We Cut Through The Noise So You Can Make Some

There are a lot of guitar websites. Most of them are American. Most of them price everything in dollars, recommend things you can’t easily buy in the UK, and are written by people who seem to have never played a pub in their lives.

This is not one of those websites.

The Picker’s Guide exists because I got fed up. Fed up of clicking through buying guides only to find the “budget” option costs four hundred quid more by the time it lands in the UK. Fed up of gear reviews written by people who seem more interested in the gear than the music. Fed up of fingerpicking being treated as something exotic and difficult, when really it’s just the natural way I want to play an acoustic guitar.

I am not a corporation. I am not a team. I am a bloke who has spent thirty-odd years gigging, recording, sessioning, and always, always coming back to fingerpicking on an acoustic. I live in the countryside. I drink a lot of tea. I have opinions about capos.

What you’ll find here is honest. When something is good value I’ll say so. When something is overpriced I’ll say that too. The site is monetised through affiliate links, which means I earn a small amount when you buy something I recommend. I want to be upfront about that. It doesn’t change what I write. Cos when a cheap guitar does the job better than an expensive one, I tell you, even if it means a smaller commission for me.

The content covers gear, buying guides, technique, culture, artists worth knowing about, and whatever else seems worth saying. It’s for pickers at every level, from the person who just discovered DADGAD to the one who’s been playing fingerstyle for decades and still can’t find a decent UK stockist for the gear they want.

We cut through the noise so you can make some.

One last thing. You’ll notice sometimes I say “we.” There is no “we”, strictly speaking. Just me, some guitars, and Archie.

Archie has not contributed editorially. He has, however, sat on my keyboard on several occasions, which may explain some of the typos.