Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: Hardtail Jun 24 2007, 06:05 AM

Okay, here's the deal. I am gonna start giving my nephew basic beginner guitar lessons soon and the little rat needs something to learn on. I have played both acoustic and electric for about 15-16 years and have decided that an electric should be the first thing he learns since it is easier to learn on and will promote continuous playing.

(However I am personally very glad I learned acoustic before electric... more on that someday)

So I am looking for a guitar in the $100 US or below price range. This pretty much rules out decent brand name guitars unless they are cosmetically damaged. So far I have these ideas:

1.) Made in Mexico Fender (cosmetic damage)
2.) Custom built no name... (upon personal inspection only)
3.) Cheapo Wal-mart boxed guitars (YUCK!!!!!)

I need more ideas and help on this. If you have a well thrashed guitar you'd like to dump for less than $100 let me know as well! In my opinion... Cosmetics don't matter a bit. I'd rather have the guitar play okay and get a half-decent beginner range of sounds than get a pretty sparkly one that is made by blind monkeys.

Also, attach links if you have any. Thanks in advance!

P.S. Donations welcome!

Hardtail

Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 24 2007, 08:20 PM

If you want to teach him bass im dumping a bass for 100 canadian
for budget guitars im going to say no to the walmart guitars because yes.. blind monkeys with cigarette addictions make those.
A few Brands with cheap guitars out there
Yamaha and Fender
At my local guitar shop they sell new fender strat squires for 115CDN each. they are great beginner guitars, if you want a dinky guitar you can get him a little 18 fretter for about 75. For just starting i would definatly recommend accustic. they are much harder to play and then when you finally move over into electric he will be even more thankful because all of a sudden guitar becomes easy!

Those are my recommendations, if your up for a fix up project im also selling a beaten up fender strat squire for $75, 20th addition its in good shape except for a few scratching and its lack of a connector for an amp ( all the peices are there.. it just needs to be fixed

Posted by: stratman33 Jun 24 2007, 08:24 PM

You should just get a Squier Strat. Good for beginners, but they dont last all that long....

Posted by: radarlove1984 Jun 24 2007, 10:26 PM

Just avoid the budget Epiphone SG that comes with an amp and a few picks. The guitar body is made mostly out of plastic.

Posted by: SDMF75 Jun 24 2007, 11:03 PM

My son just turned 5 and I bought him an Ibanez Mikro for his birthday. Just a little too big for him right now but he'll grow into it over the next year and be able to play it comfortably until he's 11 or 12. Dropped $130 on it and it's the hottest beginner axe that I've ever played. Looks a lot like the Vai models without the handle. Two humbuckers, Volume & Tone, 3 positions. The action was just right when we got it. I'm attaching a pic of my little Zakk Wylde loving Metal man. Sorry about the size of the pic....1st time trying this.

Posted by: JVM Jun 25 2007, 01:08 AM

That's an awesome picture.

Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 25 2007, 01:25 AM

Haha thats such a sweet guitar for a first it great for the price.. wish i had found something like that

Posted by: SDMF75 Jun 25 2007, 02:01 AM

He had a loaner guitar a couple of months ago that was way too big but we got some pics with it strapped on him. I photo shopped him into a pic with Zakk Wylde on stage and it turned out really good.

Posted by: Lurgen Jun 25 2007, 02:37 AM

My first electric was an el-cheapo SX Strat-clone. Nothing fancy, but adequate for learning on. As others have mentioned, if you don't want something that will fall apart immediately the Squiers aren't too bad.

I just hope you're not trying to squeeze an amp into that price...

Posted by: SLASH91 Jun 25 2007, 04:10 AM

My first electric was a crap Yamaha
but Squire is a good beginner brand

Posted by: Slammer Jun 25 2007, 04:14 AM

you can buy a Squier Bullet Strat brand new for $99.

this one to be Exact

http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/buy_squier_bullet_electric_guitar?full_sku=510625%2e595%2e069

it's nothing special, but it is 10 times better than those First Act crap from Wal mart.

Posted by: kebsis Jun 25 2007, 04:17 AM

My first electric was a Schecter Omen, picked it up for either 200 or 300 US, can't remember which. It looked and sounded kickass but it fell out of tune all the time (I mean like after maybe 20 minutes of playing I'd need to retune) and the knobs started coming loose after a few months. It also had the loose wire jack problem that plagues so many cheap guitars.

But, I recently replaced all the hardware (tunin' machines, pickups, bridge) and turned it into one hell of a guitar for cheaper than picking up a new one.

Posted by: Hardtail Jun 25 2007, 04:51 AM

I agree with starting on an acoustic. However much my nephew wants to learn the guitar he is also a very easily distracted youngster and I beleive the acoustic may frustrate him a bit too much.

He is borrowing my mother's Taylor Big Baby acoustic so I may start him with that. I just remember as a kid, my friends got electrics first and I got an acoustic and more than a decade later they can shred me like 10x over because the acoustic is very limited in what it can do comparatively... and trust me I have pushed acoustic to the limit having performed with one for 10 years.

I have a buddy who collects old Peavey guitars and he told me about some 22" or 23" scale Peavey's that are practically unbreakable and actually shred well. I may hunt Ebay for one of those for a while.

SDMF75: That guitar looks sweet! And your son looks ready to melt my face off! I am gonna look into that model myself and see how cheap I can find it.

Hardtail

Posted by: SDMF75 Jun 25 2007, 03:49 PM

SDMF75: That guitar looks sweet! And your son looks ready to melt my face off! I am gonna look into that model myself and see how cheap I can find it.

