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my son has asked for an electric guitar for Christmas and i have no idea where or what to look for.
i saw amazon has some intro kits that have an amp and guitar for pretty cheap.

i know it may be buying junk but he says that he wants to teach himself to play and i have a really hard time seeing him putting down his xbox controller to pick up a guitar but if theres any interest i suppose i should try to fuel it.

can anyone recommend a good way to start and what to get?
he's left handed if it matters but i know that sometimes handedness doesn't always translate in to physical abilities like catching/throwing etc.

price of course matters as it might be chucked in a closet come January but thats the hard part... who knows.
id rather get a cheap intro and upgrade him later if he ends up being truly interested.

thanks in advance...

Telecaster with humbucher and vox pathfinder

You'll definitely want a left-handed one. While you can learn (with a hell of a lot of practice) to play right-handed despite being a lefty, it's another barrier. You can restring a regular guitar as a left-hander but that's an extra cost so you might as well pay a bit more to get a left-handed one (which will also be more comfortable to use).

To be honest, if he has no prior experience I'd start out with a relatively cheap acoustic before investing in an electric guitar and amp and all the necessary extras; after a certain point, skills from an acoustic might not translate to an electric (especially if he's looking at playing rock/metal/blues styles with a lot of effects/reverb/overdrive ect) but for learning the basics, an acoustic will do just fine and be less of an investment if it doesn't pan out. I won't say quality doesn't matter, but equally if it's something he's not sure about then any guitar will be enough to know whether he's really up for learning to play or not.

If he does really get into it though, it's worth paying for a good setup rather than getting something second-rate and having to upgrade. I'm not saying go and drop $500 on a Gibson or a Fender but both of those companies do have entry-level sub-ranges (Gibson's is Epiphone, can't recall Fender's off the top of my head) which are still very nice guitars but far cheaper than their top of the line products. About £140-200 for one of those and an amp for less than £100 will mean he doesn't need a further upgrade unless he gets crazy good quickly and starts playing proper gigs (and even then, a decent Epipoone would suffice)

Can't go wrong with a Squier starter bundle.

Cheap, and pretty decent quality.

Not sure they do a specific LH model, but the staff at the shop should be able to string it upside down for you, Hendrix style!

Epiphone do similar packages, but I never got on with mine (kept falling out of tune) and traded it for the Squier. This was 15 years ago, mind you.

thanks guys.
hes such a pain in the butt too (hes 14).
i keep asking and he never shows me the one that he wants.
god forbid he make it any easier on me... lol

he does have one redeeming quality though in the fact that he told me he plans on learning to play ironman first so i give him some leeway

I'm a left handed, (mostly) self-taught guitar player... but I play right handed. I write and draw (and paint) with my left hand, but my right arm/hand is my catching/throwing/batting hand. Hopefully I can give some advice... this might be a bit long, but I hope it's helpful.

I started playing when I was around 18 (I'm 33 now). I did learn other instruments when I was young... say between 11 and 16... but it was mostly because I was "encouraged" to when I was in a rather competitive secondary school (read... no real choice... fatherly expectations).

I have also taught children... but I've found it's mostly the adults who want to play and do it through their children who don't practice and are generally miserable about it in those cases. Kids have to want to play.

So I'd say... buy a lesson with a local guitar teacher first. It should cost up to around £30 for an hour. You can sit in and watch too. You don't have to buy a guitar and he can probably try a left and a right handed guitar, if the tutor is well equipped. If he still likes it (and you can SEE his reactions whilst playing) then you know if he wants a left or right handed guitar and you can purchase one. If he shows little interest then you can skip getting the guitar. Some tutors will even lend you a guitar for the first few lessons, especially if you buy multiple lessons. Don't feel commited to continue the lessons, but at least one or two here or there will help him not pick up bad habits.

If you child is solely a left handed person (writing, drawing, catching, punching... EVERYTHING) then you probably need a left handed guitar. Finding sources to learn are more difficult to come by. Kids these days learn so much from YouTube that he'll probably watch people on there play, so that'll be harder.
Guitars will also have less variety, but it's not too bad except I find that they're 10-20% more expensive in general as less are produced.

