Guitarists are always happiest about their next guitar. We’re constantly window-shopping or looking around online to see if we can score a deal. We need one of every kind, for every situation. If you’re looking to give the guitarist in your life something to strum, consider our list of the best acoustic guitars for any budget.
If the guitarist on your Christmas list is just starting out, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to spend a lot of money on a guitar. What you need is something with all the elements, put together in such a way that it won’t immediately fall apart, and which holds a tune. Enter virtually any Rogue instrument, but especially this guitar.
An evergreen favorite of the inexpensive guitar field, we put this on our best acoustic guitars for beginners post. It’s the very definition of cheap and cheerful, with plenty of laminate plywood all over. It definitely punches above its weight class in terms of construction and is maybe the most likely candidate to surprise doubters.
Let me put it to you this way: if you were to buy this guitar and then try to ship it to your friend on the other side of the country, you’d very nearly spend more on the shipping than this guitar costs. It’s an exceptional value, no way around it.
On top of that, it actually sounds pretty good. It’s bright and articulate, and it looks the part. Even if you only get a year of lessons out of this guitar, your money still will have been well worth it.
At this price, the gig bag is sold separately. It’s also avaialble in sunburst, if you prefer.
New guitar company Orangewood brings a novel approach to the beginner guitar market. They make simple, straight-forward, well-built machines without too many frills, but with a few nice touches.
Each guitar is professionally setup with a new set of Ernie Ball Earthwood strings before they’re delivered. At this price point (and really for just about any guitar purchased online), what you’d normally get is a guitar with super-high action, corroded strings, and with no remote concept of being in tune. If you’re opening this on Chirstmas day, you can give it a quick final tune and it’s ready to play.
This guitar features a layered spruce top with layered mahogany back and sides. It’s got a light satin finish, which gives the neck a nice feel right out of the box and lets some of the natural warmth shine through. That said, the shape and the wood choices make this more of a bright and clear guitar, not overly thick.
This price is just for the guitar and gig bag, but they also make a full starter kit available, as well. They offer a number of models all around this price point, if you’re looking for a slightly different shape.
A step up from Rogue instruments brings you to Washburn. Washburn is kind of famous for making unusually good instruments for relatively little money, alongside label-mate Oscar Schmidt. I would say that where most people prepare to be disappointed by Fender’s Squier line, for example, people are more often than not pleasantly surprised by a Washburn.
The upgrade from the Rogue gets you a guitar completely made of mahogany, which will go a long way toward increasing the sustain and richness of the tone. A lot of guitars, particularly in this price range, will make the top piece out of nice wood, but then skimp on the sides.To be totally fair, this is laminated mahogany, not solid pieces, but that’s to be expected at this price.
This is the wine red color and comes with a gig bag, but you can also pick it up in natural tone, too.
Way back in the late 60s, Yamaha went out of their way to hire the main luthier away from famed acoustic maker Martin to show the company how to make better folk guitars. The result of that was the 1966 FG180, a guitar that punched way above its weight class in terms of quality, to the point that James Taylor and Elliott Smith both played them at one point or another. I even had one for a time, before sending it to a better guitarist friend in Chicago.
This is the latest in that fine lineage. It’s again a considerable step up from the Washburn, and still offers outstanding value. This is a guitar you will be able to rely on for a number of years, even if it still isn’t quite into the professional leagues. The improvement in this model is the scalloped bracing, which reduces contact with the top sound board, thereby encouraging more tonal response.
Even better, you get some choices with this model. You can choose between the dreadnought or concert shape, which is largely a matter of comfort. The dreadnought will be louder and have better frequency response, but the concert will be more comfortable to play with great high-end.
Takamine as a company is laser-focused on providing very good, very playable guitars for reasonable money. This one in particular comes from their wildly popular G series and offers a few nice touches.
The top is solid cedar with mahogany back, sides, and neck and a rosewood fingerboard. Combined with the dreadnought shape, this is a loud, clear guitar with a surprising midrange. Playbility is excellent, as is feel, in part thanks to the satin finish.
Elevating the tone is the bone nut and bone bridge, which terminates in a pin-less rosewood piece. Takamine says this provides superior intonation, but I am most fond of it for elminating those terrible plastic pins. A small detail, but I do like the effect on the sound and the overall experience of ownership.
