First Act Acoustic Guitar
Toy Or Real Guitar?

The First Act Acoustic Guitar is popular with kids and beginners mostly because of where they're sold--toy stores and mega-marts.

These instruments are prominently displayed during the holiday season, usually around the checkout aisles, leading to vast qualities of sales.
first act acoustic guitar, pink guitars Popular colors like pink combined with cool graphics make for a very desirable package targeted at kids. And for around $100, many first time guitar buying parents feel the price is right too.

Let's start with the bad news about this particular First Act acoustic guitar: they made this guitar with just enough quality to pass as a real guitar. So yes, this instrument is a guitar.

first act acoustic guitar, pink guitars However, we've found that the tuning knobs were falling off after about a month of playing by a serious beginner guitar student.

Because the tuners are of such low quality, it's hard to keep the guitar in tune. A 30-year guitar playing veteran had a very hard to time tuning this particular instrument, so you can only imagine how a beginner is going to feel. first act acoustic guitar, pink guitars

Intonation is another issue we have with this guitar, though this is not as much of a problem, it's only compounded by the tuning difficulties. (Intonation is the ability of the guitar to stay in tune as the fingers play notes higher up the neck.)

One more final piece of bad news and we'll stop bashing this guitar: you can find a better guitar for the same price. You just won't find it at a mega-mart.

Now for the good news. Most importantly, kids can learn to play the guitar on First Act beginner instruments.

Check out the embedded video on this page for a sample of beginner guitar student, Siarra, playing a riff based on "Smoke on the Water" and one of her original compositions. Note: she's only had 10 guitar lessons!!!

first act acoustic guitar, pink guitars Other pluses: the guitar's 3/4 size does makes it easier to play for younger kids. And if your daughter likes pink, finding a pink guitar with graphics elsewhere could prove difficult or more costly.

Summary: First Act guitars are impulse buys. Parents who would never walk into a music store are presented with the opportunity to purchase an instrument while shopping for a broad variety of other items (again, think Wal-Mart).

And the kids who have been introduced to guitar playing through popular video games and/or television shows are drawn to the cool colors and graphics.

If you have little experience with guitars or are not intending to purchase private guitar lessons, be prepared to have trouble getting this instrument to sound good.

Please DO NOT think your child has no talent because his or her playing sounds poor. The instrument's poor tuning capabilities are to blame.

If your child is constantly picking up the instrument and trying to play it: do her a favor and get some private lessons. It's the greatest gift you could ever give her and will last a lifetime.

Bottom line, you can get a better guitar of better quality for the same price elsewhere. The problem is, most parents don't know where to go or are justifiably intimidated by the amount of choices out there.

That's where we come in. Look to cheap-guitars-report.com for advice on first-time and beginner guitar buying. Check out the other guitars we've reviewed in this category or email us with a Review Request before you make your decision.

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