If he's left handed when writing and drawing, but his right hand is stronger (eg: throwing, catching etc) and he can use knives and forks the "correct" way I suggest trying for a right handed guitar. Learning/copying people will be easier, he'll have a greater variety of guitars to choose from (now and in future).

As for if you decide to jump into it... I can suggest a Yamaha Pacifica guitar as a "decent" starter electric guitar. It has a neutral tone, not too many settings and is a good quality build. It's not the cheapest (less than £200) guitar, but if it's looked after it'll retain it's value ok. If he continues to play in the future I bet he'll hang onto that guitar forever, whereas other more stylized guitars (like the telecaster) which have distinct tones, or really dirt cheap guitars will just sit collecting dust.
A tremolo arm is ok but not necessary at all. If you want any guitar as a beginners... do NOT get a Floyd rose bridge. It's too much hassle to tune up for a beginner for probably a function of the guitar that won't be utilized.
Some people above have suggested getting an acoustic first. I've found that it's harder to transition from an electric to an acoustic (due to picked up bad habits, playing style, and size/shape of guitar), but it's much easier for people who play acoustic to change to an electric. But... if he prefers electric guitar music, then that would encourage him more, and also with enough time he can learn acoustic afterwards.

As for amps... Cheap amps are generally really rubbish... more so than cheap guitars... it's easy to get drawn in by cheaper models that have lots of functions, but you probably won't use all of those functions that much (eg: line-6 beasts).
All those fancy sound effects are fun to play with, but you can get a multi-effects pedal in future to do that, and get a more basic amp which has a better quality sound to it. Perhaps a Marshall MF15, which is a basic, but good sounding 15Watt amp that won't split your ears open by being too loud. Consider headphones and/or a micro-sized battery operated practice amp so he can practice whenever he wants.
Amps (at least proper valve amps) are REALLY heavy. If you are his transport consider this. Bigger is not always better... it's about the amount of size of room you want to fill... if it's just his room you don't need a 40watt.

Cables... don't worry about spending lots on a cable... not worth it. You can always upgrade later. Kids will tend to not look after them as much (not judging your child, sorry) and they will coil up and sometimes break, so don't both with expensive ones. Unless you're doing studio level recording you probably won't notice any difference. You can get more rugged ones, which you may wish to consider.

You'll probably want to buy some picks. Try some harder ones (larger mm sizes). I can recommend Jim Dunlop Tortex ones. They're around £4 for 12. He will lose them. You will find them in the wash, under rugs... just everywhere .73mm are good starters. Generally as you get better you get thinner, less rigid picks.

The only "gadget" I can recommend is a tuner. It is a must! Do not ever have one far way. A cheap battery operated clip on one should be fine.

Don't be afraid to go second hand either, but I recommend getting them from a proper music exchange shop. They will throw in gig bags, straps and will set up the guitar properly for you, but again don't fall for expensive cables, straps etc. Usually if you buy from them, you also then have the confidence to go back and sell it back to them later if he doesn't like it.

The kits where you get a guitar, amp, tuner, cable and some picks are ok, but you will generally loose out on one thing or another in them... amp or guitar quality. A rubbish sounding guitar or amp will just put everyone off.

I've found that with kids, try not to push him too hard on it. Kids have to want to learn to play an instrument to make it part of their lives. Make sure there are songs from artists he listens to that he can start to learn to play. The first song I learnt to play was Ironman by Black Sabbath too!

Thanks TarkinLarson.
i hadnt thought about getting him a lesson or two just to figure out what he likes and to make sure that he is engaged with it.

believe me when i say that this is all him...
while i would like him to be interested in something other than video games i'm certainly not going to force it. i agree that he has to want to do it on his own.

he says that he can learn from youtube just like you said, lol.

My nephew, who is 13 lives on YouTube videos and has virtually self taught himself piano on it, just because he wanted to. He has had a couple of lessons just to get him over certain hurdles and to get rid of bad habits.

