Our Favorite Guitar Care & Maintenance Gear

D'Addario Humidipak Maintain — available in store at all three TSG locations.

If you own any kind of quality acoustic guitar, this is non-negotiable — especially in North Texas. DFW weather is genuinely brutal on wood instruments. The humidity swings between dry winter air and the muggy Texas summers faster than most people realize, and that cycling can cause fret sprout, neck movement, top sinkage, and in serious cases, cracking. The Humidipak Maintain is our first recommendation every single time someone asks how to protect their acoustic.

What separates it from old-school sponge humidifiers is the two-way system — it doesn't just add moisture, it also absorbs excess when needed. Built on Boveda's patented technology, it automatically maintains 45–50% relative humidity inside a hard-shell case without any intervention on your part. Drop it in, close the case, and you're done. The kit comes with three packets and soft mesh pouches designed for the headstock and soundhole that won't mark your finish. When the packets start to feel firm, they're spent — swap them for a replacement pack.

This one gets recommended by Martin and Taylor directly, and for good reason. It's the easiest form of guitar insurance you can buy.

Lizard Spit Guitar Polish — a new addition to the TSG accessory selection.

Lizard Spit is a new addition to our shelves, and it's been getting a lot of conversation on the bench. The formula is carnauba wax-based and water-based — no silicone, which matters if you care about your instrument's finish long-term. Silicone-based polishes can seep into wood grain and create headaches down the road, especially for refinishes or nitrocellulose lacquer guitars.

This one is safe on all instrument finishes — poly, satin, gloss, and nitro — and also works on hardware and plastics. The spray makes application fast: a couple of spritz and a wipe, no smearing, no residue. It also doubles as a dust repellent, which is a nice bonus if you keep guitars on display in a home or studio.

If you've been using a generic guitar polish without really knowing what's in it, Lizard Spit is worth the upgrade. It's the kind of product that sounds like a gimmick until you actually read what's in it.

Dunlop System 65 String Change Kit (DGT121) — compact case with pro-quality tools.

The System 65 kit is a classic on the workbench, and it earns its reputation. Dunlop packed a full string-change toolkit into a compact hard case: you get a universal speedwinder, a compact string cutter, a hex key multi-tool, a Superlube Gel Pen for lubricating the nut, saddle, and tuners, and a microfiber cloth for cleanup. Everything in one place, nothing to dig around for.

The Superlube pen deserves specific mention. Lubricating friction points — especially on the nut — is something a lot of players skip and then wonder why their guitar goes out of tune after a bend or a tremolo move. This pen makes it easy to do it right, every time you change strings.

Whether you're doing quick changes between gigs or maintaining a collection at home, this kit covers the essentials without taking up a drawer. It also works for bass — the speedwinder and cutter handle standard electric bass tuning machines and strings without issue.

MusicNomad MN207 — 36" × 17" work mat and 5-in-1 Cradle Cube neck support.

This is the one that looks simple but makes a bigger difference than you'd expect. If you've ever changed strings on a kitchen table with a rolled-up towel under the neck, you know the feeling of the body slowly sliding away from you at the worst possible moment. The MusicNomad work station fixes that — fully.

The 36" × 17" work mat is made from TPE — a material that grips the guitar without being reactive to instrument finishes. No rubber, no PVC, no chemicals that will eat into a lacquer finish over time. The Cradle Cube neck support is a five-sided gel block that gives you five different height and angle options, three with a curved design that hugs the back of the neck and two flat for when you're working face-down. It can even hold strings back out of the way for fretboard work without a full string removal.

We use these on the bench at TSG. If you're doing any regular maintenance at home — string changes, cleaning, setup adjustments — this combo is worth having. The mat rolls up with a storage strap, so it's easy to put away or bring along when needed.

D'Addario Tour Grade Peg Winder — ball bearing socket, molded grip, spring-loaded pin puller.

A peg winder is something most players already have kicking around somewhere — usually a cheap plastic one that came with a string set. The D'Addario Tour Grade is a meaningful upgrade, and once you've used a proper winder you won't go back. The ball bearing socket turns with almost no friction, which makes the actual winding process faster and easier on your wrist over a full set of strings.

