Are you looking for a do-it-all Guitar tool kit that can handle the setup, repair, and adjustment-related needs of your instrument? Or do you just need a few tools for minor tweaks here and there?

While it makes sense to pay a tech for major repairs, a guitar tool kit is the most inexpensive and convenient way to make minor adjustments. In the long run, this will save you a lot of time and money.

Plus if you’re feeling more adventurous, premium kits have almost everything you need to address almost every issue short of a cracked neck.

There is a huge range of toolkits from every recognizable brand on the market. To help with this, we’ve narrowed it down to a few key contenders. We’ve completed a rigorous survey of all the guitar setup and maintenance tool kits and shortlisted the best options on the market today. Now all you need to do is pick one that suits your budget and needs.

Our Top 3 Picks for the Best Guitar Toolkit:

Our top recommendation is the Ernie Ball Musician’s Tool Kit – an all-in-one guitar maintenance and setup kit for intermediate to professional guitar players. It is a modestly priced product that offers a good cost-to-value ratio.

Senrob Guitar 26-piece Tool Kit is our Best Budget Pick – this relatively obscure brand offers twenty-six practical and useful tools with a storage case that can cover all the basics. Everything works just the way it is advertised, and the quality and durability of the components are great for the price. 

Last but not least, the Fender Custom Shop Guitar Tools and the Ibanez MTZ11 Quick Access Multi Tool gets the title of KGR Editor’s Choice. Fender offers the best kit with premium quality tools that can serve any serious guitarist well. Additionally, we also recommended owning a multi-tool kit like the Ibanez MTZ11 that can be used for all kinds of prompt handy work. It is tiny enough to fit into your pocket and can be a lifesaver at gigs when you need a quick tightening of nuts and bolts. We think it is essential to own both, one for your home and the other to carry around in your gigbag or pocket for emergencies.

Best Guitar Tool Kit Reviews

As you can see, the Ernie ball kit covers all the basics and offers a wide variety of hex wrenches (Allen keys). This covers every imaginable Allen bolt strew across your guitar. The ball profile of the arm of the Allen keys has good rotation but the thinnest ones need to be handled carefully to avoid bending. The ruler is accurate which isn’t always the case in cheaper units.

The screwdriver has two sizes of Phillips heads and a flat head. The microfiber cloth, screwdriver, and cutters are top quality. The case is also reasonably well-built and won’t cause any issues. There is sufficient room to add a few other essentials like spare picks, acoustic guitar string pegs, guitar polish, and other cleaning accessories.

On the whole, this is a good kit for the price, but the all-plastic peg winder does feel rickety and frail. The wonder wipes are a thoughtful addition but the packaging doesn’t say what ingredients are used. I wouldn’t use something I can’t trust on the finish of an expensive guitar. You can swap them out with a spare set of strings.

Verdict: The Ernie Ball Musician’s Tool Kit is an all-in-one guitar maintenance kit in a durable carry case. The quality-to-cost ratio is high and it has all the essentials neatly organized for you to store in your guitar case. It is our Top Pick for this segment.

From changing strings to setting intonation to adjusting action, this 26-piece tool kit offers a perfect package to keep at hand while touring or traveling. It costs half as much as the Ernie Ball product but offers significantly more options. It is ideal for guitarists who want to cover the basics but this is not a tool kit for serious luthiers.

The addition of the acoustic guitar bridge pegs, guitar picks, and a pick pouch keychain adds more value to the kit. The storage pouch is sturdy and reliable. Once again, the kit has a molded plastic string winder. These aren’t as sturdy as other options but they get the job done. The three files are decent but they will only be useful for minor adjustments or light filing.

The string-cutter and adjustable screwdriver, on the other hand, are up to the mark. The length of the screwdriver can be modified and the head can be exchanged as and when required. The string rule is pretty standard and the string action ruler (Fritz Ruler) will come in handy when you want to set the height, action, and intonation.

Verdict: At under $15, Senrob’s Guitar Tool Kit is a fitting solution to cover all the essential aspects of guitar maintenance and setup. These aren’t top-shelf tools but they get the job done at a very affordable price. On account of the high value-to-cost ratio, this is our pick for the Best Budget Option.

The problem with many kits is that some of the tools don’t fit certain guitar models well. Keeping that in mind, I would highly recommend this kit if you already own a Fender guitar – ‘cause we’ve tested them to set up a Fender acoustic, a strat, and tell without any issues.

This is a generously priced kit with premium quality. The 4-in-1 screwdriver has two Philips heads and a 1/4″ and 2.5mm 2.5 mm slotted head. The 1/2″ nut driver socket is deep and heavy-duty. They only offer 2 Allen keys (1/8” ball end, 3/16” ball end) and 2 Hex drivers (.050″, 1/16″) but you can buy some extra ones from the hardware store and store them in the pouch if need be.

The feeler gauge is comparable to one in the EB Musician’s Tool Kit and it is marked in inches and its metric equivalent. The Fender logo on the products is a nice touch, especially on the pouch. The pouch keeps everything organized and feels durable. This is a professional-grade tool kit for doing setup, adjustments, and maintenance.

They don’t offer as many tools as other options but everything they offer is useable and high-quality. They also have more attention to detail than cheaper kits. However, with a little digging, we were able to find similar tool kits at a slightly cheaper price. I guess you can write off the extra $10 if you don’t want the Fender logo on your tools.

Verdict: At around $75, the Fender Custom Shop Guitar Tool Kit seems intimidating. However, every component of this kit is heavy-duty and reliable. It will outlast your guitar and for that reason, it is a worthy consideration.

