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Consequence’s Guitar Week is strumming right along with this rundown of gear to check out as you improve your guitar skills. See our 100 Best Guitarists of All Time list, and figure out what song you want to learn first by peeping our list of the 70 Best Riffs of the 21st Century (So Far).
Embarking on your guitar journey can seem daunting. There are so many choices, so much gear and lingo. It’s undeniably overwhelming.
The best way to approach it is to simply put a guitar in your hands and start playing. The rest will come in time. For example, you start out with an entry level budget guitar, like a Squier or Epiphone, learning basic chords and scales. Eventually, you play enough to wear out the strings — it’s time for your first string purchase, and you discover the perfect gauges for your style of playing. Next, you upgrade your amp, and then the guitar itself. Onward and so forth.
It really is a natural progression if you stick to practicing (just 30 minutes a day does wonders) and familiarizing yourself with the instrument and copious gear that surrounds it. Below, we’ve crafted a short gear guide to aid in that progression, from your first axe and foot pedal, to expert-level modded guitars and amps loud enough to wake up the neighborhood. There’s something for guitarists of every skill level — and each item is approved by well-known professional musicians, so don’t just take our word for it.
Starter Axe – Epiphone Les Paul Junior
Approved by: Billie Joe Armstrong, Charlie Starr, Lukas Nelson
The Les Paul Junior boasts a beautiful silhouette and vintage tone, and thanks to Gibson’s budget brand Epiphone, beginner players can start out with this timeless classic for under $600. Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong even partnered with Epiphone for a signature model Les Paul Junior that also held to that same budget pricing — a rarity for signature models. While discontinued, the Billie Joe model can still be scored on Reverb at around the original MSRP, along with standard Epiphone Les Paul Juniors at a fraction of the manufacturer’s price. It’s an excellent entry point guitar budget-wise, but also one that can hold its own in a concert setting if you’ve already reached an intermediate playing level.
Get an Epiphone Les Paul Junior
Concert Necessity – Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner Pedal
Approved by: Rivers Cuomo, Nuno Bettencourt, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Ellie Rowsell, Paul Banks, Billy Duffy
The absolute gold standard of tuning pedals, the Boss Chromatic Tuner lives on the pedalboards of countless guitarists, from the professional concert ranks down to private basement jamming hobbyists. It’s not the most glamorous pedal purchase, but it should be your first one — tuning up before a session goes like clockwork. Plus, if you’re performing, the bright chromatic lights and digital display make it easy to see on dark stages if a string suddenly goes flat. Cheaper battery powered headstock-mounted tuners can get the job done in a pinch, but they’re unreliable, less accurate, and look amateurish. Bite the bullet, buy a TU-3, and you’ll have a tuner for life.
Professional Upgrade — Fender Player II Modified Series Electric Guitars
Approved by: IDLES
Fender bills their new Player II Modified series as “hot-rodded” and “ready to go.” Think of it like this: Fender has already done the work for you, pre-modding these guitars with the hardware tweaks and additions that seasoned guitarists inevitably undertake themselves. “Every guitar I’ve ever had, I’ve modified almost immediately” stated Mark Bowen of IDLES, who has endorsed the new series that includes pre-modded versions of the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass, and Jazz Bass. Mods that upgrade from the regular Player II series include locking tuners, a Graph Tech TUSQ nut, rolled fingerboard edges, Player II Noiseless pickups, an upgraded bridge, and push/pull switching.
In fact, we’re giving away a beautiful new Fender Player II Modified Telecaster® in Dusk, so enter to win yours here. For more on this new line, check out our interview with Fender Products and Manufacturing’s Executive Vice President Justin Norvell, as well as our complete breakdown and review of the Player II Modified.
Get a Fender Player II Modified Guitar
Get Amped – EVH 5150 100S Head
Approved by: Eddie Van Halen, Christian Andreu, Nicole Papastavrou, Mark Heylmun
The satisfying metallic breakup of a cranked EVH 5150 is unrivaled. At $2,000-plus new, the 100S head is certainly an investment, but you’ll have a worldclass 100-watt amplifier to match the 100S models used by pros such as Christian Andreu of Gojira, Nicole Papastavrou, and the late Eddie Van Halen himself, as the 100S is identical to the setup he last toured with. Perfect for all styles of metal, the 5150 also boasts incredible cleans, making it a choice amp for melodic hard rock and alt-rock, as well.
For the Studio – Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster
Approved by: Lindsey Buckingham, FINNEAS
During those times some five years ago, Fender lent us a few guitars to demo when we started to roll out more gear coverage on Consequence. The most memorable of those guitars was the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster, a hybrid acoustic-electric guitar that’s astounding in its versatility and range of tones.
The Acoustasonic inverts the idea of your average Dreadnought electric-acoustic guitar. Rather, the Acoustasonic runs with the idea of taking an electric Jazzmaster and making it an acoustic instrument, via its lightweight mahogany body and the addition of a soundhole. It’s the best of both worlds: The bridge pickup allows for dirty and gained-up tones, which can then be dialed completely back for lush and defined acoustic cleans. It’s a weapon in the studio, as you can essentially wield two guitars at once during a single take — i.e., keep it clean for the verses, and then hit the bridge pickup gain for the solo.
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