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Learning Guitar can be an incredibly rewarding experience – it can teach discipline, it can bring about many benefits to mental health, and it’s one of the best possible outlets for creativity, and that’s why choosing the best guitars for kids is so critical. For parents, finding the best guitars for kids can be a confusing process – there are tons of options, and not so many ways to narrow down the choices.
For that reason, in this KillerGuitarRigs Guide, we’ll be taking a look at the 10 best kids guitars. We’re bringing you 5 acoustic guitars and 5 electric guitars from budget choices through to high end options.
We kept things consistent during the test by using the same amplifier throughout, in this case, a Boss Katana 50 MKII. We didn’t use any effects so that we could really hear the natural character of the guitars.
In deciding which were the best electric and acoustic guitars for kids, we focused on features, Tone, comfort for younger players, and overall build quality.
How to Choose the Best Guitars For Your Kids
Choosing the best guitar for your kids is more important than you might first think. Buying the wrong guitar means they’re going to be less likely to practice, but if you get it right, they’ll spend more time playing and progress much faster. When shopping for the kids guitars, there are a number of things that you should be on the lookout for to ensure you’re getting the best possible guitar for your kids’ needs. Keep reading to learn more:
Materials
When shopping for guitars, you’ll probably see sellers advertising which “tone woods” their guitars are made from. Tone woods are specially selected woods used in guitar building, and they are chosen for their specific sound properties.
Electric Guitars
| Wood | Properties |
| Alder | Balanced tone, light weight |
| Ash | Highly resonant, bright tones, heavy |
| Basswood | Light weight, inexpensive, slight warmth |
| Mahogany | Heavy weight, attractive color, warm and mellow |
| Maple | Heavy weight, bright tone, highly aesthetic |
| Poplar | Tone favors upper midrange, light weight |
Acoustic Guitars
| Wood | Properties |
| Sitka Spruce | Extremely bright tone, light weight, pale color |
| Spruce | Bright tone, light weight, pale color |
| Mahogany | Heavy weight, tone leaning warm, mid brown color |
| Rosewood | Heavy weight, very warm and mellow tone, dark color |
Kids Guitar Sizes
As with anything when shopping for kids, size is very important – be sure to factor that in when making your choices. You’ll see guitars listed as anything from ½ size to full size, and everything in between, including some seemingly obscure sizes like 7/8 or even 15/16 size. The best size for your children is whatever they’re comfortable playing. A large dreadnought won’t be comfortable for an average 7 year old, and similarly, a 2/3 size electric guitar isn’t likely to be the best choice for a 17 year old.
Another important size consideration is the guitar’s scale length. The scale length is the distance from the nut to the bridge, which is effectively the length of the live, vibrating part of the strings. A full size guitar is considered to be anything with a 24” or greater scale length, and anything less is a reduced scale instrument.
Reduced scale guitars are ideal for kids as they are better suited to smaller hands. They don’t require as much finger stretching to reach for chords, or when playing solos and scales, which is what makes them a good choice for younger players.
Nut Width and Neck Profile
The nut width is an important detail to look at when shopping for kids’ guitars. The nut width is a measure of how wide the neck is at the nut. A wide nut width will be difficult for kids and those with smaller hands to play, while a narrow nut makes life easier. Ideally, a guitar for kids will have a nut less than 1.7” wide.
Similarly, the neck profile has a huge impact on how easy it is for a player to get their fingers around to the fretboard. Big, chunky necks make it tough to reach all the way around, and especially for younger players, can make certain techniques (like barre chords) almost impossible. Be on the look out for slim necks in order to find the best guitars for kids.
Electric vs. Acoustic
This is really a matter of taste, but important to consider nevertheless. Acoustic guitars are designed to be played without amplification, and electric guitars will require an amplifier in order to be properly heard. Which you should buy really depends on the person you’re buying it for. If they’re into hard rock, heavy metal, or you’re aware that their favorite musicians play electric guitar, consider buying an electric guitar.
