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Offspring number one is having guitar lessons now he's moved up to high school and appears to be loving it. The music department don't have any left handed guitars so he has to borrow his teachers and he has asked whether he can have his own for Christmas. He's small for his age so maybe a 3/4 size might be appropriate and electric is a must from his point of view. So what should Santa be looking out for? Google has offered slim pickings so far.
cheap ones!! - until they show they are wanting to keep it up/practice. until they need a decent one then find someone who knows about these things to help. we had a really cool teacher who went to the shop and scoped out a bunch for my daughter to try. At this point try not to think about the cost...
gear4music is your friend. my daughter had a 3/4 for a good while she snapped one (i think falling on it onthe way home from school!) then she had a hand me down fullsize. then a electric hand me down as well, now a posh electro acoustic. shes now 15 and writing/performing her own music. its rad. i'm not musical in any way so i'm amazed/proud
Yamaha is a great shout, they're lovely.
Ibanez make some lovely stuff at very reasonable prices too.
I have a metallic blue Squier Bullet Mustang with a perfect set up I'd be willing to let go for silly money if you want to pick it up from Burnley.
Very light, short scale, plays beautifully.
Gig bag, stand, strings, a lead and a rather fetching matching strap could be included if you like.
It's immaculate, but my head has been turned by the pink version. 🙂
something from Thomann/Harley Benton - won't break the bank, looks cool and makes them want to play it, and available in LH models.
eg: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_st_20lh_ca.htm
Sorry, just noted the leftie requirement.
The Mustang is right handed.
Do you know what style/colour he likes?
Theres a bunch of 'lefties' here for inspiration...
https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/guitars/electric/lh/?Ordering=3&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=
Don’t go too cheap as a cheap guitar won’t play great. Anything by epiphone new or lightly used second hand might be a shout (tend to hold their value as well) and budget for a decent set up (action intonation etc) and fresh strings - a guitar that’s a joy to play will mean he plays it for hours. And that’s how you get to be good!
Yesh you should be able to pick up a yamaha or squire if you like stratocaster/telecaster type shapes
Epiphone for a gibson SG or Les Paul type thing.
Jackson or Ibanez for a more agressive looking thing.
Harley Benton in your chosen style - probably a strat.
Thanks for the replies so far. I’d seen the Gear4Music bundles so it’s interesting they were mentioned. Obviously going full size will give more choice but he will need to be able to carry it on his back for a mile to school. Clearly I know zip on the subject, but I don’t want the clueless Dad that buys the equivalent of the ‘bike to grow into,’ putting him off for life.
What music does he like/aspire to play? looking at what guitars his fave bands use could be a good start, so you know what shape/style he might like, and then narrow your search from there.
Take him to your local guitar shop. Get them to show your son the guitars in your budget. The guitar will choose your son. This will make him want to play / practice more. Ideally you want him to not be able to look at the guitar without picking it up and playing / practicing.
The usual answer is get him the guitar he likes / inspires him. That’s probably more important than whether you’ve read good reviews about any one model. BITD the advice was Pacifica but that’s because all the Squiers and Epiphones in that price range were pretty terrible, but there’s loads of choice of cheap guitars now. Pacificas are still great, though!
Harley Benton in your chosen style
You can get shorter scale guitars which are still ‘full size’ but are also slightly shorter so potentially a bit more manageable.
Fender Strat/Tele/Jazzmaster are the longest (25.5”)
Gibson (at least Les Pauls) are 24.75”
Fender Jaguars / Mustangs are 24”
Fender also do some student models at 22” (some Mustangs?). They’re a bit smaller but not so much as to look like a toy.
I’d take advice but I’d guess even a small ish 11 yo would be fine on any guitar really. Lightweight might be more important than overall size if he’s small.
Take him to your local guitar shop. Get them to show your son the guitars in your budget. The guitar will choose your son. This will make him want to play / practice more. Ideally you want him to not be able to look at the guitar without picking it up and playing / practicing.
