So you’ve decided to pick up the guitar. Whether you want to play for fun or want to become a serious musician, you can never go wrong with a good guitar in your hands.
Playing the guitar can add a lot of color to your life. Even if you’ve never had any lessons, you can play entire songs with just a few chords.
Check out our top picks for the best guitars for beginners to help you find the right instrument for you.
How We Made Our Picks
Editors from the BYJU’S FutureSchool blog researched the most popular guitars for beginners and cross-referenced them against guitars that members of our music curriculum team recommend and have tried for themselves. The result: a list of vetted guitars for beginners to help get you started strumming like a pro.
Here are the Best Guitars For Beginners
1. Martin LX-1 Little Martin Acoustic Guitar
This elegant little guitar commonly goes by the nickname “Little Martin” in music circles. What makes it one of the best guitars for beginners? It’s deceptively small in size but promises great response and value that’s well beyond its size.
It’s a good guitar for beginners because there aren’t many others that are as small as this one but that sound this big.
The small body makes it easy to hold, and the neck isn’t too wide, which allows you to wield it with ease, and it won’t strain your fingers as much as the bigger guitars.
[Read: Bass Guitars for Beginners]
2. Gretsch G9500 Jim Dandy Guitar Flat-Top
This guitar is very similar to the Little Martin but is much more affordable. The Flat Top is a parlor-style guitar that’s made with select wood and is lined and braced for an incredible tone. The scale is about 24 inches in length, which is perfect for picked and finger-style playing.
The Flat Top comes with a base-wood body and X branching, along with a C-shaped Nato neck and a smooth, comfortable walnut fingerboard that has vintage-style frets and dot inlays.
3. Yamaha F335 Acoustic Guitar
Yamaha is a reliable and popular brand for beginners for most instruments, and this guitar is no exception. What makes the F335 one of the best guitars for beginners? It sounds great, plays well, and is easy on your budget. It has a glossy finish and good die-cast tuners that look stunning.
The spruce top is laminated, and it’s in the classic dreadnought shape with a great sound. The die-cast tuners give you a smooth and accurate tuning experience. The tortoiseshell pick-guard gives you plenty of style too.
Any Yamaha guitar is a great guitar to start with, but the F335, in particular, is excellent for learning the ropes until you move on to the Martin or Gibson models.
4. Alvarez Regent 26 Classical Acoustic Guitar
The Alvarez Regent Series is a high-quality entry-level guitar that makes you feel like a magician when you play it, which is a top reason why it’s one of the best guitars for beginners.
The neck is slim, and that makes it easier to hold compared to full-size guitars. This one has a classic look made from spruce and mahogany and comes in a rosewood model.
5. Fender CD-140SCE Dreadnought Guitar
The Dreadnought is famous for its larger-than-life tone and stage-ready design. It screams style and plays incredibly well in your hands for the price point.
The smartly designed acoustic features a spruce top and a full mid-range and high-end tone with a solid low end. The neck is made of mahogany and comes with a rosewood fingerboard that’s highly playable and responsive. It feels like a dream to pull off riffs and chords on this guitar, and it produces a deep cutaway tone for those higher notes and interesting chord shapes.
The bridge is made of genuine walnut, and it comes with a NuBone saddle to improve the tone as you play, enhancing the overall resonance of the instrument.
6. Martin Dreadnought Junior Acoustic Guitar
The Martin Dreadnought is a pure acoustic guitar and is one of the best guitars for beginners. It’s made from a Sitka spruce top and is just as easy on the eyes as it is to hold.
The Martin Dreadnought has a great response and tone for your touch. It’s perfect for younger players and has excellent clarity and depth.
Since it’s smaller than a full-size guitar, it’s easier to hold for extended sessions, and it has a loud, mellow sound because of its high-quality wood. This Dreadnought comes in many different types of wood, but mahogany and Sapele are the most popular variants.
7. S&P – Woodland Cedar Acoustic Guitar
The S&P is one guitar for beginners that gets better the more you play it. It has a warm, welcoming, and mellow tone, and comes with a custom polished finish.
The sides and back of this guitar are made in a three-way combination of authentic hardwood. The necks in this series are made of silver leaf maple and are individually buffed and sanded by hand. The silver leaf maple has the same density as mahogany, but it’s much less porous, allowing the guitar to have a smoother finish than normal and better sound.
8. Art & Lutherie Americana Series Acoustic Guitar
The Americana Series is famous for being well designed and handmade. The company that makes it is also eco-friendly, making it popular with eco-conscious folks who want a nice guitar in their hands.
So why is the Americana series one of the best guitars for beginners? This series is notable for being made from fallen trees from the Canadian forests, which is why it comes with unique features and colors.
The guitar is ideal for playing styles that require access to the upper fret. You can expect a fantastic response and a strong, deep, and powerful bass with a shimmering mid-range. The Americana series comes in several colors and comes equipped with a Godin Q10 that features a built-in tuner for your live and studio needs.
9. Fender CD-60S All-Mahogany Acoustic Guitar
The CD-60S comes with an all-mahogany construction, which produces a full and rounded sound that few guitars are capable of. It’s powerful and comes with confident mid-level power in support of a bright treble.
The tuners are positive and reliable. The action is low enough to allow for effortless playing while avoiding the problems you usually get with other guitars, such as a buzzing fret. This alone is sufficient reason for it to be one of the best guitars for beginners. It responds well to any playing style, from hard strumming to fast flat-picking and finger-picking.
While the CD-60S is sold as a solo guitar, it also comes with a beginner’s pack, making it great for newbies. The pack comes with everything you need to start playing instantly, such as picks, a strap, and an extra set of strings.
10. The Yamaha LL6 ARE
This is another good beginner guitar that’s powerful, stunning, and perfect for anyone new to playing. The LL6 guitar comes with a great “played in” sound. The neck has a smooth and even thickness, which is typical of Yamaha. This is representative of the guitar’s high-quality build and is a good reason why it’s one of the best guitars for beginners.
The finish on the LL6 is especially fantastic and high-quality. If you want a beginner’s guitar that’s reliable and easy to play, look no further than the Yamaha LL6.
There are tons of great options out there, but these ten guitars are undoubtedly the best guitars for beginners on the market right now. They’re perfect for those who don’t know where to start.
If you’d like to learn more about playing guitar, why not read more articles on the BYJU’S FutureSchool blog? BYJU’S FutureSchool also has a research-based music curriculum that incorporates fun and engaging interactive challenges and projects that broaden students’ musical skills and creativity. Sign up for a FREE trial class to check it out.
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