Which Guitar Should I Buy My Child?
Answer: The Ibanez Mikro Gio and the Fender Mustang LT25 amplifier. You can find them used on guitarcenter.com for $120 for the guitar and $100 for the Fender Mustang LT25.
You can stop reading now if you want.
Ibanez Mikro Gio
Fender Mustang LT25
Electric guitar is the same as acoustic guitar but with more flexibility, tone options, and easier to fix.
“But my brother or uncle or friend says to get them an acoustic guitar!”
They are wrong.
I will tell you why and then you can send this article to them.
The acoustic guitar when its cheap has the strings too far away from the frets for the average person to hold down when they are first beginning. This is also very costly to repair. Any acoustic guitar under $400 maybe even $500 now with inflation is going to have unncessary problems that beginners shouldnt deal with. The frets may buzz because they aren’t level. The neck might not be straight. The laminate (yeah like plastic kitchen counter laminate) with bend and warp. Changing the strings is complicated on the nylon and the acoustic guitar is big and hard to see over the fretboard. Sometimes there’s not even fret markers that label the frets. The acoustic also doesn’t plug in unless you get a nicer one with an amp. So no reverb, no chorus, no delay, no nothing. Just you, struggling to play it.
So you might say okay let me just get the beginner Squier guitar pack or the Epihpone pack they have at costco or guitar center. Also a mistake. The guitar is full size and not going to be good for a beginner no matter what age they are. The amplifier should be a crime to sell. It sounds BAD, AWFUL, REPUGNANT, REDUCTIVE, SHAMEFUL, DISGRACEFUL, AND WHATEVER EXPLIITIVE I NEED TO SAY TO MAKE YOU GET THAT YOU SHOULDN’T BUY IT.
I have taught guitar for over 10 years and I will tell you how learning on the acoustic guitar goes.
Your kid is awesome. They don’t care about pain. They actively search and practice an hour a day to get better at their instrument. They don’t say “I can’t they ask how can I or what do I have to do in order to play this? They are going to make it far. They finger pick and practice each technique carefully and improve rapidly and get a nice acoustic/electric guitar to play in bands and perform.
Your kid is still awesome, but they complain that the guitar hurts their hands, that they can’t reach the chords they want, they can’t switch chords easily, that they can’t do barre chords, that the songs they want to play don’t sound good on their guitar, that finger picking hurts. They end up being campfire chord strummers or worse just knowing a couple chords. They get burnt out realizing that they can pretty much just use a capo with the basic chords they know and just sing. Which singing is great! But you won’t need a guitar teacher for them. You just need them to learn how to read chord charts and tabs and watch youtube. Or its too hard, theres no progress and they quit.
With electric guitar the same could happen, but theres so many actually easy songs to learn on the electric guitar. Rock, blues, r and b, hip hop, funk, country, metal these are all electric genres. Theres 20 easy songs you could ACTUALLY play the real way.
Whereas on acoustic guitar people take short cuts. They use a capo, the don’t do the strumming pattern right, they don’t finger pick, they don’t play the 7th or 9th chords, they don’t do the leads. Acoustic guitar players are renound around the world and some of the best players are acoustic player, but thats because acoustic guitar is for the highly committed and the talented. So if you are unsure your kid is going to commit, GET AN ELECTRIC GUITAR.
Favorite things about Ibanez Mikro
Its 3/4 size. Its easier to reach the frets, easier to hold, and lighter. Since is only slightly smaller it still stays in tune and intonates well. ( The guitar stays in tune better as you playing higher notes)
You can easily adjust the string height and the neck and get the exact sound you want to match the songs you like.
There are 24 frets which give you a lot more playing space and alternative ways to play.
The guitar is warm sounding and smooth so its not harsh to hear
The guitar is worth reselling or buying so you will do someone else a service if your kid quits and you want to sell it. Maybe i would buy it!
Changing the strings is much easier compared to an acoustic or a nylon
More guitar techniques are easier to achieve and learn
You have the ability to sound just like an acoustic guitar if you want to
You have the ability to sound like a rock or county if you want to
Ibanez is affordable and good quality.
Favorite things about Fender Mustang LT25
You have 30 music presets that sound like professional world class amplifiers
You can make 30 of your own presets that are easy to do
There is a headphone jack so you can practice silently even with the correct effects on.
There are over 30 different effects you can make your guitar into a creative portal and play almost any song
You could bring it with you easily and even play with a drum set if you put it higher on a stand
The amp is good quality and lasts a long time and have very few knobs to turn to get a good sound
You could plug it into the computer to record easily
You cold plug an acoustic guitar into it later on if you want
All that being said do not buy the guitar starter pack or the boss katana or the orange tiny terror or whatever else Guitar Center tries to sell you. It’s more expensive and less rewarding.
Guitar is a tool of expression and you should have the best tool to learn on and not have to worry about the guitar. Guitar does start out as hard as it will ever be in the beginning, but it only gets easier. Whereas piano or drums start out easy and only get progressively more complex and difficult.
Make more music than excuses. Rock on!