I took my son guitar shopping today trying to find the right size guitar for him. He is 7 years old and a little small for his age. We looked at some 3/4 and 1/2 size guitars. The 1/2's all seemed a bit small and gave him no room to grow at all. The 3/4's were right length-wise, but the bodies seemed a bit too big. The bodies on the 1/2 size were a bit easier for him to use. The issue with the 3/4's is that the lower bout is just a bit large top to bottom. He really has to reach to get over the top on them. We looked at a couple of travel guitars, which seemed to work, but he says they are a bit too toy-like.
The closest we found to fitting him was a Little Martin. And, man, the sound of them was worlds better than anything else we tried. But I am afraid my wife is just not going to let me spend $250 on another guitar. Especially since I just bought me a new Seagull and we really have no idea how well he is going to stick to it, and take care of the guitar. So, what I am looking for is a 3/4" guitar that is a little less dreadish in proportions and a little closer to being parlor or folk like (less difference between upper and lower bout size). Spending limit is right in the $100 range.
Any ideas appreciated.
Seagull M6 Gloss
My advice would be a baby Taylor but their about $250 new.
Check these out:
Tim Madsen
Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.
"What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away you keep forever." -Axel Munthe
Have you tried an Art & Lutherie AMI? It's another division of LaSido which produces the Seagull. It's a wonderful little palour sized laminate top guitar, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to find...
"Things may get a whole lot worse/ Before suddenly falling apart"
Steely Dan
"Look at me coyote, don't let a little road dust put you off" Knopfler
Also I saw in a musiciansfriend catalog a Olympia(made by tacoma) 3/4 guitar. It had a Spruce top and mahogany back and sides(not solid) for 99 bucks. It was an old catalog though, couldn't find it on the site.
Stairway to Freebird!
^Yes, Art& Luthereie guitars are exellent. They're like a sister company to seagull. They're made in Canada too.
Stairway to Freebird!
If your game for electric Squire makes a mini strat 3/4 that I bough for my daughter. She is 9 now and small fro her age. ~$100 on line. http://www.zzounds.com/item--SQU310100 My daughter does well with this one. Acoustic was "not cool enough" LOL, glad she did not like that Marin she picked up when I was looking at the intro guitars. :shock:
John M
I also bought the mini strat for my grandson, age 8. He's finding it much easier to get his arms around this than any of the acoustics we tried. And he would agree with 300m's daughter about the coolness issue.
-- John
"Hip woman walking on a moving floor, tripping on the escalator.
There's a man in the line and she's blowin' his mind, thinking that he's already made her."
'Coming into Los Angeles' - Arlo Guthrie
Time for my 2 cents.
First off for under $100 your not looking for a guitar that will last him a lifetime.
Consider something other than dreadnougt style (my daughter is too small for a standard drednought but a cutaway we bought had a body that was overall smaller and fit just fine)
Was tha 1/2 size like way too small?
I wouldn't worry about room for growth, if he sticks with it for a year you can trade it in and by then the 3/4 size will be a better fit.
I just bought an Ibanez Talman acoustic electric that might work. It's full size, but it's a thin-bodied acoustic/electric. Plays a lot like an electric, but sounds very good acoustically. It's no Martin, but it gets the job done. My 9-year old daughter seems pretty comfortable with it, size-wise. And it actually does pretty well on the coolness scale too. It's got a blueburst finish, and kind of a funky body design. I got it at Musicians Friend. Although, now that I think about it, it was more expensive than I think you're wanting to go.
MY daughter tried my Ibanez, SZ520QM, guitar was to long in the neck and heavy. She had trouble reacing the 1st fret. The shorter 22" scale of the mini vs the 25" of a standard made a difference. Even the acoustic of my buds was to long in the neck and a jumbo at that :? She did try though, she loved the Lt blue US strat they had in the store, but not at $$$ they go for as a first guitar. The quality of the mini is not the best in comparision to my other guitars, but as her 1st guitar that will get wanged and dropped at $125 investment in not a bad deal IMHO. Take him to a store and let him try a 3/4 out and see for himself what he likes. Best of luck
John M
