I seek the wisdom of RT once more

What would be a good scale/fret number, hell, just specification, for a guitar neck, for a two year old? (preferably one that would last until he was ~10)

I want to build me nephew a little electric guitar, and I've found a place where I can get the fretboard ready made (although I still might get a fretsaw, some fret wire, and do it myself) and they produce variable scales, and fret counts, so

what would be the best guitar spec for a small child?

(I've already decided on the sort of pickup I am going to wind, so that's no problem, thinking about going with locking tuners, standard, i.e. no tremolo bridge, and I haven't decided the body shape, or pickguard style yet)

 

*drools stupidly* *blinks*

 

perhaps the music section might deem better results....or at least more answers.

 

but the music section is full of stoner hippies.....

 

who likely play guitar

 

but don't build electric ones for toddlers. they'll probably tell him to buy an acoustic guitar, mandolin or banjo and some sweet bluegrass album. :cheers2:

personally, that sounds good to me.

 

22 frets, which is standard
try half size
if half size is too big
try something that's 3/4 of that half size

also, I'd make the body a design that's comfortable to sit with
like a les paul, but lighter?

I know there's some weird mathematical formula for creating fretboards...I know nothing about that...do you? I really should learn.

 

Umm...I smoke herb, and generalizing people would probably call me a hippie...still I play guitar and can give you my input.

And what do you mean scale/fret number? Do you play? You do realize that scales are contained within frets (a half step) right? (Ie. C major scale (ionian), Minor Scale, pentatonic Scale, etc...) So do you mean how many frets should it have? Well, he's 2...that's pretty young to do anything other than gum and drool on a guitar. Get him a little kids yukaleili, they're cheap so if he breaks it oh well, and going through all that to get a 2 year old something he'll have no ability to play whatsoever is a bit ridiculous. (I find it kinda cool....must admit.) If you still want an answer though, I'd say 12 frets, so one can go at least an octave higher on any one of the strings. He could probably navigate 12 frets too, not to long (many). Within 5 frets (counting all the open strings as a fret as well! so visually 4 frets each note is repeated twice) you can form many scales...especially the chromatic (which is very useful). So, that'd give him 3 "places"
if you will on the fret board that he can utilize scales.

Don't get a youngster started on an electric...get him an acoustic instrument first anyways.

 

a guitar with 12 frets would be very interesting to play . .

 

Hey, I've seen two year olds do unbelievable things, besides it's beyond nice that he wants to do something like that, it's more special and something the kid will cherish even as he gets older... I know a three year old who can play songs on a piano, and can read music...

 

My guitar doesn't just have 12 frets, however for the most part I play within those 12 anyways (as do most people). So although virtually all guitars have more than 12 frets, most people don't often play more than the lowest 12.

 

Yep...that's why I said I find it cool. (Regardless of the "ridiculousness" of it.)

 

I think a uke or banjo uke would be great for a child, having four strings, simpler chords and being midget sized. I also think its fantastic that you're trying to start this lad off early...its between 0-5 that we learn most of the things we know right?