*Referral link
(don’t have an issue with that. Just prefer knowing about it beforehand)
So if I buy one of these and modify it, have I hacked a Loog?
Can I get a six-string for $398?
For those of us considering learning to play a guitar or even a ukulele just to broaden ourselves, would this be a good entry point?
Yes and no. Making music with anything helps improve your sense of melody, harmony, rhythm, timing and pitch, so in that sense it is great. There would be a transition to a regular guitar that would be needed of course. But you can make music with anything. Watch Jack White make a slide guitar out of a few bits of scrap in “It Might Get Loud”.
Personally, I think it is a bit overpriced for what it is. Decent real guitars like an Epiphone Les Paul Special can be had for the same price and these will take you much further in terms of conventional guitar playing. This 3-string is pitched at kids, who might find the ease of playing holds their interest long enough for them to get suitably proficient for them to really enjoy making music. If you’re just a bit more determined than that, then I’d suggest just getting a regular guitar. The learning curve seems a bit steep at first, but it’s really not that hard.
I actually got a regular guitar last year, which I haven’t touched yet of course, to learn to play. Just being lazy and wondering about things.
I agree, the appeal as a beginner instrument here is as a discovery tool for kids, adults would be better buying one of the many excellent low priced guitars available today. It also looks like a neat experimental instrument for experienced players.
I only practice when it’s fun, so I put on music I like and do my best to play along.
Looks/sounds like something Chris Ballew could construct a band around. Actually, he did.
Can you string it like a balalaika?
$199 on Amazon USA.
On Amazon UK? $550
I bought an electric loog to see if my kids would be interested. They are smaller in stature and have small hands, and unfortunately, most scaled down guitars are junk, so it seemed like a good idea.
For an adult, it does border on the too small. You can also buy a regular guitar and string it with three strings if you just want to try the “loog method” in having to worry about fewer strings. I do enjoy playing with it, but can’t say it is worth the cost compared to a uke.
You could always tune your 6-string guitar to an open chord, too, if you wanted.
Totally agree. Fender makes a lot of guitars under the Squier brand that are surprisingly playable and decent sounding for downwards of $100 USD.
Particularly in the US you guys can get stupidly cheap guitars that are great quality for the price. The Squire range is solid, cheap Epiphones are great, cheap Ibanez’s are usually great… there was nothing even remotely approaching that kind of value when I was a kid!!!
It does G-B-E, D-G-B, or A-E-A out of the box. I don’t know a balalaika from a Balki, but my wiki-detective skills suggest it ought be tryable.
I’ve given 2 loogs as gifts, and got 1 for myself so that I can teach the little dirt merchants. They are well built, well thought-out, light, and little fingers appreciate the narrowness of the neck and the kid-sized bodyweight.
To say nothing of the used market. You can get some exotic stuff for “first guitar” types of prices:
I have to confess that after buying only two guitars in thirty years, I went on a mid-life-crisis guitar buying spree late last year and bought three guitars (sold one too!) just because they can be had so cheap and I wanted a range of styles.
I got an early 90’s Ibanez RG, made in Japan, with an original Edge tremolo for under AUD$400. Not super cheap by US standards but it is such a beautiful, well made precision instrument. The tremolo is AMAZING.
The tragedy is you’ve still never learned how to play, right?
