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How much does a 'good' acoustic guitar cost?
I was just wondering how much you should spend for a good acoustic guitar. I have an acoustic that cost me about £120 and am considering an upgrade when I have the money. When I say a good acoustic I don't mean like a £2000 Martin but basically an acoustic that's worth keeping and is high quality enough for enjoyable bedroom playing. I think basically I'm looking for the acoustic equivalent of a Made in Mexico Fender in terms of quality.
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i think the taylor 110ce has a lot of bang for the buck, i'd set your budget around 800-1000 and keep an eye out for a solid used deal
I have a 210. Fantastic instrument for the money.
214 here, Love it
I've had really good experiences in the $200-300 range with Washburns, Alvarez Regents, and Takamines.
That said, acoustic guitars have a lot of headroom in terms of price and quality. You can get what you pay for at many price points.
I have had the Yamaha FG730s for a couple of years now and absolutely love it. It costs around $299 and sounds fantastic. It always seems to get 5* ratings and I can definitely support that. I think this guitar sounds way better than its price. I am going to get a nice Martin eventually too but it never gets old picking up my Yahama. It was my first "real" guitar and will always be my baby
A good rule of thumb for acoustics is $300-$500 are decent sounding guitars, but once you go above that and get into $600-$900 is when acoustics start to sound really good. Yamaha and breedlove are two good brands for cheaper acoustics that still sound really good. I have a yamaha FG series and they sound amazing. Yamaha, seagull, and breedlove for good cheap acoustics, and gibson, martin, and taylor if u want to over spend.
It's not about "good". It's about what's available at your price point.
The higher the quality, the higher the price.
I think Breedlove makes the best valued acoustics right now. The Passport model is $499 and plays and sounds incredible.
Of course, Martins and Gibsons play and sound incredible as well but most of them are way more than $499.
With that being said, I've played some Fender and Yamaha acoustics that are $299 and they were awesome as well. But you have to watch the quality control on the cheaper guitars. I played a Fender yesterday at Guitar Center that had a warped neck and completely fretted out anywhere past the 10th fret. It was simply a dud guitar. They had another one there that was the exact same model and it played perfectly.
tl;dr Go to a music shop and play all the acoustics.
Gosh, the Taylors and Martins are just the biggest ripoffs in all of the musical world. My opinion, of course.
Here's what I've noticed about them. Go to a music shop and play a $1000 acoustic. It's set up perfectly. And it better damn well be for a guitar that expensive, right? Now go find one that's on the low end of nice, in other words made with nice woods, binding, good tuners. Usually in the $250-300 range. You'll find its action to be too high. They're ALWAYS too high. For two reasons:
a. It's easy to lower the action on an acoustic and a pain in the ass to raise it. b. It makes their "high end" model feel better when you grab it next.
Seriously, take a low end Yamaha, Washburn, Seagull, etc. and lower the action at the bridge (requires sandpaper and a sore arm, or a power sander). Put a new nut on it and file down to a perfect height where there's literally a hair of space between the 1st fret and the string when you press down between the 2nd and 3rd. Or better yet, strike a deal with the store owner to take care of that for you as a little add on.
Now put on a blindfold and have someone hand you that guitar, a Martin, and a Taylor in random order. Good luck picking out the "cheap" guitar.
Best acoustic I've ever owned was $259 I think.
Eh... I've had some low end acoustics set up well- they still feel a bit limited compared to a good Martin, Taylor or something even better like a Carling, Froggy Bottom, etc...
So you're saying that all you need to do to make a $300 guitar sound like a $3000 one is to lower the action a fraction of an inch?
I'd like to know how you think improving the playability of a cheap guitar is going to drastically affect the sound quality it puts out, when there's practically zero relation between the two.
Acoustic guitars are not like electric guitars, where the pickups and the amplifier can somewhat mask the properties and resonance of the types of wood being used or even the method of construction.
Acoustic guitars are their own amplifiers and almost everything factors into the overall sound. The difference between a cheap acoustic and a top of the line one is much greater than any difference between two electrics in the same categories.
What music store do you frequent where you can strike a deal with the store owner to do $100-150 dollars worth of work to a $250 guitar for free? You'd possibly get one to do it if you were buying a $3000 guitar, but not on an entry level instrument. That's right, a $300 guitar is an entry level instrument, not a lower high end model as you suggested.
Not only could I tell the difference between a $300 Yamaha and a high end Martin, I could pick out the difference between 3 of the same model Martins but with different bracing.
You could line up any $300 guitar vs a Martin D28 and I could tell the difference every time. To make it fair you could line up a $300 guitar, a D28, an HD28 and an HD28V and I'd give you even odds that I can pick out all 4 models. There's a huge difference between the sound if you know what to listen for.
