Electric guitar for kids

thegummy

musteatbrain said:

I bought my 7 year old a Jackson Minion for their birthday. It’s really pretty good. Needs heavier strings on to really stay in tune, but it sounds great through a Marshall stack. The frets have no sharp ends, but I did have to file the saddle screws and the screw heads on the jack socket as they were sharp and could easily cut little fingers.

I’m quite happy noodling away on it when it gets left out. 

I’m pretty confident I could gig with it

That's the thing, even for older kids, you don't want to get something expensive cause they're just playing around and might not stick with it. But the cheaper ones could have sharp bits that could hurt them and they'd probably not be as easy to play either.

It's weird that there seems to be received wisdom among non players that it's best to start kids on an acoustic when an electric is better for them in every way.

crunchman

thegummy said:

It's weird that there seems to be received wisdom among non players that it's best to start kids on an acoustic when an electric is better for them in every way.

In an ideal world I think it is better to start on acoustic.  You have to learn to play cleanly, and you have to learn picking dynamics because you can't just step on a pedal to make it louder.  I think people who start out on acoustic often have better feel.

Having said that, a lot of it is maintaining their enthusiasm.  That's often easier when they can make loud noises on an electric.

thegummy

crunchman said:

thegummy said:

It's weird that there seems to be received wisdom among non players that it's best to start kids on an acoustic when an electric is better for them in every way.

In an ideal world I think it is better to start on acoustic.  You have to learn to play cleanly, and you have to learn picking dynamics because you can't just step on a pedal to make it louder.  I think people who start out on acoustic often have better feel.

Having said that, a lot of it is maintaining their enthusiasm.  That's often easier when they can make loud noises on an electric.

I don't see how playing cleanly is any less of a requirement on electric.

The pedal thing is a good point but just don't give them a pedal, no need to go acoustic in case they sneak a pedal in when you're not looking :P 

shuikit

No personal experience but I think these look good.
https://loog-guitars.eu/

thegummy

shuikit said:

No personal experience but I think these look good.
https://loog-guitars.eu/

Planning on buying one of those shortly but the acoustic version  

I love that I won't have to learn anything like I would have with a ukelele, I can just play chords that I'd play on the top three guitar strings anyway.

thegummy

shuikit said:

No personal experience but I think these look good.
https://loog-guitars.eu/

So I bought one of the Loog guitars for my son (as I also thought they looked good).

Unlike the toy 6-string he has already, the Loog does actually go in to tune and you can play a chord or melody on it. But it only keeps the tuning for a few minutes, even by the end of one song it's drifted out.

That would just frustrate someone trying to learn if it didn't even stay in tune for a song, never mind a full practice session.

Also the intonation is very poor on some of the strings so it won't have the right notes to begin with.

Was very disappointed cause they look so cool and, in theory, would be a perfect start for a child since they'd be able to use the chords they learn for life.

If only they'd made it more expensive - even double the price - and made it stay in tune and intonate I would have been so happy.

idiotwindow

A Bullet Strat for £100 seems like as good a place to start than any other.

lysander

thegummy said:

shuikit said:

No personal experience but I think these look good.
https://loog-guitars.eu/

So I bought one of the Loog guitars for my son (as I also thought they looked good).

Unlike the toy 6-string he has already, the Loog does actually go in to tune and you can play a chord or melody on it. But it only keeps the tuning for a few minutes, even by the end of one song it's drifted out.

That would just frustrate someone trying to learn if it didn't even stay in tune for a song, never mind a full practice session.

Also the intonation is very poor on some of the strings so it won't have the right notes to begin with.

Was very disappointed cause they look so cool and, in theory, would be a perfect start for a child since they'd be able to use the chords they learn for life.

If only they'd made it more expensive - even double the price - and made it stay in tune and intonate I would have been so happy.

Try with higher gauge strings maybe ? should help quite a bit.

Kalimna

I'd agree with the advice re:increased string gauge. For the short-scale (approx. 22") guitars I built for my boys a couple of years ago, I recently moved from 10's to 11's - despite being a little harder on the fingers, the tuning stability improved considerably, and chords don't go out of tune now.

Adam

thegummy

I sent it back.

It was nylon strings, dunno if the gauge advice would stand but I wasn't keeping a product I had to hope I was able to make usable.

hollywoodrox

Jackson also do dinky minions . Eg small versions of their dinky, they do them in all the awesome colours too like slime green, neon pink , etc

rossi

bullet mustang

lysander

thegummy said:

I sent it back.

It was nylon strings, dunno if the gauge advice would stand but I wasn't keeping a product I had to hope I was able to make usable.

Fair enough, but yes I’m pretty sure it’s the same and any guitar of this scale will have similar issues.