Recommendation for a 12 year old


So a very good friend of mine's daughter is all into the vinyl scene. I took her to Amoeba Records here in Los Angeles and she picked out some Beatles, some AC/DC(!),and some Nirvana. Guess she's a rock and rolla at heart...gotta love that.

Anyway, she has a turntable that her mom purchased that ran a hundred dollars or so, and as you might imagine it does a fine job of finding it's own way around the records. Groove...what groove?!

So my question is this: What turntable would you recommend to a twelve year old that doesn't completely thrash her records? I am guessing that it should be an automatic or semi-automatic TT to ease with the placement and removal of the tonearm on/off the record. Something used and easy to find. Hopefully loaded with its own cartridge as well.

Any ideas?

GLR
glrtrgi
It always depends on the kid. I have seen very wise 12 year old kids and very childish 12 year old kids. You need to adjust appropriately to the best of your ability and desire to gift. I can't afford very expensive so I bought a new Denon DP -29f on Ebay for a very low price for my Nephew about 13-4 years old at the time.
04-22-15: Jrinkerptdnet
not sure about a 12yr old and a "manual" turntable ...
When I was 12 I didn't even know that automatic TT existed.
Don't worry about your daugher trashing the turntable. She sounds like an intelligent girl who takes care of her things. If you train her in the proper use of the TT, she should be OK. I taught both of my daughters to play their records on my sound system. Granted, it wasn't so high-end at the time ... but they did just fine. No broken cartridges either.

How about the least expensive Rega with a $30.00 Grado?
Perhaps you could take her to some stores that carry turntables and show her how the various ones work (i.e., full manual, auto-stop, automatic starts and cue, play and return), and see if the difference is meaningful to her. If she's fine with fully manual, more of the money can be put into the sound quality of the deck.