Ibanez SR250 Bass Guitar Review

Japanese music company Ibanez has pioneered bass development for over 40 years. They have pushed the boundaries of what budget basses can offer time and time again. Their designs appeal to worldwide bass players of all ages, all budgets, and all genres. The possibilities to express yourself on an Ibanez bass are limitless. Such spirit

Squier Standard Telecaster Review

We at Beginner Guitar HQ have reviewed some great Squier alternatives. We’ve listed the Classic Vibe Series, the Squier Jaguar models, and the Squier Bullet Stratocaster. Time and time again, we find that Squier has grown so much from its early “cheap instruments that are trash” reputation. Right now, Fender’s subsidiary Squier is the top

How To Use The Phrygian Mode

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, it’s our mission to teach you how to play the guitar as well as possible. One of the most important parts of a guitarists toolbox is the humble scale. You’ve probably become rather used to standard major and minor scales, but were you aware of the basically endless possibilities modes afford you? They

Gretsch Jim Dandy Acoustic Guitar Review

It’s good news that reputed music instruments brand Gretsch also has some quality items on the budget side of the market. And that’s exactly what the Jim Dandy Flat Top Acoustic Guitar is: an ax that squeezes as much quality as possible into an entry-level budget. And when you put it through a careful test,

Best Single Coil Pickups

Beginner Guitar HQ is helping you upgrade your guitar with a new set of tapers. We’ve compiled the list of the top 10 best single-coil pickups you can buy right now. Brands include Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, EMG, Fender, and more. The truth is you no longer need to buy a new guitar to drastically improve

Best Acoustic Guitar Pedals

Guitar pedals are essential for acoustic guitar players performing live. The best acoustic guitar pedals can add a solid foundation to your tone and fix every issue you could ever imagine. This guide by Beginner Guitar HQ is showing you the top 12 acoustic guitar pedals and preamps. We’re discussing how these pedals can add

How To Use The Lydian Mode

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, it’s our mission to teach you how to play the guitar as well as possible. One of the most important parts of a guitarists toolbox is the humble scale. You’ve probably become rather used to standard major and minor scales, but were you aware of the basically endless possibilities modes afford you? They

Vox Wah Review – The Classic Wah Pedal

What do Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour have in common? They’re master guitarists, of course. And they’ve all used Vox wahs to help create their iconic sounds. In 1967, Vox teamed up with Thomas Organ to release the first ever wah pedal. It quickly became a must-have stompbox for guitarists

Maestro by Gibson Guitar Review

It might be obvious to experienced players, but beginners must understand that the Maestro by Gibson acoustic guitar is not a real Gibson instrument. Even so, Beginner Guitar HQ has decided to review this particular guitar because it’s a very commendable guitar for amateur guitar players.  What this is, then, is a Chinese-made acoustic guitar

Jasmine S35 Acoustic Guitar Review 

When it comes to choosing an affordable acoustic guitar, the market is flooded with a confusing array of options. Household names like Fender, Epiphone, and Yamaha compete against lesser-known brands in the same super-budget area. Jasmine sits in the category of lesser-known brands. You might think the Jasmine s35 is an odd pick for a

Best 8 String Guitars

Among the many changes the electric guitar has gone throughout the decades, the introduction of “Extended range” guitars is one of the more significant in memory. There is one genre in particular that comes to mind when one thinks of 8 string guitars, and that is hard hitting metal. With the popularity of bands that

10 Best Jazz Guitar Amplifiers

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, we’re just as keen on helping you craft your tone as we are your playing style. Some guitarists want to learn how to shred through a speedy metal solo, while some want to strum some chords gently on an acoustic guitar, but there are some that want to fill their repertoire with extended

Best Combo Amps for Electric Guitar 

Beginner Guitar HQ is helping you select your new combo amp from our selection of the top 7 combo amps you can buy right now. There’re tube, solid-state, hybrid, and all-digital modeling amps in our guide. The important factor we considered was how much quality each amp delivers for the amount of money they cost.

Fender Modern Player Telecaster Review

Fender has a decades-long reputation as a top leading guitar maker. They share their throne with the likes of Gibson Gretsch and LTD. Everyone knows Fender means high-quality and standards. I’m here to talk to you about Fender’s budget Telecaster guitar, the made-in-China Fender Modern Player Telecaster Plus. As I said, this is an affordable

Schecter Omen 6 Electric Guitar Review

Beginner Guitar HQ is reviewing the Schecter Omen 6 electric guitar. Schecter Guitar Research is a musical company that has exploded in popularity since the last decade. Their reputation is well earned, and I can say that from experience. They put out quality instruments for reasonable prices. Furthermore, their alternative represents powerful tonalities and looks

Fender Mustang 1 Review

Digital technologies have allowed some major improvements regarding what solid-state guitar amplifiers can provide. The old adage saying “tube amps are always better” might no longer be true. More so, tube amps are commonly twice or 3 times the cost of a solid-state amp, so you wouldn’t find a true budget alternative on this particular

