Buying the best acoustic guitar for beginners is going to help you start out your musical journey that much easier. We remember when we picked up our first acoustic guitar (it was our dads — and actually, was our pick as the best below) and since then we’ve always had that beautiful strumming sound stuck in our memories and ears. Luckily acoustic guitars aren’t too expensive, especially if you’re grabbing a starter model. Our best acoustic guitar guide did provide 10 of our top models with a few in the starter range, but today we wanted to strictly focus on a recommend model to help your search even further. However, we wanted to give you a pick that wasn’t just for “beginners” necessarily — our recommended guitar is quite timeless and have even heard of professional use this one their entire musical careers. With not only personal experience but research around the net as well as asking our friends (and father) who have been guitarists for 20+ years, we found the best beginner acoustic guitar for you all today.
The Best Acoustic Guitar for Beginners
Our Pick: The Fender FA-100
As our pick for the best acoustic guitar for beginners, we look at the marvelous, famous, and elegant Fender FA-100, which comes with everything you’ll need to learn how to properly play a guitar and continue making those tunes for years to come. We know quite a few guitarists who state “Fender or bust” — and although that’s their personal preference of course (we list a few others from different brands below as well), the FA-100 is usually one that’s mentioned for those just starting out, whether it’s during guitar lessons or just jamming and testing out the waters at home.
Let’s first take a look at the acoustic guitars build and material, and one thing we’ll notice off the bat is its dreadnought body style. What this means is the overall “body shape” is one of the most common out there (it’s actually named after a British battleship). It’s known to accompany vocals very well, and the slightly round shape of it gives us super bright, vibrant and (in our opinion) beautiful tones. It’s also quite easy to hold which is one of the reasons we feel is best for beginners. The vocal accompaniment also helps us for the future in case you’d like to sing yourself, perhaps get some friends together to join a band or strum around a fire at your next camping trip.
Top off our recommend body shape with a natural gloss-finish spruce top with “X”-bracing, basswood back and sides to give it a clean-looking finish. Near the end of the guitar we’ll see the spruce top is a standard modern tonewood, an elegant type of wood often seen used to make sound boards for various instruments. The “C-Shape Neck” is also one of the most common neck profiles out there — the oval shape is comfortable and recommended for most styles of acoustic guitar playing. Lastly, it’s actually available in quite a few colors, including the photo above, black, satin and sunburst as well, giving us some options to match our personality and preferences.
Of course you’ll need to take proper care of it (we definitely recommend grabbing a guitar stand or case if you plan on traveling with the guitar — we’ll try to find bundles to link you to them); however, in our opinion the FA-100 is going to give us much longevity. Our father’s FA-100 lasted for more than 10 years, and even after that he bought another one! It is very durable – it can withstand multiple styles of guitar-playing – from hard strumming to fast flat-picking to delicate finger-picking, so as you start to develop your style, the guitar can adapt to the various techniques you may start to experiment with. The FA-100 also has a maple neck with a 20-fret rosewood fingerboard and bridge with bone saddle. The rosewood finish gives the guitar a dark look, solid strength, smooth feel, and fairly good tonal quality.
On top of it all, whether it’s the stand-out silky sound, overall graceful and versatile build, as well as adaptability to playing styles, what we feel is the overall cherry on top to our pick is the guitar’s cost. The Fender FA-100 is priced affordably, sitting in the middle of the one hundred to two hundred buck range depending on where you look, concluding yet another case of evidence for why we feel it’s the best acoustic guitar for beginners. You can’t go wrong with this one!
Other Beginner Acoustic Guitar Picks
Of course, we know just only pick for the best beginner acoustic guitar may not be suitable for all of our readers, which is why we wanted to at least give you a few more recommendations. For example, some may be interested in a higher-priced model, a different style of feel or playing, or even a different type of acoustic guitar — such as electric-acoustic. Let’s get into a few more picks, and lastly, please give us some comments for feedback in case you have some suggestions or recommendations for all of our starting acoustic guitar players out there!
Don’t forget to grab some other gear if you need, such as guitar tuners, cases, stands, strings, and more.
Rogue RA-090
Our first alternative would have to be the Rogue RA-090, which is also a dreadnought body style acoustic guitar commonly chosen by starter musicians. The 6-stringed RA-090 offers a very affordable price to make it one of the best choices for beginners with a tighter budget. It has a body depth and width that brings out balanced tone and enough projection to be heard from across a room. This Rogue model features a whitewood body to bring out a fair amount of mid-range punch, while also having a nato neck to sustain and not lose any strength in tone.
It’s constructed of a decent painted maple bridge and fingerboard which add clarity to each note, while adding a pretty pleasing look to the guitar. The C-shape neck and 16” radius help with fret-board movements when running up and down the 20-fret body. The Rogue RA-090 is one of the more affordable guitars on the market, and if you are searching for a new hobby, this poses to be one of the best beginners acoustic guitar. We recommend this over our top pick if you wanted to save some more money vs. the FA-100, typically under a hundred dollars or so.
Yamaha F335
Here we feel the Yamaha F335, which also has the classic dreadnought design – shocker, right? With Yamaha, you know you will be getting pretty solid quality, and a brand which the name speaks for itself – many advocates for Yamaha in the music world. The Yamaha is one of the best acoustic guitars for beginners that want a more vintage looking and feeling guitar, as this one has the old-school laminated spruce and meranti wood. The F335 also has a rosewood fingerboard and bridge like the two models previously discussed, designed with 20-frets (14 free).
The gold die-cast tuners provide for smooth, easy tunage, while the tortoiseshell pickguard gives the guitar a bit more personality. The Yamaha F335 is moderately priced, and while this would be a fitting choice for a beginner, it can also be a solid choice for acoustic veterans who just want to add some wood to their guitar collection as well.
Ibanez V70CE
Now we take a look at the Ibanez V70CE, which is one of the best acoustic guitars for beginners who want an acoustic-electric model – this is the only hybrid in our guide. The V70CE has a sleek black body featuring a select spruce top with mahogany back and sides, as well as a mahogany neck. The Ibanez is equipped with a soft cutaway for more efficient high access. It is also known to be a pretty responsive instrument with capacity for a solid dynamic range, both acoustically and when electronically plug-and-played.
Like most (if not all) models in the acoustic market, it comes with a rosewood fret-board and chrome tuners – combining the chrome tuners with the black body make a clean sound guitar. Although the Ibanez V70CE sits on the middle-to-higher price point of this guide, the price is still pretty manageable when putting it into perspective with other acoustic guitars on the market.
Seagull S6
Finally, we have the Seagull S6 – one of the best acoustic guitars for beginners that want a cedar-topped model offering very solid tone, projection, and response for live performance. The S6 is a model featuring a laminated wild cherry back and sides that blends with the mahogany and bright maple to deliver a crisp, detailed tone. It has a modified dreadnought body shape to cut any unwanted boominess, or ambiance in general, for recording and live shows.
The Seagull also has a silver leaf maple integrated set neck for optimal tuning and playing stability – eliminating any twisting or warping while performing. The tapered head-stock provides a straighter string pull, better tuning, and overall less stress on the guitar, especially when you want to use altered tunings. The Seagull S6 is for people who have a little more of a budget, as it sits on the higher price point, but when considering the delicate craft of this guitar, you can appreciate why it is priced the way it is.
