According to the National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM), there are over 30 million guitar players in the U.S.  That means it is pretty likely you have one on your gift list.  According Yahoo! Finance, the Dow is down 38% from its high for the year.  That means you don’t want to spend over $50.  So just for you, here is our list of 5 great gifts for the guitar player under $50.

1.  A Gig Bag.  If your guitar player bought a quality guitar, that guitar very likely came with high quality hard case.  But hard generally means heavy.  Occasionally, she just needs something light for carrying the guitar around when it need not be as seriously protected.  As my friend Rob once said after arriving with his guitar in a gig bag, “You don’t realize until you ditch the case how much of the weight of the thing is in the case.  The Musicians Gear Elite Series Acoustic Guitar Bag is a nice option.

2.  A Cool Strap. Occasionally, your guitar player may want to stand up and play standing in front of an audience.  Maybe he already does.  If so, he needs a guitar strap.  Many cool guitar straps are sold online including customized versions (for my last bithday I got one with “Fretbase” inscribed on it).  We like the Levy’s Soft Suede Strap.

3.  A Book of Music by a Favorite Musician. Sure, you can get a lot of free tabs and sheet music online but a lot of it is drecky.  A lot of musicians now offer very accurate tabs in books.  The other benefit of keeping tabs in books is that they are less likely to be misplaced (i.e., recycled).  Lately, I have been drawing a lot from available books with music by Ray Lamontagne, Patty Griffin and Paul Simon.

4.  A VOX Headphone Amp.  If your guitar player plays electric, I’m sure there are times his family might not be interested in his late night jam session.  Or maybe he doesn’t always want to set up his amp.  If that is the case, the VOX Headphone Amp is the ticket.  The guitar player can plug it into his guitar, plug in his headphones and everyone is a winner.

5.  A Guitar Toolkit. It seems like every time I need to restring, I search all over my house for the wire cutters and I’m wreaking havoc on my fingernails by removing the pegs by hand.  That is why I’m recommending a good guitar toolkit.  It has all the tools the guitarist needs and often includes space for storage of new strings.  The Gigmate Guitar Toolkit looks like a winner to us.

After you give one of these items, you can just sit back and think about how you are the best guitar santa ever.