Dean Bass Guitar Review 

Dean is an American music company producing budget and mid-level basses and electric guitars. Most of their items sell for reasonable prices, and whilst they do build top-end models that rival the likes of Gibson, Fender, and Gretsch in terms of cost and craftsmanship, those premium instruments are not well known. However, they have solidified

Best Field Recorder for Musicians

Musicians are a breed that thrives on inspiration, and being able to get down this muse is vital in being successful as a musician. Having a field recorder is therefore essential for a musician. Recording sessions, rock concerts, and rehearsals are parts of those moments when having a quality recorder can be invaluable. However, a

How to Choose Guitar String Gauges

Strings are one of the most important pieces of gear for your guitar — while they might be small, they play a big role in determining your axe’s tone, feel, and playability. Because they’re so important, many players spend a long time trying strings from different manufacturers and finding the ones that feel best to

Jazz Standards You Should Know

Jazz is one of the most daunting genres for many guitarists to play, and for good reason — jazz often incorporates rapid chord changes and shifts between different keys, along with a heavy focus on improvisation. If you want to play jazz on guitar, it’s absolutely essential that you learn how to improvise over standard

How to Use the Mixolydian Mode

Mixolydian, one of the seven modes of the major scale, is also one of the most popular modes among guitarists across a wide variety of different genres. If you’re looking to take your rock, blues, and even jazz playing to the next level, the mixolydian mode is an essential tool that you can use. However,

Best Jazz Guitar

Jazz is considered by many to be the epitome of guitar musicianship, the skill and commitment required to be a true student of the genre is both commendable and impressive. But the saying goes that a guitarist is only as good as his guitar, and while the genre of Jazz does not necessarily require a

The Best 7 String Guitars

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, we’re just as used to guiding you through equipment as we are actually teaching you the guitar. Once you’ve picked up some basic skills on a six-string guitar, you might find that what you want to be playing actually requires you to have a seventh string available to you. In this important guide,

10 Best Budget Bluetooth Headphones

The sense of hearing, though present in almost everyone, does not guarantee the ability to listen. Listening is the ability that helps you to hear sounds and, your ability to listen can often go a long way to determine how well you can reproduce sounds, especially when you play the guitar. Advancement in technology has

Best Humbucker Pickups

Humbuckers are perhaps the most heard and most used guitar pickup of all time, and there’s good reason for this. The best humbuckers pickups give players a whole set of tones that simply are not accessible through other pickup combinations, whether it is the thick warmth of a vintage style humbucker or the high output

Jackson JS22 Review – The Budget-Friendly Metal Guitar

Everything about Jackson guitars is aggressive. The tone is as dark as their colors, and the price is good enough for regular musicians. The JS22 Dinky is the electric guitar that made Jackson popular for the common musician. Even though the company’s influence has slowly faded over the years, their guitars evenly compete against top

Best Metal Pedal

Mean, loud & dirty. We’ve seen the best metal amps for electric guitar before on the site and found out how the right amplifier can work miles towards getting you the metal sound you’re looking for. We also searched the best 15 metal guitars because without the right ax you won’t really achieve an aggressive

Epiphone Thunderbird Bass Guitar Review

Gibson doesn’t have many models. In fact, Gibson doesn’t build much variety in terms of musical gear…what they do build, they do it perfectly. And because I said that, I can now name the two Gibson series that are so special they practically don’t need to sell anything else: the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar;

Silvertone Bass Guitar Review

Silvertone is an almost forgotten brand. But know-it-all musicians have heard the name once or twice. And back in the ‘50s, this was a popular, beloved brand that revolutionized the bass and guitar world with a couple of amazing affordable instruments. But their time is almost gone, and their instruments are often a thing for

Fender Acoustasonic Stratocaster Review

It is no secret that guitar companies have trouble keeping up with the times. Some definitely do it than others. Fender in particular is a perfect example of a brand that balances its historic past with a forward looking attitude of the future. That is why when Fender unveiled their Acoustasonic series to the public

Best Recording Laptop for Your Home Studio

If you’re here, I understand you’re building yourself a home studio, and now you’re in need of some guidance to get the perfect recording laptop you can use to produce music. Such a laptop, I imagine, should be within your monetary reach. It must give you the best specs it can for the money so

Fender Deluxe Precision Bass Special Review

First thing’s first: there’s a downside with this bass, which is its confusingly long name. The real name is Fender Deluxe Active Precision Bass Special. This model comes from Fender Mexico, which is cheaper than Fender USA and sometimes it’s even better. Because Fender Mexico needs to compete with the high standards of Fender USA

How to Record in GarageBand

That riff you just wrote sounds awesome! Oh, man, those melodies! So tasteful. But, honestly, how is the world going to know how talented you are if you don’t have the ability to show as many people as possible? Luckily for all of us, there’s a super easy way to show off your skills by

The 10 Best Looper Pedals

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, we like to guide you towards an incredible set-up for your guitar as well as some brilliant playing skills. Once you’ve got the basics down (or even before, if you want) dig deep into this article and figure out which looper pedal is the one for you. Then, you’ll be able to become

