12 Ukulele Accessories You Should Have

Every musical instrument does have some useful accessories that make them convenient to play.

Ukulele is not an exception. From straps to picks, there are several useful ukulele accessories available in the market to make your playing easier.

But, if you are a beginner, you don’t know which ukulele accessory to choose and which one to simply avoid.

Right?

That’s why, I’ve come up with 12 essential ukulele accessories list that you can buy to make your life easier with ukulele.

So, if you are serious about ukulele then you must read this post till the end.

First off,

1. Ukulele Case or Gig Bag

A case or gig bag is the most important accessory for an instrument.

To protect your instrument from damage during transit, you should have one in your instrument’s accessory list.

Especially if you perform gigs then it is a must accessory for your ukulele.

As you know, ukulele does not have truss rods to protect its neck. Also, it is made of soft-tone wood.

These things throw it a handle-with-care instrument. So, I strongly recommend having a ukulele case and always putting your ukulele in that case after your practice session.

Now, let’s talk about the build and quality of the ukulele case.

First and foremost, ukulele cases or gig bags should be built of high-quality material. However, you can go with budget cases built of rexine threads.

Whatever is on the outside, inside must be made of a soft thick sponge that actually protects your ukulele if you drop it anyways.

If the outer material is made of wood then it’s great. However, wooden premium cases cost more so I recommend rexine cases if you are a beginner.

But, if you are a professional and do a lot of gigs then a wooden or metal case is recommended for you.

2. Ukulele Tuner

One thing that I don’t like in ukuleles is it detunes frequently. 2 of my ukuleles need to be tuned before each session.

That’s why a tuner is a must-accessory for a ukulele player.

Some electric ukuleles come with an inbuilt tuner but most of the ukuleles don’t.

So, it would be great if you carry your ukulele tuner with you.

That’s why I also recommend having a gig bag with at least of 1 outer compartment where you could put the required accessories.

The tuner should be of high quality so that you can tune your ukulele perfectly. After all, a wrong tuning can ruin your performance.

Right?

However, there are Android and iOS ukulele tuner apps available there, I strongly recommend having a physical tuner.

Tuning apps don’t give you the right tuning as the built-in microphones are not specially built for ukulele tuning purposes.

But, physical clip-on ukulele tuners are just built for the tuning purpose that’s why the tuning would be correct.

3. Ukulele Strings

There are a vast variety of ukulele strings, but most strings are made of plastic or nylon.

These materials are fragile and often break. So, having a set of extra ukulele strings is best practice.

If you have an extra set of strings then whenever your strings break, you can immediately replace them with the new one.

But, if you don’t have an extra set and your ukulele strings break in between a gig, you would be in trouble.

Just keep in mind, the extra strings should have the same material used in your ukulele string.

If you don’t want a changed tone then go for a branded ukulele string.

4. Ukulele Strap

Straps are an important accessory for stringed instruments like guitars and ukulele. This makes you able to perform while standing.

Here is why straps are important for ukuleles.

• Ukulele straps give you stability and control over your instrument. It provides you with a secure and stable grip and allows you to focus on your performance without worrying about dropping or fumbling with the instrument.
• It gives you comfort and good posture. Straps transfer your ukulele’s weight across your shoulder which gives you comfort from strain on your arms and neck.
• It gives you freedom in your playing. You don’t need to worry about holding your ukulele but concentrate on your performance.

So, I would recommend having a strap for your ukulele.

There are several brands and a variety of straps available in the market.

But you should always go for a good brand.

Design you can choose as per your own liking. But don’t compromise with the brand.

5. Ukulele Picks

Although, most of the ukulele players use their fingers to pick ukulele some of them also play with the pick.

If you use picks to play ukulele then you should have a set of ukulele picks along in your ukulele gig bag.

But, keep in mind that ukulele picks are different than guitar picks. Generally, guitar picks are made of hard plastic to provide good support when striking metal strings of guitar.

But, if you use the same pick on ukulele, chances are, you may break the string as ukulele strings are made of plastic or nylon which are easy-to-break materials.

Ukulele picks are made of soft materials such as leather and felt.

So, go for picks that are made of these materials.

6. Ukulele Capo

Capo is another important accessory that you should have on your ukulele accessories list.

Capo is a clip-on tool used to change base scales so that you can apply same chord structure as open-scale chords on any fret.

Capo changes the octave of the open chords and you can use that to play octave up or down chords.

Like if you play A chord on ukulele by pressing 2nd fret on G string and keep other strings open. If you clip-on a Capo on 2nd fret and press G string on the 2nd fret from Capo then you will get B chord.

That’s how a Capo works.

But, you cannot use the guitar capo on ukulele. It can break or detune ukulele strings because these are softer compared to guitar.

There are capos built for ukuleles. And, you should use those ones for your ukulele.

You can find them on Amazon and other online stores as well as offline guitar and ukulele stores.

7. Ukulele Stand or Hanger

Ukulele stand or hanger is an essential accessory for ukulele players to ensure the safety of their ukulele.

