Finding A Grown Up Guitar For Small Adult Hands
Jim DeSantis
When I played guitar in the 50's and 60's, I was limited by having small hands. There were certain tunes I could just not stretch to play. In those days a guitarist had to spend a couple thousand dollars for a custom made git with a short neck or resign themselves to a limited song list. That's not the case today!
Back in the day we had a pretty successful local band. We played all the "sock hops" and even made a nice living playing road gigs in the tri-state area of Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania under the names of "The Crazy Tones" and "The Challets". I mainly played rythym guitar and, on occasion, I played keyboard on certain songs. One thing I never played and never learned was lead guitar, the ultimate goal for all guitar players I think.
Well, I retired recently and decided to revisit my love of guitar playing. I began a search for a guitar that offered a nice price and good quality. I bid on a few on eBay but quickly found the bids to be almost as high as buying locally when you consider Shipping and Handling. I scoured local music stores but found nothing that fit me comfortably, that was at a fair price. I had no idea how much guitar prices have gone up over the years and how much quality has suffered for a low end guitar. Even good used guitars were few and far between. But, I kept looking.
In the process I discovered two manufacturers of short neck guitars. I thought - "These must be for kids and girls." But, once I looked over the specifications I realized they were not the guitars sold by toy stores at all. These were versions of full size guitars that are downsized for small adults with small hands and, yes, even for the aspiring lady pickers and teens.
My number one concern, of course, was quality of craftsmanship and sound quality. The price was a surprise. More about that in a moment.
I looked at the Fender Squire and the Ibanez Mikro. The Fender, frankly, got poor ratings from musicians and from newbies. The Ibanez, on the other hands, scored a 90% satisfactory rating among the same group. Based on that, I bought the Ibanez Mikro for under $130.00 including Free Shipping and Handling. I have not been disappointed.
I now play tunes that were almost impossible and I play them comfortably. The quality? The sound? I give this git a 100% positive rating!
Jim DeSantis
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