10 Necessary Accessories & Tools for Working on Your Guitar

You may need to make a few slight repairs on your guitar during a live situation. Or you may have to make a few adjustments at the rehearsal space or while you're at home. Below are a few essential tools that you should keep in your guitar case at all times, or in a small tool box that you keep in the trunk of your car.

Many common repairs for the guitar are simple, but you will definitely need the proper tool for the job (a man is only as good as his tools). If you are playing a paying gig it is absolutely imperative that you bring with you most of the tools in the following list, since you are now a serious professional guitarist who needs to show some responsibility. You don't want to be caught in a desperate situation in front of hundreds of people and not have the required tools at your disposal.

1) Picks - keep many extras handy, put them in your guitar case or your shoes or under your hat; picks are quite disposable and you should purchase them by the pound.

2) Strings - at least two extra sets of strings will be necessary at a gig, breaking strings is quite common, especially live.

3) Extra cords - a noisy cord with a short in it is no good when you're playing mega-decibels through a Marshall stack.

4) Tuner - although not absolutely necessary, they are nice to have for tuning quietly.

5) Batteries - for your effects pedals, if you use them; two 9-volt batteries and several AAs should do the trick.

6) Pliers - standard and needle nose; for general repairs, things like digging out broken string remnants from tuning posts, etc.

7) Screwdrivers - for adjusting the bridge of your guitar, or your strap, and maybe for your amp.

8) Pen & paper - a nice chord voicing you didn't realize was possible; jotting down licks or melodies that come into your head at weird moments; a hilarious joke someone told you in an alley on a break that you want to tell your uncle; writing down directions to a strip club after the gig, etc.

9) Flashlight - for when you have to conduct surgery on your instrument in a dark club; or so you can find your contact lense that flew out while you were slam dancing with the bass player.

10) Duct tape - always useful for nearly everything.

There you have a few essential and some not so essential tools that can help you repair many problems that may arise during your professional guitar playing career. They may even become genuine life-savers at some point. If you are getting paid to play for people, you need to put on your best performance, as free from down time and glitches and equipment problems as possible, so make sure you have the right tools for the job at your disposal.

Source:

"Some Necessary Tools for Working on Your Guitar," How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Jason Earls, Pleroma Publications, 2007