Lessons

Lesson 28: Equipment

Guitars

The minimum requirement is:

a nylon-string acoustic guitar
a steel-string acoustic guitar
some electric guitars - at least a semi-hollowbody

These types of guitars really are very different instruments and each one of them has to be taken seriously and practiced on a regular basis.

Amplifiers and Effects

The minimum requirement is:

a combo with a good clean sound
a reverb ( most guitar amps have one)
a distortion/ overdrive pedal
a volume pedal
a wah-wah pedal

Learn to use these tools and familiarize yourself with what can and what can not be done with them.

Other Equipment

The minimum requirement is:

a chromatic tuner with adjustable reference pitch 438-445Hz
a capo
a music stand
cables and spare cables
a DI box for acoustic guitars with a pickup
spare strings for all your guitars, especially the thinner gauges

Extras

a bass guitar
a baritone guitar
a resonator guitar
a twelve-string guitar
different guitars and amps
different effects/ pedals, like chorus, compressor, delay, echo, flanger, fuzz, Leslie, octaver, pan, phaser, reverb, tremolo, vibrato...
exotic instruments, like banjo, Chapman Stick, lute, mandolin, sitar...

Having some of these extra tools can be a bonus, that is if you are able to use them decently as well... I have a baritone and a bass guitar myself and I know how to use them and I have a small collection of different guitars, amps and pedals that I am familiar with. I do not own a twelve-string nor any of the exotic instruments mentioned above, nor do I play them. Versatility is important, but you have to draw a line somewhere and being good at a few things beats dabbling in all areas if you ask me...