No matter if you are at home practicing your ukulele or on a gig, it’s very important for you to keep your ukulele safe when you are not playing it.

For home use, ukulele hangers are best as they don’t interfere with your daily work.

For gigs and live performances I would suggest you get ukulele stand, so that whenever you are not playing your ukulele during the gig, you could keep it over the stand safely.

However, it all depends on you if you want to get ukulele stand for your home. If you have enough space in your room then you CAN get one.

But, for me, ukulele hangers are best as they don’t take up much space.

Ukulele is a very fragile instrument. It does not have truss rod. So, if it drops, there are chances of breaking the neck or body.

Ukulele stand and hanger reduces the chances of dropping this instrument.

8. Humidifier

If you live in a dry place, where humidity is below a certain level, then you need a humidifier to protect your little strummer.

Humidifiers are small packets filled with wet materials such as distilled water that keep the ukulele case at a certain humidity level, even in a dry climate.

Without the humidifier, your uke’s wood dries up and could break.

There are two types of humidifiers that are in trend.

• Single-use humidifiers
• Multi use humidifiers

Single-use humidifiers are small wet packets that you can through inside the soundhole or fix below the soundhole. These humidifiers last around 6 months (it depends on the weather conditions).

So, you’ve to change it every 5-6 months.

Multi-use humidifiers provide a refilling facility. You have to refill them on a weekly basis with distilled water.

It all depends on you which one you want to use on your uke. But, I would prefer single-use humidifiers as they can last log upto 6 months or so.

IF you use multi-use humidifiers then you need to refill them on weekly basis which seems like a tedious job.

Right?

Whichever, you want to go with, you can buy online and offline stores.

9. Cleaning and Maintenance Tools

In this section, I have mentioned all the cleaning and maintenance tools that you need to maintain your ukulele properly.

First off,

Microfiber cloth

A microfiber cloth is used to clean your ukulele’s body regularly. you can dry clean the body with this microfiber cloth or you can also apply cleaning agents such as Colin etc on the cloth and apply on the body.

Fretboard Cleaner

Fretboard cleaners are cleaning liquids specially made to clean fretboards. This liquid recovers the shining of fretboard.

This is actually made of some kind of oily substance which when applied to the fretboard with a soft wool, gets shining.

Polish

Polish is another great accessory to clean your ukulele and keeps it shining all the time.

You can apply polish on the body of uke on a weekly basis to keep it shining all time.

Allen wrench

Allen Wrench is an optional accessory for ukulele players. Actually, most of the ukuleles don’t have truss rods so there is no need to keep an Allen wrench. However, if your uke does have a truss rod then you need it to adjust the ACTION.

Screwdriver

A screwdriver is another essential tool for ukulele players it can be used to replace the strings and some other works.

10. Ukulele Books or Songbooks

If you are a beginner and want to learn ukulele quickly then you need some written form of knowledge.

Ukulele books and songbooks help you to catch chord progressions and solo performances quickly.

As a uke beginner, you should have some good ukulele chord progressions and songbooks.

These books will also help you understand music theory from the beginning.

You can buy ukulele books on Amazon books online or from offline ukulele and guitar stores.

11. Ukulele Amps

A few years back ukulele was treated as a country instrument and there had been no modifications in the sound used for ukulele.

BUT, technology cached this tiny instrument and now we have some amps in the market that can be used with uke.

Amps such as Fender Frontman 10G, Behringer Ultracoustic AT108, etc can be used with ukulele to modify its tone.

However, even today we do not have dedicated uke amps.

We can use guitar amps with our ukuleles and experiment with different tones to get our perfect tone.

If you want to buy a ukulele ampm then any acoustic amp can work fine with your ukulele.

So, go for it and experiment with the modifications.

12. Effect Padels

Just like amps, there is no effect padel built dedicatedly for the ukulele. So, if you want to use an effect padel with ukulele, go for a guitar effect padel and apply different tone settings to get your perfect tone.

There are two types of effect padels available in the market, 1st solo effect padels and the second one is multi effect padel.

I would suggest you go with a multi effect padel. You will get multiple effects in this compared to the solo effect padel.

SOlo effect padels can be used in a series to get the desired tone such as Compressor, reverb, delay, tremolo etc.

But, you don’t need to series different effects if you have a multi effect padel. It has several different presets and banks that can be used to apply different tone settings by pressing one button on the board.

Bottomline

So, here were the 12 essential accessories that you should have as a ukulele player.

If you are a beginner then you don’t need all of them but if you are a professional ukulele player you should have most of the accessories to keep your uke in the best mode.

Especially, if your ukulele is costly then you must take care of it with the accessories I have mentioned above.

That’s it,

Now it’s your turn to let me know which accessories are essential for you. The comment box is waiting for your reply.

Happy uke playing.

Related,

• How to Create Solo Arrangements On Ukulele?
• Advanced Ukulele Strumming and Fingerpicking [Ultimate Guide]