Hello
 
My son is 7 and wants to learn the electric guitar.
 
Personally i am more into experimental techno / dance production but i do like a bit of rock when it comes to listening than creating.
 
Any ideas on what is a good starter kit - dont want anything too expensive in case its a forgotton memory in three weeks after purchase - but dont want anything that will be to naff either.
 
any comments welcome
 
thanks

Hi there Chris

I was in a similar situation a few years back when my daughter wanted to learn to play guitar.

I bought her a three-quarter size 'Elevation' branded guitar from Argos. It came with a practice amp (including a distortion channel!), a lead and a spare set of strings. I think I paid around £70 - £80 for it. For the money, I thought it was excellent value, and after I set it up properly it played really well, especially down at the nut end (by the headstock/tuning pegs, where beginners learn most of the 'open' chords).

And for someone quite small learning the guitar, the ¾ size is ideal, plus an electric guitar is much more comfortable to play than an acoustic. The strings are also easier to fret too.

It certainly was a wise investment though Chris, she now takes lessons on a full-size guitar!

I really like the idea of 3/4 size guitars for very young players.
I think many get frustrated and give up simply because they are fighting the geometry of a full size guitar vs a small body.
Steve, how involved was the setup on that Argos? That looks like a decent starter package.
Chris, at first his fingers will hurt a lot. As his finger muscles develop, and his finger tips toughen up, that will diminish.
Let him know it gets better.
I started playing at age 9. I'm 54 now. Once it gets in his blood, it never goes away.

RobertB


That looks like a decent starter package.

I thought so Bob - I forgot to mention that it also came with a strap, truss-rod spanner and an Allen key for the bridge. And a pretty useable whammy bar - great for smallish wobbles but easy to put out of tune with a dive-bomb.
 
 

Steve, how involved was the setup on that Argos?

First thing I did was to put a really light set of strings on it mate - Ernie Ball Extra Slinky if I remember correctly: 8, 11, 14, 22, 30, 38. Although in all fairness, the strings that were on it were very good, but the gauge was a little too heavy.
 
The intonation was pretty straightforward to set up, there are individual saddles for every string, adjustable both for height and string length:  
 

 
 
The adjustments are good too, if anything, the only thing that I couldn't quite get right was keeping her in tune above around the 11th/12th frets for the E, A and D strings. But the higher strings are good up to the highest frets.
 
 
 
 
 

Chris, one other thing I thought I'd mention is that if your lad really takes an interest, get him a few professional lessons, especially just covering the basics.

In my experience, nothing puts kids off learning an instrument more than a perceived lack of progress or achievement. Someone who teaches guitar will recognise this and tailor their tuition accordingly. I could have taught my daughter to play but that would, in my honest opinion, have been far too limiting for her. I learned music at school so I can always help out with the theory, but I am self-taught on the guitar so all could hope to do is teach her to play like me.

I really wish I'd had lessons, I think that if the correct practises are taught early enough, then bad habits are less likely to form. If I had lessons now I'd probably have to change so much about my technique that I'd be better off trying to play left handed from scratch!

The guy who teaches my daughter at school is big on technique, and that foundation will stand her in good stead if she decides she wants to carry on learning the guitar. But he's absolutely on the ball when it comes to keeping it interesting. He teaches theory in direct relevance to the guitar - leaning heavily on understanding rhythm pattern, as well as learning where all the notes are on a guitar neck. But most important of all, they get to put their acquired knowledge into playing songs they like - both in terms of melody and backing (e.g. they learned 'Chasing Cars' recently).

I just looked in the Argos catalogue for you Chris and they don't seem to stock the package I bought anymore.

The closest I can find as a package is THIS - if he doesn't mind the colour!

If you wanted to pick up a small practice amp separately, they currently have a single pick-up three-quarter size Elevation guitar on offer at half-price (£24.99) HERE.

You might also want to check out Ebay too - these Elevation guitars seem built to take a few knocks and I'm sure there will be plenty of unwanted gift items floating around. I'd recommend searching locally for something you can go and pick up because the cost of shipping could easily wipe out any saving you make buying a used model.

I use a couple of excellent Ebay search engines for seeing what's available locally; there's one from Martin Lewis's (the financial expert they have on Watchdog) site MoneySavingExpert.com HERE, and there's also a local search function available on BayCrazy.com HERE. BayCrazy also has some other really brilliant search engines on that site, including "Auctions ending in less than 30 minutes with Zero Bids" and "Misspelled Items" (type in 'Amplifier' and see how many people have spelt it 'Amplifer'