This is probably the best advice...might spoil the supprise a but but he has to like the look and feel of the thing, not to mention whether he can get away with a full size one.
Try a load out in budget and try to guage which ones make his eyes light up and which ones don't.
Yeah, the threads finally hit the nail on the head. The guitar he needs is the one he loves.
yamaha Pacifica’s are still great but actually just about everything has caught up in quality now.
Took my 10 year old to local shop said around £200. The guys said try a 3/4 size but he should get a full size. Tried a full size Ibanez and his face had the widest grin ever! He loves it. And it sounds great. I am not allowed to touch it, in fact nobody’s allowed to touch it. After a few months with it and giving it the odd donk. Its going great. Can’t believe how quick they learn stuff.
I picked up a Squier 3/4 Strat on Facebook Marketplace for my kid, with a stand and practice amp for a great price, it's been great. We've since upgraded the amp to a Spark to give an easy way of getting different sounds out of it and yes, I echo how amazingly quickly they pick things like this up. He's just coming up to 10 in a couple of months now and I don't think it looks like he's outgrowing it for a while yet (which I'm sort of sad about as I'd like an excuse to have a full-size one in the house that'd fit me better).
My kid started around that age....I didnt want to get him anything too expensive I case he gets bored in a few years time...
So I got him a used Squire Stratocaster for £99 from the local guitar shop...could have brought him a new one for £99 but I'm my mind a used for the same price would be slightly better quality....anyhoo ...after 4x 1/2hr lessons from school ( pretty useless imo) lockdown happened and he taught himself ...now he owns 5 electric and 1 resonator...and still plays....
So I wouldn't buy a quality one to start...because he wont know what he wants yet....to prove my point this is my kid playing queen with a guitar we built up from a kit over the summer a few years back
Like me, my 1st guitar was a Chapman....I don't play it no more my fav is my
Lefty Hagstrom ultraswede
My 10 year old has a full size Yamaha Pacifica and Fender Mustang amp.
He started out on a Jose Ferrer 3/4 classical guitar which he still likes to play. You can pick them for £30 and useful as a spare.
I'd suggest going to your local shop, setting a budget, and seeing which one makes him smile the most. These things are subjective, I think it's hard to buy a bad modern guitar. Our then-14 year old tried a load of very pretty Squier, Epiphone, Ibanez and G4M guitars. He ended up with one of the cheapest (Squier strat copy) because for him it looked, felt and sounded the best. He still loves it, and he knows it's "his". (Our local guitar shop happens to be Gear For Music, which helps. But all guitar shops are excellent.)
Stock answer for this is the one he will like to look at in the corner because eventually thats where it will be unplayed
I have never been wrong on this unfortunately
I bought my daughter an Ibanez Paul Gilbert mikro model.
She's been playing it for 2 years now. It's great.
You will need to put some thicker guage strings on though is it is short scale and the light strings they come with easily bend out of key.
I play it too sometimes. It's lovely having a little neck to whizz about. I definitely think she benefitted from starting on a short scale.
Lefty here - I'd also agree to go to a guitar shop and try as many as you can, depending on where may be tricky with Lefty in-store often limited selection but there's always a squier strat and epiphone les paul of some variety which is as good a starting point as any - as much to get a feel for what he likes the look of. You may well end up buying a harley benton as they are decent guitars for the money.
I'd also recommend going to a local trusted technician and get them to set it up as this makes a cheap guitar a lot nicer to play because the string height and intonation etc can often need tweaking
good luck and let us know how you get on
Unless he's already a long way down the leftie road get him to learn right handed. There is no more need for a left handed guitar than for a left handed piano/saxophone, whatever .
Loads of lefties play right handed (knopfler, Clapton, king, alman, fripp etc etc, and er me). It's no harder and makes life easier
Lefty here – I’d also agree to go to a guitar shop and try as many as you can,
The problem with this is that beginners can't play the guitar so haven't got a clue what to look for in a guitar, so you are left in the hands of the shop staff who will sell whatever they have. (Also, I've been playing for decades and still feel self-conscious when playing in shops!)
