A with his new guitar

Seemingly out of the blue in January, my stepson A (age 14) decided he wanted to learn guitar.

Since he started taking a guitar class at his middle school, we have really been impressed with his dedication and improvement in skills! He really does seem to be committed and passionate about this. It's fun to see a formerly somewhat grumpy teen having so much fun and showing this much enthusiasm for something.

So he'd been playing Scott's electric guitar to practice on at our house, sans amp. It's worth about $1200 so no way he's being given this one, nor is it even allowed to go back to his mom's or to school or friends' houses, etc.

To that end, we started discussing getting him his OWN guitar that he can transport according to his desires and after doing some research found that you can get a pretty good quality electric in the $300 range. Research also indicated that it was important to get a guitar that the CHILD thinks if fun to play, otherwise they are more likely to lose interest.

So we had A research various makes and models and write the pros/cons of his top 3 picks. Scott also researched and suggested a few others that A might consider. Lots of emails flying back and forth with links, etc. (what a great exercise this all turned out to be in being a smart consumer! He read tons of reviews and whittled down his initial list – based mainly on what the guitar looked like – to several intelligent choices based on quality, value and construction, with looks further down on the list of considerations).

And the bonding, oh the bonding. He loves to talk about guitar.

Last weekend we took him to a guitar store to try out his picks.

At first, he was leaning towards the Schecter Omen 6 Electric Guitar. My goodness, it is stunningly beautiful, too. The photos do not do justice to that gorgeous, intense indigo color.

But then he held this Ibanez (RG3EXQM1 Quilted Maple Top Electric Guitar) in his hands. Then that was ALL he had eyes for.

This guitar apparently has really high quality pickups, designed for lots of the metal distortion A so loves. What he especially loved about it was smooth, fast, narrow neck – none of the guitars he was considering in the $300 price range were made that way. The sales guy personally felt A would probably be better off with the very popular Schecter – more versatile, not as metal oriented. That comment made Scott and me also lean that way, but in the end we let A make the final decision.

We ended up getting him a guitar he LOVED that was initially out of his price range, but was on sale for $239, so he came in well under budget. Everyone is happy.

Awestruck

His little sis, Mir, was MOST impressed by his skill. And she loved the little guitar lesson he offered tonight. A 14 year old boy doesn't have much common ground with a 7 year old stepsister. It was sweet to see them connect like they did tonight.

The guitar lesson

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