Kids Guitar advice

[Wairarapajack]

A good mate of mine has a 6-year-old son who is interested in learning the guitar - electric specifically. He knows I play and has asked for advice on gear. They've already got a borrowed 1/2 size nylon-string acoustic.

The 6-year-old is a tinkerer, and has already managed to run the $40 cheapo kids keyboard they got him into a TV subwoofer they were throwing out and cranked the built-in drum loop in the garage. He also has a habit of dis-assembling any complex gear left lying around.

So the conundrum is: what do I advise him to get? It's looking for a balance of something cheap (and and possibly disposable) while not being terrible, and an amp that cannot be turned up to deafening levels. I'm leaning toward the 1/2 size Strat from Artist ($199) and a used Fender Frontman 15g.

[sizzlingbadger]

Those Boss Mini Cubes are good for kids

[Wairarapajack]

Those Boss Mini Cubes are good for kids

Ooh yes, mini amps. They will definitely have easier to limit volume. Maybe I should point him to a Mini cube, or a Blackstar Fly, or Marshall MS2.

[murky]

I purchased/put together a Stewmac mini LP for my 6yo over Christmas.

It’s terrible. The scale’s so short the string tension has to be crazy. So you tune down, but shit gets floppy real quick, and it’s in a different key to your guitar when you’re showing the kid something.

Oh, and it doesn’t stay in tune.

Would not recommend.

Curious what the team suggests.

[robthemac]

There's only one answer for a child's guitar:

https://www.reddit.com/r/guitars/commen ... tal_glory/

[Speakos]

One of those Loog guitars comes in a self assembly kit, which could be fun.

[Danger Mouse]

I tried to convince my eldest she should take up guitar, but that was really only an excuse to buy one of these. No idea how good they are.

https://www.rockshop.co.nz/jackson-js1x ... ric-guitar

[sty]

I picked up a couple (long story concerning cheeky bids on ebay.com) of Squire mini's back in the day for my kids to play with before they really got old enough to handle a full sized instrument.

They were very cost effective, I think I passed them on for around $100 when I got rid of them, and they were certainly good quality for that price.

If memory serves me correct they were 3/4 scale and I think I strung them with 10s to get a reasonable tension/tune. They had smaller proportioned bodies, so while the were 3/4 scale length they were actually easy to handle and significantly smaller (bit in proportion)

obviously the pickups weren't awesome and the hardware was basic, but they stayed in tune and were certainly OK for basic chords.

What i liked about them compared to the other 3/4 I saw (there was a Gio in Music Works I think) was that they had a narrower neck which suited smaller hands whereas the other 3/4s I saw were full width necks, just shorter scale length.

Found pictures

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[jubbathehog]

+1 on the squire mini's. My lad had one when he was a nipper and it was good bang for buck. Stayed in tune OK, easy to handle and good action. That and a Vox Pathfinder 10 was a good reliable rig.

[murky]

Looks like Epiphone also do a 22" Les Paul Express.

Or you could go top shelf......

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[WellyBlues]

Epiphone have their Power Player series 3/4 size

https://www.rockshop.co.nz/epiphone-pow ... s-ice-blue

[H671]

What about a travel guitar?

[jeremyb]

Artist do a 3/4 guitar package: https://www.artistguitars.co.nz/buy/art ... acce/17015 theres another one with an amp as well for about another $80.