The Mudder Guitar took kit can be overwhelming to look at if you’ve never owned one of these before. By the time you get through learning the names of half the things in this kit, it makes you respect your luthier a lot more. 

It is handy for the basics of cleaning, repairing, and maintaining any kind of stringed instrument. However, you can also use it to change strings, check/adjust intonation, and adjust the action with great precision. Although a 42-piece kit may be heavy-handed for most casual guitar players and hobbyists.

For instance – it has 10 types of files that range from a willow file to a half-round file to a knife file to a flat-tapered file. Lots of variety but they don’t seem like they are going to last too long. The company has gone the economy route and stuck some abrasive material to a slipshod handle, they don’t have the traditional groove indents. Either way, most of us are just going to file them away.

The double-sided black tube has an abrasive cleaning cloth on one end (for cleaning grime off the fingerboard) and it has a lubrication pad on the other end to give a smooth finish to the neck. Additionally, it has the whole gamut of 0.016 – 0.035 nut gauges – this is a hex of a lot of wrenches.

Verdict: If you are a simpleton with basic needs, skip this overkill-in-a-pouch. If want to explore your nerdy side and/or have multiple instruments, the Mudder 42 Piece Kit is going to result in hours and hours of diddle-dawdle. It is a cheap kit to try out before you progress to high-quality individual tools.

GIGmate’s modestly priced tool kit is an all-in-one solution for basic guitar maintenance. It features an LED Flashlight, a carbon steel string cutter, a string winder, and a 2-in-l screwdriver that can be switched from Philips to Flat-type when needed. The canvas case and zipper are durable and the black elastic holders on the inside keep the tools firmly in place.

It has five USA-made hex wrenches that ought to cover a majority of your needs. The smaller ones are for adjusting saddles and the largest one is meant for acoustic or electric guitar truss rod adjustments (more on truss rod adjustments here). The 2.5mm and 3mm wrenches will work for Floyd Rose bridges. The string winder does a reasonable job on both electric and acoustic guitars and it has a bridge pin remover as well.

Unlike other toolkits, GIGmate has thrown in a manual with instructions on how to use the toolkits. It helps me navigate my first encounter with the ‘Trem Poker’ featured in this toolkit. It’s a tool to remove the ball ends of electric guitar strings that get jammed when they snap. There is a Stainless Steel setup gauge for adjusting the neck relief or setting the action/intonation.

Verdict: On the whole, the GIGmate Guitar Tool Kit is great for the price. You can eventually replace the peg with a high-quality replacement. Add a lint-free Fender microfiber polish cloth, and some additional hex wrenches, and this toolkit will service all your needs for a long time to come.

Top 3 Quick Access Multi-Tool Units

If you are like me, you probably don’t need the whole shebang in a folder. As guitarists, we already have our share of pedals, cables, adapters, speakers, and guitars to lug around. When I am touring or performing, I find that a multi-tool unit is handy and easy to use in the murky backstage or green room lighting. 

Unlike a folder-based guitar tool kit (which I prefer to use at home), all the pieces are attached to a multi-tool unit. There is no chance of misplacing a tiny hex wrench and it significantly reduces the work when you just need a quick touch-up. For that reason, I decided to throw in 3 recommendations for Quick Access Multi-Tool Units – the Swiss Army Knives of guitar maintenance.

Welcome to the pocket ninja – a personal favorite that looks amazing and covers all the basics. Can you imagine sitting backstage with a toothpick in your mouth (Tom Hardy style) as you nonchalantly screw in the Floyd Rose tremolo on your cutting-edge metal axe?

First off, this works perfectly well on all Ibanez guitars, even the ones with bridge whammy systems with hard-to-access truss rods. It includes 11 essential guitar setup tools that will work for almost any guitar with a black and red finish option. The attention to detail on the product is what really wins you over.

For instance, the center hole is really useful for getting a good grip on the gorgeous scarlet casing. The wrench sizes (1.5, 2. 2.5, 3) are marked in white on the edge to make it easy for you to access them instantly. The addition of the measuring scale is cool but somewhat redundant, as you need a full kit with a neck cradle and other accessories when you attempt proper setup and maintenance. Overall, this is a great multi-tool to have lying around in your guitar case for a quick fix or adjustment.

Verdict: The Ibanez MTZ11 is easy to use, sturdy, and fits in your pocket. It looks and acts like a high-quality multi-tool which has a lot of well-thought-out features. Honestly, I would buy this ‘case candy’ even if I didn’t own a guitar.

The PW-GBMT-01 is a 10-in-1 multi-tool that uses US and Metric sizes. It has most of the standard tools you need for guitar and bass maintenance. It is sleek and compact and fits easily in the pocket or the front pouch of your gig bag.

The ten S2 steel tools are tiny and shiny. They are easy to remove/insert from the sturdy black steel casing. The unit contains two Phillips screwdrivers, one slotted screwdriver, and 7 Allen keys (hex) – 3 fractional sizes (0.05, 1/8, 3/16) and 4 metric sizes (1.5mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm). Although size doesn’t matter, you’ll try them all until something fits anyway.

This can handle all the usual stuff and can be very handy when you want to make small tweaks to hard-access spots like the headstock truss rod nut. The Phillips screwdrivers work on all the nuts and bolts scattered across your guitar, but it is also helpful for unscrewing any panel on your guitar processor or analog pedals.

It has D’Addario embossed on the product so you know the construction and QA is first-rate. However, I did feel some of the thinnest tools need to be handled carefully as they can bend easily. Other than that, the unit is faultless. One could say that it is missing a ruler since others offer it. Though I’ve never found a use for a ruler on the fly, I’ve had bandmates who like to measure guitar picks in their free time.

Verdict: The D’Addario PW-GBMT-01 looks good,