Like Takamine, Alvarez primarily makes excellent mid-market guitars. In my experience, they’re usually in the hands of very folk-aligned players, in part because they tend to have great projection. A setup might be needed upon coming out of the box, but once it’s ready to go, it’s very accessible.
Like other options on this list, here you have a quarter-sawn solid sitka top with layered mahogany back, sides and neck and a rosewood fretboard. The scalloped x bracing inside is hand scalloped, with a focus on producing extremely consistant, very resonant guitars from unit to unit. The result is a clear, balanced, relatively powerful sound, particularly for the price.
Other nice touches include abalone and mother of pearl inlays, a unique bi-level bridge, and matched binding on body and neck.
Ibanez are certainly best known for having created the Tube Screamer, and to a lesser extent, Steve Vai’s signature JEM. But they offer a number of reasonably-priced instruments, and that includes a range of decent acoustic guitars. I’ve played several of them, as well as a few of their Artcore semi-hollowbody electrics, and have always found them to be highly resonant and easy to play.
This model features a satin finish, so-called “open pore”, over a solid mahogany top with layered mahogany back, sides, and neck with a ovangkol fretboard. The result is a natural-feeling, fast neck guitar that looks quite handsome, as well.
This is still priced about right for a beginner, but the nicer touches and balanced tone mean it could stick around for a long time, even as a number one machine.
Made in Canada by the same company that makes Godin guitars, Seagull acoustics are outstanding value for money. While the Yamaha must be made in China to achieve that price point, these guitars are able to be made in North America by leveraging woods that are plentiful nearby, thus reducing the cost of the instrument on the whole without giving up any expected tonal characteristics.
The cedar top is very reminiscent of sitka spruce, which is widely found on very high-end instruments. The use of a tapered headstock makes this a great guitar for open tunings. The cherry back is not only beautiful, it offers excellent warmth overall.
Most North American made acoustics sell for quite a lot more, so this is worth every penny. I played this several times at my local guitar shop, but never quite had the extra scratch to buy one. The matching case is less than $50 extra.
You can also choose from this natural color, black, blue, or red wood stain.
Taylor makes an excellent guitar and is often mentioned in the same company as Martin. For someone looking to step up from a cheap starter guitar, a natural next step into a lifelong instrument would be something from Taylor, especially given their range of pricing. I’ve seen these guitars in the hands of more gigging singer/songwriters than any others.
This particular model is a smaller sized guitar, which is great for smaller people. It isn’t quite a 3/4 size like you’d see in an electric, but is referred to as a parlor guitar. If you’ve been playing a dreadnought and find it cumbersome, slipping into something like this could be the key. Again, with the smaller size, you’re getting a brighter high-end. The mahogany top will lend a certain warmth and gives the guitar on the whole excellent balance.
If you want a Taylor in a similar price range but need the punch and power of a dreadnought, consider the Big Baby Taylor, which is extremely popular.
Want to get weird with it? This is a fully modern guitar, completely disinterested in traditional guitar trappings. For that reason, some guitarists spurn Ovation as being gimmicky, but it’s hard to argue with what they’ve put together, especiallly when it looks this cool.
Ovation guitars have one main differentiating feature: a bowl-shaped back made of Lyrachord, a composite material specifically created to transmit vibration from guitar strings. Though they do offer models with Lyrachord tops, as well, this one has a traditional quilted maple top mated to a nate neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The sound holes are also in an unconventional place, clustered near the neck joint.
The result is a very unique-sounding guitar. They can be loud and powerful and extremely sensitive to picking dynamics. Notes feel alive and jump out when you pick or strum, which is very easy because these are exceptionally playable. They’re very, very stable and the action is almost always set perfectly.
The trade-off is that, to my ears, the lows and some of the mid-range power are rolled off. This is meant for careful articulation and not as much for the full warmth like you might get in a traditional design. They’re utterly reliable and much less prone to expansion and contraction thanks to the composite material, so tuning and intonation are almost always dead-on.
