Did Jimi Hendrix’ dad go through this?

I was just wondering if Jimi’s folks had a hard time buying him his first guitar.

My son, who will be six waaay too soon now, has announced that he wants a guitar. And a motorcycle bike. Without training wheels.

And between sobbing about my little baby growing up, and sobbing about the price of musical instruments, I don’t know what to do.

See – I could buy him a guitar from Toyz Backward R Us for what – thirty bucks? BUT – what if he likes playing? I can’t let him play on some piece of crap guitar that probably has a Power Ranger on it, can I?

On the other hand, there are some really, really nice guitars out there. But we still need back to school stuff and, well, the mortgage and car payment would be nice.

So my first step is to look around at the local music shops and see what they have. (I’ve already looked at Ebay and Amazon, but with a guitar I think I’d like to hold the darn thing and see what I think, instead of looking at a thumbnail and description. They call me old fashioned)

Wish me and the young Mr. Nugent luck.

6 thoughts on “Did Jimi Hendrix’ dad go through this?”

  1. Go with a cheapie first. Most kids SAY they want to play guitar, and then when the reality of “lessons” and “practice” and “twinke twinkle little star” instead of “stairway to heaven” kicks in, they lose interest. better to have him lose interest on a cheap guitar than a super pricey one.

  2. I agree with ESC. Buy the cheapie first. My oldest told me she ‘REALLY” wanted to play guitar, so her grandparents bought her one from ToysRUs, and after a week, she was ‘loaning’ it to her sisters: a sure sign that she doesn’t care about it anymore (and hopes it gets broken).

    My sister did just the opposite. My mom bought her a guitar for 5 bucks at a garage sale, had a pal tune it up, then bought my sister a song book. My younger didn’t even READ music, but she taught herself to play. She now has a couple of albums out with her name on them.

    Luck to you and yours, my friend!

  3. Put me in with ESC as well. First Act which is sold by the Toy Conglomerate you mentioned is actually not a badly made acoustic guitar, so it is not a “toy”, but also won’t break the bank.

    First Act also offers “Learn & Play Guitar Instruction Book” which at $14.99 is cheap way to guage interest before plunking down big bucks on a teacher.

  4. You do gotta hold it & play with it before you buy. My hubby’s into guiters big time. We did buy our oldest one when he was 6 & it was from Toys r Us. But it wasn’t a toy. It was a child’s guiter for $60. It actually is nice too! But if you can, maybe look around for a second hand one. That might be good idea, then you can get something nice but maybe not so much money, until you see if he likes it or not.

    Do you play?

  5. You can get a guitar w/o any characters on it for the same price. I would go with cheaper one at first and if hes really into at Christmas then get him a more expensive one.
    My kids wanted to play guitar, didn’t last long. We are dancing and playing sports instead. Kids are fickle.

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