Playable, generally makes a braying noise like a dying donkey but I'm not sure if that's the instrument or the way I'm playing it.
Now the kid want's an electric guitar for Christmas, and you, the loving and doting parent, are contemplating buying it for him.
Probably the electric guitar is your way of apologizing for the lack of time you spend with him, you rationalize it by saying that maybe he'll do well and learn to play and be the world's next Kurt Cobain or John Lennon, but let's be real, he probably won't. Maybe he'll play it a few weeks, maybe, if he's determined, he'll learn to play the first few bars of "Stairway to Heaven" or "Smoke on the Water" before getting bored with it and putting it in the closet, to be dug out and sold at a loss at next years garage sale.
Or maybe he will do well at it. He'll take 1/2 hour lessons every week ($35.00 per lesson, $1470 per year...) and in a few years be hanging with the popular kids at school, smoking crack or pot, drinking, getting piercings and tattoos and fathering illegitimate children all over town while you work even longer hours and see him even less because there are that many more mouths to feed ("and where does the money go?" you wonder, but he's gotta pay for that drug habit somehow) and you just want to help out while the kid gets on his feet. finds a job or a band and makes his way up to becoming a famous rock star.
At night, you'll poke your head in his bedroom, there will be the Jim Morrison or Marilyn Manson posters over the futon on the floor, dirty laundry everywhere, blackened sheets or a Union Jack hung up over the basement window but he won't be there, he'll be in jail or at the bar and so you'll just have to say "I love you, son" to an empty room.
And it'll all be because you bought him that Electric Guitar.
Or maybe you could buy him an accordion.
Look up that clip of the Russian kid playing accordion on YouTube.
And if he's really musical, if he really has it in him, his talent will come out whatever the instrument.
Hey, you've never heard of "Sex, drugs and Accordion Music", have you? There's a reason. Accordion players, by and large, tend to perform better at school, lose their virginity later and consume far less drugs than their more socially adapted peers. (Masters and Johnson, 1957 :"Teenage Development and Accordion Music")
Why, it's the same story, but with a twist. He'll be making money with his magic accordion, playing weddings and Bar Mitzvah's all over town. He won't need a band, he'll be his own band. He'll save his money because he wants to put himself through med school, he's decided he wants to be a neurosurgeon, not getting on the popularity bandwagon at school has helped him become more independent, confident in himself, he knows who he is and where he's going. And sometimes when you're sleeping at night you can hear him practicing "Ode to Joy" before hitting the textbooks. And when he thinks you're sleeping you'll see his shadow in your doorway, and hear his whispered "Thank you, Pa" before he tucks in.
SO really, it's what you want. $1000 for an amp and an Electric Guitar, couple of Wa-Wa pedals and maybe a few music books. Or $75.00 for a value-priced accordion.