It’s also an electric-acoustic with a three-band EQ on board, as well as a tuner. This is a modern acoustic guitar through and through and could make an excellent gift for the intrepid guitarist.
As you move up in price, you start to get away from layered or laminate woods. Even the Taylor, which is a very nice guitar, has laminate sapele in order to keep the cost down. This Guild, on the other hand, is all solid wood, combining familiar tone woods into a rich-sounding machine. Many famous players have used a Guild over the years, so you’d be in good company here.
This is about as straight-forward a guitar as it gets. A vintage-loyal design with excellent craftsmanship, finished in a natural high gloss. All solid pieces including a sitka spruce top for brightness and rosewood back and sides for warmth. It has considerably more harmonics than a lot of other guitars just shy of this price point, so consider this another option for graduating from cheaper models.
A Guild-branded foam case is included with this excellent guitar.
I was introduced to Blueridge guitars about 15 years ago, in a little music shop in New Hampshire. Right away, one of the things that sets most of their models apart is the beautiful abalone pearl outline around the sound hole and outer edge. These are sometimes called Martin-killers because they’re a relatively unheralded brand amking outstanding instruments.
Like the Yamaha, Blueridge guitars also feature scalloped internal braces, and the top is a solid piece of Sitka spruce. Between that and the 000 size, you’d choose this guitar if crystalline high end response was more important than powerful low-end volume.
The note articulation on these guitars is well above-average, making them fantastic for fingerstyle and country. Part of the magic of their tuning comes from the dense mahogany neck, which resists movement during temperature and humidity changes.
Almost the polar opposite of the D-18, this Breedlove is an incredibly innovative guitar primarily aimed at fingerstyle guitarists. Fingerstyle compositions and arrangements require an absolutely perfectly balanced guitar, and the luthiers at Breedlove made it happen with this fantastic, modern-looking piece.
This shape is the company’s original, custom design, a take on the concert with an added cutaway. The cutaway gives you access to the higher frets, which is key when playing styles in which you’re not just strumming chords at the nut.
I’ve heard this guitar live several times and am always captivated by the perfectly detailed tone. Tonally, this is somewhere between a jumbo and a dreadnought, but quieter than the latter. Articulation and detail are the focus here.
All of Breedlove’s guitars are finished by hand after having been machine-cut to the exact specifications. The hand finishing is done by feel — when the luthier thinks it feels right, the guitar is done. That finishing is applied to a solid Sitka top and myrtlewod back and sides, joined to a okoume neck with ebony fretboard.
To top it all off, this is an acoustic-electric, and comes loaded with an LR Baggs EAS VTC pickup.
If you want to capture a little Breedlove magic without the extreme price tag, they also make the Discovery Dread for much less.
The same way the mention of electric guitars might bring to mind the Gibson Les Paul, so, too, will the mention of acoustic guitars bring to mind the Martin D-18. In the same way, all other guitars are compared to it, often in awed tones. This is the progenitor, the classic, the guitar which all other guitars aspire to be in some small way. Most guitarists spend their lives waiting to get one.
Projection is this guitar’s hallmark. With solid mahogany sides and back topped with sitka spruce, this dreadnought is fully focused on performance volume and range. The understated nature of the styling is meant to inspire a vintage 30s vibe, but inside is scalloped bracing that is moved toward the neck, which improves bass response without the need for heavier attack.
You’ll know if this is the guitar you’re in the market for; it’s the icon. Comes with a hardshell case, probably because they dare not send it out into the world without one.
The price is definitely a consideration, however. For less than half the price, you can get the modernized Custom D, which still features solid sitka and mahogany, but is just notably not the D-18. If that’s still too much but it must say Martin on the headstock, try the Martin LX1 Little Martin, which is a travel sized machine. On the other hand, if you want to upgrade even further, look at the Martin D-28.
At the end of the day, one role of acoustic guitars these days is just to be heard when there’s no amplification present. Obviously, they are so much more than that, which explains every other guitar on the list, but if you really just want to hear yourself play and you’re far from home or on the move, a guitar like this is the one for you.
No, you won’t get much in the way of volume or expressive, balanced tone, but this thing more than makes up for that in fun. It’s meant to be easily portable but still offer a little projection. Sling it over your back and take it on a hike.