If your kids are into singer songwriter style music, an acoustic is always a good choice, and if they like blues or country, then both electric and acoustic guitars work well for those genres. At the end of the day, if they are able to play their favorite songs on their guitar, they are more likely to pick it up and practice, and that’s usually the end goal when shopping for guitars.
Best Electric Guitars for Kids: Our Top 3
Our top pick in this category was the Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior Player Pack. Unlike the other guitars on test, this is a bundle complete with guitar, amp, lead, and more. The guitar itself looks and sounds great, and is a great starter platform for kids to learn on.
The Ibanez Mikro GRGM21, is an excellent choice at the lower end of the price range, and so, it took our Best Budget award. It’s a reduced size and scale guitar, but that doesn’t mean it cuts back on features. It’s ideal for smaller players, but even older kids will find it comfortable to play.
When it comes to the ultimate guitar for kids, we think it doesn’t get much better than our Editor’s Choice winner, the Epiphone SG Custom. It’s lightweight, comfortable, and it’s just so cool. Not only is it a solid choice for young players, but it’s a guitar that will see them through into adulthood, which is not something every guitar for kids can do.
Best Electric Guitars for Kids: Individual Reviews
Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior Player Pack
A turn key package made in collaboration with an iconic guitarist
This bundle gives you one of the hottest guitars on the market right now, together with all the accessories needed to make music out of the box. You’re getting serious quality and style in a turn key package.
The Les Paul Junior model was originally intended to be a more affordable option for students and young players, but the simple tones made it a punk scene favorite. The Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior is the signature model of the Green Day front man, so you can be sure it’s packed with style, attitude, and almost everything else that makes a kid want to pick up an electric guitar in the first place.
As far as looks go, this is one of our absolute favorite Epiphone models to come out over the last 3 years. It’s finished in a gloss “Classic White” with piano black accents, just like Armstrong’s Gibson Junior. It has a slab design body, and it even features the new “Kalamazoo” headstock, which looks a lot closer to the classic Gibson design than previous Epiphones did – something that style conscious kids are sure to love.
As for construction, this guitar is absolutely solid. Like any true Les Paul, it’s made with a solid Mahogany body, so we got all the sustain we have come to expect, and found that it was very complimentary of dark rock tones, too. Of course, it also featured a mahogany neck, which felt amazing in the slim taper D profile. It did have a bolt on neck rather than the traditional set neck, but for a beginner, this setup is more than adequate.
Tuning stability was a strong point for this LPJ. We found that it held tune well right out of the box, and the tuners themselves turned smoothly. The action was nice and low, too, which definitely helps younger players make a better connection with the fretboard.
This model is equipped with a single P90 pickup, with a volume control, and a tone control, that’s it. It’s simplicity personified, but we were still able to get some pretty complex tones from it. At low volumes it played cleans very nicely, they were clear, and articulate, which isn’t always easy to do with a P90.
With the volume and gain cranked, the single P90 growled just like it’s supposed to. P90s are technically single coil pickups, but they sound a lot fatter than a true single coil without sounding as dark as a humbucker – because of this they have an almost snarling tone when pushed hard.
Verdict: The Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior Player Pack is a really exciting choice for kids. It’s the signature model of one of the all time greats, it looks amazing, it sounds like a guitar that costs twice as much, and as an added bonus comes with a great 15 watt amp, a gig bag, a tuner, picks, a strap, and a cable. It’s an absolute steal at this price, and a great first guitar choice.
Ibanez Mikro GRGM21
The ideal guitar for the youngest shredders
In this Ibanez you’re getting a guitar that absolutely screams metal! It’s well priced, offers excellent tones, and also happens to be very comfortable for younger players.
At first glance, we really thought we were looking at a full size Ibanez GRG, which isn’t hard to do seeing as it has all the same features. What we actually had was the Ibanez Mikro GRGM21, a short scale, ¾ version of Ibanez’ popular Gio model.
We absolutely loved the looks of this guitar, it was angular and aggressive, a real classic metal design. Our test model was all black, with a few white accents, but there are a number of other colors available to suit all tastes, including some pretty vivid options like metallic purple.
