It’s never the wrong time to start thinking about a good gift for that special guitar player in your life.  With unemployment still being pretty high, we’ll assume you aren’t planning on getting your favorite guitar player a 1959 Gibson Les Paul and accordingly we’ll focus on some more cost-friendly options.

We have wracked our brains to come up with some good suggestions at a variety of prices to help you make sure that Santa Claus (or Hannukah Harry) brings the best item for that special guitarist.  Here is our list for 2009.  We hope you find it helpful.  Read on for the entire list.

1.  New Guitar Tuner (roughly $25).  There are a few things guitarists love to lose and one of them is their tuner.  Even if your guitarist has a tuner, these items have improved a lot over the last few years to accommodate a variety of tunings and also to clip on and use colors more effectively to make it easier for the guitarist to see when the guitar is in tune.  Accordingly, a new one would make a thoughtful gift.  Right now we like the Planet Waves Chromatic Headstock Tuner.  This one uses vibration rather than sound to determine whether the guitar is in tine and has a multi-color backlit LCD screen to make it easy to tune in dark environments.

2.  Book About Guitars ($18 and Up).  As vintage guitars continue to grow in popularity we are seeing better and better books published on the topic.  Two of the books that really impessed us in the last year were Martin Guitars:  A History Revised and Updated Book 1 and With Strings Attached:  The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars.  Both books would make a fine addition to the bookshelf of any guitarist.  Of course, these books will make the guitarist crave a new guitar so consider buying only if you and the guitarist do not share a single bank account.

3.  Guitar Toolkit (Under $30).  This one was on my list last year, I received it as a gift and I liked it so much I’m adding it this year again.  The Gigmate Guitar Toolkit has the tools that the guitar player is looking for most often including string cutters, a 2-in-1 screwdriver, an adjustable flashlight, allen wrenches and a string winder with peg remover.  I use mine regularly and so will that guitar player on your list.

4.  Book of Music By a Favorite Artist ($15 and up).  Take a look in the files of almost any guitar player.  The bottom line is that guitarists can’t get enough sheet music (or, in guitarist terms, “tablature”).  Music book publishers have really stepped up their efforts lately to deliver particularly accurate or creative tablatures for some all-time classic works.  Two that we have been playing a lot lately include Paul Simon – Transcribed by Mark Hanson (fingerpicker extraordinaire) and Led Zeppelin Classics.

5.  Little Amplifier ($100 and up).  Even acoustic players sometimes want to let out their inner Jimi Hendrix.  And when they do, they’ll need some type of amplifier.  But for the guitarist that doesn’t regularly play electric, a small 5 watt amplifier will do it.  For this purpose, we like the VOX DA5 Amplifier (roughly $140).  It is small but still boasts 11 different styles and 11 different effects plus noise reduction.   A great gift for the guitarist who just needs a baby amplifier.

6. A New Capo ($15 and up).  Remember how we mentioned above that there are items guitar players love to lose.  Well, we often misplace or lose our capos even more frequently than our tuners.  For those of you that don’t know, the capo is the item that clips onto the fretboard and lets you immediately shift the guitar’s intonation.  Right now we’re into capos that you can move with one hand and so we’re recommending the Kyser Quick Change Guitar Capo.

7. A Gift Certificate.  Still feel like nothing is quite right?  Go for a gift certificate.  Guitarists never, ever feel like they have everything they need.  A Gift Certificate will let the guitarist get that perfect item.  There are plenty of wonderful guitar stores that offer Gift Certificates, but we’d start with Musician’s Friend, Guitar Center, Music123 an Amazon to get started.

Any guitar player worth their salt (whatever that means) would be happy to get any of these presents.  And if not, at least Amazon has a great return policy.

Editor’s Note: Fretbase is not a paid endorser of any of these products but we do receive an affiliate fee for any purchases from various retailers if our readers click on the links to those retailers in our story.

Did we forget something that would make a great gift?  Let us know in the comments.