I think the ability to access the information themselves and at their own pace is great. So if he says he can do it on YouTube, I'd be inclined to believe him, but because he won't get feedback from a tutor (there are interactive online tutor courses though) he'll be more likely to develop bad habits. Now that won't prevent him from basic guitar playing, but later on it'll hamper him from more advanced techniques, unless he's really dedicated and a virtuoso and turns that bad habit into his own unique playing style.

Jimi Hendrix (left hander) would have bad habits (like hooking his thumb over the fret-board) which would be discouraged. Also players like Slash (from Guns and Roses etc) have minor bad habits which can be picked out easily, but they don't/didn't hamper them as awesome musicians.

If you have any questions let me know.

ESP Guitars has a "budget" line called LTD, and there are some fairly cheap options there. I know that they start as low as $150 for sure, but cruising to their website may bear better fruit. I have owned an ESP Eclipse AND an LTD Eclipse, and I'd buy another ESP in a heartbeat.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Thanks TarkinLarson.
i hadnt thought about getting him a lesson or two just to figure out what he likes and to make sure that he is engaged with it.

believe me when i say that this is all him...
while i would like him to be interested in something other than video games i'm certainly not going to force it. i agree that he has to want to do it on his own.

he says that he can learn from youtube just like you said, lol.

A lesson or two up front would be worth it, or even just a demo session if you have a local music store that will offer that kind of thing, Even better, if he can try out a few guitars under the supervision of the staff, that'll give him a better idea of what kind of thing he wants; one might look awesome online, but be too heavy in person or have the wrong tone ect. Better to try before you buy in that case.


To be honest, you can learn a lot through online resources and the odd study book, and probably far moreso now than you could 10 years ago when I was learning thanks to the explosion of Youtube. I actually gave up paying for lessons after a year or so, I found my teacher just wasn't covering anything I couldn't find online or figure out for myself (though he may just have been a rubbish teacher). Youtube is a good place to start, and there are dozens of websites that will have Tab Sheets for pretty much any song you can think of (though accuracy may vary).

You can find all sorts of books covering the basics of guitar playing and general music theory; they'll teach you to read guitar tabs (more useful than learning sheet music if he's not likely to pick up another instrument, as they translate directly to where you put your fingers on the fretboard), cover the basics of chord progressions and scales, various practice exercises and often come with a DVD with a couple of tutorials or examples on. You can then look into more specific ones for, as an example, learning to play in blues or rock or metal styles, but at that point you can probably make do with online stuff.

It might be worth finding out if your son has any friends who also play/are learning to play, from my own experience it can be handy to have someone at a similar level to 'compare notes' and occasionally jam with; if you're not getting lessons, that's the next best way to discover any bad habits you've picked up and conversely to learn a few new things.

Iron Man must be a popular one, it was the second riff I learned as well!

so i was finally able to pull some onfo out of him...
any thoughts on his choices?

Squier by Fender Bullet Stratocaster Electric Guitar - HSS - Hard Tail - Rosewood Fingerboard - Arctic White - https://www.amazon.com/Squier-Fender-Bullet-Stratocaster-Electric/dp/B06Y2632M9/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1510184982&sr=8-15&keywords=electric%2Bguitar&th=1

Fender Frontman 10G Electric Guitar Amplifier - https://www.amazon.com/Fender-Frontman-Electric-Guitar-Amplifier/dp/B001L8PIFW/ref=sr_1_3?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1510185102&sr=1-3&keywords=guitar+amp&dpID=61WxwocahEL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

oh yeah... one of his classmates plays. he's going to get him to help him figure out handedness but hes right hand strong so it will most likely end up being right handed.
he really only writes with his left hand.

Yes, buy the Squier. In terms of value for money they blow everything else out the water. I've played pro gigs with £100 Squiers quite happily in an emergency. If you're in the lucky position of that being rage kind of thing he likes stylistically as well, it's a no brainer.

Seconded. Very good guitar at a very good price. With the Fender name behind it you know the build quality and sound will be more than up to scratch and so long as he takes good care of it, it'll last him a good long while (get a decent strap ASAP; even if he's playing sitting down, you don't want to risk dropping such a nice bit of kit).

