21 Cool Guitar Gadgets That You’ll Actually Use
Looking for cool guitar gadgets that you’ll actually use?
Whether you’re just getting your feet wet into playing guitar or you’re a seasoned vet, we all could use a little boost on our musical journey. Incorporating innovative technology can help enhance or dramatically shift the way you practice, perform, and record while playing your guitar.
As a guitarist myself, I found many of these gadgets have helped me solve a lot of the issues I was facing. I recommend going through each product and see how you can utilize each gadget to enhance your playing experience.
In this post, we’ll look at 21 cool guitar gadgets you never knew you need, but will make your life a lot easier as a guitarist.
Table of Contents
The Complete List of 21 Cool Guitar Gadgets
Don’t have time to read this post? Here is a complete list of the 21 cool guitar gadgets that we’ll be reviewing in this post:
- Zivix Jamstik+
- Xvive U2 Guitar Wireless System
- Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB Audio Interface
- BOSS ME-80 Multi-Effects Guitar Pedal
- Ibanez MTZ MTZ11 Quick Access Multi-Tool
- JOWOOM T2 Smart Automatic Guitar Tuner
- Planet Waves Guitar Dock
- IK Multimedia iRig HD 2 Guitar Interface For iOS & Mac
- Rocksmith 2014 Edition Remastered
- Pick-a-Palooza DIY Guitar Pick Punch
- Fishman Neo D Single Coil Magnetic Soundhole Pickup
- Heet Sound PLUSEBOW Plus EBow for Guitar
- Marshall MS2 Battery-Powered Micro Guitar Amplifier
- VOX AP2AC amPlug 2 AC30 Guitar Headphone Amplifier
- Gruv Gear FretWraps 3-Pack String Muters
- D’Addario Varigrip Hand Exerciser
- Planet Waves O-Port Sound Enhancement for Acoustic Guitar
- Kyser Quick-Change Capo
- PreSonus Eris E3.5-3.5″ Near Field Studio Monitor
- Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lesson Subscription
For the in-depth reviews of each product, keep reading!
Zivix Jamstik+
The jamstik+ connects via Bluetooth 4.0 to your phone, tablet or computer so you can play guitar with any of the 100's of compatible MIDI apps available.
The first cool guitar gadget on the list is the Zivix Jamstik+. It’s a digital guitar that is completely wireless via Bluetooth and is designed to teach you how to play the guitar better. It incorporates a series of 4 free apps that include tutorials and games. Jam Tutor is an app included that provides interactive guitar lessons to hone your skills. With this app, you can visually see whether your fingers are in the right position and follow along as you watch their videos. You can learn hundreds of new songs with their games and include different difficulty levels to challenge you.
Jamstik uses a real fretboard to provide tactical feedback, ensuring you’re hitting the right notes. It’s also MDI compatible, making it seamless to record your music into their editor. If you’re like most guitar enthusiasts, you can jam all day long. They include built-in rechargeable batteries, so that you can play for 8 hours on a single session.
This guitar can connect directly to your Mac computer, iPhone, iPad, or Android. For PC users, a USB connection is required. So who’s this for? It’s great for beginners or busy people who want to practice and improve their guitar skills. It’s incredibly portable so that you can carry it around on the go.
Xvive U2 Guitar Wireless System
Hate dealing with annoying guitar cables? The Xvive U2 Guitar Wireless System allows you to connect your guitar to any amplifier any play wirelessly without any sound degredation.
If you’re someone who hates being tethered to your amp by an annoying chord, then this next guitar gadget is exactly what you need. The Xvive U2 is a wireless system that removes the hassle of using cords, allowing you to move around freely. Unlike most wireless guitar systems, this one is inexpensive and doesn’t require a bulky rackmount receiver. This system is ideal for playing outdoors since it has over 70 feet in range without sacrificing your tone or sound quality.
And to ensure that the transmitter and receiver don’t run out of juice, it comes with rechargeable batteries and a power cable. The batteries last up to 5 hours of playing time, but can be charged very fast. It’s also super simple to set up. Just plug the transmitter into your guitar jack, and the U2 receives into the amp. Currently, the Xvive U2 supports only piezo-electric acoustic pickups and passive electric pickups. They do not support microphone system pickups.
