The Epiphone Les Paul guitars don't particularly sound that great, but they stay in tune much better than the cheap squier strat you can get at the same or lower price. If your kid is serious about wanting to play guitar, but you're not completely sure if they will stick with it, if you can spend another $100 and get a used mexican made fender strat or tele. The reason for this is because for 1, if they decide it's not something they want to do anymore, you can resell it at the same price you bought it for (as long as it is still in decent condition) and little no money is lost. Second, if they do decide to stick with playing guitar and eventually own a "better" or more high end guitar, Mexican made teles or strats are great back up guitars for stage use. I have a couple different high end guitars and I will not get rid of my Mexy Strat because it sounds great still. I'll never pick up my first guitar which is essentially this.