(Cross posted from r/AskMusicians)
Hi everyone,
If this isn't the right place to post this, please let me know so I can move my post to a more appropriate sub and delete this one. Also, please ignore my username, it's a randomly generated username for a throwaway account I made ages ago and never used till now. I am in no way a Musician nor am I Super lol.
My husband has always been really into music but never really had the support to learn an instrument. I used to play some instruments in school (clarinet mainly, but also a bit of violin and bass) so I know some basics like how to read sheet music and all that which I offered to teach him and that led to me breaking out my 20 year old clarinet so now he wants to learn an instrument as well, but he isn't sure if he wants to play electric guitar or drums.
I was thinking a beginner guitar or electronic drum kit would be a great Christmas gift but I'm needing some recommendations as I'm not sure what to look for or what price range is realistic and there are no music shops around where we live.
Here's some other info that might help:
• We're in Australia and the prices are higher than everything I've read online (E.g. one drum kit was listed as about US$300 in an article, but the cheapest I could find it in Aus was over AU$600).
• My husband has nerve damage in his hands and fingers so he isn't aware of how much pressure he's applying sometimes. I'm not sure if that will make a huge difference to which instrument he chooses.
• We have a guitar amp already which was a hand me down from a friend. (Would this work with an electronic drum kit as well or would we need a separate amp? We also have my old bass amp)
• It would need to be an electronic drum kit as we live in a 2 story home with an elderly person living downstairs. She's very supportive of the idea and has even offered to put money towards it as her part of my husband's Christmas gift, but I'd like to be as respectful as possible and keep the noise to a minimum. My husband is also an engineer so I'm sure he could come up with something to put the kit on to reduce noise from the pedals and whatnot.
• How delicate are electronic drum kits? I realise they're designed to be hit so parts of them have to be pretty tough by design, but I'm more talking about fur getting into the workings since we have 2 cats and a husky. I mean, a car is in general a pretty strong piece of technology, but one bit of paper in the wrong place can really mess with the electronics (I speak from experience on that!)
• My husband loves to sing along as well, but doesn't plan on getting to the level of performing or making this his profession.
Thank you very much for any help or suggestions you can offer, and sorry this became a bit of a novel!
TL;DR: Looking for recommendations for good beginner electric guitars or electronic drum kits available in Australia and realistic price ranges. Accessory recommendations are also appreciated (e.g. sticks, picks, etc)
Submitted September 03, 2020 at 11:13PM by Musician_Super https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/im7ddr/beginner_electric_guitar_or_electronic_drum_kit/?utm_source=ifttt