Can anyone recommend the best quality acoustic starter guitar for children?

Dude, my buddy got his kid a Baby Taylor. I think you can find it online for around $299 or so. It's got a big full tone on a 3/4 scale dreadnought body. Awesome little guitar, I love to just pick it up and play around with it when I'm at his house. The action is great too - perfect for little hands and fingers...

What would you recommend for a child's first guitar when you don't know if they're going to want to continue? I have a niece who's 9 and she expressed interest in learning along with me. However, I'm not dropping $300 bucks until I know she has a continuing interest and maybe some aptitude for it.

Would the Baby Taylor work for a lady. My lady has small hands and short fingers. She isn't too tall either. I wonder if it would be easier for her to cord and hold?

Eddie,

There is a pretty good guitar out there for under 100 it is called the Amigo it is a half size or three quarter size. I would recommend you go with a clasical the difference is the neck is smaller and it is lighter and they come in different sizes. I know someone that bought an Amigo and they changed the strings. It comes with nylon strings but that may be what you need for a child with tender fingers.

I have that issue myself. Sometimes my spouse seems to think I "play funny" only for the fact that my hands are tiny compared to his. Right now we have 3 in the house but I have thought about getting a child size one that will grow as the youngest does.

Just to stop back on the topic, and thanks for all the feedback guys. I've had about 3 or 4 people tell me Baby Taylor - go for the Baby Taylor. I've finally figured out that the biggest reason for this is, if he's not into it, I still have a sweet little guitar to play around on, hahahah...

If you can get your hands on one can you be sure to come back and update this with where and how much? I am finding mixed reviews (not really bad, but all different a little) and mixed prices online.

I didn't think about the size of the neck. It would make it easier for her if the neck is smaller. Thanks a lot for the heads up on that one. I was thinking of buying her one as a surprise but I'm going to have to take her with me so I can see if it fits her hands.

Just wanted to see how things worked out with the new guitar what you landed up getting and how she liked it. Well let me know when you get a chance.

How old is the child? One of my colleagues purchased a Dean Playmate JT for his eight-year-old son. This is a cute guitar, made especially for users with small hands or kids between the ages of six and ten.

I have heard and read some not so positive things about the Dean Playmate. Specifically, they do not tune very well. How about the Yamaha Ezag Self-Teaching Acoustic Guitar?

I feel the same way about self-teaching guitars as I do about self-teaching light-up pianos. It takes away almost all of the inherent benefits of learning music. I would highly discourage it. I have heard many not so positive things about Dean Playmate guitars, myself, YYZ, as well as experienced them first-hand. It's just a poor quality guitar all around.

I'd happily recommend a regular yamaha, alvarez, taylor, fender, or even some rogues (which are off and on with quality, but overall still average). There are even some cheaper ibanez acoustics that are awesome, and you can find a used Michael Kelly for somewhere around $200 if you look hard enough. I'm with you on the Baby Taylor though, Chris, hahaha. It'd be sweet to have one whether the new guy digs it or not. =)

I should add that Galveston has been, in my experience, a wonderful starter guitar or bass. Now that I think about it, for cheap quality (aka under $200), it's probably my top recommendation. Up there with Yamaha.

They take factory B-stocks and refurbish them so that they play nicely enough, often "Frankensteining" guitar parts together from different manufacturers. This generally winds up in a solidly built, quality-sounding guitar, considering they take high-grade parts from other companies and salvage them. It's also some pretty cool recycling, if you think about it. I owned a fretless bass of theirs that served me very well. I've also played several of their electric guitars and found them comparable to Fender, Ibanez, Laguna, Jackson, or others in quality.