Best P-90 Pickup

The vintage sound in a small soap-bar. There’s a time at the point of every guitar player’s music career when they feel they have to improve their old guitars with newer pickups. So, if by any chance you’re looking to give your guitar that raw early rock’s sound, boy, you’re in the right place. I

American Special Telecaster Review 

Is it worth the money? Us mortal guitar players have heard over and over how good the American Fender instruments are. If you’ve done some digging, you’ve also seen how expensive the American Special Telecaster can get. Every musician, even beginner musicians, has some context on the quality of Fender. Even so, we might wonder:

Best Flanger Pedal Reviewed

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, we like to keep our learners at the top of their game tonally as well as technically. This means we can guide you towards some incredible gear, from guitars, to guitar strings, to amps, to effects pedals. Each of these will help to turn your ability to play guitar into an incredible feast

Seagull S6 Review – The Best Mid-Level Acoustic Guitar

Calling the Seagull S6 a beginner acoustic guitar is a disservice. What I hope to do in this article is to convince you that this Canadian guitar is so much more than an entry-level classical guitar. If you’ve gone through online forums looking for acoustic guitars, you’ve probably seen the Seagull S6 Original is a

How to Play Arpeggios on Guitar

An arpeggio is the playing of the tones of a chord in succession (and not at the same time). There are many different ways to play arpeggios. At their most basic (as with chords) they are only played on a few strings, but they can also be played on all 6 strings with multiple hammer

Best EQ Pedal

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, it’s our mission to teach you how to play the guitar as well as possible. Once we’ve done that, we want to help you craft the best tone possible. Whether it’s in the studio, on stage, or just for practice, we can offer you a guide to the best guitars, amps and pedals

The Boss Metal Zone MT-2 Review

Boss is the No 1 go-to brand for guitar effects pedals. They have dominated the market for decades, offering a diverse and high quality array of effects for guitar players of all genres. From distortion, to loops, to chorus and multi-effect units, they have it all. When you buy a Boss pedal, it’s for life:

The Squier Bullet Strat – Squier Bullet Series review

When we think of budget guitars, Squier always comes to mind. Squier by Fender is one of the kings of entry-level guitars, as they build instruments with the excellent Fender bodies and fits them with quality electronics and pickups. With great values in design, sound, and body, you can go wrong with the Squier Bullet

Best 12 String Acoustic Guitar

I’m going to review the top 6 best 12-string acoustic guitars you can buy right now. These include both acoustic and electro-acoustic guitars. If you stay with me, you’re going to learn everything you need to know about these amazing beasts: what are they good for, what do they do, how do they sound, and

The Best Bass Distortion Pedal for Bass Guitars 

Welcome to the bass distortion pedal guide that’s going to help you invigorate your bass sound with some sweet distortion. Here’re the reviews of the 6 best distortion pedals for the bass guitar effects pedals you can buy right now. If your bass amp alone is struggling to give you the aggressive edge you want

The Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster – Squier Classic Vibe Series review

Both Squier and Fender produce the Classic Vibe series, a very popular lineup of bass and electric guitars conserving the vintage feel, look and sounds of the original Fender instruments. There’s a twist, though. Fender and Squier add some modern retouches to these instruments, distinctive features that turn the Classic Vibe into such an attractive

Squier P Bass Guitar Review

The Fender Precision bass is the dream of almost every regular bass player. Such a shame, though, that these axes are so expensive, especially if you’re not in the United States. So today we’re listing the best alternatives from Squier, Fender’s subsidiary making budget Fender instruments. You need to understand something: whilst Squier is NOT

Best Overdrive Pedal

In this ultimate guide we review the best overdrive pedals for electric guitars you can buy right now. The best overdrive pedals on our list can fit all budgets: there entry-level options, mid-level options, and professional, costly options that can take your sound to another level. Are you thinking vintage and powerful? Well, the overdrive

Top Guitar Fretboard Notes to Master as a Guitarist

Guitar fretboard/fingerboard exists all along the neck of a guitar. It is separated by frets. Within each fret includes notes that are played when holding down on the respective string. The fretboard is a major guitar part that connects the head to the body of the guitar. For the beginners here is a general outline

Spanish Guitar Chords to Master

Spanish guitar, or more commonly known as ‘flamenco’ guitar, is a unique style of playing using a nylon-strung guitar, which is usually a specialized flamenco instrument. The flamenco style of playing utilizes percussive strumming and fingerpicking technique, with an emphasis in fingerstyle plucking and ‘raking’. It is often high energy playing, accompanied traditionally by a

Top 5 Songs Made with Sad Chords

Our heart connects with music first than our brain does, and also in deeper ways. That’s not some poetic saying, it’s not even pseudoscience. I’m talking about hardcore research. See, the human heart is the most powerful creator and receptor of electromagnetic energy of the human body. And do you know what else produces electromagnetic