Orange O Bass by Orange Review 

The British music company is known for its top-value Orange amps for guitar and basses. We at Beginner Guitar HQ have constantly chosen Orange for our top amp reviews, like our recent top combo amps list or the prior best amps for metal selection. The brand provides professional and amateur musicians honest solutions for their

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Chorus Pedal

BeginnerGuitarHQ brings you a new guide scoping the best chorus pedals for electric guitars you can buy right now. We’re detailing both analog and digital alternatives, and we’re covering prices that can fit all budgets. In my humble opinion, I suggest chorus pedals as one of the 5 essential effects for all guitar players: Delay,

Fender American Ultra Stratocaster Review

There are very few guitars in the world that elicit such palpable responses as the Fender Stratocaster. It’s a guitar that is synonymous with the very idea of what an electric guitar should be. It is the guitarists guitar, a timeless classic. Released over 70 years ago, it is still as versatile and as unique

Best Gibson Pickups

We’re looking at the best Gibson pickups for electric guitar. I’m sharing the best alternatives for every genre I can muster,  like classic rock, jazz, and blues all the way to the most modern Brtish pop and indie music. Gibson guitars are the undisputed kings of humbucker pickups, whereas, for example, Fender’s iconic Stratocaster and

Squier Vintage Modified Series Review – Affordable and cool guitars

Squier by Fender currently has 7 different lineups. My favorite one is the Vintage Modified series of guitars and basses because it’s a perfect mix between the ‘60s and ‘70s looks and feels plus the advantages of modern electronics, pickups, and circuits. In summary, I would say the Vintage Modified household by Squier features sleek-looking

15 Best Metal Guitars

Looking for the best metal guitars? There are a lot of genres you’ll encounter during your time as a beginner guitarist. Jazz, blues, rock, folk, country, the list is endless. For the loudest, most aggressive of the bunch, you’ll want a good guitar for metal playing. Whether to create thick walls of sound for crunching

Best Hollow Body Guitar

If you’ve seen the Foo Fighters play, you’ve probably noticed how special Dave Grohl’s guitars are. The frontman mostly uses Gretsch semi-hollow guitars, and they offer the vintage, smooth sound that makes the tone of the band. We’re talking about something other legendary guitar players have in common, people like Paul McCartney, John Lennon, B.B.

Ultimate John Frusciante Gear Guide

How to sound like this popular Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ guitar player on a budget? Celebrating John Frusciante’s return to Red Hot Chilli Peppers, we’re going to learn how about the gear of the famous Red Hot Chilli Peppers Guitar Player. This is an ultimate gear guide showing you how to sound like John Frusciante

How to Use Dimarzio Pickups to Improve Your Electric Guitar

Pickups can radically change and expand the tone of your guitar. Often, the best option to improve your sound is changing the pickups rather than buying a whole new guitar. Why? Not only because it’s cheaper,  but also because the unique customization you achieve adding pickups to a guitar gives you a sound hard to

How to Relic a Guitar

Relicing guitars is a popular trend that’s only growing more common. Of course, the “natural” — and best — way to relic a guitar is to buy your axe new and simply play it for decades! Over time, it will pick up dents, dings, and scars that come together to create a stunning vintage look.

How to Play Guitar Like Wes Montgomery

In the annals of jazz guitar, few players are as revered as Wes Montgomery. The Indianapolis native’s work fused swing and blues with the emerging bebop and hard bop styles of his heyday, creating a timeless style that influences countless players to this day. Montgomery, as many jazz players will tell you, created vast swaths

How To Play Guitar Harmonics

Don’t let the title of this article scare you away. Natural harmonics are not that complicated. In fact, the guitar is a beautiful instrument capable of making some of the most interesting sounds. It was musicians like Jimmy Hendrix that really pushed the limits and explored the different possibilities of what the guitar can do!

Best Blues Guitar

For a new player, it can be quite daunting to find a guitar that really gives you everything you need. In this guide we will look at what guitars will be a good match for the up and coming blues player. Blues guitar players are often looked up to for their fantastic tone and their

Yamaha Pacifica PAC112V Electric Guitar Review

At BeginnerGuitarHQ, we aim to help you learn to become a great guitarist. When learning this valuable skill, you need the equipment to go with it, so we put together helpful reviews that’ll give you a head start in deciding what’s right for you! In this important guide, I’ll talk you through the Yamaha Pacifica

Ultimate Guide on How to Record Acoustic Guitar

The acoustic guitar is a beautiful instrument to record. Whether you’re playing with nylon strings for the warmer, mellow feel, or with steel strings for the brighter, crisp sound and volume, you can’t go wrong! The raw, organic nature of the instrument attracts all musicians alike. It’s important, however, that while many of us share

How to Play Guitar Like Keith Richards

When you think of someone who is a through and through rock star, a few people probably come to mind. One of those people should be Keith Richards. Keith pretty much wrote the rule book on living loud and fast. Any of your favourite guitar heroes will all owe some form of gratitude to Keith

Best Solid State Amps for Electric Guitar

There are basically four kinds of electric guitar amplifiers: tube amps, hybrid amps, modeling amps, and solid-state amps. If you’re a beginner guitar player, I can forgive you for not knowing about this. See, what I call “solid-state” amps you may simply known as the everyday, standard guitar amplifiers. And fear not, as I’m here

How to Use a Vibrato Bar

The vibrato bar goes by many names: Whammy bar, tremolo bar, vibrato arm, Bigsby arm, even “floating synchronized tremolo”! Whatever you call it, the vibrato bar is a common feature on myriad different guitar models. However, many players only use the vibrato sparingly or don’t know how to properly use it at all. If you