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones
The Audio-Technical ATH-M50x headphones are one the best value studio monitoring headphones on the market. They offer amazing sound quality at an affordable price.
The Audio-Technica ATH-M50X studio headphones are the ideal for commuters, anyone doing audio or music production. These headphones have received raving reviews from pro audio reviewers and audio engineers due to their excellent sound performance. You’ll find that the frequency range is quite incredible. For instruments with strings like a guitar, you’ll get clarity in the mids and highs without any harsh sounds. These headphones are known for their deep emphasis on the bass.
The ATH-M50x is also incredibly dynamic and versatile for every use. It has a circumaural design to fit your ears perfectly and isolate sound even in loud environments. You’re also able to swivel the earcup 90 degrees, and the headphones collapse for better portability. The package includes a carrying pouch, ¼ inch to 3.5mm adapter, and three audio cable variations. As a guitar player, it’s helpful to have these headphones to listen to your own music and hear other recordings.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB Audio Interface
The Focusrite Scarlett Solo is one of the best audio interfaces for beginners who want to get started recording music from home. Excellent build quality, plug and play setup, and industry leading pre-amps.
The
It’s relatively easy to set up, just use the USB-C cable provided and plug it into your computer. From there, you can start recording! The USB latency is incredibly low and is barely noticeable so that you can monitor your music in real-time. Scarlett Solo also comes with software tools to quickly get started. You get access to splice sounds, giving you royalty free-one shots, presets and loops to record your album.
BOSS ME-80 Multi-Effects Guitar Pedal
The BOSS ME-80 is an excellent multi-effects pedal for those who want an easy and convenient way to record guitar at home on a budget. Get access to limitless guitar tones in one package.
The Boss Me-80 Multi-Effects Guitar Pedal is an all-in-one gadget used to transform your guitar’s sound by offering a wide selection of built-in effects. These effects consist of onboard distortions, mod effects, filters, pitch effects, delays, and multiple overdrives to customize your personal sound.
This multi-effects pedal is a really cool guitar gadget for anyone who want to fine-tune their sound while traveling. It weighs less than 8 pounds, so it’s quite light and fairly portable. Six AA batteries power the Boss ME-80, so it’s easy to move around with, especially when hopping from gig to gig. The pedal comes with a downloadable software to tweak and organize your sounds from your computer. It can be connected to a USB, so you can simply choose various signature sounds with a click of a mouse. This guitar stomp pedal allows you to focus on your playing ability rather than on managing the technical sound effects.
Ibanez MTZ MTZ11 Quick Access Multi-Tool
This Ibanez Multi-Tool is the Swiss army knife of guitar setup tools. It is the only tool you'll ever need to set up your guitar like a pro.
The next cool guitar gadget on this list is the Ibanez MTZ MTZ11 Quick Access Multi-Tool. It’s an all in one tool to simplify your guitar maintenance needs. Each tool is easily accessible through the center holes of the body. Simply pull out the tool you need to use. The tools available consist of screwdrivers, a ruler, a tube spanner, and hex wrenches. The hex wrench has different sizes, which are 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm, and 5 mm. And it has both a small and large Phillips-head screwdriver. It’s incredibly handy if you’re on the road and need to conduct some repairs or maintenance on your guitar. You no longer have to lug a heavy toolbox around anymore. This Ibanez MTZ MTZ11 fits right in your pocket! And it costs you only $22.
JOWOOM T2 Smart Automatic Guitar Tuner
Tuning your guitar can be such a drag. Eliminate the need of old school guitar tuners and turning your tuning pegs by hand with the JOWOOM T2 Automatic Guitar Tuner.
JOWOOM T2 Smart Automatic Guitar Tuner is a simple plug and play guitar gadget that automatically tunes your guitar. Simply plug it into your guitar peg and flick your guitar strings. From there, the device has a display screen to show you how in-tune each string is. This removes the need for having to use a standard clip tuner again.