Hardtail
[/quote]


It's a rockin' little axe! He's picking up on things fairly quick music wise. The body of the guitar is just a little bit too big for him to hold it right when playing so he wants to lay it in his lap like Jeff Healy and try to play. I'm slowly breaking him of that by getting him to stand up or when he's sitting on his stool I had him letting it hang by his side while he strummed it. The cheapest I found that Mikro is 129.99. It sounds a lot better than any beginner guitar that I had.

Posted by: Hardtail Jun 26 2007, 04:47 AM

SDMF75: What are you starting him off with lesson-wise? I'm gonna try to get some suggestions on GMC later about what to teach him for starters but thought I'd ask you now.


So I have done some MAJOR Research tonight and the Ibanez seems to be the best for him. The squiers, gibsons, and all other brand beginner guitars just have so much lower reviews than the Ibanez beginner guitars. The one I was particularly looking at was the Ibanez GRX20. I chose this in lieu of the Mikro because he is 10 years old and I think he should be able to reach everything on a full scale well enough. In a few years he'll be a teenager and have the same reach as me so i'm not worried about it.

The problem I ran into.... the wife gave me the old "Heck no, that's too expensive!" So I'm trying to figure something out. I'm gonna hit all the local guitar shops within an hour of my work this week and hopefully rumage up some beat up classic I can haggle down to below $100. LOL wish me luck!

I'll keep you posted with what I find.

Hardtail

Posted by: lefty01 Jun 26 2007, 07:53 AM

Check out: www.rondomusic.com ya can't go wrong.

Posted by: Hardtail Jun 26 2007, 03:13 PM

lefty01: You play a Rondo? I'm wondering how they sound, durability, etc.

I'm gonna hit a small music store after work today. I'll post what I find.

Posted by: SDMF75 Jun 26 2007, 08:02 PM

I started with the notes of the strings and the notes on the E string. I'm trying to keep it fun for him. With your nephew being 10 he won't have the issues that my son has as far as his hands aren't quite big enough to form chords yet. I put 8's on his guitar but he still complains about the pain some. I don't gloss over it either....I tell him that I understand but it's part of the learning process and he'll get used to it. He knows the notes of all the strings and learned it pretty fast. I did make up something for him to remember it if he gets stumped. Eddie Alligator Drives Great Big Elephants and it worked like a charm. He does pretty well with the notes on the E also. I didn't bother with Sharps and Flats, just the main notes starting with F and stopping at E on the 12th fret. He's also picking on his high and fretting on the 5 & 6 fret and alternate picking. 5,6,5,6....down,up etc. I'll expand on it when he gets a good grasp of it to walk all the way up the neck. I tell him that it sounds like a spider sneaking up on another bug to eat it.

Posted by: CrashOops Jun 26 2007, 08:05 PM

I bought myself the GRX20 and it's an incredibly durable guitar. I'm sure your son will appreciate it aswell. it's alot better than anything else in it's price range. I'm more than happy with it

Posted by: jammer91 Jun 29 2007, 11:10 AM

Just get a squier starter kit. It comes with everything he needs.

Posted by: Hardtail Jun 29 2007, 07:45 PM

Well those kits are $199.00 minimum brand new and the Squires they come with are "Affinity" series which are made in indonesia and are even worse than a standard Squire.


So I have been hunting Ebay like a mad man and ended up getting a steal. It is a black Fender Squire Stratocaster (Standard not Affinity) with an RMS 10 Watt amp for $77.50 shipped. A bud of mine at the local guitar shop said that he has enough spare parts from standard fenders that if anything is wrong with it he can replace those parts for free. I already purchased new nobs since the original owner colored them with a marker.

This was the listing (and don't worry I got more information from him before buying it):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=120134701745&rd=1&rd=1

The only thing now is getting the guitar here and setting it up before my Nephews Birthday!

Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 29 2007, 08:56 PM

Good luck Fender is a great starting guitar

Posted by: SDMF75 Jun 29 2007, 09:17 PM

That's a nice looking Strat!

Posted by: jammer91 Jul 4 2007, 12:46 PM

Good find!!!
I wish u had someone like you to guide me towards my first guitar... lol
Now ive got my self an Epiphone Flying V recently and its better than my les paul

Posted by: AIB234 Jul 4 2007, 04:56 PM

LOL! That's hilarious. "I don't need to see numbers, I always keep it on 10."

Great find, congrats!

Posted by: Asphyxia Feeling Jul 7 2007, 02:05 PM

squier makes a 100 dollar ghetto strat that is SSS or H. it's their "bullet" series. the H version was my first guitar. it's very thin, a hardtail bridge, and is ok overall. however, i have a feeling the body is hardwood

Posted by: Hardtail Jul 7 2007, 02:31 PM

I'm fairly sure the Bullet is also made in Indonesia (correct me if I'm wrong). Besides, they have much worse reviews than standard Squires.

Anyway, the Squire came in yesterday. Here's the list of repairs / maintenance I have made to it.

1) Reattached internal support plate for tremolo springs. (manufacturer only put 1 screw in and only screwed it down half-way). I replaced both screws and seated them 100%.

2) Corrected saddle heights for Action. Some saddles weren't even level with themselves thus making the strings roll off to the side.

3) Tightened Tuner keys. They were super loose.

4) Corrected intonation. 3 strings were not maintaining tone down the neck.

5) Oiled neck. Was very dry.

6) Replaced Jack. Jack was bad and wasn't even soldered in to begin with... they just tied the cable to the jack contact.

7) Cleaned pickguard and removed stray pick from inside body. Go Figure.

8) Replaced all knobs with Standard Stratocaster knobs. (Much better!).

9) Polished body to remove hundreds of scratches. Looks beautiful now but still has some dents on bottom from previous owner not using a stand.

Total $ spent = 0

The only thing I have to do today is try and find someone to replace the jack in the amp which is also bad. wish me luck!

Hardtail