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My first guitar was also a harmony classical from a wholesale box store. It came with a book for beginner songs I played every day for a couple hours. I then bought a takamine steel string acoustic in 1975 still have it and still on occasion play it. For the right kid it is a great gift. My wife suffers from really small handistis she could never form the large chords on a guitar, so I bought her a very nice use, and she loves that thing. She had never played an instrument, but has learned to play a fair selection of chords.


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Originally Posted By: MarioD
Originally Posted By: cchallum
The title pretty much says it all…..I’m looking for my 10 year old grandson’s first guitar!! I’d love to hear inputs regarding this so that he hopefully gets turned on to playing the acoustic guitar!!!
Thanks for your insights,
Cecil


I have a question. Is your grandson big enough to handle a full size acoustic guitar? Or will he need a 3/4 size guitar? Note stay away from 1/2 size guitars; I haven't seen one yet that was worth buying. This is from experience as I have seen a number of young/small in size students with them.

This was something as a very eager 9 year old that I wish someone had asked before I got my first guitar. I feel like it was massive in comparison to how little I was at the time!


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A Nice squire is never wrong. Cheap and sounds well.

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Don't spend a lot. Most people don't stick with it.
The tuner is a good idea.

Be sure to get him 2 months of weekly lessons.
Make sure the teacher can show him tunes he likes.
Doesn't matter the genre, just simple 3 chord tunes.
Get him hooked on the instrument. If he likes it, he'll do the hard work.

Don't start him off learning "The Volga Boatman" from Alfreds Basic Guitar Method.
He'll quit in a week.

In my years of playing noone has ever called for that tune, either in the audience or from the bandstand.

Now "Blue Tailed Fly", that's a story for another time.


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Originally Posted By: mrgeeze
Don't spend a lot. Most people don't stick with it.
The tuner is a good idea.

Be sure to get him 2 months of weekly lessons.
Make sure the teacher can show him tunes he likes.
Doesn't matter the genre, just simple 3 chord tunes.
Get him hooked on the instrument. If he likes it, he'll do the hard work.
...............


A tuner is a mandatory purchase when buying a string instrument.

I respectfully disagree with your teaching methods. The last music store I taught in had two guitar instructors. One taught via songs. I, on the other hand, am old school and taught reading music from day one. If they practiced and did well I would throw in fun stuff like songs. If they did not keep doing well on the basics I would stop the fun stuff. I found this to be a better way of teaching and the students get to read music and in many cases a few years later they learned music theory. Actually I had very few quit.

The other instructor was an excellent guitarist. He got the teenagers who only wanted to play songs and the instructor was perfect for them. I got everyone else and had about twice as many students. The parents appreciated my method because their kids were learning the instrument and that is what the parents wanted because they were paying the bills.

YMMV


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I got the cheapest guitar I could find and a Bob Dylan song book in 1965 back in the folk era. Still have the guitar but lost the book. I still like to play songs that I enjoy, mostly campfire stuff through old favourites like Irish Eyes to really modern things like John Denver.

Never had guitar lessons and I can only find individual notes on the first 3 frets but it's enough for me

I did buy a 12 string, an electric strat, a mandolin and a banjo for fun.

Don't play as much now


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I gotta wonder how many kids express an interest in learning an instrument and give up after a relatively short time because they are given cheap, substandard instruments that sound like crap and are actually painful to play fight with.

Not many people are going to stick with something if the experience is unpleasant.


Byron Dickens

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My first guitar was made with leftover wood from a fence post! :-)

Personally, if looking for a cheap acoustic guitar I would look at a Recording King Dirty 30's. They do come in sizes.

For an electric, I would look at at Squier.

...Deb

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I took the steel strings off and replaced them with nylon. Looking back, the action is a bit too high, but it's not significant over the first 3 frets so I didn't notice. I had no expectation or intention to be a good guitarist, just someone who could strum along at a party or campfire. Even today my skills are probably much the same and that's OK. sometimes it's the parents who expect more than the child is prepared to deliver. Sometimes it's just fun


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