Quote:
Originally Posted by Kittoon
Baby + guitar = damage. To both.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bufflehead
My thinking exactly. It's time to get rid of the stand for a few years as part of a larger project to baby-proof the living areas where the child will play.
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Agreed with this. I'm not overly precious with my guitars — I will let my kids hold and strum my Martin or my Fairbanks provided they ask — but I am probably overly precious with my kids. As someone who has nearly as many of those as I have guitars I'm gonna have to add another voice advocating for caution — the last thing you want is a toddler learning to walk and stand pulling a steel string guitar down onto their head or face.
Definitely let your daughter continue to touch and strum your guitar when you're holding it — provided she's not holding something that could dent it (trust me). And definitely practice up on some songs for lullabies or fun songs to play in the living room or at the table after dinner. Make memories and keep inspiring a love of music and guitar — but just know that toddlers can and will find all kinds of ways to hurt themselves as they learn and develop! I just think a guitar — particularly the headstock — is not something you want a child having free access to for the first couple years of their life.
As for a smaller guitar, what about a Baby Taylor? Could be fun to play now and then give to your daughter when she's six or seven or eight years old and let her start playing a bit. Bigger than that there's the GS Mini and Martin D Jr guitars — I have liked the latter better in my limited experience but the GS Mini has lots of fans and happy customers. Another option is something like the Gretsch Jim Dandy — all-laminate, kinda boxy and bluesy, but cheap and not precious.
Oh — pro tip from a dad with daughters — the "All is Found" song from the last Frozen movie as performed by Kacey Musgraves is worth adding to your lullaby set list.
Good luck!