The slim, fast playing maple neck was equipped with a jatoba fretboard, which is a great rosewood alternative commonly used on Ibanez models. The fretboard was even finished with the same awesome “shark tooth” inlay that you’ll find on their high end models, we loved this design touch. Despite the fact that this is a compact guitar with a short scale, it still had a 24 frets, giving us a full range at the top end for solos.
It had a basswood body, a common tone wood used in electric guitar construction, and was really well contoured, making it an extremely comfortable choice that younger players will have no difficulty holding.
We found that tuning stability was pretty solid, we know that some people like to tune up short scale guitars to F# or even A to assist with tone and stability, but even in standard E tuning, this Ibanez performed well. In fact, the lower string tension made it more comfortable in our opinions, and it made playing bends much easier – as this is a hard tail model (no tremolo), being able to play expressively was appreciated.
As for electronics, it was equipped with 2 ceramic humbuckers, both of which sounded good. We got some nice warmth and clean tones from the neck pickup, and when in the bridge position we got some super clean top end that sounded great with high gain on the amplifier.
Verdict: The Ibanez GRGM21 Mikro is hard to bet at the price. It’s built to a standard, and it really does sound great. It’s a versatile guitar that can handle clean tones for practice, and does just as well with high gain and distortion when it’s time to let loose. It’s a great platform for a young guitarist to get started on, and it just so happens that these Ibanez models take mods really well, so it can be easily upgraded in future.
Epiphone SG Custom
A ‘working musician’ quality instrument that’s also a perfect guitar for young musicians
This is the flagship SG in the Epiphone range, and about as close to a Gibson as you’ll find. It’s made with premium materials, has high end appointments throughout, and it is hands down, one of the most comfortable guitars ever made.
It’s easy to look at high end guitars and think that they aren’t going to be appropriate for kids, but that’s often an unfair assessment. Take the Epiphone SG Custom, for example. It’s built almost identically to a high end Gibson model, but comes in at around a quarter of the price, and unlike the arch top Les Paul models, it’s contoured for comfort, and light weight, 2 attributes that make it ideal for kids and teens.
Unboxing this SG Custom was a real treat, it was immediately apparent that this was much more than the average beginner’s guitar. The test model we received was ebony with gold accents, just as it would be with a Gibson.
It came with full mahogany construction, both neck and body. The neck had a slim taper D profile, which felt fantastic in the hand, providing the comfort that new players are looking for, and the speed that experienced players crave. It’s one of the big reasons that this guitar is a great guitar to grow with a player throughout their journey.
Being a SG Custom, it featured block pearloid inlay on the premium ebony fretboard, which felt fantastic under the fingers, and looked great against the ebony body and neck finish.
We found that the Epiphone deluxe tuners held tune incredibly well, and added a lot to the vintage look of the guitar overall.
As for electronics, we were really pleased to see the use of CTS potentiometers in the volume and tone controls. They gave a perfect swell when turning between 0 and 10, with no noticeable drop off. These are the electronics that people add as upgrades to their guitars, so with this SG, you’re starting out with the best of the best.
It was equipped with a pair of hot Alnico Pro humbucking pickups. They are a classic pairing for the SG. They sounded amazing, and handled all genres well, from pop and country through to metal, so no matter the musical preference of the recipient, they’ll be able to get the tones they’re looking for with this SG.
Verdict: While the Epiphone SG Custom is better suited towards older children and teens, it’s still a great choice for the majority of kids. If you’re looking for something special, that looks and sounds amazing, something that will hold value well, and last a lifetime, this guitar is a must buy.
Squier Mini Stratocaster
A scaled down Strat with all the classic tones you’d expect
This is a ¾ size version of one of the most popular guitars of all time. It offers the features young players need to learn the fundamentals in a quality, compact package.
On pulling this tiny Squier Mini Stratocaster out of its box, we were really amazed to see just how much like a full size Strat it looked. This is bound to be appealing to young players who want to emulate their Strat playing idols. The only noticeable difference between the Mini Strat and a full size model is the absence of the second tone knob.