This contraption can be used on all types of guitars like acoustic, classical, electronic, and even ukuleles. The tuner has a built-in electric string winder with 180RPM of torque to easily tune each string, even the stiffest ones. It also includes various tuning modes like the Semi-Automatic Mode for wide-ranging tunings, Automatic Mode for daily tunings, and Custom Mode for alternative tunings. This product also comes with an additional peg connector and a USB to Micro USB charging cable. You can expect to save time restringing and tuning your instrument and more time playing!
Planet Waves Guitar Dock
The Planet Waves Guitar Dock is probably the easiest and most convenient way to hang a guitar. No drilling or stands that take up room. Simply clamp it onto any table and you're good to go.
The Planet Waves Guitar Dock is a small contraption used to securely hold your guitar and prevent it from falling or getting damaged. Instead of carrying around a heavy, big, and clunky guitar stand, all you need is this little guitar dock. The dock has a clamp that can be attached to any surface with a flat edge to secure your guitar. Common surfaces you may use are chairs, workbenches, tables, consoles, and amps. When mounted, you can rotate the dock 360 degrees for the perfect standing angle. The dock holds your guitar at the neck so that it can work for all types of guitars, including basses. It weighs 3.2 ounces and is compact, so it fits in any instrument case or gig bag.
IK Multimedia iRig HD 2 Guitar Interface For iOS & Mac
The IK Multimedia iRig HD 2 Guitar Interface is a cool guitar gadget allows players to utilize effects processing and mobile amp modeling to play the guitar more freely without using a full rig if you don’t want to. The way it works is the iRig HD2 interacts routes your signal through a device like your computer, phone, or tablet. This allows your device to become a functioning amp modeler. It comes with a free AmpliTube app to record, produce, or run your own effects and amp models. This software is incredibly intuitive because it provides an entire recording studio within the app. You’ll find amps, speakers, pedals, cabinets, and microphones. Or if you prefer apps like Audacity or Garage band, iRig HD2 is compatible with those as well.
One additional benefit is how convenient this is for helping guitar enthusiasts to practice in silence. The iRig HD2 has a 3.5 mm headphone output. Simply connect it to your guitar and device, and you’re ready to go. You don’t need a full rig set like you usually would. It’s perfect for those who like to practice without having their gear or in the evenings without waking people up.
Rocksmith 2014 Edition Remastered
The Rocksmith 2014 Edition is a PS4 game that aims to help new guitar players to learn how to play the guitar and bass fast. This game is compatible with an electric, acoustic, or bass guitar through an ¼” output jack that is included or a pickup with a USB microphone that isn’t included.
What makes this game special from most guitar games is that it’s very intuitive. This game monitors how you play and will adjust the song to match your skill level. As you improve, the song will add more techniques and phrases to increase your skills. To make the game fun, it has over 50 songs from legendary artists like Foo fighters, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Radiohead, and others. Besides the games, there are also 80 interactive video lessons to teach you the fundamentals of guitar playing and even more advanced techniques such as tapping.
Pick-a-Palooza DIY Guitar Pick Punch
An easy and fun way to create your own custom guitar picks. The Pick-a-Palooza is a great way to express your creativity as a guitar player.
The Pick-a-Palooze DIY Guitar Pick Punch is a fun guitar gadget that allows you to make your own guitar pick. This product aims to solve the problem of continually misplacing your guitar pick. It works similar to a hole puncher or stapler except designed explicitly for making picks. Use any type of thin plastic to make your guitar pick. This includes most plastic cards such as gift cards, old credit cards, expired licenses, school ID’s, and hotel room key cards. The package comes with one pick punch, 15 custom pick strips, one leather keychain pick holder and a pick file.
Fishman Neo D Single Coil Magnetic Soundhole Pickup
Turn any acoustic guitar into an acoustic-electric with the Fishman Magnetic Humbucker Acoustic Pickup. Perfect for performing live gigs or recording your acoustic guitar at home.
