Gift guides and buying guides, picked from our rankings with real prices.
Guides · Oct 25, 2026
Music teachers get mugs and candles. What they'd actually use: a speaker that runs on battery with a mic input, a recorder for recitals, a better microphone for online lessons.
Guides · Oct 25, 2026
Buying gear for a musician you love is nerve-wracking: too many models, too many opinions. Here's one safe, well-reviewed pick for each kind of player, things he's unlikely to own twice.
Guides · Oct 25, 2026
Guitar-playing dads usually play after the kids are asleep, in the living room, on a guitar they bought decades ago. The best gifts fit that life, or finally deliver the guitar he always wanted.
Guides · Oct 25, 2026
A guitarist with a wall of guitars still has gaps: a 12-string, a baritone, a lap steel, a guitar synth. Those are the gifts that open a new door instead of repeating what they have.
Guides · Oct 25, 2026
Most beginners quit in the first months. The best gift for a new guitarist is one that makes practice fun: something to play along with, a drum beat, a guitar that's easy on the hands.
Guides · Oct 24, 2026
Most mandolin players start on a simple A-style and dream of an F-style with the scroll. That's the big gift. Smaller ones: a mandolin with a pickup, a recorder, or an electric Mandobird.
Guides · Oct 24, 2026
A mandolin costs from $66 to $24,530. Half of the 64 at Thomann cost less than $404, and a solid-top mandolin worth learning on starts at about $300.
Guides · Oct 24, 2026
Banjo players are usually 5-string bluegrass or folk players. The gifts that surprise them: another member of the banjo family, or a way to finally be heard on stage.
Guides · Oct 24, 2026
A banjo costs from $111 for a banjo ukulele to $6,075 for a Deering. Half of the 128 banjos at Thomann cost less than $787, and a good 5-string for a beginner costs $400 to $900.
Guides · Oct 23, 2026
A trombone is long, heavy and loud. The gifts trombonists love: a plastic one for the road, an alto for the high parts, a valve trombone for something different.
Guides · Oct 23, 2026
Orchestral clarinetists need two clarinets, Bb and A, and many only own the first. That's the gift. For band players: a microphone, or a deeper voice with a bass clarinet.
Guides · Oct 23, 2026
Flutists who play in bands and orchestras sooner or later need a piccolo. That's the classic gift, along with a microphone for church and gigs and, for the flutist who has everything, an alto flute.