The non-marring socket is important — cheaper winders can scratch up your tuning machine buttons over time, which is a small annoyance on an electric and a bigger deal on a guitar with premium tuners. The molded grip makes it comfortable to hold without slipping.

The integrated spring-loaded bridge pin puller is the standout feature for acoustic players. Bridge pins are fiddly to remove without the right tool — a lot of players use the end of a string winder and scratch up the bridge plate in the process. This one has a dedicated spring-loaded puller built in that pops pins cleanly and holds onto them so they don't go flying. If you play acoustic regularly, this one feature alone justifies owning it.

Peterson StroboClip HDC — available in store at all three TSG locations.

Tuners are a category where most players under-buy and then live with a compromise they've stopped noticing. A basic chromatic clip-on gets you close — but "close" on a tuner means your guitar sounds slightly off, all the time, in a way that's hard to name but easy to feel. The Peterson StroboClip HDC is what we reach for when accuracy actually matters.

It's a strobe tuner — which means instead of a needle or LEDs that blink on or off, you're looking at a spinning ring that you bring to a stop. The principle is that the motion of the ring reflects pitch deviation with far more resolution than any indicator light can. The HDC delivers 0.1 cent accuracy, which is the same figure you'd see on rack-mounted studio tuners, in a clip that goes on your headstock. It tracks all the way down to 16Hz, so a low B on a 7-string or a drop-tuned bass reads as cleanly as anything else.

The Sweetened Tunings are worth explaining if you haven't encountered them. Standard equal temperament tuning — what every basic tuner does — spaces all notes mathematically even. The problem is that equal temperament is a compromise, and a guitar tuned perfectly to equal temperament will still have chords that sound slightly off due to how the instrument's intonation actually works. Peterson's Sweetened Tunings are instrument-specific adjustments that account for this, tuning each string slightly sharp or flat in calculated ways so that your chords, not just your individual notes, sit in tune. The HDC has over 65 of these, covering acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 7-string, 12-string, baritone, bass, and more.

It runs on a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery (USB-C) with up to six hours of use per charge. The display color is user-adjustable across ten presets — useful for visibility in different stage lighting, or just for telling multiple tunings apart at a glance. It's the kind of purchase that seems like overkill until you've used it for a week, and then you wonder why you waited.

Ernie Ball USB-C Rechargeable 9V Batteries — a new arrival at TSG.

If you run active pickups, battery-powered pedals, or a wireless pack, you already know the 9V battery tax — buying them constantly, finding one dead at the wrong moment, and throwing dozens of them away over the course of a year. Ernie Ball partnered with Paleblue, the battery technology company, to build a 9V designed specifically for the demands of musicians. This is a new arrival at TSG and one our team is genuinely excited about.

What makes these different from older rechargeable 9Vs is that the USB-C port is built directly into the battery itself — no external charging dock, no proprietary housing. Just plug a standard USB-C cable into the battery and any USB power source. An LED on the battery tells you when it's charging and when it's full. Each battery is rated for over 1,000 recharge cycles, the output holds at a constant 9.0V throughout the discharge (unlike standard alkalines which drop as they drain), and the 2-pack comes in a rugged reusable storage case. They've been tested and used by techs for touring acts including Red Hot Chili Peppers, My Chemical Romance, and Billie Eilish.

One thing worth knowing: a small number of audio circuits — particularly those with active pickups or high-gain preamps that lack adequate power filtering — may produce a low-level broadband noise with lithium-ion USB-C rechargeable 9Vs. This is a known characteristic of how the battery management circuitry interacts with certain circuit designs, not a defect. Ernie Ball and Paleblue designed this battery to be among the quietest in the category, and most players won't encounter the issue at all. If you're running a passive pedalboard, a wireless pack, or a standard active pickup, you should be completely fine. Our staff can talk through compatibility if you have questions before you buy.

The math on these is straightforward over time — fewer batteries in the trash, no last-minute runs to the store, and a consistent output that doesn't fade mid-gig. Available in a 2-pack in store.