EDITORIAL REVIEW

With classic electric guitar styling and enough special effects to create a lot of excitement, this clever electric guitar starter kit is a perfect option for aspiring young rock musicians to gain their chops. The sound produced by the instrument is impressive for its fairly basic construction, not quite of the performance quality of a Fender Stratocaster but plenty good enough for starters. A quality pickup and tremolo bridge allows young axe-slingers to try out their rock star licks. This is also a convenient way to get started in music as everything you might need is included: case, guitar strap, strings, picks, and even a small practice amp. A booklet on how to learn while you play is also featured. --Charlie Williams ... Read more

Reviews (61)

Volume Solution
I do understand how this guitar can be unnervingly loud, however I have also found out a way to limit the volume on this and many other childrens toys that do not have a mute (as I have done to many of my sons toys.) I usually put clear packaging tape (3M brand) over the speaker and slowly poke out some of the holes until I find my personal volume preference. Usually if you apply the tape clearly and tightly the child doesn't realize the volume difference or tape. Hope that helps...I am sure that this might work a little better than just hiding it somewhere out of sight when you finally fed up listening to it.

It's got her singing and me grinning!
I bought this for my 3 year old daughter after I noticed that everytime we visited my cousin she always ran for the Wiggles Guitar. I also noticed that it was motivating her to sing along. We are a bilingual family and her speaking has been a bit delayed, but listening to the Wiggles and using this guitar have actually helped her become more vocal! I think that is pretty AMAZING for a toy!!

The only drawback is that the buttons play such short clips of the songs. Plus, for some reason my daughter likes to keep pressing the buttons over and over before the whole clip has played. If you thought Yummy Yummy Fruit Salad was a bit annoying before - try listening to just the first two notes played over and over and over and over!

I have not noticed that this guitar is particularly loud. And if things do get too noisy (i.e. too many repetitions of Wake Up Jeff!) we can always turn it off and my little Elvis-wannabee plays air-guitar to her heart's content.

I would definitely buy this toy again for my daughter. My daughter and I like it so much that I am planning on getting the microphone as well.

fun, fun, fun!
I have a son that just turned 2. He loves the Wiggles and love this guitar. He will play with it for hours. It is a great toy for a Wiggles fan.

Most Popular Toy at our House!!!
My 2 1/2 year old got this for Christmas because she LOVES the Wiggles. She plays with it everyday and likes to play it when they are on TV singing. Now my 10 month old loves it too and they fight over it. Yes, it is loud and can get annoying, but my girls LOVE it!

No, seriously, it's TOO LOUD!
My 3-year-old loves the Wiggles, and this guitar, but I wholeheartedly agree with the others who have noted that it's WAY too loud--this can't be good for toddlers' tender ears, let alone the parents' nerves. I'm really surprised that more parents haven't complained. It's obnoxiously (and I think, dangerously) loud, and for this reason alone, I wouldn't buy it again, even though she loves the toy. I will definitely be trying to find a way to modify it so we don't all go deaf or suffer permanent damage! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A great little guitar !
We just purchased this guitar for our daughter's 3rd Birthday.
It is so well made, easy to tune and the perfect size for her little hands. I am very pleased that this isn't a 'toy' guitar, but the real thing. Great flower motif too :). I highly recommend this guitar as your child's first. I also recommend purchasing the guitar case as well. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This lacquered child's guitar is a great first instrument for young enthusiasts, or kids who just want to jam with an adult. It embodies every feature professional electric guitars do; all parents need to supply are lessons. At 30 inches, it's not intimidating but inviting. Its just the right size for elementary school amateurs, but its small, smooth body (including a solid maple neck and fingerboard), real steel strings, and "vintage" coil make it sound and feel as real as a grownup's guitar. A headphone jack can be used for speakers, and the output jack next to it can be used for the amplifier.--Diane Beall ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Excellent beginner electric guitar for the younger set
If you have an aspiring guitarist who is ages: 4-8 who likes to emulate the "big boys" then get this guitar for the following reasons:

1. My 4 year old thought it "looked cool"
2. Has the amp and speaker built-in which makes it portable.
3. Is made by First Act which has proven to be reliable for my family of a 6 yr old girl and 4 yr old boy (we have had their acoustic guitar for a couple of years)

The educational value is what you make of it....right now, my son who has only had his electic guitar for a total of 2 weeks has begged me to bring it to school for sharing (I finally relented after checking it with the teacher) and has been pestering me for lessons. It's the lessons which make it educational - the guitar by itself is not educational, per se.

