Guide to Small Guitars: A guitar with a smaller size and smaller neck doesn’t necessarily have to be a toy guitar. You get excellent sounding small guitars that are preferred by players with smaller hands. Such guitars also serve well as a travel guitar. These are also perfect for grown-up kids, who are not yet ready to play with a full-sized guitar.
Various Categories
- 3/4 Electric Guitars
- 3/4 Size Acoustic Guitars
- Half (1/2) size electric guitars
- Half (1/2) size acoustic guitars
- Battery operated toy guitars
Small Guitar Accessories
You will also need accessories for your small guitar, such as case/bag, stand and picks.
- Small Guitar Case
- Small Guitar Stand
- Small Guitar Picks
Why Use Small Size?
Did you know that smaller sized guitars exist, and are actually high-quality instruments that can be compared to their full-sized counterparts? There are several guitar players who prefer to play a smaller sized guitar (compared to say a dreadnought size guitar) as it offers better play-ability. Small body guitars are also perfect for persons of smaller stature – be it men, women, or growing children.
There are several advantages of using these small scale guitars:
- If you are an Asian, you are more likely to have smaller hands compared to Americans or Europeans. In that case, these will be a better fit for you. You won’t face any of the problems that you would face using a bigger instrument. It can be extremely uncomfortable to move your arm over the body of the guitar to play the strings, if the instrument is too big for the player. Further, if the body has more depth, this can cause further discomfort.
- A small scale guitar has a shorter neck and is perfect for those who have trouble getting their hands to wrap around the neck to play chords. In such a scenario, a down-sized guitar makes a world of difference.
- On most dreadnought or jumbo sized guitars, the sound from the bass strings can overpower the other sounds, but with the smaller sized guitars, is not the case
- You can also easily travel with a small body guitar.
- A small guitar can also be great for practicing on the move
- For growing children or teenagers, smaller guitars are much more comfortable to play. In fact, the 3/4 guitars can be used for several years (with due care).
- If you have been unable to comfortably play the right notes on a standard guitar, may be a small guitar will solve that problem.
Smaller guitars can have good sound
These sound good, almost as the normal sized ones; everything is scaled down except for the sound!
There are many wannabe musicians who don’t prefer small-necked guitars because they think of them as nothing more than toys for children. However, that is definitely not true.
While it is true that toy guitars made out of cheap plastic, authentic small guitars are high-quality instruments that can be compared to their full-sized counterparts.
In fact, you get good quality small body guitars from reputed brands like Martin, Yamaha and others.
Small Electric Guitar
You can also choose from a range of small scale electric guitars, designed for those smaller hands. You get some excellent options with great sounds for the price. Your child may outgrow these guitars in a couple of years time (only with regular practice), but then by that time you can be rest assured that he/she will become a great guitar player by then. Although most of these are perfect as a first guitar for beginners, these can also be used as a travel guitar for players of all ages.
Small Classical Guitar
You can choose from a wide range of Small Classical Guitars as well; these come with nylon strings. The best thing about nylon strings is that they’re easier on the fingers and so better suited for the younger player (Young children find it difficult to press steel strings that you find on most acoustic guitars). If your child (age 6-10) is interested in learning to play the guitar, consider getting one of these small classical guitars. Not only do these sound good, they actually began to ‘sing’ within a few weeks.
Another thing to note is that nylon strings stretch a lot and that is why they need to be tuned more frequently (so nothing wrong with the guitar). Its recommended that you invest in a good acoustic guitar tuner as well as it will really help your child develop a sense of pitch early on.
Read: learn to play guitar / lessons
To Conclude
In case you are looking for better alternatives for your smaller arms, these are the ones to look for. Don’t just ignore them because they aren’t as big as the regular guitars; you’ll be pleasantly surprised to play them and a small guitar can actually sound very good.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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