Crossword Genius

Playing guitar — extremely timely tip (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

gratuity

'tip' is the definition.
(I know that tip can be written as gratuity)

'playing guitar extremely timely' is the wordplay.
'playing' indicates an anagram.
'extremely' suggests removing the centre (only the extremes of the word are used).
'timely' with its middle taken out is 'ty'.
'guitar' is an anagram of 'gratui'.
'gratui'+'ty'='GRATUITY'

(Other definitions for gratuity that I've seen before include "Tip (to waiter)" , "present" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.