The Fishman Neo D Single Coil Magnetic Soundhole Pickup is a cool guitar gadget that turns your acoustic guitar into an acoustic-electric guitar that can be plugged into an amplifier. It also helps provide a greater tonal balance and acoustic clarity. It’s incredibly low profile and is easy to install. Simply loosen the strings and slide the pickup up over the soundhole. It can fit in soundholes that are as small as 98.5mm diameter. The magnetic structure of this pickup helps to provide a warmer and fuller humbucking sound. It’s a convenient tool to help improve your sound quality without needing any additional controls. In addition, this is a passive guitar pickup, so it doesn’t require any batteries.
Heet Sound PLUSEBOW Plus EBow for Guitar
The Heet Sound EBow allows you to create unique tones that you never thought would be possible from a guitar.
The EBow for guitar is a small innovative device that is battery powered to create sounds similar to various strings, woodwinds, and horns instruments. The device is a synthesizing tool that works by producing infinite sustains, and rich harmonics that a guitar can’t do. It also provides tonal slurs and a variety of textures.
It works by holding the eBow on the left hand and resting it over the strings. The string in the middle will be the one that has the activated sound effects. The eBow has an octave switch that can raise your notes by an octave higher. And the closer you move towards your pickup, the louder the harmonic effects become.
The package also comes with a handy Player’s Guide booklet and mini-CD lesson, where Lenny Walker shares his secrets for using this device. Many iconic guitarists like Phil Collins, David Bowie, Van Halen, Zappa, and Def Leppard have used the eBow to produce hit records.
Marshall MS2 Battery-Powered Micro Guitar Amplifier
The Marshall MS2 Micro Guitar Amp is a convenient way to practice and play guitar on the go. It is ultra-portable, sounds great, and requires no setup.
The Marshall MS2 Micro guitar amplifier is designed to be an extremely portable and mobile amp to play on the go. The amplifier only keeps the essentials that you need. There are three knobs, which are for volume control, tone adjustment, and to toggle between channels. The channels can be switched to clean or overdrive channels to produce fuller sounds and more clarity.
It is battery operated and has 1 Watt of power, which is quite powerful for its size. It’s also only .34 pounds and includes a handy belt clip, so you can hook it up to your belt and carry it around. For something so small, it packs nearly the same output as Marshall’s bigger flagship amplifiers.
VOX AP2AC amPlug 2 AC30 Guitar Headphone Amplifier
The Vox Guitar Headphone amplifier is a great way for your get your practice in without disturbing the people around you. It's a simple plug and play solutions that allows you to connect your guitar to headphones.
The Vox AC30 guitar headphone amplifier is a great tool that allows you to practice guitar in complete silence. It has an easy setup. Simply just plug this into your guitar and then plug in some headphones. It has three different dials to control your volume, gain, and tone. Adjusting these dials can provide a massive difference in tone quality. You can go from a cleaner tone to a more distortion tone or even a heavily driven overdrive.
The amplifier has a 3.5 mm aux input to easily connect to your phone, tablet, iPod, or any other device allowing you to back up tracks. There’s also a 3.5 mm input to plug into your headphones or any type of speaker system. It’s incredibly portable and perfect for people who need to practice in silence while traveling.
Gruv Gear FretWraps 3-Pack String Muters
If you're a metal guitar player, then the Gruv Gear FretWraps are a must. These string muters help dampen unwanted noise from your guitar recordings.
Gruv Gear FretWraps is the solution to dampen and mute the resonance and overtones made from your strings, especially during live gigs, recordings, and tapping. Doing it with your hand or hair tie can be insufficient. These straps are adjustable, which allows you to fine-tune the amount of pressure you’d like on the strings.
This product comes in three different sizes based on the number of strings you have on your guitar. The small size fits four-string basses and acoustic guitars and ukuleles. The medium strap fits five-string basses and six-string classical guitars. And the large one fits six-string basses and 7 to 8 string guitars.
D’Addario Varigrip Hand Exerciser
The D'Addario Varigrip Hand Exerciser is an excellent tool for guitar players that helps improve your finger strength and dexterity. Train your fingers without even touching a guitar.
The Varigrip hand exercisers are a practical conditioning tool to help strengthen your fingers, hands, and forearms into guitar playing shape. The device has customizable string tension for players to adjust the tension levels that fit their comfort level. Just turn the little knobs left or right to adjust the tension for each finger. This tool allows you to do common finger exercises like the fingertip flexion, thumb opposition, and the hook position.