Learning Extended Chords for Guitarists

Extended chords were probably not among the first chords you learned when you initially picked up the guitar. Unfortunately, most beginner guitarists master just their open chords and basic barre chord shapes without progressing through to more harmonically interesting altered chords. That’s a real shame — extended chords are some of the most unique and

Best Tube Amps for Electric Guitar

I’m here to help you pick something amazing we call tubular amplifier, valve tube amplifier, or vacuum tube amplifier. Let’s just make it simpler and call them tube amps for electric guitars. A tube amplifier is an electronic amp that uses vacuum tubes to increase the signal’s power. We’ll be looking more into that later

Best Electric Guitar for Beginners – A Detailed Buyer Guide

I’ve heard you want to play some electric guitar. Well, all right, then. I’m here to help you pick the perfect electric guitar for you if you’re on a budget and want to learn.  This Beginners Guitar HQ guide is aimed both for beginner and people looking to save some money. If you don’t want

How To Play Rock And Roll Guitar

One of the first iterations of rock music, rock and roll arose as the music of the baby boomer generation in the early 1950s through the early 960s. Based predominantly on a sped-up blues format and cataloguing the daily lives of teenagers and youth, rock and roll quickly rose to become one of the most

How to Play Grunge Guitar

From its roots in the Pacific Northwest of the late 1980s, grunge exploded to become the defining sound of the 1990s. And while bands like Nirvana, spearheaded by the legendary Kurt Cobain, may dominate the popular concept of grunge, the genre itself runs much deeper. It’s relatively easy to pick up grunge; the heavy emphasis

How to Test a Guitar: A Guide for Buying New or Used

Whether you’re looking for your first guitar or your twentieth, testing out an instrument is still a unique and tricky process. How should you determine whether or not a guitar offers the specific sound and feel you’re looking for? And how can you ensure you don’t buy a lemon that may develop hardware or body

The Best Electric Guitars For Each Genre

Guitar is one of the most popular instruments in the world, used in genres from rock and heavy metal to jazz and highlife. It’s no surprise, then, that various different guitars have evolved to suit different playing styles and genre needs! Most guitarists begin with a budget, jack-of-all-trades model that can approximate sounds of many

Best Guitar for Small Hands

As someone who has had to struggle with complex chord stretches because of short fingers, this article is going to address some tips for other players with the same problem to help you find the best guitar for small hands. Guitarists with small hands faced challenges in finding quality instruments with smaller dimensions after the

How To Approach Playing Guitar In Different Genres

There are a lot of different genres of music in the world. There is a very high chance you won’t like some of them, but a much higher chance that you’ll want to play more than one of them. If you’re looking to adapt your technique across multiple genres, then look no further! Rock Rock

How To Play Like Famous Guitarists

There are always going to be people who inspire you as you learn how to play the guitar. Obviously, your overall goal will be to create a sound unique to yourself, and hopefully one day someone will recognize your personal sound as an influence on them, but in the meantime, it’s always fun to try

How to Play Guitar in 7 Days – No Musical Talent Required

You may think that learning how to play guitar is something that only some people can do — that it requires some kinds of inborn talent. This is not at all the case. Great guitarists all become great simply by playing… a lot. This article is all about beginning that journey. In it, I will

How to Choose a Bass Guitar – 12 Factors to Consider According to Science

Choosing a bass guitar can be a long and arduous process. Considering the high costs of most bass guitars, you want to be sure you are getting the most bang for your buck. Many beginning bass guitarists will simply try out many different guitars and look for the one that “feels” right. While there is

Best Beginner Electric Guitar

The BCP Full Size is our pick for the best beginner electric guitar, which has a comfortable location for the pickup and comes complete with all accessories, including an amp and a case. Our step-up pick is the Squier by Fender and it also comes with a strap and a case. It comes with a

Best Classical Guitar

The Yamaha C40 is our pick for the best classical guitar as a full sized one with a gloss finish made with melamine. It is made with Javanese rosewood for the fingerboard and nato wood for the neck, as well as a spruce top. Our step-up pick is the Cordoba C3M and it has a

Best DIY Guitar Kits

The FretWire 175 Jazz guitar kit is our pick for the best DIY guitar kit, which can be added with your own finish. The body has already been drilled beforehand and it comes with all the needed hardware. Our step-up pick is the Solo ES Style guitar kit and it has a maple top with a nice

Best Guitar Tuner

The D’Addario NS is our pick for the best guitar tuner, which is a clip-on type and has a visual metronome feature as well. It can be used for various instruments as well. Our step-up pick is the Snark SN-8 and it provides super tight tuning capabilities and has a good pitch calibration method. The

Best Guitar Case

You’ve bought a guitar and now you are tasked with buying all the miscellaneous items and accessories that go with it. Many of these aren’t actually needed and are more a way for retailers to make a quick buck. But, among the selection of guitar accessories available, gig bags and cases are undoubtedly the most

Best Beginner Guitar

Choosing a guitar is an arduous process for established guitarist and even more so for beginners who are tasked with picking a single instrument among thousands upon thousands of options. It can undoubtedly be a discouraging experience that can delay the start of a fulfilling and gratifying journey. There are, however, a number of factors

Best Electric Guitar

Congratulations, you’ve decided to buy an electric guitar, one of the top rated instruments the world over. Choosing that perfect guitar is where the fun really starts, though actually picking one can be a frustrating task for the uninitiated. Fret not (pun intended), we are here to help sift the wheat from the chaff with