The neck had a slim C profile that we found to be both comfortable and fast playing. The neck itself is made of maple, just like you’d find on any other Stratocaster. The fretboard was super comfortable, and the 22.75” scale made stretching out a piece of cake.
On the topic of the fretboard, we found that the Indian laurel was a little on the dry side, which led to it looking almost grey in color. As it was a demo, we didn’t get a chance to oil it, but a drop of fretboard conditioner would have quickly brought it back to life.
It was one of the lightest we tested by quite some margin. The poplar body still maintained good resonance, though, which was a pleasant surprise, especially given the diminutive size.
The potentiometers weren’t quite as good as we’d hoped they’d be. There was a bit of a drop off below 3, so swelling the tone and volume was a little difficult, but again, it’s aimed at kids learning the fundamentals, so this is far from a deal breaking flaw.
The 3 single coil ceramic pickups were nice and bright, too. They had some great Stratocaster chime and clarity, and sounded great both clean and distorted.
Otherwise, we were really happy with the performance in general. Tuning stability was good, despite a little jerkiness from the tuning pegs, and the fit and finish was really excellent.
Verdict: The Squier Mini Stratocaster takes everything that’s great about the full size versions, and squashes it down into an easy to handle package for younger kids looking to get started with an iconic guitar. It plays well, it’s comfortable, sounds great, and of course, it really looks the part.
Jackson Dinky Minion JS1X
A fast playing guitar with looks to kill
If the young guitarist you’re shopping for happens to like heavier style of music, this Jackson is going to be right up their street. It has aggressive looks, big humbucker tones, and an incredibly comfortable short scale.
This Jackson Dinky Minion JS1X was, appearance wise, very similar to the Ibanez Mikro (which we all loved), so things were off to a good start after unboxing. It’s a 2/3 size guitar, making it physically one of the smallest on trial. If the child you’re buying for is under 10, this is ikely to be a great fit for them.
It was equipped with a reinforced maple neck, which tells us that this thing is built to take some punishment – always welcome words to a parent buying something for their kids! On the front of the neck, it had a really nice amaranth (purple heart) fretboard, which looked great and felt good under the fingers.
The aggressive looks were topped off with the classic Jackson shark fin fretboard inlays, which were finished in a surprisingly premium pearloid. It had an extremely short 22.5” scale, which when paired with the Jackson speed neck profile made it an extremely fast playing guitar. The speed neck is super slim, and is ideal for small hands.
The 2/3 size body was made from poplar, and the classic Strat style shape provided some great ergonomics. It was well contoured, and comfortable playing in both seated and standing positions.
Tuning stability was another impressive area for this Jackson. Despite the lower quality plastic nut, it held tune pretty well, although playing repeated big bends and heavy strumming did tend to pull it slightly out of pitch.
The humbucker pickups did provide some great punch with the right settings. In the neck only position, we found it to be quite muddy, but with the bridge selected we were able to get nice clean tones and crunchy high gain tones without losing clarity.
Verdict: The Jackson Dinky Minion JSX1 really is tiny, but it offers some surprisingly big tones. If your kids like metal, they’ll almost certainly love playing this guitar. It’s got the right looks, it’s well put together, and it’s extremely comfortable – 3 of the most important factors to look for in an electric guitar for kids.
Best Acoustic Guitars for kids – Our Top 3
We decided to name the Martin LX1 Little Martin our Top Pick in this review. It’s a solid guitar that can take some punishment, sounds great, and also happens to be one of the favorites of acoustic legend, Ed Sheeran.
For shoppers looking to get a lot of guitar for not a lot of money, check out our Best Budget option, the Fender Sonoran Mini. It has unique looks, and is one of the most comfortable guitars for young players on the market.
If you’re looking for the very best guitar for kids, regardless of cost, we can’t recommend our Editor’s Choice, the Taylor GS Mini, highly enough. It sounds beautiful, it’s incredibly comfortable, and is truly a guitar that will work for beginners and gigging musicians alike.
Best Acoustic Guitars for Kids: Individual Reviews
Martin LX1 Little Martin
Classic Martin looks, and a miniature Martin sound from this scaled down acoustic.
