![After 24 years of playing guitar, here's the essential care package every beginner guitarist will want in 2026.]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/After-24-years-of-playing-guitar-heres-the-essential-care-758x423.jpg "After 24 years of playing guitar, here's the essential care package every beginner guitarist will want in 2026.] 1")
As a guitarist I’ve had more than my fair share of disappointing gifts over the years. I appreciate that while well intentioned, many of the gifts I’ve received are as a result of people not really understanding what a guitarist really needs.
A few years ago however, I received something from a friend which completely blew me away. A guitarist himself, he’d put together a care package that consisted of essentials, none of which individually cost more than $10, but overall combined to make one of the most well-thought out and genuinely useful gifts I’ve ever received.
Matt McCracken
A regularly gigging guitarist with over 20 years of experience playing live and writing and recording in bands, he’s performed everything from jazz to djent, gigging all over the UK in more dingy venues than you can shake a drop-tuned guitar at. When he’s not holed up in his home studio recording new songs or tweaking pedal settings, you’ll find him making a racket with Northern noise punks Never Better.