Have fun!

ok
the toy is just a little bit to small for kids 10 and older.if your looking into getting a guitar look for a diffrent one besides this one

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
This is so cool.The best part is that you do not need a Amp because it comes with it.Kids can learn how to play music.It does make alot of noise (it depends how high the volume is)it is worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kiddy
I was expecting a REAL guitar. this is a stupid little toy for kids. it would still be fun. IF I WAS 4! jk jk. its cool for a little kid.

miget guitr
i am a real guitar player and i think this thing is great for in the car going on vacation or watever i dont think it is worth the price tho i kno were u can get a real guitr for that price ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Choice!
We just purchased this for our one-year-old. She loves banging on the piano keys to hear the noise it makes. She doesn't know how to use the xylophone yet, but that makes the toy even better. As she gets older she will learn how to use it. This is a great choice. Even mommy and daddy will have fun playing with it. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The Yamaha DD35 Drum System provides the added educational feature of guide lamps. This technology uses lighted rings around the drum pads. The four touch sensitive drum pads can be used with the included drum sticks or, with one push of a button, hands. The system has one hundred built-in songs and 128 drum and other percussion voices, these assignable to any pad. Play the drum games that are included. For the rest of the family, there is the comfort from knowing that this comes with a built-in headphone jack.

What's in the Box
Drum system, drum sticks, owner's manual, and one year warranty. ... Read more

Features

• Hand percussion mode
• 100 built-in songs
• Built-in speaker
• 4 lighted, touch-sensitive drum pads
• 128 drum and percussion voices

Reviews (1)

A Real Musical Instrument, NOT a Toy!
My 2 year old saw this in BJs and kept asking for it, so Santa brought it for him for Christmas. I think it's a good first guitar. He loves to strum it, but he definitely needs to be supervised to teach him to respect that it is a special musical instrument, not a toy. So far he has sat on it and used it as a drum and it's held up fine, but I don't think it would hold up with such continued abuse. It is recommended for children much older than he is, so I can't expect anything different. I do wish they made a smaller version of it so it would be more comfortable for him. For a better price than I see at Amazon, you can get a small Hohner guitar at a music store, which might be better quality, I'm not sure. Regardless, I am very happy with this guitar and I would recommend it for any child who shows a real interest in music. I would not buy it for a child just as a toy, unless you don't mind it being destroyed. I am planning to buy the guitar strap and will review that when I get it. ... Read more

Editorial Review

No one is likely to mistake this for a pro drum kit, but for some casual messing around, it provides a pretty good time. There are five pads to whack away at, each producing a different sound (high hat, snare, tom-tom, etc.),a foot pedal-activated bass drum, plus a number of canned rhythms (rock, funk, and so on) you can turn on and off with the keypad. The sound comes out of either the tinny but serviceable speaker or the included pair of headphones. The drum stand is easily snapped together, and connecting all the various cables is a color-coded, self-explanatory affair. There are, however a couple of egregious design flaws that detract from the drum kit: There is no power adapter, so the four C batteries will need to be replaced with some regularity, and some of the pads at times fail to produce any sound at all. --David Stoesz ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Looks and feels great, sounds terrible
Straight out of the box, this drum kit seems like a winner. Its construction is fairly sturdy considering its price range - especially the main stand and the brain unit - it's easy to put together, and once constructed its futuristic good looks draw "wows" from all hands. A glance at the brain unit shows a huge array of buttons with such promising titles as "Metal" and "Blues" and "Bass Boost" and - my own personal favorite - "Speaker On/Off" which lets your child hear the drums in the included headset microphone without the rest of the house benefiting from his percussion skills.

There are, however, three main down checks which relegate this toy to the first-five(minutes)-then-forget pile. Those problems, in increasing order of severity are:

1. For the sturdiness of the rest of the unit, the "bass drum" pedal is exceptionally flimsy. Anyone with experience with any kind of musical instrument requiring a foot pedal will know the instant they touch this lightweight plastic pedal that it's going to cause problems - or it would if your kid will play with the set long enough for it to.

2. The "stand-up" drum kit idea may have seemed like a good idea in the corporate boardroom, because it removed the need for a pricey drum throne; but from the get-go I thought my kid would tire of standing up while beating these things and sure enough, the first words out of his mouth after I set it up and switched it on were, "daddy, I want to sit down." OK, you say, so get a chair for him. Well, maybe if he was older, but at the moment, they don't make a chair that lets his small body reach both the drum pads and the flimsy bass pedal, whose shortcomings are exacerbated by the requirement to step on it while standing. You're right, the bass pedal is no real loss, so if I thought he would ever play with these drums again, I'd put down the chair and forego the bass.

