Starter guitar for an 8 year old

Those little $150ish Yamahas are great. They play easy and sound good.

Savart beat me to it.
With an 8 year old the attention span isn’t worth a large investment, at the same time if you are really trying to encourage them you need them to have a an attachment.
It’s all about the set up. I’ll bet a $150 used kid’s guitar from Music go Round is set up better than a New Les Paul at GC!

Same, except I have fewer children.

I bought the Squire Mini-strat for my nephew several years back, and it was a big hit. He's still playing, has a bunch of other guitars, keyboards, drums, etc. I think I started something.....

The Gretsch Gin Ricky. Killer little guitar that both of you can play. I forget what the one without the pickup is called, but you can save a few bucks there. Under $200 though.

I taught guitar to kids for 30 years, and i've seen everything, literally everything!

Get the 3/4 size Yamaha. It tunes OK and sounds OK. It's not a toy. No need at all to go for the small Martin or Taylor.

DO NOT get the Taylor Big Baby. I've seen dozens of them, every single one without exception had neck issues, and no matter how many times they were adjusted, they went wonky after a couple of months. 

Look at two Yamaha's to compare if you can, pick the winner and go home happy. Use D'Addario 11's for strings and have the store adjust the action for them if needed, 12's are kind of heavy for a kid.

The mini Strats have wonky necks, don't stay in tune either.

I teach online. I developed my own teaching method over decades. There are many great guitarists who teach, but they are not necessarily good teachers.

My teaching method is called Music is a Language. I used to hold seminars at The Learning Annex back when that was a thing. I was able to show people enough in three hours to help avoid common errors that usually affect their progress negatively and ultimately lead to their putting the guitar under the bed or in a closet for a decade.

When you are a baby, you learn to speak by imitating sounds. In time, you form words, small sentences and then full sentences. It's a a few years before you begin to actually read.

I teach people to play first, (same as speaking), along the way, basic music theory enters, in a simple way, like teaching 2 + 2 equals 4. Tablature enables beginners to learn to read basic notes in 10-15 minutes. Once a student can play their favorite songs reasonably well, if there is interest, learning to decipher dots on a page isn't so difficult.

Also, almost every book I've ever seen jumps ahead way too fast, causing anxiety and confusion. My method takes much smaller steps and in fact, works faster because I've mapped out a straight line. So, going slow and steady produces better results, it's like the tortoise and the hare story.

Beginners taught the wrong way who work hard, become very good mistake players. I've taught 5 year olds to play in months, taught autistic kids to play, and helped senior citizens to enjoy playing, something they never believed they could do.

There's nothing to sign up for, no obligations, hit me up, try a couple of lessons, and see if that works.

martin@martinbutlermusic.com