Looking at buying jnr an eleccy guitar and amp. At the age of 7 he is into Ozzy Osbourne, Foos’ and Michael Buble.
Maybe something with an amp simulator on it?
How much do we need to spend to get something playable that wont discourage him.
Any recommendations?

(Being a bit of an old muso myself i thought a Marshall 4×12 stack/Strat combo would do but i think i may struggle to argue that one with mrs pup)

Fender Squire do their junior models – packages like this, I’m sure Encore and Epiphone probably do similar too. Ibanez do 3/4 guitars too for little ‘uns.

The ‘how much’ question is a bit tricky. Go too cheap and you end up with something where the truss rod might need continual adjustment to make it even remotely playable, and it continually goes out of tune (well, that was my experience of cheaper guitars :P), but obviously going for something higher budget runs the risk of it being left unused if he doesn’t take to it. Personally I’d spend a bit more, then be a pushy mother, beating the child until they were the next Joe Satriani.

Considered starting him off on an acoustic?

Yup thinking about acoustic too.
Wont go too cheap – buy cheap buy twice lessons learned!
3/4 sounds like a good option, they werent about when i was gigging so its all a bit new to me.
Ibanez might be good – he’ll match daddies bass when we get the band going 🙂

I bought my lad a Roland MicroCube amplifier a few years ago based upon advice from here.

It has been very good – reliable, good quality, compact – so well worth considering.

Microcube

Funny that, looked at exactly that at GigGear this afternoon – may stretch to a cube20XL so i can put my bass thru it.
Saw a lovely 2/3 Ibanez guitar to go with it too.

Update – he’s now the proud owner of a Dean 3/4 Stratocaster via ebay for 50 sniffs and a Fender Mustang combo from Gig Gear in Harlow (great shop btw, really helpful). I cant believe how good that little amp is!

Trouble is i saw a Spector bass while i was looking on ebay and bought it along with a Cubee 20XL bass combo to play it thru – doh 🙂

This Thread Is Useless Without Pictures.

mm, Dean guitars. nice.

this is my Dean:

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