There are many cheap guitars available these days! I’m a university trained classical guitarist and teacher with 15 years experience and I have seen hundreds of different cheap guitars in my many years teaching and playing.
Some of these guitars have been excellent deals for the money, others have been downright pieces of crap! If you are in the market for a cheap guitar and don’t want to get burned please read through this article and devote a little time to doing some research on the instrument you plan to purchase. I’ll also make a few recommendations for the best cheap guitars that I have either owned or have experience with through my students.
Solid or Not?
SOLID – Always try for solid. This is doesn’t really change whether you are thinking of acoustic or electric. The real cheap guitars have a tendency to have their bodies or sound boards made out of particle board which is nothing more than a small step up from cardboard. You want to play a cardboard guitar 
? I know I don’t. While you may end up with a decent sounding electric guitar that isn’t made of solid wood, there are options out there for solid bodies so you should always consider them first.
THE ONE EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE
The Yamaha C40 is laminate top, but for ~$140.00 dollars it is a VERY playable nylon string guitar. I currently own one and due to the fact that the laminate top doesn’t produce a great deal of volume it makes an excellent practice guitar for later in the evening!
Types Of Wood
This is a pretty common question and it’s really a pretty simple answer, don’t expect to find any sort of mahogany or ebony in these cheap guitars. Most likely the body will be Alder if it is an electric guitar or spruce/cedar top if it is an acoustic. Try and go for a rosewood fretboard! Especially in an electric. There are many cheap guitars out there that don’t even mention what the fretboard is made out of so do some searching and see if you can find the ones that have rosewood fretboards… they do exist! (I’ll recommend a few at the end of this article).
Electronics and Pickups
There are lots of cheap electric guitars available that have a variety of different pickups and in this case you want to use your own personal preference and combine that with as many reviews as you can find. For those of you just getting started here is the rule of thumb: Humbucker pickups produce a fuller deeper sound that is more suited for heavily distorted guitars (think ACDC, Black Sabbath, Metallica) whilst single coil guitars generally produce a tone that is lighter and “twangier” (think Country Music, Pop music, Chilli Peppers etc…) Now that is not to say that either guitar can’t be used for a specific style but this is just a general rule to follow. The electronics in most of these cheap guitars are usually pretty good and if something does happen to go wrong it’s usually a very inexpensive fix from your local music shop!
Other Things to Consider
- Most of the time these cheaper guitars are generally pretty well setup from the factory and shouldn’t need much work but it’s never a bad idea to take them in to a shop to have them setup.
- Be careful buying cheap guitars or “knock-off” guitars through Chinese wholesalers. Yeah they look cool, and sometimes you can get a real gem, but other times… you don’t wanna go there. I’ve seen some pretty terrible stuff and it’s a real pain to have to ship something back to China (not worth it!!).
- Generally electric guitars are going to be the better deal when it comes to cheap guitars but there are some very good acoustics for beginner players to start out with. Gone are the days when “cheap guitars” meant “unplayable guitars”
- Shop around, do some research and have fun with your new instrument!
Some cheap guitars I recommend:
TIP: For quality and overall craftsmanship at great prices YAMAHA have it nailed when it comes to cheap guitars!
Here’s a little classical guitar played by myself for your listening pleasure
If you liked this article please be sure to check out the Top 5 Cheap Electric Guitars!
Freakin nice blog.