On my increasingly epic quest to find my son (6) a fun guitar to play with I've decided to follow the advice of lots of people and sack off bothering with 22" scale guitars and go with something 24" on the grounds that it will be nice and easy to play whilst also being possible to keep in tune in E standard.
I want to go as cheap as possible without buying anything total crap with the main criteria being that it needs to be something cool to a small boy and as small bodied as possible.
I asked him what a cool guitar would look like and he said "Blue with skulls and flames on it". This would imply a James Burton Tele, but they are £1.3k so that aint happening.
So I've settled on a Squier Mustang as it's small, light and short scale and also cool because Kurt Cobain (he likes AC/DC and Queen, but close enough).
The contenders are:
Bullet Mustang:
At the insane price of £109
or Classic Vibe Mustang:
Which is a much pricier £299
That's quite a bit over budget, but I know CVs are meant to be an epic guitar for the money so maybe would be worth the extra.
Thoughts. alternatives?
Comments
I'd be tempted by the cheaper one if you can try first - is that an option?
I don't seem to be able to find anything secondhand. There has been pretty much nothing short scale on the classifieds for ages and Reverb and Ebay seems to be full of people trying to sell secondhand stuff for more than the new price.
Where should I be looking?
I guess probably Facebook which I don't have.
The CV is possibly* a better guitar, but it has a trem and thus inevitably more tuning issues than the hardtail Bullet no matter how well set-up it is, has awkward and not very useful pickup switching, and I suspect that although to me it looks cool, to a 6-year-old it's a 'dad's guitar'.
(*But I'm honestly not sure. It's a bit more complex, but the Bullet is astonishingly well-made for the money.)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
6 year-olds have a knack for dropping some knowledge.
I’ve had both (and still have the Bullet), but can’t really fault either from a VFM point-of-view. The Bullet is a fantastic starting point for mods etc, but really isn’t too bad outta the box either!
I've been umming and ahhing over selling it - i have too many guitars and it's probably my least played - but then I realised that for the money I'd get for it I'll quite happily hold onto it for the rare occasions I want to rock out.
It did need work when I bought it, but you'll struggle to get anything better without spending lots more.
FWIW the imperial blue finish is really impressive in the flesh. The sparkle looks very expensive.
Well decent out the box, just a wee bit intonation adjustment.... And it was good to go.
I fired 11's on mine, but if l remember correctly it came with 9's, which would probably be ideal for the wee fella.
Also I wouldn’t advise a Mexican Duo or Mustang, they’re short scale but have relatively chunky necks.
The Bullet has a tiny neck, smaller string spacing and a flatter radius.
as you said earlier it will be living in the living room with kids running allover ...so hand on heart here's 2 senarios....
classic vibe £300 he knocks it off the stand or drops it and a chunk out the body or headstock ..oh no
Squier bullet few stickers on , chunk out .. rock n roll ! its a relic !no sweat! its a £100 basher ...spread jam on it ! paint it !
you get my jist ?