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When my nephew was born, I remember spending hours trying to find the perfect gifts for him. In hindsight, I now realize that buying him house-sized toys like “Mr. Happy” the Rocking Bull was just about the worst thing I could do to my space-constricted sister- and brother-in-law, but those things never dawn on you until you’ve become a parent yourself. Despite that and a few other gift-giving fails that I’ve undoubtedly been guilty of over the years, one of the few toys I’m actually proud of is the B. Woofer Guitar. I found it at Target and instantly fell in love because it seemed to represent everything I ever wanted N to learn from me:
- An appreciation and love of music
- An awareness of different types of music (more on that later)
- An affinity for animals, especially dogs
I’ve always felt like people who are moved by music are the ones with the biggest hearts – a similar sentiment to those poor fools who you typically find sobbing in the greeting card aisles. And how can you not like dogs? Anyway…
Fast-forward a few years. My nephew is allergic to dogs, likely has no idea where his guitar even is, and I’m sure my sister-in-law has contemplated breaking it over my head more times than she can count (and we can add one more time to the list after she reads this review) – but I DID see some evidence of him actually having used it more than once, even if it was only for taking a photo.
And because I have issues letting things go, what do you think was the first gift I asked for when my daughter was turning one? You guessed it! And she has played with her B. Woofer guitar every day since she got it over 1.5 years ago, thank God…
About the B. Woofer Guitar:
- MSRP: $22.99 (and it rarely goes on sale)
- Measures 18” x 9.5” x 3.8”
- Weighs 2 lb.
- Age recommendation: 2+ (though we had it at 12m)
- Looks like both a guitar and a dog
- 3 play modes: acoustic, electric and “dog hound” (AKA “woofing”)
- Has 29 songs, 8 musical buttons (which play actual chord progressions), a strum guitar feature, a working whammy bone bar (super cool), guitar strap, volume control, 2-min auto shut-off and song book
- Visit the manufacturer’s website here
B. Woofer Guitar – The Pros:
- It’s got a sleek, modern and cute design that doesn’t make you want to vomit or seize like so many other children’s toys out there.
- It has enough features that it grows with your child – when B was one, all she’d do was press the main buttons and keep the guitar on the floor. By the time she was two, she was picking it up and fake strumming the strings. Nowadays, she throws it around her neck and runs around the house singing the songs and abusing the whammy button.
- Every time you turn it on is a different experience – the songs (which are overwhelmingly ones that you’d recognize, like “Stairway to Heaven” and “B-I-N-G-O”) aren’t always in the same order, which makes you as the parent not want to jump off the nearest bridge after hearing the same stuff over and over again.
- The genre of songs is also completely diverse – lots of children’s music, but also some rock ‘n’ roll, country, classical and even an Italian folk song got thrown into the mix – so it exposes kids to stuff beyond what they’re likely hearing at home.
- It’s good for both boys and girls and doesn’t pigeon-hole either into being stereotyped in one way or another.
- We’ve left this on for days at a time and have only replaced the batteries once in 2+ years.
B. Woofer Guitar – The Cons:
- 9 of the 29 songs are “sung” by a “puppy,” and I use both of those terms very loosely. The person who actually sings these should have their vocal chords removed because they are awful – off-key, non-sensical, just plain bad.
- When B was one, the weight was a little too much for her so she’d leave it on the ground and strum – AKA it’s probably better as a gift for 2+.
- As a bargain hunter, I hate that it almost never goes on sale – I think the cheapest I’ve ever seen it was for around $18 and that was for Christmas.
In Closing:
Everyone talks about the numerous benefits of music for kids, but there are SO MANY REALLY BAD musical toys out there that the odds of you buying a dud is a lot higher than you’d think – and let’s be realistic: how many second guitars are you going to buy if your kid doesn’t like the first one? The answer is none. You’re just going to assume s/he doesn’t like playing guitar and you’ll move on to the next instrument, or give up on music altogether. But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. The B. Woofer Guitar tries to make you smile, and it succeeds. Sure, some of its songs don’t make sense, and the vocals are terrible, but that’s not the point of this toy. The point is to make you enjoy playing it, and I think it accomplishes that and more.
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