The Varigrip is beneficial for players who haven’t played guitar in a while and are looking to get back into playing form. It’s proven to help with overall strength and dexterity needed to play for long periods.
Planet Waves O-Port Sound Enhancement for Acoustic Guitar
The Planet Waves O-Port is an easy way to instantly enhance the sound of your acoustic guitar. Simply attach it to your guitar's sound hole and you're ready to go.
The Planet Waves O-Port is a funnel-like contraption that fits inside of your guitar’s soundhole to enrich your sound quality making it fuller, louder, and add clarity. You’ll especially find a noticeable difference in the bottom end sound. It works by funneling the sound through the soundhole eliminating hard edges that usually distorts the sound. It also removes feedback and howling when playing in loud environments. As a result, airwaves exchange increases and will cause the soundboard to vibrate more freely.
To place the O-port inside, you’ll need to take the strings out of the guitar and fold O-port inside the soundhole. The O-port will expand to fill up the hole. You can then restring your guitar. O-port comes in two sizes to fit most guitar’s sound holes. This tool is ideal for beginners looking to enhance their sound immediately.
Kyser Quick-Change Capo
The Kyser Quick-Change Capo is a professional quality capo for acoustic guitars that allows you to effortlessly change the tuning of your guitar in seconds.
The Kyser Quick-Change Capo is a tool that clamps on your guitar’s fingerboard to raise the pitch and play in a different key without changing fingering or re-tuning. It works by shortening the length of your strings at the same time to create a new nut. This Capo works on both acoustic and electric guitars. It’s also made from lightweight aluminum with a steel spring for long-lasting durability and quickly adjusts positions on your guitar. Kyser products are made with quality and do not cause any extra buzzing sound. This product is ideal for playing in a live setting since you can change positions reasonably quickly.
PreSonus Eris E3.5-3.5″ Near Field Studio Monitor
The Presonus Eris are an excellent pair of studio monitors for those on a budget. They are well suited for all use cases from mixing and mastering professional recordings to watching movies and gaming.
The PreSonus Eris E3.5-3.5″ is an affordable studio monitor designed to provide excellent sound quality for music producers, and gamers. This monitor has a 3.5 inch woven low-frequency composite driver to boost the bass thump without the rattle or distortion. It’s a well-balanced sound system with a smooth sound and doesn’t have any harshness even when the volume gets louder.
Since the speakers are equipped with ultra low mass silk-dome tweeters, it produces a very smooth high end and a wider sweet spot. The sweet spot means that the dispersion pattern is evenly distributed, so that you can walk around your room and still hear everything precisely. This product comes with a stereo aux input and headphone jack to connect with your phone, tablet, or computer. As a guitarist, you can listen to studio-quality music in silence without disturbing people in your house.
Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lesson Subscription
Guitar Tricks is an easy and fun way to the learn guitar from the comfort of your own home. Get access to thousands of guitar video lessons by professional guitar teachers. Get your 14-day Free Trial!
While not technically a guitar gadget,
This program aims to eliminate guitar players struggling to learn how to play the guitar, primarily through traditional methods such as YouTube and in-person instructors. Sifting through YouTube videos can be confusing. And having an in-person instructor can sometimes lead to boredom, causing guitar players to give up too soon.
Guitar Tricks offers a free trial to get access to 24 lessons to test the program. If you enjoy the program, you can get full access for $19.95 a month. New songs are released monthly, so you’ll never get bored. The program helps you get quick wins, so you gain confidence and enjoy playing the guitar. You also get to play the classic songs from famous artists like the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and more.
Conclusion
These 21 cool guitar gadgets are extraordinarily innovative and simplify learning and recording when playing the guitar. Technology can make our lives easier by providing solutions to common problems that we have, such as easy access to guitar lessons or devices to enhance your sound quality. Having the right set up can give you that extra boost you need.
So that wraps it up! We hope you’ve gained a lot of value from this curated list of cool guitar gadgets that you can actually use.
