Wall Art Gifts for Guitar Players

The best guitar wall art gift is not a picture of a guitar. It is a framed photograph of the player he learned from, taken in the year he learned it, hung in the room where he practices. That works as a gift for one reason: a guitar player will spend money on strings, pedals and pickups before he ever spends it on the wall behind him, so the wall is the one part of his music room he will never fix himself. This guide covers seven players worth hanging, how to pick the right one when you are not the guitarist, what size to order for a practice room, and how early to place the order so it arrives in time.

In this article

• Why wall art works as a gift for a guitar player
• How to pick which guitarist to hang
• The Frankenstrat era
• The slide and the violin bow
• The player who mixed classical music into metal
• The showman with the smoking Les Paul
• Texas blues instead of rock
• What size to buy for a music room
• Framed paper, canvas, metal or acrylic
• How early to order a print as a gift
• FAQ

Why does wall art work as a gift for a guitar player?

Guitar players are difficult to buy for because they are specific. Strings are a brand and a gauge. Picks are a thickness. Pedals are an argument he has already had with himself for six months, and buying the wrong one is worse than buying nothing. Anything that touches the sound is a decision he wants to make on his own.

The wall is the exact opposite. It is the one surface in the room he cares about and will never get around to, because every spare dollar goes into the signal chain first. That is what makes a print land: it is something he genuinely wants, in a category he has been quietly ignoring for years, and it costs him nothing to accept.

It also does something a piece of gear cannot. Gear gets replaced. A photograph of the player he was copying when he was fifteen stays on the wall through every amp he owns after that, and it is the first thing anyone sees when he opens the door to that room.

How do you pick which guitarist to hang?

You do not need to know what he plays. You need to know roughly when he started, because almost every player has one hero from the years he was first learning, and that is the print that means something. If you can get him talking about the first solo he ever tried to work out note for note, you already have your answer.

If you cannot ask without giving it away, use the table below. It maps the sound to the player, and the player to what is actually in The Guitar Gods collection.

If he plays or talks about	The player he probably learned from	Years	What the print shows
Tapping, whammy dives, bright hot rodded Strats	Eddie Van Halen	1978 to 1984	The striped Frankenstrat and the red Kramer 5150, onstage
Open tunings, slide, long improvised solos	Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin	1973 to 1975	The Danelectro slide solo and the violin bow, mid set
Scales, arpeggios, classical practice books	Randy Rhoads, with Ozzy Osbourne	1980 to 1982	The polka dot V onstage, lifted by Ozzy Osbourne
Big riffs, bigger show, Les Pauls	Ace Frehley of KISS	1977 to 1979	The smoking Les Paul and the silver armour
Blues bends, heavy strings, a beaten Strat	Stevie Ray Vaughan	1983 to 1985	A wide brimmed hat and a battered Stratocaster
Feedback, fuzz, playing left handed on a flipped Strat	Jimi Hendrix	1969	The blue kimono at a summer festival
Arena rock, big vocals, red everything	Sammy Hagar	1988	Opening night of the Van Halen OU812 tour, mid shout

What if he grew up on the Frankenstrat?

If he came to the guitar any time after 1978, there is a good chance the first thing he ever tried to copy was a tapped run, and the first guitar he ever wanted was a beaten up Strat with stripes on it. Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen is the most common answer to the question of who a self taught rock player learned from, which is why these two prints are the safest gift in this guide.

There are two moments worth choosing between. The 1982 Diver Down tour is the definitive look: the striped body, the tape, the hands mid phrase, every detail that got copied onto a thousand bedroom walls. The 1984 Cow Palace shot is the other side of him, the red Kramer 5150 and a player who is clearly enjoying himself. One is the guitar hero. The other is the reason people actually liked him.

Both exist as a color edition and a black and white edition of the same photograph, so if his room is already black and white you do not have to give up the image to keep the wall consistent.

What if he is the one who learned the bow solo?

Some players did not come up through speed. They came up through feel, open tunings and the kind of long improvised middle section that never sounds the same twice. If he owns a slide, has ever tuned to open G on purpose, or has opinions about which live Led Zeppelin version is the good one, this is his shelf.

The 1975 Madison Square Garden print is the slide solo, played on a Danelectro, which is about as close as a photograph gets to the sound of that part of the set. The 1973 Tampa Stadium print is the violin bow, which is the moment most people picture when they picture him at all. Tampa was one of the largest single act audiences in the United States at the time, and the photograph looks it.

What about the player who mixed classical music into metal?

There is a particular kind of guitar player who practices scales on purpose, owns a book of classical studies, and gets annoyed when metal guitar is written off as noise. For that player there is one answer, and it is Randy Rhoads, the guitarist who built the first two Ozzy Osbourne solo records out of classical phrasing and metal volume.

He is also the most personal print in this guide, because almost nobody hangs him by accident. If he is on the wall, the person who put him there means it. Two are worth knowing about, and both catch him onstage with Ozzy Osbourne rather than alone: the 1982 Rosemont Horizon shot, from the last months of his life, and a 1980 frame from the UK tour, which is the earlier and rawer of the two.

What if he is more showman than technician?

Not every guitar player wants a photograph of somebody concentrating. Some of them got into this because a guitar caught fire on a stage in 1979 and that seemed like a reasonable career. If he plays in a covers band, owns more than one Les Paul, or has ever said that the show matters as much as the solo, hang Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist of KISS.

