii. Who would have known this noble little instrument would be so popular in the 10s. For a guitar player there’s a combination of the ukelele being tuned close enough to a guitar that it’s easy to get up to speed with. (If you put a capo on your fifth fret and took off your E and A strings you’ve pretty-much got the notes of a ukulele.) Yet the diminutive size makes the fingering completely different.
The small size makes it incredibly easy to take along and play virtually anywhere — even places a guitar might be cumberson. Ukes are great fun to play, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take them seriously and make some great music.
Gift Cards for Guitarists
When in doubt, any guitar player would welcome a gift card from any of these places:
Buy Amazon Gift Cards.
Pick Punch
This somewhat whacky gizmo punches out picks from plastic cards such as credit cards, rewards cards or ID cards. It punches out the standard “351″ guitar pick. Users say the edges are a little rough but can be smoothed down by rubbing the edges on carpeting. (This trick also works when store-bought picks get rough around the edges.)
Save your old plastic cards and start strumming.
Michael Molenda, the transformative Editor in Chief of Guitar Player magazine from 1997 to 2018, revolutionized its content and expanded its influence. With over 2,500 published works, including in-depth interviews and technical analyses, he’s a giant in guitar journalism. Post-Guitar Player, he launched CONTENT BY MOLENDA and co-founded music websites, bringing his unmatched expertise to the forefront of music marketing. At Fretterverse, Molenda continues to shape the guitar world with insightful commentary and trendsetting journalism.