Gift Buying Guide for Guitarists: Artist Signature Gifts
Published on 18 December 2024
Are you still hunting for some special pressies for that guitar-loving person in your life?
I’m here for you! I’ve already got this gift guide here for you, for all of those small-to-large guitarcentric gifts, but for this blog, I’m going to specialise a little…
There are lots of artist-related products that would make amazing gifts, too, from Jimi Hendrix guitar straps to John Mayer guitar strings. If your prospective giftee is a fan of a particular band or artist, you may be able to score a slam dunk this year by gifting them something that speaks directly to their passion!
Have a glance through this blog and you’ll see a veritable sleigh-full of excellent artist-related gifts, from Johnny Cash to Joe Strummer! I’ll arrange some things by type (plectrum tins, for example) and others by artist, where it’s appropriate. All availability is as of time of writing, which is mid December 2024.
It’s time to find the perfect final gift. Let’s do it!
Contents
Artist Signature Effects Pedals
Slash/Guns n Roses Guitars & Gifts
Plectrums/Picks
The correct name is ‘plectrum’ but the world seems to be moving towards ‘picks’, so this blog shall do the same. Almost all artists have a preferred pick style, and a great many of them have special licensed pick tins that are filled with these precious playing tokens.
Sometimes there will be a choice of thickness (medium, heavy etc) but most of the time, the gauges will be the artist’s preference. These make really lovely gifts, and of course they can be filled with fresh picks once the ones inside wear out!
We currently carry pick tins featuring the following artists:
Signature Straps
Make no mistake: the strap a musician uses with their guitars says a great deal about their attitude and personality. Why not imbue the gift of some serious artist credibility with an artist-associated strap? Whether it’s a fabric or leather strap, there is bound to be something here that is a perfect match to your beloved giftee and their preferred flavour of rock musician. We have artist straps for the following bands and artists available…
Artist Signature Effects Pedals
Gifting an effects pedal to a guitarist is probably the easiest way to get them to love you forever. Every guitarist gets excited at the prospect of a fresh stompbox to plug into their rig, and there’s an enormous amount of choice today. There’s actually too many for a blog such as this, so I’ll focus on pointing you in a few good directions and you can continue from there. Sound good?
MXR is a great brand to investigate here: they collaborate with artists frequently: Slash has an octave fuzz that’s awesome, Green Day have several iterations of their overdrive pedal (it keeps selling out, but a word to the wise is to check the MXR FOD pedal: it’s the exact same pedal and the title is another Green Day reference!) and more from the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Tom Morello and Zakk Wylde.
Other brands offer some great stuff too: Tech 21 have an amazing Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) Fly Rig for bassists, whilst JHS have a great overdrive pedal from Paul Gilbert.
Now, for artist signature wah-wah pedals, we are all quite spoiled! There’s a high number available, so the chances are that you’ll be able to hit the bullseye here and find just the right artist. Check this list out:
- Slash
- Kirk Hammett
- Tool (Justin Chancellor)
- Van Halen
- Rage Against the Machine (Tom Morello)
- Eric Clapton
- Jimi Hendrix
- Joe Bonamassa
- Alice in Chains (Jerry Cantrell)
- Buddy Guy
- Gary Clark Jr
- Leo Nocentelli
These are all Crybaby wahs from Dunlop, who are pretty much regarded as the world’s top wah pedal maker. Each of these will not only make a wonderful gift, but a thoughtful one too, since you considered the artist involved.
Now, one other area to consider is this: pedals that loads of artists use, but which are not in themselves ‘signature pedals’. For example, the BOSS DS-1 is a distortion pedal that is used by everyone from Nirvana to Marillion to Prince, so it’s a pretty safe choice as a gift!
Here are a few more like this:
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff: Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Santana, Dinosaur Jr, Mars Volta, Smashing Pumpkins, Jack White.
Ibanez Tube Screamer: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pearl Jam, Gary Moore, Iron Maiden, Eric Johnson
Dunlop Crybaby GCB95: without sounding flippant, hundreds and hundreds of pro guitarists use this, so if there isn’t an artist wah pedal from the list above to suit, this regular model will absolutely do the trick.
Artist Signature Guitars
Gifting somebody a guitar is a pretty wonderful thing to do. They aren’t cheap and they involve doing some research into choosing one on behalf of another person. This isn’t easy, but going down the route of choosing an artist signature guitar could make things easier. Knowing that the person you’re gifting is, say, a Guns n Roses fan for example, means that you can move directly towards buying them a Slash signature Gibson or Epiphone, and sidestepping the 8 million other choices that otherwise await!
There are a great deal of artist signature guitars available: everybody from Slipknot to Taylor Swift has something!