The 1979 Dynasty tour print is the one people search for by description rather than by name, usually as the smoking guitar photograph. It is also the single most decorative print in this guide, which makes it the better choice for a garage, a bar or a games room rather than a quiet practice corner.

What if he plays blues instead of rock?

Blues players are the easiest group in this guide to buy for and the easiest to get wrong. Easy, because there is essentially one modern answer. Wrong, because people reach for a generic sepia photograph of an anonymous man with a guitar, and a blues player can tell within a second that it means nothing.

Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1985 is the print that means something: the wide brimmed hat, the battered Stratocaster, heavy strings and a player who worked harder for every note than anyone around him. It exists in a colorized edition and a black and white edition of the same frame.

Two more players sit just outside the sections above and are worth a look if none of the above fits: Jimi Hendrix at the 1969 Newport Pop Festival in a blue kimono, and Sammy Hagar on the opening night of the 1988 Van Halen OU812 tour. Both are in the music print archive with the rest of the guitarists.

What size print should you buy for a music room?

Music rooms are usually small, and the wall is usually interrupted by an amp, a shelf or a door. That pushes the right answer smaller than it would be in a living room. For a practice corner, 18 by 24 inches is the size that reads as deliberate without taking over. Above a desk or a small amp, 12 by 18 inches is enough. Save 24 by 36 inches for a garage, a bar or a bare wall with nothing else on it.

The general rule still applies: hang the center of the frame around 57 inches from the floor, and leave 2 to 3 inches between frames if there is more than one. That figure comes from standard gallery hanging practice, covered well by Apartment Therapy. There is a fuller breakdown in the room by room size guide.

Size	Price, unframed print	Best for
8 x 12 in	$39.99	A shelf, a pedalboard corner, a first gift
12 x 18 in	$55.19	Above a desk or a practice amp
16 x 24 in	$59.99	A narrow wall between a door and a corner
18 x 24 in	$65.59	The default for a home practice room
20 x 28 in	$70.39	A single print carrying a whole wall
24 x 36 in	$79.99	Garage, home bar, rehearsal space
28 x 40 in	$90.39	High ceilings, long empty wall
40 x 60 in	$139.99	A statement piece, unframed only

Every print is portrait or landscape, never square, so measure the gap before you choose. Buying two prints at once takes 15 percent off, and the discount rises to 30 percent at five, which matters here because music rooms almost never stop at one frame.

Framed paper, canvas, metal or acrylic?

For a gift, framed paper is almost always the right call. It arrives ready to hang, it needs no decision from the person receiving it, and it suits a photographic image better than a textured surface does. The frames are oak or ash at 20 mm, which is wider than the usual 14 mm, and they ship with shatterproof plexiglass and a hanging kit. The paper is 250 gsm matte and uncoated, acid free, with a natural off white tone that keeps film grain looking like film grain.

The alternatives are worth knowing. Canvas is a cotton and polyester blend at 300 to 350 gsm on a 4 cm deep stretcher, which softens the image and suits a warm room. Metal is a 3 mm aluminum composite panel with a matte, glare free surface, and it is the one that handles a heavy black and white image best. Acrylic is 4 mm with standoff mounts and a glass like face, which is the most reflective of the four and the least forgiving in a room with a window behind you. The full comparison is in the poster, canvas, metal and acrylic guide.

One practical note for a gift: an unframed print is the safer choice if he already has empty frames, or if you know he is particular about finishes. Adding a third frame finish to a wall that already has two is the quickest way to make a good print look wrong, which is covered in the guide to building a music poster gallery wall.

How early should you order a print as a gift?

Every print is made to order, so the clock starts when you place the order rather than when a warehouse picks it off a shelf. Delivery runs 5 to 12 business days with free shipping, which means the practical answer is to order at least three weeks before the date you need it, and four weeks if it is landing in December.

If you are ordering later than that, the two things that help are choosing an unframed print, which ships rolled and moves faster than a framed piece, and keeping to the smaller sizes. If it is going to be tight, it is better to send the product page and let him choose the size than to send a rushed order that arrives late.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good gift for a guitar player who already has everything?

A framed photograph of the player he learned from. Guitar players buy their own gear because every piece of it changes the sound, but they almost never buy anything for the wall, which is why the wall is the reliable gap. A print is also the rare guitar gift that cannot be the wrong brand, the wrong gauge or the wrong size.

How do I know which guitarist he likes without asking?

Work backwards from when he started playing rather than from what he listens to now. Ask which solo he first tried to learn note for note, or look at what is already on the wall. The table above maps the most common playing styles to the player behind them, which covers most self taught rock and blues players.

Should I buy the color edition or the black and white edition?

Match what is already in the room. Most images in the archive exist as both a color edition and a black and white edition of the same photograph, so if his wall is already black and white you can keep the image and change the edition. If the wall is empty, color is the easier first print to live with.

What size print is best for a small music room?

18 by 24 inches for a practice corner, and 12 by 18 inches above a desk or a small amp. Go to 24 by 36 inches only in a garage, a home bar or a rehearsal space where the wall is bare. Hang the center around 57 inches from the floor.

How long does a print take to arrive?

5 to 12 business days, with free shipping. Every print is made to order, so allow three weeks before the date you need it and four weeks in December. Unframed prints ship rolled and generally move faster than framed pieces.