Information on Youth Acoustic Guitars
It used to be that youth-sized guitars were more like toys than true instruments. Now, many of the major guitar manufacturers offer scaled-down versions of their regular-sized guitars. Rather than being poorly made and hard to tune, some of these instruments feature high-quality construction, are extremely playable and have excellent tonal qualities that even an advanced player can appreciate.
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Guitar Style
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Acoustic guitars come in two basic types. Nylon-strung classical models exhibit a rather quiet, sweet tone and have rather wide fretboards, which makes chord fingering a little easier for beginners. Folk, or Dreadnought guitars generally have larger body sizes and steel strings which produce greater volume than nylon. These guitars are the more versatile of the two, and are used extensively in folk, blues, pop and rock music styles. Classical guitars--also referred to as Spanish or flamenco guitars--are less versatile and are usually plucked with the fingers or strummed with the fingertips. Traditionally, this is the guitar style favored by guitar teachers.
Size
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Selecting the perfect size of acoustic guitar can be a challenge, especially if the parents are not guitarists. Remember that 1/2-scale guitars are suitable for children 7 years old and younger, while youngsters in the 8- to 13-year-old bracket are more suited to 3/4-scale instruments. Classical guitars tend to be on the small size anyway, so there are youngsters who can handle an adult-sized guitar. Buying a guitar that's slightly too large is often a better investment, since a child will grow into it, which saves you from having to buy a guitar and then replace it with a larger model.
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Top Brands
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Taylor and Martin guitars are two of the leading manufacturers of fine acoustic guitars, and their prices often match their reputation. Fortunately, both manufacturers offer 3/4-sized youth models that offer the prestige of the company's name at a budget price. Martin's LX1 model is a youth-sized guitar known as the Little Martin, and has a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides. The LX1E model comes with an onboard tuner and the famed Fishman electronics, which enable you to plug in and play this guitar as an electric-acoustic. Taylor's 3/4-size offering is known as the Baby Taylor (BT1) and is available in either a spruce or mahogany top. Like the Little Martin, this guitar is extremely portable and well suited to younger players. Despite their small body size, both models have a rich, pleasing tone--one that many adult players confess to using as travel and practice guitars.
Buying
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Buying a youth-sized acoustic guitar online is relatively easy to do, and there are great deals, especially at the larger online retailers. The main drawback to this is the fact that you're buying a guitar sight unseen, and only when the instrument is delivered, can a young, budding guitarist actually hold the guitar and see how it feels to hold and play. So it's better to use the Internet to research the specifications, descriptions and prices of various models to get an idea of what your budget can buy you. You can pick out several models of interest and take the youngster to a music store and try out the guitars in question. Photos are nice, but there is nothing like holding a guitar in person to decide if it's the right one for you.
Caution
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Although a child can grow into a guitar that's slightly too large for her, don't buy an adult-sized guitar for a younger child if it's way too large for her to handle. If she can't properly hold the guitar or reach around the neck to hold down strings, then there's little chance of it sustaining her interest. She'll get frustrated pretty quickly, and the guitar is likely to sit in the closet, unused.
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References
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- Photo Credit boy plays guitar image by Daria Miroshnikova from Fotolia.com