I'm a little late to the party, but I have this Epiphone bundle:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A6D50L0

Guitar seems decent for the money. Amp isn't particularly impressive, but I live in a duplex so I don't need to be shaking the walls too much either.

Whammy stick is absolutely not necessary and will only
interfere the tuning of the guitar

I've never liked the Fender sound. Thin, tinny garbage. I like something with a little weight. Epiphone is a good one at that. But if he's set on a Fender, get what is cheap with a good review.

he actually surprised me last night.
he started going over everything that hes learned so far with me.
its a surprise for two reasons... 1) hes actually interested enough to start to learn to read the music before even having the guitar and 2) hes interested enough to talk to me about it.

it seems small but i was happy

on a side note, he mentioned the wammy bar and the fact that the guitar hes looking at doesnt have one.

i know that freakazoitt mentioned that it was an unnecessary add on but what about everyone else, any opinions on it?

The only good "whammy bar" system is the Floyd Rose locking tremolo system. Most Fenders that have "whammy bars" have fulcrum tremolos, which cause the guitar to go out of tune when used with any sort of... zest? Yeah, that's a good word. I'd tell him to worry about getting the standard playing down before worrying about tremolo, and be prepared that I have yet to meet a guitar player that stopped at one guitar...

that's what i told him. he seemed ok with that.

 Just Tony wrote:
The only good "whammy bar" system is the Floyd Rose locking tremolo system.

There are several great systems. Well set up Khalers, TransTrems, and SuperVees are all every bit as good Floyd Roses. Some of the bespoke ones are particularly great. The Parker one is ridiculous.

Most Fenders that have "whammy bars" have fulcrum tremolos, which cause the guitar to go out of tune when used with any sort of... zest?

Again, really well set up ones are perfectly usable (barring the floating Jazzmaster monstrosity, but that's part of its charm...)- but obviously aren't designed to achieve the same things as locking trems. Same deal with Bigsbys.


That said, good trems are not found on cheap guitars since they're usually worth twice what the instrument costs, so it's not really worth worrying about for a starter instrument.

I started with a squire - I still have it - I don't play it anymore because I have a les paul but it is a really good starter - put nice strings on it and it sounds great. FYI lots of lefties play right hand guitars - it would actually suit him to learn right handed because 95% of guitars are right handed. It's not like playing catch - both hands require dexterity and strength.

Mmm, guitar is my field (Hivefleet Sr), I've worked for decades in that area.

1: the Squier is great. Go for that, you can't really go wrong. As a brand they hold their value. Fender guitars are designed to be mass-produced in a way that Epiphones aren't, so they're a safe bet. And I say that as someone who owns a 1959 Gibson as well as a 1952 Fender.

2: Secondly, being a fractionally longer scale length, Fenders tend to have better tuning stability and intonation, all other factors considered.

3: Strats are a good choice. They're versatile, work for clean sounds (Strokes) and dirty ones too (Hendrix)

4: Strats are normally associated with tremolos. Even if you don't use the trem, you simply keep the full complement of springs which allows downward bends only and they won't affect tuning stability. (They do make it very slightly harder to tune up from scratch when you put a set of strings on as whole the system is under tension).

The standard Fender trem is a great piece of industrial design and offers good functionality. It's probabyl marginally better to get a Strat with one in terms of future resale, but it's no big deal. Floyd Rose trems are outmoded now - most folk favour tweaking the vintage design. If the guitar's set up properly tuning stability is easily good enough.

5: I'm left-handed in terms of writing but r-h for many other things, and play right-handed. It's often seen as giving you a better start as the tricky stuff is done with the left hand when you start. And if you play guitar right-handed life in general is a lot easier if you want to move on to another guitar.

6: Don't diss the Jazzmaster, man! I've left mine feeding back at the end of a set, thrown it on the stage bouncing up and down on the trem, come back for an encore and that baby was bang-on in terms of tuning. It is a vintage one, though, and I think the trem's better than the Japanese reissues.