3. The real problem is that for all the aesthetic beauty and apparent quality of these "drums," the sounds themselves are nothing short of heinous. Whether in the included headset microphone, the mercifully switch-offable speaker or daddy's $130 Bose Triport headphones, every noise this thing makes sounds like it was recorded on a Radio Shack microphone into a $3 tape deck and played through blown out car speakers. The sounds are so distorted that it's difficult to tell the difference between each "tom" when you hit it, and the vast selection of "beats" on the brain unit are just so much wow and flutter. I'm not kidding you when I say they sound better with the power OFF than ON... at least then you can hear the rhythm of the clicking plastic without all the hideous distortion.

For purposes of this review, I should have put a stopwatch on him; but instead I'll have to estimate that in just over three minutes, my son was through playing with them and they will likely not see much use again, though the sturdy plastic drum sticks will probably get a workout on lots of other items around the house - items which, I might add, will probably sound more like real drums than the e-groovz Drum Station.

Yes, the price is right, but I would rather have spent double for something that would get some use. Now I'm only sorry I didn't take better care of the box when I opened it, as I'll likely be trying to dump this off on Ebay or via garage sale within the month.

Elementary percussion
When he was seven, my son wanted "a drum set" even though he had no experience and no lessons. This item was perfect, since it can be played with headphones- it still makes a lot of racket just hearing the sticks beat the pads, but he got to try making a bunch of sounds and we got some time to watch his interest before we took the next step. He was ready for lessons and some real kit before he wore out the first set of batteries.
It survived all he could dish out, but a new puppy took out the wire to the pedal.
This is an ok product for kids that want to bang and make more than noise. A good first step toward music for small kids. ... Read more

Editorial Review

It's tempting to say that this tabletop toy piano can make your budding music enthusiast into the next Schroeder. But in fact, it does the Beethoven enthusiast from Peanuts one better. Whereas Schroeder's piano featured only painted-on black keys, the ebonies on this brown piano really play. The piano is non-electronic, creating a sound on its metal tone bars that is refreshingly non-synthetic. It's made of solid wood, adding to the authenticity. The piano features only twenty-five keys in two octaves and it's no substitute for actual musical training or an actual piano. But as an introduction to music and as an inspiration to spark creativity, it's a winner. --Charlie Williams ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Juice Your Casio Keyboard
Why waste money on batteries? That there would be crazy.

Get this handy little item and play forever.

Just make sure you get the right adapter for the right keyboard.

Duh...

Works great for me
I got a Casio keyboard for xmas, and, considering it's size and quality, I was a little disapponted that it didn't come with a power supply (integrated or external (integrated would've been better)) but the next day I went to Toys R Us and bought this little gem and now all is fine.

Wrong Adaptor
I, like the other customers. ordered this adaptor based on the recommendation from the site, and was disappointed when, on Christmas Eve, I realized this was not right for the keyboard we had ordered. This situation was particularly misleading since the adaptor was practically "bundled" for sale with a product for which it is not compatible.

Wrong Adapter
We bought also the keybord and the adapter (as recommended) and it does not fit. I already tried to buy a new one, but it is not available.

Wrong Adapter
We ordered the Casio keyboard for our son Marcelo, and on X-Mas day we realize that the adapter recommended for this keyboard at hte site does not works for this specific keyboard. Now I have to use batteries, and do not know where can I buy the right adapter. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Budding composers looking to try out a wide variety of beats will appreciate this electronic four-octave keyboard toy. Various songs are available to play along with although all are traditional and it's hard to imagine that young musicians raised on a steady diet of hip-hop will be especially enthused about playing along with "My Darling Clementine". The keyboard features four different percussion settings - a hi-hat, snare drum, bass drum, and cymbal. A record and playback feature allows the user to listen to an especially good riff and build on promising opportunities. A volume setting makes the whole affair more palatable to other family members engaged in other projects in the house at the same time. --Charlie Williams ... Read more

Features

• 61 piano-sized keys
• Lighted keys prompt correct notes
• Yamaha Educational Suite, Multi-Fingering auto-accompaniment function
• MIDI interface in/out for computer connectivity

Reviews (1)

This keyboard is awesome!!
I first saw this item on that home shopping channel and the lady that was displaying it was as giddy as a school girl.I have to admit it did look really fun.My mom always wanted to learn to play the piano and I wanted to buy it a couple of years ago, but it was a bit expensive.We were recently out Christmas shopping and I dragged her over to it and said you HAVE to try this (she thought I was crazy since she can't play)....she CRIED!She was so happy that she could actually play (greensleeves) that she cried and giggled.I had to tell her six times that we needed to go.She wouldn't let go!So, obviously this will be her Christmas present this year.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for any music enthusiast. ... Read more