Tech Will Save Us Electro Guitar Kit Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
We have a bit of a thing about coding and electronics in our house at the moment – the girls really seem to have been grabbed by the subject and we are amassing quite a collection of educational toys that they go back to again and again. Some of our favourites have come from Tech Will Save Us, who make wonderfully fun and educational toys suitable for kids aged 4+. I have always loved the Tech Will Save Us products have a good practical and physical side, as well as having superb guides and projects online, meaning that the kids can continue to be challenged by them long after they have mastered the basics.
Tech Will Save Us have recently launched a new range of Music Studio products – a collection of three sound-themed kits that can work either independently or together to form a full music studio. The collection comprises of the Electro Guitar Kit, the Synth Wave Kit and the Record and Remix Kit. They are available for £29.99 each, or at £79.99 for all three in a set. We were sent the Electro Guitar Kit to try out which, like the rest of this range, is aimed at ages 8+.
The Electro Guitar Kit comprises of a small, cardboard electric guitar for the child to construct and an amplifier for them to build, as well as a music studio access for you to record and mix your own tunes and ditties. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself – the first thing to do is to unpack it and look at the component parts. The box contains:
- 1 x Amplifier Module
- 1 x Piezo Pickup
- 6 x Strings
- 1 x Speaker
- 4 X Plastic Connections
- Cardboard pieces for guitar and amplifier
When you look at the whole thing out of the box, you do wonder just how it will all turn into a music-making, sound-mixing machine, and that’s where TWSU’s website comes in! I do like the kids to be able to use their toys independently, especially as they are getting older and shouldn’t need an adult to guide them all the way through a project. The Club Make section of the website allows you to leave the kids to work on their project with minimal intervention – we already had the account from our previous TWSU products and all my daughter had to do was search for the Electro Guitar Kit and start working through the tutorial.
The process of building the guitar and amp has been broken into nice manageable chunks, and we just set the laptop up on the playroom table for her to work through. She really liked how each step had little video / GIF images to accompany the instructions, so even if she didn’t quite know what the text mean, she could follow the video and would know she was on the right track with it. Assembly of the guitar and amp probably took around 15-20 minutes each and in the end, we were left with a small but pretty sturdy cardboard guitar and amp, which my daughter was really rather proud of.
As well as the little videos in the step-by-step instructions, there were also longer videos interspersed throughout with information about how to use the guitar and how the sound transferred through the guitar into the amp. Of course, you’re not going to get a perfectly functioning Fender Stratocaster, but the kit demonstrates the concept of how an electric guitar works really well and is great fun!
My daughter also really enjoyed the little online tutorial demonstrating how to get the best sound out of the guitar – there are even little printed frets on the neck of the guitar to show them where to put their fingers and the tutorial demonstrates the different sounds that are made when the different frets are used. The pieces of music start off very simply, but they do get more difficult.
Finally, the Music Maker Studio, which was probably her favourite part! The Music Maker Studio allows you to mix different sounds; your guitar, your voice as well as any pan-bashing or any other music making objects you might have in the house, to create and save tracks. You can add in and remove a metronome to help keep time, and adjust the speed and volume of the track to make some really cool sounds. My daughter has gone back to this again and again, and has had a great time mixing up some sounds – the Synth Wave Kit and Record and Remix Kit can also be used alongside the Electro Guitar Kit to make a miniature recording studio, and she has already popped these on her Christmas list!
We have had great fun this half term with the kit, and it would make a fantastic Christmas Gift for any child who has an interest in electronics or music, or even for a parent who has the interest and wants to gently push their kids in the same direction! Another fantastic product from Tech Will Save Us!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £29.99
For more information or to buy visit www.techwillsaveus.com.
