The TGP Guitar Shop

Staff Picks

Short list. No sponsorships. The gear we'd genuinely tell a friend to buy.

EVH · Hard rock & high gain

EVH Wolfgang Special

A serious working guitar built around speed, stability and high-output rock tones. The compound-radius neck makes fast legato feel effortless, and the bridge humbucker is voiced tight enough that palm mutes stay defined under heavy gain instead of turning to mush.

If you want EVH-adjacent playability without a custom-shop invoice, this is the shortest route there.

Fender · The standard

Fender Stratocaster

The most adaptable electric guitar ever designed. Three single coils, a five-way switch and a vibrato that rewards a light touch — it covers Hendrix, Gilmour, SRV and Mayer without ever pretending to be more than a plank, a neck and some wire.

The one guitar that will never be the reason your tone isn't working.

Gibson · The standard

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Mahogany, maple and two humbuckers — the recipe behind most of the riffs you learned first. Heavier and darker than a bolt-on, but it pushes an amp's front end in a way nothing else quite replicates.

Still the sound most people mean when they say 'electric guitar'.

Fender · Combo

Fender Deluxe Reverb

The most recorded clean amp on earth and a pedal platform that flatters almost everything you put in front of it. Breaks up early enough to be musical, loud enough to be a problem.

Buy this once and stop worrying about clean tone for the rest of your life.

Ibanez · Overdrive

Ibanez Tube Screamer

Not really a distortion — a midrange lens. Set the drive low, the level high, and it turns a decent amp into a focused one. Half the blues and metal tones you love have one in front of the amp.

The cheapest meaningful upgrade to almost any amp you already own.

TGP may earn a commission when you purchase through select gear links. It never changes what you pay or what we recommend. Full disclosure.