With this Martin, you’re getting all the classic Martin tone and build quality, but in a convenient size for young players to hold comfortably and play with proper technique.
After opening up the box of this Martin LX1 Little Martin, we were really impressed with the overall package. As with all Martins, it comes with a very nice case, in this instance a high quality hybrid gig bag, which would be ideal for transporting between home and guitar lessons.
The body shape was a Martin Modified O, which is undoubtedly one of their most comfortable designs, for smaller players especially. It’s not labeled as such, but it’s approximately a ¾ size guitar. It’s made with a solid Sitka spruce top, which gave it a beautifully bright and peppy sound. It isn’t quite as loud as a full size guitar, but that’s to be expected. Regardless, it sounded fantastic, and responded well to both heavy strumming and nuanced finger style.
The back and sides were made from HPL (high pressure laminate) mahogany, which gives the aesthetic benefits of real mahogany, but the durability of laminate, which is something important to factor when buying any guitar for kids.
It had a 23” scale length and 14 exposed frets – we found this to be comfortable, and it gave us all the access we needed to the important areas of the fretboard for the basics of acoustic guitar playing. The nut width was a slim 1.6875”; we found it to be very easy to play, so young guitarists with small hands should have no problems with this model.
The neck was a modified low oval, which just like the body, was a scaled down version of one of Martin’s full size shapes. It was easy to grip and surprisingly fast. We were extremely impressed with tuning stability, too. It featured the same tuners as found on some of Martin’s more expensive Mexican made models, and we found that they held pitch well, and turned smoothly, making fine tuning extremely easy.
Verdict: The Martin LX1 Little Martin is, simply put, a phenomenal starter guitar. It’s got the brand recognition that kids want, it’s superbly made, it sounds great, and as a bonus, it comes with a top quality gig bag. Even as kids grow, it will be the type of instrument they’ll want to keep a travel guitar, making it something that will grow with them, despite the small size.
Fender Sonoran Mini
A feature packed guitar at an almost too good to be true price
For a great price, you’re getting a Fender branded instrument (something you won’t see in their electric line up), and solid materials used throughout, which is extremely rare in the budget segment.
We’ve previously reviewed the spruce version, but this time we were given the chance to try out all mahogany Fender Sonoran Mini. Once again, the unique looking caramel pickguard really popped, and looked especially good against the darker background of the mahogany top.
The Sonoran mini is another ¾ sized guitar, which made it extremely comfortable, and gives young players the chance to play with proper technique, without struggling to just hold on to the instrument. The body was parlor style, making it quite narrow – this is beneficial for young players as it frees up the strumming arm more than something like a dreadnought shape would.
It had a slim, modern C shape neck, which is becoming one of the most popular shapes for reduced size guitars. It filled the hand nicely, without ever feeling like it was too thick. Reaching for chords and scales was easily done, and that was partially thanks to the ultra slim, 1.615” nut.
Tone wise, the mahogany top, back and sides gave this version of the Sonoran a nice, rich, warm sound. It was really interesting to hear just how different it was from the spruce version. It sounds wonderful with gentle strumming and fingerstyle in particular. It isn’t a guitar that’s particularly well suited to heavy, loud strumming, but that’s a common theme with most parlor shape instruments.
Tuning stability was overall good. As we found with the Squier Stratocaster mini, the tuners themselves weren’t the smoothest, but once we found tine, they did hold up well.
This model does come with a basic gig bag – it isn’t quite as nice as the likes of the Martin and Taylor bags, but it will give some added protection on the way to and from practice, or even during storage.
Verdict: We found that the Fender Sonoran Mini was a great little guitar, and would be ideal as a starter instrument for those looking to stick to a budget. It offered good build quality, and the styling makes it stand out from other similar models in this price range. We loved the warm tones, which at the price, were truly outstanding.
Taylor GS Mini
The features and tones that pros demand in a guitar that’s suitable for kids
If you’re looking for a high end guitar that will perform to the highest standards, for kids, there’s no better choice than a Taylor GS Mini. This is a beautifully made Taylor, built to the same standards as their amazing Grand Symphony size models, except it’s been condensed.