You may well end up buying a harley benton as they are decent guitars for the money.
My most recent guitar is a Harley Benton tele style, at £130. It is a very good guitar, and the only criticism I can level at it is that the tuners are cheap and sticky. If I want to spend a few pounds changing them it won't break the bank. For a guitar that spends most of its time sitting around while I play my acoustics, it's perfect, and I would have been immensely pleased if I had got a guitar this good 30 years ago!
My lad had a 3/4 Gear for music set to start with and it was ok as a starter, but the little amp isn't great when you start cranking it up a bit. Fine for starters though.
Bought his own acoustic from PMT after going to the one in Leeds and trying a few. For his price they reccommended their own brand - Ferndale, and its really nice and an absolute bargain. I said I'd top his £150 up to £200, but it only cost £100! I also took my mate who is a good guitar palyer along to check he wasn't being fobbed off, but he played it and said it was as good as ones much more expensive. The guy at PMT was very enthusiastic about it, as a load of them who worked there had input into the range when they were getting them made.
I bought him an Epiphone Les Paul and a Laney amp for Christmas so now he can really annoy the neighbours!! He plays every night and is getting really good now. I go up every now and again and ruin his practice by jumping on the drums and paying along badly! I did used to be able to play quite well a long time ago....
I'll probably get told off for this but I still have the Gear for music starter kit if any one is interested? This one - https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/3-4-LA-Electric-Guitar-and-Amp-Pack-Sunburst/2JYZ?
I bought him an Epiphone Les Paul and a Laney amp for Christmas so now he can really annoy the neighbours!!
Vox amPlug 2 - Lead Headphone Amp | Vox Amps UK
There are all sorts of these things that plug in to the guitar and you plug your headphones into them. They come with different modelling, are incredibly cheap and work well enough to make noisy music late into the night without disturbing anyone. Far cheaper than an amp, as well.
@IdleJon - That looks cool, might have to get him one of those.
He's already got the amp, as I bought those for him last Christmas, but that would be a nice adition that would make his mum happy!!
that vox amp thing looks good. might get one for my daughter!
that vox amp thing looks good. might get one for my daughter!
Be careful with the volume through the headphones. It's loud enough to do damage.
While it might be outside of the budget, it might be of interest to others looking for a new guitar that’s not stupidly expensive, but is unusual and seems to be pretty good quality.
https://www.guitarworld.com/reviews/squier-paranormal-custom-nashville-stratocaster
Artist Guitars Left handed 3/4 size strat on sale for £79
No idea about the wisdom of getting a LH guitar, but I bought a customer return from Artist recently and it was very good. Much better made than i was expecting for the price.
There's nothing wrong at all with a 3/4 size guitar. It's all about if you can't walk past it without picking it up and playing it!
Slight reluctance about using inches here but it's what guitar scale lengths are always measured in.
A 3/4 guitar will typically have a scale length of 22.75". This compares to a full size Strat (25.5") Les Paul (24.75") or Mustang (24") I'm looking at a 12 fret Cort Mercury at the moment which has a 24" length and a friend has just lent me his Taylor travel guitar (22.75") which is a beautiful thing to play - even with my oversized frame and chunky fingers. John Lennon was famous for his Rickenbacker 325 which had an unusually short 20.75" length.
In other words, if it feels good, it is.
Those Vox Amplugs are great. I have one, which I have only ever used through my travel speaker with 3.5mm input. (Minirig). Plenty of good tones and effects. Last week I took it to the local pub where a few of us sit round tables and take turns to mangle tunes we used to like. It was plenty loud enough. It can be a bit fiddly if the jack socket isn't mounted on top of the guitar, like a Strat, so I often use a guitar cable plus 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter to sit it on the table in front of me.