* when people ask me to recommend a guitar for their kid who is wanting to learn to play guitar, I always recommend buying a good quality, perhaps a second hand name brand guitar. Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Ovation, Martin, Taylor etc.... I recommend these brands because they are well made and therefore, sound better, are easier to play, and if the kid decides 6 months later it's not his/her thing, the guitar can be resold for the initial investment cost, especially if it was bought at a discount second hand and it's still in good condition.
Your comment is actually the reason I posted that link.
A while back we already had this age old discussion about whether parents (teachers) should buy (recommend) high-end guitars, be they electric or acoustic, or inexpensive (I do NOT mean cheap and crappy) - for a beginner (who may or may not stick with it).
I was, and am, in the "go to store, pawn shop, where ever and see if it felt OK, action wise, and go INEXPENSIVE, maybe even no name." YES, the play-ability NEEDS TO BE determined by an experienced player/teacher (NOT the store sales person) remember that experienced player isn't looking for a shredders's holy grail action set-up anyway (I hope). Why have parents lay down a fortune on a crap shoot (how many homes have/had pianos that never got played?)- besides my experience is most kids have the attention span of gnat.
That aside, how does the above work?
1. Second-hand bargains aside, if a parent can sell a guitar, say 6 months later, for (essentially) the initial investment who's buying them? Who is dumb enough to buy a, now used, $1k or more guitar for an almost new price? I know I wouldn't, would you?
If the asking price is essentially the same as the "go buy it new" price - I may as well "go buy it new" minus all the kid abuse. Unlike Gino's sentiment in that video, I both like that new guitar (and car) smell and I hate playing someone else's broke-in fretboard - LOL.
Also that brings up the whole "if they are getting essentially their initial investment back" where do these other great "bargains" (these great, but inexpensive, second hand guitars) come from?
In last decade or so, with rise of internet, eBay, Music-Go-Round, Amazon, MF, and other places that can instantly check market prices it's not been my experience to walk into ANY pawn shop or second-hand store in the scores states, and many more scores of cities, my job took me to and find much in way of "bargains."
Yes, I still find second-hand bargains but nothing like I use to be able to find before rise of the internet - and savings are sometimes so small on those that I simply OPT for new. And it's not just guitars, its everything: amps, firearms, electronics,...
2. I also have never bought into the logic of buying "brand names" because they are (or might be) easier to play. If ease of playing were the driving concern I would never, ever, start a student on a large box Martin, Taylor, Gibson, or other acoustic with their std. 12's or 13's (I don’t care how low the action)! I'd start them on smaller body Tele's, Strat's, SG's, etc. with ultra low actions, set-up with .08's (and tuned down a half-step)! It don’t get no easier on those poor little fingers!
I'm from the dark ages - I'd start them on inexpensive WIDE NECK classical's with SHEET MUSIC and an big a$$ metronome: WORK THOSE FINGERS and those little underdeveloped brains!
I wonder why I have ZERO students?
Larry