John Mayer
Blues heartthrob John Mayer has a very popular guitar available. The PRS Silver Sky can be had in two versions: a USA-made Silver Sky and an Indonesian Silver Sky SE model. Both look superficially similar and arrive in a wide choice of finishes. The American model is a pro-level consideration, but the cheaper SE model punches well above its weight.
Mayer fans will also like his signature Ernie Ball Silver Slinky guitar strings, a thoughtful and inexpensive extra for any Mayer acolyte.
Slash/Guns n Roses Guitars & Gifts
Fans of Slash will want to head straight to my Slash Gifts blog, where you’ll get a lot more detail, but for now, Slash has some lovely guitars available in both limited edition and regular production models. Most are based around the Gibson Les Pauls you regularly see him toting, and they are a tasty bunch indeed! Available in finishes like Appetite Burst and November Burst, they are right on the money!
Metallica Guitars
Both of Metallica’s guitarists - James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett - are well represented by signature guitars. ESP make James’ guitars, and he has some very cool Snakebyte and Eclipse models to choose from.
Kirk has ESP signature models too - his KH202 and KH602 guitars have been perennial favourites for decades - but he’s also a Gibson endorsee. The current owner of the famous ‘Greeny’ 1959 Les Paul standard owned previously by Blues legend Gary Moore and Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, Hammett actually has a signature model of this available for sale in both Epiphone and Gibson editions. Both are excellent, and both capture a far wider market than just Metalli-fans. Hammett also has an awesome signature Epiphone Flying V.
I’ve written a Metallica Gift Guide that goes into more depth, so mosh in that direction if a Metallica-flavoured gift sounds like your best plan!
Famous Shredder Guitars
Shredders are the guys who play at enormous speeds and do mind-bending things with their guitars. We have loads of signature guitars for both shred legends and modern shred-heads, so click through if these names look familiar and you’ll see some excellent instruments:
- Joe Satriani
- Steve Vai
- Tosin Abasi
- Paul GIlbert
- Jason Richardson
- Tim Henson
- Kiko Loureiro
- Van Halen (see below)
- Nita Strauss
Gifts for Blink-182 Fans
Fans of Californian pop-punks Blink-182 are well served indeed! In addition to Tom DeLonge guitar straps, there’s a number of Fender instruments for them, too. The Tom DeLonge Strat has been a recent hit as a reissue of a former model, and it’s available in four colours. There’s also a Tom DeLonge Starcaster which is a pretty different - yet equally cool - guitar for the frontman.
Bassist and co-vocalist Mark Hoppus isn’t left out, however: the Fender Mark Hoppus Jag bass is a limited edition, streamlined take on the classic offset shape that contemporary musicians love. Easy wins here with these pop punk purchases!
Van Halen Guitars & Gifts
Superstar guitar wizard Eddie Van Halen loved tinkering about with guitars so much that he inevitably started his own company. EVH have produced guitars from Eddie’s entire career, as well as loads more. As you may have guessed, I’ve already gone into a bunch of detail in the dedicated Van Halen Gift Guide, so click through to get the lowdown on not only the guitars, but amps, pedals and accessories used by Eddie.
Slipknot Guitars
Slipknot’s Jim Root is a man with several very understated and powerful guitars available from Squier, Fender and Charvel. They all utilise high output pickups and are always either black or white. At any given time, there have been Telecasters, Stratocasters, San Dimases and Jazzmasters out there with Root’s name on them, so click the highlighted text to see what’s available today for your Slipknot-loving gift-receiver!
Jimi Hendrix
Undoubtedly one of the most famous, important and enduringly popular guitar players the world has ever seen is Jimi Hendrix. Fans wishing to adopt a little of his style are in for a treat, because there are lots and lots of licensed products available, from plectrums to replicas of the guitars he played! See all of our Jimi Hendrix Gear online, where you’ll find picks, straps and pedals by Dunlop, Seymour Duncan Hendrix pickups, Fender Jimi Hendrix Stratocasters and Epiphone Hendrix Flying V guitars!
There are actually loads of signature guitars available, featuring artists from all walks of music: Tool, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, Jason Isbell, Tommy Emmanuel, Brad Paisley, Radiohead and many more.
Top Gifts at guitarguitar
As you can now see, our site and stores are filled to the brim with excellent artist-related gifts! They are a diverse bunch, and there’s something there for all price points too, so hopefully you’ll have been able to find some great Christmas-saving gifts for your loved ones!
If you’re still having trouble deciding, there’s always a guitarguitar Gift Card as an option! All guitarists love this, because they can use one to help buy whatever they want!
Best of luck this gift-buying season, and have fun!