Size-wise, the Taylor GS mini (full review here) was somewhere between a ¾ and a 15/16 size, and the GS body shape had brilliant ergonomics. We actually found that it was comfortable for both smaller players and adults alike, which is great for parents looking for a guitar for their kids that will last them a lifetime.
The GS Mini came with, what we believe to be, the best bundled gig bag available. It’s a semi-rigid hybrid bag that offers the protection you’d find in a hard case, with the comfort and convenience of a gig bag. It’s great for travel, storage, and moving around even on public transport.
The model we received for the trial had a beautiful, solid Sitka spruce top, which, paired with the X bracing construction, gave us huge punch. It was surprisingly loud, and responded incredibly well to changes in attack. We were able to play delicate fingerstyle, and heavy rhythm strumming with no loss of tone or clarity.
As with other Taylor GS models, it was equipped with a solid ebony bridge and fretboard, both of which looked fantastic, and performed just as well. The back and sides of the GS Mini were made from laminated Indian rosewood – they looked absolutely stunning, and being laminate, are sure to be hard wearing and resistant to changes in temperature and humidity.
The scale length came in at 23.5”, which made it really comfortable for smaller hands to stretch out for chords. The neck had an ergonomic soft V shape that promoted good form, and didn’t make reaching around the fretboard difficult at all. We also found that the Taylor branded tuners were simply fantastic. They held tune perfectly, turned smoothly, and we really liked the look, too.
Verdict: The Taylor GS Mini really blew us away in a number of areas. It played as well as a full size Taylor, and offered some incredible tones. It’s the kind of guitar that works as well for an absolute beginner as it does for a working musician, so despite the higher price tag, it will hold its own for years to come. The overall build quality is absolutely incredible, and the neck was by far the most comfortable for younger players of any of the guitars we tested.
Taylor TS-BT Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s signature model brings Taylor tone and quality to a younger audience
This model isn’t just an excuse to slap an endorsement on a guitar, in fact, the Baby Taylor is actually one of Swift’s preferred songwriting guitars, and hopefully it will inspire your kids to follow in her footsteps. It’s made well, looks good, and sounds great.
The Taylor TS-BT Taylor Swift edition is a ¾ size dreadnought, just like the rest of the Baby Taylor line up. It plays comfortably, although perhaps a little less so than the Little Martin, which is this guitar’s most direct competition. The dreadnought shape offers an incredible sound profile, but it isn’t the most comfortable shape for the youngest players.
It features a solid Sitka Spruce top, which when combined with the dreadnought shape, gave us huge punch, some shimmery top end, and great focus in the mids. As far as sound goes, it was really an impressive guitar. It featured a laminate sapele back and sides which provided a nice look while still remaining practical. If you’re not familiar with sapele, it’s a wood in the mahogany family, and has similar grain and color.
The styling was one of the areas that we felt might be a little polarizing. The large Taylor Swift signature and floral rosette might not be to everyone’s taste, but if it’s a dealbreaker, you could always opt for the standard Baby Taylor, and still get a great guitar.
This Taylor Swift Edition Baby Taylor also happens to come with the fantastic Taylor hybrid gig bag, which is definitely one of our favorites. It’s extremely protective, and it offers a lot of space for accessories, music books, etc.
As far as the rest of the guitar’s performance went, we were really pleased. Tuning stability was strong right out of the box, the action was nice and low, and intonation was spot on. Just like the more expensive Taylor models, the Taylor Swift version was made with an ebony fretboard and bridge, which both look and feel (in the case of the fretboard) great.
The neck was slim and comfortable, and with a nut width of just 1.6875” barre chords and other more advanced techniques were still easy to play. The 22.75” scale was one of the shortest we tested, and it suited the guitar well.
Verdict: We really enjoyed playing the Taylor TS-BT Taylor Swift. Considering the price, it was packed with high end features, including Elixir strings and a Tusq nut. We loved both the sound profile, and the size, too. This is a guitar that any Swiftie would love to own, and one that would serve them well from the beginning of their journey through to being an advanced guitarist.
