"Gibson and Loog excel once again in designing a guitar for young kids that respects their abilities": A review of the Gibson x Loog Les Paul Special.] - Guitar | Technique

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What is it?

(Image credit: Loog)

A university academic project that grew into wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns, Loog’s origin story is somewhat different to most guitar companies. It produces a range of three-string guitars that, rather than being a scaled-down six-string, are designed to fit a younger, smaller player. The idea is guitars for children to make the first steps of learning and playing more accessible and welcoming.

Loog x Gibson Les Paul Special — (Image credit: Matt Lincoln / Future)

Loog also includes an array of stickers and a drawstring pouch here, containing a comprehensive pack of two-sided chord cards with the instruments. The cards feature a standard chord diagram on one side with a cartoon monster version on the other, and there’s also a set of picks, a string winder and an activity book that goes into Gibson’s history as well as crossword, colouring, and spot the difference pages.

Price: $229 | £212 | €239

Made: China

Type: Three-string short-scale electric guitar

Body: Poplar

Neck: Canadian maple

Fingerboard: Rosewood

Scale length: 20.6” / 524mm

Nut/width: Bone / 29mm

Frets: 19

Hardware: Custom Gibson x Loog lightning bar wraparound bridge

Electrics: Custom Gibson x Loog single-coil dogear pickup, volume control w/ black stop hat knob

Strings: 1st E (.11), 2nd B (.15), 3rd G(.19)

Weight: 3.3lb / 1.5kg

Finishes: Shell Pink (as reviewed), TV Yellow, Frost Blue polyurethane. SG option also available in Cardinal Red.

Case: None

Loog

Les Paul Junior mini model, with the added twist here of a very un-Gibson-like Shell Pink finish. The poplar body and general build feels reassuringly solid to me, particularly given the inevitable drops, spills, falls and general child-associated knocks it’ll be exposed to. Where Paul Simonon led, our children will surely follow.

The PU-painted finish is smooth and seems to be fairly resistant to post-snack fingerprints, with a four-bolt neck joint for the satin smooth maple neck. There’s a rosewood fingerboard here, which is an unexpected, more premium touch these days – I was expecting laurel.

There are no sharp edges to the fretwork, but the action out of the box is higher than expected, which I’ll need to address to make things easier on my daughter’s hands. And doing that is different from most other electric guitars.

Loog x Gibson Les Paul Special

(Image credit: Matt Lincoln / Future)

Adjusting the string action is done by tightening the bridge screws with an included hex key, and while this in itself isn’t a deal breaker, it goes to show a little guitar still may need a little guitar knowledge in setting up.

The shape of the maple neck, combined with the three-string setup with the unwound strings on a shortened scale, allows our daughter to comfortably fret and strum without any complaint

The fact that the guitar feels this well-made but still comes in at a respectable 1.5kg / 3.3lb is a testament to Loog’s designers. The shape of the maple neck, combined with the three-string setup with the unwound strings on a shortened scale, allows our daughter to comfortably fret and strum without any complaint (something most of us will have endured after tentatively handing over our own six-string options).

The lighter three strings (tuned E/B/G) allow for one, two and three-finger chord shapes to be formed, building up to barring with one finger across the frets. This helps children to learn in an accessible and gently paced way, while the higher strings can also be used for them to play melodies, with the lower tension making things more comfortable on the fingers.

In addition to the included learning materials to guide them through this, Loog also has a free phone and tablet app with optional paid (called the Backstage Pass) features for learning. The guitar tuner is a free element of the app and, surprisingly, this is one of the activities our daughter really enjoys and insists on checking each time she plays. Certainly not a bad habit to get into!

Loog x Gibson Les Paul Special

(Image credit: Adam Gasson)

Loog has appropriately kept things simple with a single ‘dogear’ P-90-style pickup and a volume control. It should be noted that the control knob stops reassuringly with a solid clunk at each end, even under inquisitive testing to see if we can go past 10. We get a nice clear, clean sound when played through our mini five-watt practice amp, useful for honing technique. The next step will be an overdrive pedal!

Loog x Gibson Les Paul Special

(Image credit: Adam Gasson)

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

There’s a general rule in parenting; if there are no complaints, then you’re doing something right. Or they’re doing something wrong, but let’s ignore that in this instance.

From the moment the box was opened our daughter was excited by the branded activity book, stickers, pick and chord cards. These may sound superficial, but it all added to her enthusiasm and that was before she plucked her first string – which, when she finally played, was immediately followed by a massive grin.

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Despite her questioning why it didn’t have six strings, she was quickly comfortable with the three-string arrangement, which works fantastically, giving all the feel and feedback of a full-size guitar and encouraging her to try new and more complicated chord shapes as she becomes more confident.

Guitar World verdict: Loog and Gibson have done another great job creating a guitar that is entirely appropriate for young children without patronising them by dressing up a toy as an instrument. The addition of the Gibson collaboration adds an extra legitimacy to what was already an impressive product.