Hi everyone. I am looking to buy an electric guitar for my son for his 3rd birthday. My husband and I are both musicians (drums/bass) so he has been around music and quality instruments his whole life, and I'm not too worried about him breaking the instrument.
He has toy guitars and plays with them every day, and also likes to play with my full size guitars. He knows how to hold a guitar, how to hold a pick, and strum (not bad for being two, right?).
I am looking for advice on a 1/2 size (or similar) electric guitar. I've been researching online and haven't found much that looks to be worth buying. Does anyone know if the Jay Turser or SX 1/2 size electrics are worth looking at, or am I better just buying the Epiphone Zakk VeeWee? I know most short scale guitars have tuning issues, so I'd like to find the best option before spending my money.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions :)
Half size I dont know... but I got my daughter a 3/4 size Squire strat [hellow Kitty :D] and you know... its not a bad guitar!!! Took a little tweeking to get the setup right, but its a nice player... Not sure if the have a 1/2 size or not though.
Paul B
Generally the Rondo (SX) guitars are fairly well thought of.
Many of the "kids" guitars I have seen feel like they are built as toys, rather than as serious instruments, though.
Good luck on your search.
Oh, I just remembered that I saw some short scale guitars at Toys-r-us. I think they were First Act brand.
The display models were up where no one could touch them, so I couldn't tell how decent they were.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Many of my young students show up with First Act guitars. They range in quality from fairly decent to completely unplayable; most are difficult to play, and hard to keep in tune.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Many of my young students show up with First Act guitars. They range in quality from fairly decent to completely unplayable; most are difficult to play, and hard to keep in tune.
So it's a similar variability that plagues many of the less expensive brands - bad quality control in addition to mass production and inexpensive materials.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Yeah, the QC is amazingly inconsistent. Since our goal is to get the kids playing, I end up doing a lot of small modifications to make those First Acts playable.
I'm guessing they don't age the wood, because many necks are warped. If they bow, that leads to high action - a reverse bow leads to a doorstop rather than an instrument. If they twist, you'll end up with some frets unplayable.
Fretwork tends to be almost uniformly bad - high frets cause two (and sometimes more) adjacent frets to sound the same pitch. I'll take a file to the high fret until we can get a sound - I'm not trying to actually level them, just move the problem farther up the fretboard, since beginners start in first position. I figure they'll outgrow the guitar before we reach the new trouble spots.
I've often seen sharp fret ends (file work again), and some that aren't hammered in all the way at the ends - that can be a real problem, as the fretboards are narrow and a common problem with youngsters is pulling a string as they fret it... I've had several students catch the high E on the edge of a fret during a lesson.
Glue joints are generally poor. I had a student last year who stopped for breakfast with her Dad on the way to her Saturday morning lesson - the guitar was left in the car for half an hour or so. It literally self-destructed during her lesson.
Electric First Acts aren't much better, even though the basic construction is simpler. I've had to shim a couple of neck pockets to get the action down to something less than Alpine heights. Input jacks tend to be loose - another area that needs a quick fix.
One more thing I've seen pretty often is burrs on the tuning posts. They're cranking these things out as fast as they can, so they're not paying much attention to finishing the chamfer, other than a rough grinding job. That can be fixed with some ceramic aluminum sandpaper, but it can be a pain.
Overall, I'd say 5-10% of what I've seen from First Act are actually decent beginner instruments; about 70-75% are playable, but the guitar will fight you every inch of the way, and about 1 in 4 or 5 is only suitable for decoration.
I encourage folks to spend a bit more - a reasonable budget is $100-150 - and get the child something they'll enjoy playing more. I haven't taught any kids younger than 4, but for real small fry I'd say the biggest problem will be body dimensions. If he can't get his arm around the guitar it's going to be tough to learn. If you can find a half size or 3/4 that he's comfortable holding, you can always capo the neck to bring the frets he'll use into reach.
I'd also recommend letting him play in an open tuning at first, rather than standard. You can teach a lot of rhythm concepts that use just the strumming hand, and it'll sound good. Although shorter scale lengths have less string tension, it can still be difficult for a very young child to cleanly fret a note - if he can't get it yet, he can have fun with a slide for a while, and develop a sense of where the higher and lower pitches are.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
