Need advice from guitarists...

BeBe

My oldest son who is 12 years old, wants to start playing guitar. I told him that if he picked 'Guitar' for his school elective, I would buy him one. He did.

My questions to you all: Should he start with an acoustic first or electric. What kind should I get him and the price is also important. I do not want to go broke with the amp purchase too if needed. Any suggestions on the best way to learn??? He wants to play good ole rock and roll. He loves PJ and Green Day..

Thanks guys! I need all the advice I can get before Monday afternoon. School starts on Thursday.

Pearl Jam and toast

Acoustic.

It's a bit rougher on the fingers which is good for a begininer.

There are people here that will write you manifestos on what guitar to start him with, so i'll let them take it from here.. but i think they'll generally agree on the acoustic choice.

BeBe

The acoustic will "make" his fingers become more prepared too for the dexterity that is required to play too, correct???

I just showed him this thread and was so excited too the whole section here for musicians and asked me "will I be posting here one day too?"..

keeponrockin

I would reccomend acoustic, but make it a NICE one. My reccomendation is an Art and Lutherie of some sort.

Pearl Jam and toast

keeponrockin wrote:

I would reccomend acoustic, but make it a NICE one. My reccomendation is an Art and Lutherie of some sort.

nahhh get him a decent guitar, but nothing too fancy.

a starter guitar shouldn't go over like 400-500 dollars.

enharmonic

Acoustic for a bunch of reasons

1. Anything that he can play on a coustic will be at least twice as easy on electric
2. Pearl Jam and Green Day both play acoustics...some of their biggest hits have been acoustic-based
3. More economical for you
4. He can practice any time without blowing your head off or bothering the neighbors
5. If he really loves guitar, he'll end up with an acoustic at some point anyway
6. If he starts writing his own music, andything that sounds great on acoustic generally sounds even better on an electric.

BeBe

Thanks to all!

Acoustic it is.....What great advice from you all..


Can I get a decent acoustic, maybe even used for around 100 dollars?????

Skipping any amps, I just want to make sure he sticks with this longer than the usual attention span of a 12 year old. I know at some point he wanted to be a fire eater at the circus, thank God that hobby died out the next morning..:)

keeponrockin

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

nahhh get him a decent guitar, but nothing too fancy.

a starter guitar shouldn't go over like 400-500 dollars.

My A&L was $385 Canadian with electronics. You can get one for about $250 Canadian new.

Thumbing My Way

keeponrockin wrote:

My A&L was $385 Canadian with electronics. You can get one for about $250 Canadian new.

My Art & Lutherie was $240 + tax, coming out to about $275 and I love it.

It's such a nice acoustic and you won't find a better deal....

http://www.artandlutherieguitars.com/

A hard shell case wouldn't be a bad idea either.....I would say not to get a "gig bag" or soft case just because they're cheaper, but to go for the hardshell....it will be a much better idea down the road and they aren't that expensive.

Art & Lutherie = $275
Hardshell Case = $60
Tuner = $10
Picks = $5

Total = $350

Pearl Jam and toast

Here's some more good advice: When he starts to learn chords and everything (which is first) get him to learn songs with them.


Go to the site in that wonderful self-maintained sticky thread about http://www.giventowail.com and Pearl jam tabs!


Small Town, Not For You, Long Road, and Wishlist are great places to start

BeBe

Thanks so much!


He's now playing Man of the Hour on his borrowed guitar and it sounds more like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!!!

Hopefully my son will learn something in school soon..:(

Thumbing My Way

BeBe wrote:

Thanks so much!


He's now playing Man of the Hour on his borrowed guitar and it sounds more like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!!!

Hopefully my son will learn something in school soon..:(

Man Of The Hour (properly) is tough I think

Good for him.

moster78

Once you learn all the open chords and basic barre chords, you'd be amazed at how much stuff you can play, and how the same chord progressions repeat themselves in practically every song, like G - C - D, or D - A - G, the list goes on and on. Good luck to your son!

keeponrockin

Man Of The Hour has a lot of weird stuff in it.

sennin

start off on the Corduroy intro!