You're going a little too fan boy there, my friend. You ever peep what Tom Morello plays? And old shitty looking Ibanez acoustic. You ever listen to one of Keb Mo's grammy winning songs and though, "that would sound so much better if it was played on a Taylor". Of course not, because you didn't know it was being played on a fucking Seagull. Last time I saw Sufjan Stevens it looked like he was playing a D10 Washburn. Didn't seem to bother anyone.
While you're talking up overpriced guitars to the local teenagers, I'll be on a cruise playing my "cheapo" and spending the money I saved on cocktails.
Bonswa!
Tom Morello plays a black Gibson with "Black Spartacus" written on it 90% of the time. Keb Mo also plays Gibsons the majority of the time, just because he plays a Seagull now and then to get a particular type of sound doesn't mean it's a superior instrument.
I'm not a fanboy at all, I'm being realistic. There are many decent budget acoustic guitars out there and while there's nothing wrong with them, I'm not going to make some grandiose claim that they are on par with your average $3000 acoustic.
I'm sure we can both agree that nobody needs a $3000 acoustic to make good music, but there is a difference. It's all just a matter of what you priorities are and where you choose to spend your cash.
If you'd rather spend a few grand to get drunk on a boat in the sun, that's your business. I could argue that I could get drunk and have a hell of a time on the beach where I live for $300 and have just as much fun, but I'm not going to knock you on taking a cruise.
The same goes for buying guitars, I'd rather spend my cash on a top quality instrument that will last forever. My theory is to splurge on things that hold their value and to skimp on things that lose their value, so buy cheap cars and expensive guitars.
At no point did I knock anyone for owning a budget guitar, all I did was question your claim that there is no difference.
Hey, we can agree that everyone has different priorities and tastes. I'm with you there. But purchasing an expensive guitar is not a guarantee of quality. Just because Martin invented the dreadnought does not mean they make the best by default.
I'm not sure if you're old enough to remember, but in the early 80s Martin had a rash of guitars that started warping. I believe every guitar they made back then was set neck. The wood they used would warp and leave people with unplayable and unfixable $2K doorstops. Could you imagine the guy that took the advice of someone who insisted they buy a high priced guitar, as it is a life long investment, only to have a hunk of overpriced crap? They then switched to bolt ons.
Meanwhile, some guy bought a cheap Yamaha from the other part of the store and still plays it today.
Here's my issue: Every time someone asks for advice about upgrading from a crappy toy guitar, the thread gets flooded with people insisting they spend $1000 or they're buying crap. It's just not true. This guy obviously doesn't plan on spending more than a few hundred bucks, so why even mention a Martin?
It's not helpful to the OP and it reeks of misplaced bravado. "My guitar is better than yours, my dick is bigger too."
Look, I've got nothing personal against you, I'm just disgusted with the trend.
For the record, both times I've seen Morello live he only played that parts-caster thing he wrote all over with a marker.
I've found that you tend to not get nearly as much bass response with cheaper acoustics. My 1989 Alvarez Regent dreadnaught is about a $200-$300 guitar and while it sounds amazing, the bass just isn't prominent. Same with my friends cheap Takamine. It sounds great but the bass just isn't "there."
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Come on, this is not placebo stuff. There's science in it. Heavy bracing and laminated tops just do not resonate like light bracing and solid spruce or cedar.
It sounds like you're talking about electrics, but even then I'd put it to you that perhaps a bunch of school kids whose music ears weren't developed couldn't tell the difference.
That's probably true. But I played a $1500 Martin at a shop once, and if you really attack an Em chord, you can feel the top plate vibrating a little bit. They are really well put together, and made out of nice wood.
My buddy owns an Epiphone that he said cost around $350 and it plays and sounds great. I don't know the model though. Forget about the price, just buy what plays best for you!
I had a $1K Taylor Grand Auditorium 210, too much bottom for me. Traded it in for a $1.1K Martin DCRSG (or something like that). Played that for a few years. I wasn't feeling it anymore. I did sand the saddle down on both guitars BTW.
I just traded the Martin, my $1K PRS SE, AND my Gibson LP studio ($700 on ebay) for a $2K Martin SC-13E. Beautiful guitar and plays and sounds superb. I won't have to sand the saddle down on that one. This whole experience got me thinking that a 1K guitar isn't high end. More like the high side of low end.
But I still have the $250 Fender acoustic that I keep in my car for campfire playing. And I love the hell out of it. But it just doesn't have the sound quality of the Taylor and Martins. (Of course I sanded the saddle of the fender too. I like a lower action.)
Conclusion of sorts: Tom Morello, Keb Mo, Jack White, etc. can play a WalMart special and make it sound good because they're entertainers. If you're a newb and have a poorly built guitar, you'll be frustrated and maybe quit trying to learn. After you develop your technique on a decent $150.00 Yamaha, you'll want to upgrade.
CONCLUSION: All you need is love. And a decent guitar.