7: if you are near a guitar shop, it's worth going in, so your son can pick up a guitar, handle it, and make sure he's comfortable playing r/h. It's surely worth paying an extra $20 to make sure, and that way, if he's having problems he can get it adjusted there. Folks in guitar stores can often be nice, I met the fella who sold me stuff when I was a teenager for a drink last weekend, he's become a bit of a friend for life.

 Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:

6: Don't diss the Jazzmaster, man! I've left mine feeding back at the end of a set, thrown it on the stage bouncing up and down on the trem, come back for an encore and that baby was bang-on in terms of tuning. It is a vintage one, though, and I think the trem's better than the Japanese reissues.

Didn't diss it. I love them, have owned several 60s ones and a few modern ones. Their tuning stability is poor next to the vast majority of Fenders (because of it's looseness and balance between strings rather than not returning to tune after use) in my experience but, as I say, that warble is part of its charm.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
that's what i told him. he seemed ok with that.

If all else fails, show him some videos of BB King playing. You don't need a tremolo to get vibrato or pitch bend

So an update...
He's looking at this ibanez, he's infatuated with the whammy bar.
https://www.amazon.com/Ibanez-GRX20W-Electric-Guitar-White/dp/B00WVDCWTG/ref=sr_1_14?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1510515109&sr=1-14&keywords=ibanez

Thankfully he said he'll take your advice so if the bar or this guitar is a bad choice let me know what you think.

Mediocre guitar and a very poor bridge. Any Squier with a vibrato (tremolo/vibrato/whammy are mostly used interchangeably in reference to guitar bridges - though they don't actually mean the same thing) is a better option. Honestly, unless he is captivated by a particular aesthetic, a Squier strat or Tele pack is the way to go. Strat if he's all about the vibrato.

If he likes the look/sound of an Ibanez, there are several cheap models with a locking tremolo on it. If you don't see three allen screws across the neck right before the head stock, then it's not going to be a locking trem. Also, I'd hit up Guitar Center's website. I believe that is the place that used to be Musician's Friend. It's a good store with some sweet deals going through.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

on a side note, he mentioned the wammy bar and the fact that the guitar hes looking at doesnt have one.

A lot of requerements for whammy:
- A good expencive guitar. Starter kit guitars have to be tuned every time after using whammy bar
- Need special effect processors or pedal systems
- Need better quality amps
- Skills
- Finally, beginners guitar musics don't use that

 Freakazoitt wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

on a side note, he mentioned the wammy bar and the fact that the guitar hes looking at doesnt have one.

A lot of requerements for whammy:
- A good expencive guitar. Starter kit guitars have to be tuned every time after using whammy bar
- Need special effect processors or pedal systems
- Need better quality amps
- Skills
- Finally, beginners guitar musics don't use that

None of these things are true. The archetypal beginners lead guitar tune, Apache by The Shadows, needs none of these things bar a little technique practice and revolves totally around vibrato bar use. Using a vibrato bridge isn't just divebombs and peaking out pinch harmonics. That said, when Van Halen coined 'whammy bar' he was doing those things with a cheap two point strat bridge.

nfe wrote:

 Freakazoitt wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

on a side note, he mentioned the wammy bar and the fact that the guitar hes looking at doesnt have one.

A lot of requerements for whammy:
- A good expencive guitar. Starter kit guitars have to be tuned every time after using whammy bar
- Need special effect processors or pedal systems
- Need better quality amps
- Skills
- Finally, beginners guitar musics don't use that

None of these things are true. The archetypal beginners lead guitar tune, Apache by The Shadows, needs none of these things bar a little technique practice and revolves totally around vibrato bar use. Using a vibrato bridge isn't just divebombs and peaking out pinch harmonics. That said, when Van Halen coined 'whammy bar' he was doing those things with a cheap two point strat bridge.

Yes, and he also had a guitar tech to run him a new guitar every time he reamed his gak out of tune. Randy Rhoads also is a player who had the occasional reaming of the tremolo, but he also had several guitars not equipped with it in the first place that were his mainstays.