Members mdavis6 Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 Ten year old son wants to play. I'm looking for advice on what acoustic guitar he should start with. Local store recommended Fender TG-4 Travel Guitar. Any advice would be appreciated!
Members AugTPD Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 Look at an Art & Lutherie AMI parlor. They are usually pretty reasonable and have exceptional quality for the money. They are also a full scale instrument so it tunes like a normal guitar. A lot of the smaller guitars have a significantly shorter scale than a normal guitar. You also get the choice of steel string or nylon with these. check out www.artandlutherieguitars.com to find a dealer or check Ebay (usually a few listed every week or so). Good luck on your search!
Members tclune Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 I just bought a Martin LX1 for my college-age son to use as a travel guitar. It has quite decent volume and tone for a 3/4. Martin calls it a "tenor" guitar, which pretty well captures its voice. It is a mass-produced, all-man-made-materials guitar except for the solid sitka top, so it won't take your breath away as a piece of craftsmanship. But, for a 3/4 size guitar the sound is not half bad. The intonation is spot-on. The tuners are OK. The setup is a bit high and it takes medium strings, so it may hurt a bit to play when he's first starting out. But he'll develop callouses in a few weeks if he sticks with it. You can get it new for about $300. It hasn't been around long enough for there to be many available used. For a real beauty of a small guitar, you might consider the Larrivee Parlor. The cheapest you're likely to find one used is about $600, but it's a lovely guitar. The cheapest used ones are satin finish and have a mahogony body with sitka top, and they are just delightful. You'll sometimes see an all-mahogony version on eBay for around $600, too, but they are more for looking at than playing AFAICS. If your son takes care of it, he can sell it when he's outgrown it for as much as you paid -- that is, if he can bear to part with it.
Members Jon Hiller Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 The Silvertone George Jones travel pack is a nice 3/4 size guitar that comes with a pretty nice gig bag and usually sells for $140 or less, depending on where you buy it. Well constructed with die-cast tuners and it sounds good, too.
Members Freeman Keller Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 Lots of 3/4 sized classical guitars out there, but I don't know of many steel strings. Tacoma (Papoose), Taylor (Baby), Larrivee (Parlor) do all make some quality smaller guitars. Can't comment on the Fender, but in general they are not known for their acoustics. Glad to see your son wanting to play - encourage him all you can. Does he have an instructor - if so you might ask him/her to go shopping with you or make some suggestions.
Members Jon Hiller Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 You know, none of us asked what your ballpark budget is... might be nice to know so we could make better-suited suggestions.
Members mogami Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/choosing/guitars.php?p=z&g=f&m=5-15
Members 32-20-Blues Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 :love: :love: :love: :love:Cheap and cheerful - might be just what I need.
Members AugTPD Posted May 31, 2007 Members Posted May 31, 2007 :love: :love: :love: :love: Cheap and cheerful - might be just what I need. Yup, I know that as soon as I can find a good deal on a used steel string AMI that I am buying it. I've played too many thinking I should get it and changed my mind only to later regret it.
Members jsgates Posted June 1, 2007 Members Posted June 1, 2007 I have a younger sister who is 15 and started playing. She has small hands and was playing my Yamaha which is a full sized dread. I got her a Taylor Big Baby for Christmas, and I find myself picking it up to play a lot! It compares pretty well with my Taylor 410 E LTD, but has a bassier sound. A very nice sounding guitar in 3/4 size. Solid wood too! It all depends on your price range. I couldn't find what I felt was a good 3/4 size guitar for the money and decide to go with the Taylor Big Baby. Good luck in your search.
Members tclune Posted June 1, 2007 Members Posted June 1, 2007 Maybe it would be useful to identify the ways in which 3/4 size guitars can sound bad, to help you analyze them yourself. The first thing that some of them have a problem with is intonation. Oddly, if you just try playing the scale up a single string, you will find that a surprising number of them go "out of tune" as you go up the fretboard. This seems to be a much more common problem with cheap 3/4 guitars than with cheap full-sized ones. Second, the "voice" of 3/4 guitars is often incoherent. This is obviously a rather subjective notion, but when you play many of them, chords just don't sound right. They are skewed to a relatively narrow part of the range in a way that causes them to sound unbalanced. If you don't play, you'll want someone who does play to come with you to evaluate this. Third, most 3/4 size guitars fall apart when you strum them. They start sounding like rubber bands on a cigar box. I'm not really sure why that is. But it is unmistakeable. Most of the 3/4 that I've heard that have decent intonation sound fine when you pick, but few of them sound like a guitar when you strum, especially if you strum with any energy at all. FWIW
Members whit townsend Posted June 1, 2007 Members Posted June 1, 2007 I would look for a decent small bodied O or Parlor sized guitar, with a normal scale length. If she cant reach the nut comfortably, put a capo on it. That way it will be useful for a long long time.
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