Accessory

Anything sold alongside a guitar to make it workable or playable on the job, rather than a component of the instrument itself.

Accessories sit between the player and the guitar: a capo changes the key without retuning, a slide replaces fretting altogether, a strap lets the instrument hang where the hands want it, and a stand means the guitar is picked up rather than left in its case. None of them alter the voice of the instrument the way a pickup or a top wood does, but they decide whether a gig is comfortable, whether the guitar stays in tune between songs, and whether a player reaches for it at all.

Example: a capo on the second fret turns open G shapes into A, which is how many acoustic players cover a singer's key without relearning the song.

Accessory

See also