We’ve a Vespa too. I just took this shot with my iPad.
I like your real ones.
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Ahh, I’m a great fan of two wheels but my choice would be a bit different 
Nice story and I can do relate!
I found the necks on the SG and Les Paul so unforgiving and interested that you play finger style.. unfortunately I do (badly) and love Leo Kottke’s stuff 12 string so I think that’s why the Tele suits me better because it’s easier to abuse the neck and bend the headstock for a bit of fun.
I don’t have any fancy acoustics and always moved Martins but tend to stick with my crappy Ibanez and Seagull. Maybe one day I will get a decent one.
The Tele goes will with a Fender Blues junior - plenty enough juice to kill the spiders in the room and create fissures in the wall 
The Grass Market in Edin has or had a nice guitar shop?
Best of luck and look forward to seeing some photos of the rig.
It’s such a cool Lego model! The real ones are from 1963 and 64 but now live one in a bathroom and one on a mezzanine..
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When I started, skinny necks and a shorter scale length were very desirable, so that I could play as fast as possible. More than 10 years later in '89 I bought my first strat after spending hours working my way through the stock in a particular shop, and that instrument has remained my number 1, with a slightly fatter maple neck and very resonant body. Now my fingers are older and joints becoming a bit arthritic, I’m finding a bigger, chunkier neck more comfortable, and a Gibson '59 or even '58 style baseball bat is nice. I’ve a Japanese Washburn A20 that I picked up very used in the early 90s that has a steep V shape neck, and that used to be my go-to for metal, but it’s getting increasing uncomfy to play.
Most of my stuff is on slide now, and that solves the issue of arthritic fingers.
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It is important to have a good instrument. Real musos can make music on any old rubbish - a credit on a Jade Warrior album track is ‘8 quid guitar’ and a teaspoon on a fire extinguisher stood in for a cowbell but the rest of us do benefit from a good quality instrument. These days that doesn’t have to be expensive.
Something to look out for on Gibson-clone guitars is neck profile and overall weight. Gibsons, the Les Paul range in particular, are renowned being heavy - all that solid mahogany - and for chunky necks, even described on some models as ‘baseball bats’. Could be difficult for small hands.
Ibanez make excellent guitars, from top of the range as used by jazzers such as George Benson and John Schofield, to the AM53, a copy of the Gibson 339 [the smaller-body version of the 335]
I have one of these. Slim neck: the profile is suitable for smaller hands. I bought mine s/h from a teenage girl. Well made. Plays fine when correctly set up. There’s a couple on Leboncoin for 260€/270€.
The advantage of a semi-acoustic like this is, as B.B. King used to say about ‘Lucille’, his Gibson 335, you can play it without an amp and still hear it well enough to be useful for practicing.
A video that you may find useful is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5svhFCEF98. It’s a basic description of the 3 types of electric guitar - solid/semi-hollow/hollow. The latter are known as ‘jazz boxes’ and not suitable.
The crucial advice he gives is to handle a guitar and choose one that feels good in the hand. I had a Fender Strat Plus that had a neck that played like butter. It seemed to play itself! I’ve had two more that simply didn’t have that superb feel and a ‘deluxe’ Factory Special Run Strat that was dreadful - frets like a cheesegrater and horrible thin-sounding ‘Noiseless’ pickups. Straight back on Ebay!
It’s important that the guitar is correctly set up. Paul Davids, with 3.6 million subscribers, is a man who knows guitars. This video illustrates how guitars out of the box can be difficult/impossible to play without time, effort and expertise to set them up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuMn2S-3rwE.
A second hand guitar may well be already nicely set up. But any guitar which is inherently of decent quality can be set up to play well.
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Nothing at all wrong with Mexican Fenders - the difference is mainly somewhat better wood (and different pickups) in the US models, and more time spent on finishing them. But the higher price is not proportionate to vastly higher quality or playability. It’s a bit like the badge-engineering that goes on in the car industry. Is an Audi massively better than a Volkswagen or a Skoda?
I have a 2011 Mexican-made Strat and it’s a perfectly playable guitar. As is my Indonesian-made Squier Cabronita Telecaster. When I bought that I took it to a guitar tech to have it checked and get a set-up - he gave it back to me untouched as it was perfectly fine straight from the factory.
