Gift guides and buying guides, picked from our rankings with real prices.
Guides · Oct 30, 2026
An electronic kit is quiet in the room, but not below it: the kick pedal and the thump of pads travel through the floor. Choose a kit with a quiet kick pedal, mesh heads and a small footprint, then isolate it from the floor.
Guides · Oct 30, 2026
An accordion costs from $223 for a kids' model to $18,790 for a handmade Italian one. Half of the 164 at Thomann cost more than $5,000, and a full 120-bass piano accordion is where the real money goes.
Guides · Oct 30, 2026
A tuba is one of the most expensive instruments to buy new: the median at Thomann is about $12,000. A student 3/4 tuba starts at $1,686, and fiberglass sousaphones for marching bands start at $1,798.
Guides · Oct 30, 2026
Analog synths make sound with circuits, digital ones with code. Analog is prized for its warm, slightly unstable character; digital offers more voices, more sound types and presets. Surprisingly, the median analog synth at Thomann now costs less.
Guides · Oct 30, 2026
On stage, in-ear monitors win: they block the band, protect your hearing and disappear on camera. For mixing, recording and long sessions at home, over-ear headphones are more comfortable and give a more natural picture.
Guides · Oct 30, 2026
Bass needs much more power than guitar to be heard: 15 to 30 watts for home, 100 to 200 watts to play with a drummer, 300 watts or more for gigs. Then choose between a combo and a head with a cabinet.
Guides · Oct 29, 2026
Every drummer needs three cymbals: 14-inch hi-hats, a 16 to 18-inch crash and a 20 to 22-inch ride. Then the alloy decides the sound and most of the price: brass for starting out, B8 for value, B20 for the long run.
Guides · Oct 29, 2026
To start playing bass you need a 4-string bass, a small bass amp (a guitar amp won't do), a cable, a strap and a tuner. A complete Squier starter set with all of it costs about $420.
Guides · Oct 29, 2026
A French horn costs from $426 for a junior Bb horn to $11,926 for a professional double horn. Most serious students end up on a double horn, and those start at about $1,000 in plastic and $4,700 for a Yamaha.
Guides · Oct 29, 2026
Weighted (hammer action) keys feel like a piano and are for learning and playing piano. Semi-weighted keys add some resistance to a light synth key: the middle ground for producers who also play.
Guides · Oct 29, 2026
Most adults should start on a concert ukulele: the classic sound with a little more room for the fingers. Soprano is the smallest and cheapest, tenor is fuller, and baritone is tuned like a guitar.
Guides · Oct 28, 2026
Choose a MIDI keyboard by how you play: 25 keys for beats and basslines, 49 or 61 for chords with two hands, 88 weighted keys if you play piano. Then look at pads, knobs and your DAW.
