So I found another “bargain” on ShopGoodwill.com. This time, it was a Daisy Rock Debutante guitar. I had done an interview with the owner of Daisy Rock, Tish Ciravolo, years back for an online music magazine, and I know that Daisy Rock puts out quality guitars and basses geared toward the beginning young girl player.
Ciravolo founded Daisy Rock back in 2000, inspired by her daughter’s interest in music, and the marketing at that time in the musical instrument industry tended to be geared toward young males. Her designs for electric guitars and basses tended to have a more visual appeal to girls, with bodies shaped like hearts, flowers and stars. What set these guitars apart from other beginner instruments was that quality went into the product. Hardware was much more durable and professional in feel.
Through the years, Daisy Rock’s lineup changed, moving more toward traditional body styles like Les Pauls and Stratocasters. However, this past year, the lineup was narrowed down to one design, bringing back the heart-shaped “Heartbreaker” guitars and basses. Ciravolos has won many awards in the music industry for her innovations and dedication to the music industry.
The Debutante models, like the one I snagged, were mostly Les Paul inspired, being a single cutaway and a hard (non vibrato) tailpiece. This particular example has only one humbucker pickup in the bridge position, and a single volume control. Cost may have been a factor, but for a beginning guitarist, this may be smart, with less knobs to figure out and to have the player concentrate more on actual practice.
A feature prevalent on most Daisy Rock guitars, including this Debutante, is the extremely short scale of the fretboard/string length. At 22 ½ inches, it is more than two inches shorter than a typical Gibson scale. This is set up perfectly for the pre-teen and early teen player to get started without getting frustrated about stretching out the fingers to form a chord.
As stated before, the hardware is quality, maybe TOO good. The hardtail bridge/tailpiece can be found on many Strats and similar guitars not set up for a vibrato tailpiece. The problem here is that to string this tailpiece, one needs to thread the string end through a hole on the back, then attempt to worm it under the saddle. These saddles were designed for common vibrato tailpieces, where the string is threaded from the rear of the guitar body through the vibrato’s balancing weight, then directly up to where it easily goes through the bottom of the saddle. As I was changing the strings, I was having difficulty getting the strings through this design, basically having to bend the string end tip slightly and twisting it around until it caught into the bottom of the saddle. I hope that a young person does not get frustrated enough to quit playing because of this.
When the guitar arrived, there was not a lot that needed to be done to get it back into playing condition. I cleaned up the residue on the body and back of the neck, re-installed the output jack on the plate, changed the strings and set up the neck relief/intonation. Plugging it into a small amp, this guitar has a decent clean sound, and the humbucker gives off some good distortion tone when run though some form of overdrive. Overall, the guitar is impressive as a starter.
I don’t intend to keep it, but hope to pass it on to some youngster interested in learning the guitar. I didn’t get a case or gig bag with it, just the guitar. I’ll probably throw in a cord and strap along with some picks to sell it off. This is a great starter electric guitar for small hands.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 