One that’s been stored in damp conditions is a different matter of course. 
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I dont yet have arthritic fingers but do after smack my fingers with a hammers (by mistake) and so yes, slide with an open tuning also annoys the spiders here 
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Absolutely!…a good guitar shop should not you leave until it’s nicely set up!
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One of the reasons I recommend Thomann is they tend to set their instruments up before shipping. I do my own setups, but the Aeolus is one of maybe 3 guitars I ever owned that did not need significant setting up from new/used.
As for Mexican made, my number 2 strat is mexican (bought as a basket case) but now a good instrument.
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It would be helpful to be an octopus. Then it would be possible to play slide on 4 guitars at the same time. Or, maybe, an octopus would be able to shred like crazy just using their sucker things matched with their incredible sense of timing and ability to multi task.
Who would have thought!
Check out this video from this search, octopus playing guitar https://share.google/w7AEh2Jlb3vDo9BHv
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If you atr looking at acoustic, we just got Remy a new guitar, we tried a few and ended up getting a Bromer, although a higher model than he’d tried at the shop. Really good value for the sound and a really nice wood. They are apparently an old established Indonesian brand. He is older than your grandson so I’d definitely say to get a 3/4.
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I started messing about with a slide earlier this year for the first time, most seem to be made for chunky fingers but Dadarrio do a nice glass one that fits just fine, I’m on the hunt for a metal one to try but so far no luck. It’s difficult to judge quality on line and working out the measurements, nice if they all used a standard unit of measurement, but no chance.
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At this stage I don’t want to get him high end but I do want decent and he can grow into it, if that makes sense.
I’m lucky to know 2 Luthiers, they’re both a bit of a step away but I did use one when I got my first guitar, since then I’ve learnt to set the action myself, but would maybe take my grandson along so they could set it specifically for him and his ability at this point.
I took some time to try various LP’s, the one I own now I got in Edinburgh, fantastic experience for me as the guys there were helpful, not patronizing and set up a very high end MesaBoogie amp for me, I was then invited to try as many as I liked and take as long as I wanted. We were there for nearly 3 hours before I was sure it was the one I wanted. So much better being able to feel things.
The SG came from Glasgow, same sort of experience but I made up my mind much quicker. If Toby does continue playing then when the time comes I’ll take him to choose his own, never know he might fancy a Rickenbacher or PSR.
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Check out Jim Dunlop stuff - I got mine yonks back in DC but could try them in before
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If I’m honest, the price was way more than I’d spend on a guitar that I didn’t really want but I’m not a great fan of Fenders in general. I’d like to say I’m a Gibson girl but reality is I’m a Gibson Granny!
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Confession time, Toby does like playing my Taylor but really prefers electric, so I’ve decided if he continues with his guitar journey he can always have mine, for school and I’ll just have to get a new one. It’ll be a sacrifice but I’m sure I’ll get over it 
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This is what I use much of the time, although the walls look thicker in the picture. Usually on my little finger to give more freedom for chords.
I also have a variety of glass and metal slides, but for a more pedal-steel type sound I’ll use a 17mm spark plug socket although that may have to change as my knuckles are getting too bumpy to fit.
I’ve had a few guitars over the years. Best quality is usually Japanese (my '59 replica Les Paul is a Tokai Love Rock Japanese market only model, my No1 strat was MIJ in '86, variety of others too). Godin can be hit or miss - owned 3, kept 1. Had a Heritage H150 hand built that never sounded good, even after multiple pickup swaps. Bought a used Gibson V that likewise had odd overtones and felt like a £100 Chinese starter guitar, which was funny because the Dean V I bought for £75 on ebay was a nicer instrument.
Not an option for your grandson, but it’s very worthwhile doing what you did and exploring different instruments to find the one you want.
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Recently donated this to a friend of mine who can really play. I bought it in a shop in Southampton perhaps in 1979 and played it through a bass.
Has an IBM circuit board and it is , so I understand quite collectable but like with a lot of things I do not understand, they are better off left with the proper musicians
Sounded terrible.
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