Good luck with the guitar....just started myself!

Art & Luthrie all the way!

enharmonic

The problem with a 100 dollar guitar is that it's going to play horribly. you could easily spend another $100 having a tech fix the nut, level the frets, and shave the bridge in an effort to get the guitar to play at least half way decent.

IF (and this is only if) you could bump up to 300 bucks, you could get a very nice instrument that your son should be able to play. When I was a kid, my peeps bought me a 100 dollar guitar, and I was so frustrated with it that I put it down...only to pick up guitar again when I could afford my own :(

All of those years that i lost playing guitar...I would have been happy to have never had the Star Wars toys, or any of that other childhood crap.

Check out Musician's friend. They let you finance instruments, and that might help you get your son a guitar that he can actually play.

Here's one that I would suggest

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-FG720S-Acoustic-Guitar?sku=519168

The brown sunburst (additional photos) is sexy . Or, let your son pick the color so he's even that much more interested in it.

If that's not doable, try this one.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-FS700S-Folk-Acoustic-Guitar?sku=518274

Good luck. IMHO, stick with Yamaha. They build a very nice guitar, and usually have something at all price points that is built better than their competition...at least until you start talking ridiculous money.

Thumbing My Way

enharmonic wrote:

Good luck. IMHO, stick with Yamaha. They build a very nice guitar, and usually have something at all price points that is built better than their competition...at least until you start talking ridiculous money.

I would agree with this too....

Even the lower priced Yamaha's are solid guitars, although I suggested the Art & Lutherie before, you can't go wrong with either

Let us know what you end up doing

keeponrockin

Thumbing My Way wrote:

I would agree with this too....

Even the lower priced Yamaha's are solid guitars, although I suggested the Art & Lutherie before, you can't go wrong with either

Let us know what you end up doing

I think Yamahas are just too light... I don't like the feel, but they are good guitars.

MetalGod75

BeBe wrote:

My oldest son who is 12 years old, wants to start playing guitar. I told him that if he picked 'Guitar' for his school elective, I would buy him one. He did.

My questions to you all: Should he start with an acoustic first or electric. What kind should I get him and the price is also important. I do not want to go broke with the amp purchase too if needed. Any suggestions on the best way to learn??? He wants to play good ole rock and roll. He loves PJ and Green Day..

Thanks guys! I need all the advice I can get before Monday afternoon. School starts on Thursday.

Forget what the others are saying about your son starting on an acoustic,playing one of those at a young age would probably put him off.If he loves PJ and Green Day buy him a cheap strat copy and a little amp and see how he does.He may lose interest after six months,hopefully not:)Learning on an electric will be a lot easier for him,when hes ready im sure he'll want an acoustic somehwere down the line.

Pearl Jam and toast

MetalGod75 wrote:

Forget what the others are saying about your son starting on an acoustic,playing one of those at a young age would probably put him off.If he loves PJ and Green Day buy him a cheap strat copy and a little amp and see how he does.He may lose interest after six months,hopefully not:)Learning on an electric will be a lot easier for him,when hes ready im sure he'll want an acoustic somehwere down the line.

but that's why he shoud start on acoustic!

I did and i thank god for it.. a lot of people who have only ever played electrics (learned on one) pick up an acoustic guitar and sound like the worst players in the world.

Thumbing My Way

MetalGod75 wrote:

Forget what the others are saying about your son starting on an acoustic,playing one of those at a young age would probably put him off.If he loves PJ and Green Day buy him a cheap strat copy and a little amp and see how he does.He may lose interest after six months,hopefully not:)Learning on an electric will be a lot easier for him,when hes ready im sure he'll want an acoustic somehwere down the line.

An electric isn't very realistic though considering it's for school.

Most of the time you're playing acoustic for school classes.....