£100 for guitar and amp means going right into the bargain basement. A lot of the £100-ish guitars are basically toys, you buy them in a sealed box and give them as a christmas prsent and by february they’re gathering dust, it’s a shame- a little bit more gets a lot of result. They’re not quite Guitar Shaped Objects but they’re not usually good. £150 generally buys you a hell of a lot more than £100.
Squier Bullet is one of the reliable classics, they’re not brilliant but at least they tend to be built right- there’s a huge difference with guitars, it’s not just the parts but also assembly, good parts put together or set up badly make a terrible guitar, cheap parts assembled well make a decent guitar. The Squiers at least have decent QC etc. Stagg make a lot of 3/4s and I used to do shop QC on them, practically none were fit to sell out of the box and quite a lot were just junk. With mail order or box shifter shops, that junk was ending up in kids’ hands, putting them off or needing £50 worth of setup and repair to make them work.
I’m like 15 years out of date now but 3/4s used to be great sellers/resellers for the same reason anything else for growing people is- kids get them and then grow out of them, so there was a constant trade in quality ones.
What’s he into? ESP do some brilliant 3/4s, they’re out of your budget new but if he’s a rocker they’re absolutely the business. There’s a Kirk Hammett signature kid’s guitar, that’s genius.
Ibanez Jumpstart is a decent boxed set, at £150. Comes with a basic case too, that’s a bonus if he’s doing lessons.
Is there a better practice amp out there now than the roland cubes? They turned things upside down when they came out. And then PC modelling did it again, suddenly you don’t need an amp at all.
Ehhhh… I’m not totally sure but I might still have a nearly new little practice amp in the house. It’s not very good but it’d be free, or the cost of postage, if I can find it. If you’re interested, nah me about this, I will forget.
