Guitar advice..........

[ChocolatePrincess]

My dd is teaching herself chords on a play guitar. She really wants a good guitar to play, one without the plastic strings. I know nothing about them..........she has taught herself how to play the piano so I'm sure the guitar will not be that hard for her either. She has been talking to a man a church who knows how to play and he has been giving her tips.

Any basic things to know about buying a guitar for an 11 year old?

[elegantlion]

I would look at musiciansfriend.com for a starter type package. Depending on her size she may or may not be able to utilize a full size guitar. Here is the package I bought a few years ago. Click here (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-IJV50-JamPack-Quick-Start?sku=519456).


This is a decent guitar. I dabble in guitar, but it has been played by more trained musicians and gets a thumbs up for a beginner guitar.

[betty]

If you knew someone irl to help you, you could find something used locally.

I think I found the best--my son's electric guitar is a "permanent loan" from under the bed in the guest bedroom in my friend's house. Her dh has 2 other guitars.

[tnmomofboys]

My ds 11 has been playing for several years. His acoustic is a concert sized Ibanez. We did not want to buy a child's size, as we knew he would outgrow it. A concert size is a little smaller than a standard but not as small as a child's. It has worked really well for him. It also has a built in tuner which is nice.

[KellyGirl]

Musicians Friend is a great source, as is www.americanmusical.com (http://www.americanmusical.com). If there is a Guitar Center near by, they are pretty reputable and will price match from either of those places (they are owned by the same company as Musicians Friend). My husband and I are both guitarists (both hold a BA in music), and have done LOTS of buisness with all three of these places.

A guitar with "plastic strings" is probably a nylon string guitar, which is a real guitar but generally only used for classical and folk style music. I would say 11 is probably okay to go with a full size guitar. An electric would have a smaller body, making it more comfortable to wrap ones arms around if she is small.

Ibanez electric guitars are great (my husband prefers them, and I love their basses), their accoustics are probably good to, but don't have the same good rep as their electrics. A squier would also be an okay first choice.

I could write about guitars all day, but I'll stop now. Let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you.

[ereks mom]

...sometimes their merchandise is lower quality. His suggestion (and mine) for where to buy a good, but inexpensive first guitar is the pawn shop. That's where we bought ER's first guitar when he was 12. It was actually new -- I guess it was overstock from some music store because the pawn shop had several of them. We paid $100 for it. ER says if you go cheaper than that, you're really just buying a toy. You don't need to upgrade to a nicer guitar until/unless your sure your dd is going to stick with it.

[ChocolatePrincess]

I'll look at the websites and go downtown and talk to the people at the local store.