Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Philly Q on October 21, 2013, 01:12:58 PM
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A friend of mine is looking to buy a cheap acoustic for her daughter (age 8 going on 9).
She's found some ropey looking dreadnought on Amazon for £49 (yes we are talking very limited budget here....) which I imagine will not be very good, but it's hard not to be a "guitar snob" about it, and besides that I know very little about acoustics generally. Also I'd think a dreadnought would be simply too big for a kid to play, I find them pretty cumbersome myself....
I was wondering if anyone here has experience of buying an acoustic for their own kids, or maybe of teaching young kids to play?
Basically the questions are:
1. Any suggestions for a very cheap, but playable, acoustic (assume steel string rather than nylon)?
2. Is it better to start them on a short-scale guitar, or throw them in at the deep end with the real thing?
Thanks in advance!
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Well I have one very cheap guitar, a Harley Benton CG-45 NS. It is the cheapest one they have, cost me 45 Euro. Now it is at 49 and there seem to have been slight changes, judging from the pics (headstock more rounded for example) but I will assume that it is still the same overall quality. It has a slighly smaller body, very folkish and of course it is no miracle, but for the price it is bloody great. It is my dedicated camp fire guitar. Gets the job done nicely, most people actually tend to say that it sounds better than whatever they have at home and if it ever were to actually land in the campfire the loss would not be that great.
By now I have actually exchanged the bridge and before that the bridge pins, the later of which actually seemed to have made the bigger difference in sound. These parts are really cheap and light plastic. Side that I can say that for the money the build quality is not bad I feel, have seen worse on much more expensive guitars.
Action is maybe a bit on the high side depeding on what you are used to, but that only really affects the higher frets.
All in all I can highly recommend it.
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A friend of mine is looking to buy a cheap acoustic for her daughter (age 8 going on 9).
She's found some ropey looking dreadnought on Amazon for £49 (yes we are talking very limited budget here....) which I imagine will not be very good, but it's hard not to be a "guitar snob" about it, and besides that I know very little about acoustics generally. Also I'd think a dreadnought would be simply too big for a kid to play, I find them pretty cumbersome myself....
I was wondering if anyone here has experience of buying an acoustic for their own kids, or maybe of teaching young kids to play?
Basically the questions are:
1. Any suggestions for a very cheap, but playable, acoustic (assume steel string rather than nylon)?
2. Is it better to start them on a short-scale guitar, or throw them in at the deep end with the real thing?
Thanks in advance!
I just bought a yamaha fg700ms today for £179 and in terms of playability its fantastic and this is coming from some one who plays pretty technical stuff and has a 'light touch' which doesnt normally work well with acoustic stuff. For all round good value yamaha are tops for me by far so if this is over their budget might be worth checking out e bay or gumtree etc for yamaha acoustics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSedE5sU3uc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSedE5sU3uc)
These kids look very happy with theirs maybe you could check out what theyre using.....if you actually can stand watching it until the end
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Oh well, too late, they bought the cheap thing anyway, but thanks anyway guys! :)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EZP3EBI?psc=1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EZP3EBI?psc=1)
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I have the Yamaha fg700ms too. A great guitar for the money as I got it for £20 haha. I was going to say, keep your eye out for cheap Yammys on the bay. Played an expensive Yammy acoustic today, lovely thing.
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I have the Yamaha fg700ms too. A great guitar for the money as I got it for £20 haha. I was going to say, keep your eye out for cheap Yammys on the bay. Played an expensive Yammy acoustic today, lovely thing.
I've played some of the top end yamaha's too and they sound better but in terms of playability I dont think theyre any better than the budget ones it's not luck either it's just how they make all of them.