Guitar options for a little person

tampadragon

Hi all
My 5 year old has expressed interest in guitar playing. He likes Rocksmith and plays the couple
of games that don’t require any fretting. However, even my lightest guitar, Gibson Melody Maker, is too heavy for his lap.
what are the options I have for him. I’d like to get him his own guitar, but I’ve no idea what good options are available for little people when it comes to guitars.
does anyone hve any experience that could offer advice? 

TforTele

Acoustic?  Is a Little Martin crazily extravagant?  Very tough things and have come in some funky designs.

tampadragon

TforTele said:

Acoustic?  Is a Little Martin crazily extravagant?  Very tough things and have come in some funky designs.

I’ll take a look at those, I think he likes the “coolness” of an electric though to be honest! I know acoustics are cool, but I think he wants to plug into the computer and play Rocksmith. He does have his own Ukulele which he strums and practices with, when his attention is on it. But the electric means he could use Rocksmith, which is the main reason he likes it I think. Who knows what goes on inside a 5 year olds head! 

Philly_Q

When I saw the thread title I thought ah, I'm a little person... but I'm not that little!

There are things like the Squier Mini Jazzmaster below, but it's probably still a bit - more than a bit - too hefty for a 5 year old - solid body and 22.75" scale.

https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-guitars/jazzmaster/mini-jazzmaster-hh/0370125504.html?rl=en_US

tampadragon

That is my worry, that all the electrics will be too heavy, or too long a neck. Wonder how hard it would be to cut up a strat body to make it smaller and lighter and stick a small neck on it. 

I’m not really very knowledgeable on guitar construction and what length neck you could get away with to keep the tuning and what not. 

steamabacus

I've no personal experience of them but these are specifically designed for little 'uns ...

https://www.loog-guitars.eu/collections/loog-mini 

ICBM

The smallest I can think of that's actually properly playable - it only has a 19" scale, but heavier strings will work - is the Erlewine Chiquita, or one of the Hondo copies of it... and it has the way-beyond-cool-factor of being in Back To The Future . The problem is that they're rare and even the copies are quite valuable now.

https://www.guitarsofvintage.com/product/1980s-hondo-chiquita/

The Höfner Shorty might work too - remarkably it's a full scale, but the body is tiny and they're quite cheap, only £124 new. My experience is that they don't balance as well as the Chiquita though.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/hofner-shorty-electric-travel-guitar-blue/86731

tampadragon

Good calls! I’ll take a look at some videos of the Hofner. See how that might work for him, bonus is the cool colours.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

The smallest I can think of that's actually properly playable - it only has a 19" scale, but heavier strings will work - is the Erlewine Chiquita, or one of the Hondo copies of it... and it has the way-beyond-cool-factor of being in Back To The Future . The problem is that they're rare and even the copies are quite valuable now.

https://www.guitarsofvintage.com/product/1980s-hondo-chiquita/

Reminds me, Mark Erlewine also had the Lazer model, as used by Johnny Winter.  Full-scale and again, pretty expensive I'm sure.

http://www.erlewineguitars.com/pgs/lazer.htm

Greatape

Secondhand Pignose guitar? 

monquixote

I've been going through a similar thing.

I tried an Ibanez Mikro, but it had a few problems so I sent it back.

I think the Brian May Mini May looks interesting though it's reasonably expensive.

I've settled on a Squier Bullet Mustang which is the smallest and lightest "proper" guitar I could find. He is 6 and big for his age though.

tampadragon

I've not heard of the Pignose, so I'll take a look at that. And I'll see if there is a store near me where I can look at the Mustang to see about weight etc. How does the weight compare to a Gibson Melody Maker solid body?

ICBM

The Mustang is about the same weight as a modern Melody Maker, but probably slightly easier to play as the scale is a bit shorter and the body is more contoured. The great advantage of it is that if he can manage it, he’ll never grow out of it. It’s astounding value for money too, even cheaper than the Höfner - but I suspect it may still be a bit on the big side for a 5-year-old.

english_bob

I bought a secondhand half sized one pickup Hohner "Rockwood" strat-alike for my kids when they were first getting interested in guitar. It doesn't stay in tune, sounds quite dull, the fretting isn't exactly Custom Shop quality, but it's a decent size for small kids and has a very impressively flamed maple neck. For most of its life it's been basically a glorified tennis racket and a way for the kids to make loud "real" guitar noises on an instrument that doesn't compel dad to hover around yelling "BE CAREFUL WITH THAT!"

As a serious musical instrument it's no great shakes, but whether that's a bad thing kinda depends on what you want from it. At five years old my kids wouldn't have had the patience or the perseverance to learn anything like "proper" guitar playing, but having a "real" guitar probably steered them towards wanting to play instruments when they got a bit older (they're now 8 and 9). Over lockdown they've been learning to play bass and drums to Beatles songs, and they're really not bad.

I think others have covered all the decent options for serious musical instruments for kids.

monquixote

ICBM said:

The Mustang is about the same weight as a modern Melody Maker, but probably slightly easier to play as the scale is a bit shorter and the body is more contoured. The great advantage of it is that if he can manage it, he’ll never grow out of it. It’s astounding value for money too, even cheaper than the Höfner - but I suspect it may still be a bit on the big side for a 5-year-old.

That was my thinking.

He can own it and play around with it and start seriously using it when he feels ready.

It might be too big for him at first, but we can do some projects changing hardware and pickups and stuff which he will enjoy.

crunchman

The Harley Benton one is quite good:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_st_mini_bk.htm?sid=493d8588883592f0550397f8128f2d61

That's a 22.75" scale.  Avoid the smaller ones with a 19" scale.  19" is too short.  The strings are too slack, and the tuning is awful.

Avoid the Gear4Music own brand one.  I have friends who bought one for their son.  I tried to set it up a bit better and the bridge was in the wrong place, so I couldn't get it to intonate properly.

Exorcist

I bought my daughter a Yamaha guitalele - really well made, easy to play, great size. 6 string you just tune to A. I often pick ti up and noodle around ans it really is pretty high quality - especially compared to any of those 3/4 acoustic guitars they aim at kids. IMHO check one out.

roberty

Probably too big still but I really like these https://www.jacksonguitars.com/gear/shape/dinky/js-series-dinky-minion-js1x/2912223518

Maybe a child size classical guitar to start with?

monquixote

Live update my Mustang has just arrived and it seems very good.

tampadragon

monquixote said:

Live update my Mustang has just arrived and it seems very good.

Exciting! I will be watching for further updates one this. 
I am looking at all the options people have suggested, just for the cost the Harley Benton 3/4 size one looks to be the front runner at the moment.

ICBM

crunchman said:

Avoid the smaller ones with a 19" scale.  19" is too short.  The strings are too slack, and the tuning is awful.

It's OK if you use heavy strings - the Chiquita was designed for 12s or 13s, which makes sense when you compare it to the gauges/pitches you get if you capo a normal guitar at the 5th fret - effectively your 'top E' is then the B string gauge.

But otherwise you're right that 22.5" or greater gives more stable tuning with standard gauges.