Best Beginner Acoustic Guitars

You are interested in buying a guitar for a beginner, but you don't know exactly what to look for in a guitar. There are some things that are generally good to look for and some other things that depend on personal taste.

The hub will discuss some of the important things to consider when choosing a beginner guitar and give examples of the best beginner guitars.

This hub is for those of us with limited price ranges. As a beginner, it makes sense to buy a less expensive guitar. At the same time, it is important to get a guitar that will play well and sound good enough that it is not extra challenging to learn how to play using it.

For that reason, I am putting together this hub, for my friends or anyone who stumbles upon this hub and wants advice from an experienced guitar player.  Get the best valued guitar for the low price range that you can as a beginner.

The following $300 or less guitars are some that I have played in music stores, but I haven't necessarily owned them all. Even though I buy used guitars, I can't recommend buying used if you don't know much about guitars. You could end up with a costly repair to get it in good shape if you don't know what you should look for.in your first beginner guitar.

The Takamine GS4303 G Nex Acoustic guitar is a great sounding folk acoustic guitar. This guitar has a warm mid range and is excellent for fingerstyle playing. Think of anywhere between Simon and Garfunkel and Eric Clapton unplugged, and you will be thinking of the tone of this guitar.

The cedar top and the body shape give this guitar a sweeter, less harsh or booming tone. Takamine guitars are made in Japan and are popular in Japan. What makes this a great beginner guitar is the value of craftsmanship and good tone..

Like the previous Takamine guitar, you get good craftsmanship and great tone from this dreadnought. The difference is in the tone of this guitar. The frequency response will be much wider with this dreadnought, and you will generally get more volume from this dreadnought. The top is cedar and the back and sides are nato. Don't worry if you haven't heard of nato, nato is real solid wood, and it sounds great on the Takamine guitars I've played in the guitar stores.

Buy this beginner guitar if you can see yourself as a singer songwriter strumming it in the coffee house or at your friend's house.  This will give you the background reinforcement to sing and use as a songwriting tool.

My first new acoustic guitar was an Epiphone AJ 15.  I still have it.  I've dropped it on the pavement and super glued it back where it cracked.  This beginner guitar has put up with a lot of abuse and mistreatment by me as a beginner. 

The guitar isn't the best I have at this point, but it was a guitar that I used to write songs and play in college, so I'll keep it for sentimental reasons.  The Epiphone AJ has proven to be a good beginner guitar for me, so I put it on the list.

The Ibanez AC30NT Acoustic Concert Size Guitar is a great beginner guitar.  You will get good tone out of this guitar's body shape.  Ibanez acoustics seem to be set up a little better than Epiphone guitars in the store, so it is likely this one will play well.  As with any new guitar, you might have to do some adjustments to get it playing easy.

Ibanez is better known for their electric metal style guitars, but the company produces some good value lower priced guitars.

It's what Yamaha does, they make beginner instruments. Some companies want to be the best at what they make, and then there's Yamaha. Yamaha encourages beginners to own a decent instrument by producing the quality that it takes to enjoy your first guitar.

An added bonus with the Yamaha guitars are the packages, which are extremely valuable for a beginner guitar player. You may not know how to restring your guitar, play simple chords, or even tune your guitar. The Yamaha Gigmaker acoustic guitar package gives you the guitar accessories you will need right away. The guitar won't tune itself, but you get a tuner and picks and a lesson DVD. Probably a better guitar than the Esteban guitar package offers.

Whichever guitar you go with, you might want to have someone do a little set up work on it. The truss rod might need adjusted, you might need new strings, or you might need to lower the bridge. Beginner guitars are generally set up poorly compared to expensive professional guitars, so expect the guitar to be a little difficult to play until you have a friend fix it up for you.

Takamine and Yamaha guitars are usually set up better than some of the other inexpensive guitars. You have many options, try not to choose your guitar based on it's appearance or color. It is an instrument that is meant to be played, not just looked at, so make sure you get something you will play. That way you won't always be a beginner, and you will graduate up to a better guitar some day.

Make sure that you want to learn guitar, and that you are committed enough to put the time into learning that you need. Don't waste your time just trying to be cool.