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The 10 best acoustic guitars for all styles and budgets
Whether you’re looking for your first acoustic, a campfire strummer or a busking workhorse, we’ve got you covered.
The world of acoustic guitars is vast and intriguing – here, materials and construction matter the most, and if you’re a beginner or moving to an acoustic guitar from an electric, it can be a little overwhelming. If you’re an experienced player with the right budget, a great acoustic can and should last you a lifetime – but if you’re just starting out or don’t want to break the bank, there are plenty of excellent budget options too.
We’ve dove deep into our review catalogue to find the best acoustic guitars for you, no matter your style or budget. Let’s dive in:
At a glance:
- Our Pick: Taylor 314Ce Studio
- Best acoustic under $1,000: Martin 000 Jr Sapele
- Best acoustic under $500: Guild D-320
- Best acoustic under $250: Cort Earth L60M
- Best high-end Taylor: Taylor Gold Label 814ce
- Best high-end Martin: Martin Inception GPCE
- Best hybrid guitar: Fender Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster
- Best smart guitar: Lava ME 3
- Best electro-acoustic guitar: LR Baggs AEG-1
- Why you can trust Guitar.com
Our Pick: Taylor 314Ce Studio
The Taylor 314ce is unique in that it’s essentially a flagship, but is priced just under $2,000 – it’s billed as the “lowest-priced gateway to the solid-wood experience in the Taylor line”, and really there aren’t many compromises compared to the full-fat version. The guitar’s tonal profile is divinely balanced, with a warm, woody low-end subtly punctuated by a crystalline sparkle, while boasting a punchy midrange bolstered in large part by the guitar’s torrefied spruce top – combine this with a truly inviting and comfortable neck profile, you’ve got one intriguing guitar.
Need more? Read our Taylor 314Ce Studio review.
Best acoustic under $1,000: Martin 000 Jr Sapele
The Martin Junior Series has quietly been one of the most compelling acoustic guitar offerings at the affordable end of the market for nearly a decade now. For 2025, the Junior range has been overhauled with some new designs that are both sonically and aesthetically extremely intriguing. The 000 Jr Sapele comes with a very compact body, and with an all-solid construction and an ultra-thin open-pore finish – all together it makes for a lively and resonant instrument that belies its small size.
Need more? Read our Martin 000 Jr Sapele review.
Best acoustic under $500: Guild D-320
Guild has long been one of those names that guitarists, especially acoustic players, hold in high regard. With a legacy stretching back decades and a list of notable players that include legends like Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, Guild knows how to build guitars that sing. The D-320 brings that same old-school Guild magic into the budget-friendly realm, and it does so without cutting corners.
With a solid mahogany top and laminate mahogany back and sides, the D-320 delivers a warm, woody tone with a lovely midrange focus – perfect for strummers, fingerpickers, and singer-songwriters alike. The open-pore satin finish keeps the sound lively and responsive while giving the guitar a smooth, broken-in feel right out of the box.
Playability is spot-on, too. The C-shaped mahogany neck is super comfortable, and the rosewood fingerboard feels familiar under the fingers. Vintage-style open-gear tuners and a tortoiseshell pickguard round out the aesthetic with a nice nod to Guild’s heritage.
At just around £279, it’s kind of ridiculous what you’re getting here. Whether it’s your first acoustic or your next go-to beater, the D-320 is a standout pick for players who want timeless tone and quality on a real-world budget.
Need more? Read our Guild D-320 review.
Best acoustic under $250: Cort Earth L60M
The Cort Earth L60M is an amazing instrument for beginners. Construction consists of an orchestra-sized OM body shape, satin-finished mahogany top, back and sides, a smooth-playing playable satin-finished mahogany neck and a 25.5” scale length. Given its sound and playability, it could easily cost several hundred pounds more than it does. While its strong sound and pleasingly natural aesthetic make it excellent value for money, for beginners in particular the out-of-the-box setup of very playable low action is the most inviting thing about it.
Need more? Read our Cort Earth L60M review.
Best high-end Taylor: Taylor Gold Label 814ce
The Gold Label range as a whole is in some ways aiming to convert Taylor skeptics, those who are turned off by the ultra-hifi sheen of the brand’s signature sound. And the 814e is perhaps one of the most successful in that regard. It’s bringing a load of new features to the table, as well as a warmer and more inviting voice – the result is a guitar that’s likely to make even the most Taylor-averse players reach for their wallets. Of course, it’s not exactly affordable, but this is a premium guitar that looks, sounds and feels it.
Need more? Read our Taylor Gold Label 814ce review.
Best high-end Martin: Martin Inception GPCE
Martin’s new Inception guitar makes no bones about being a completely forward-looking instrument, with a very unconventional collection of tonewoods and distinctly modern, fast-playing neck profile. But maybe the biggest change is the skeletonised bracing – one step further than scalloping, this keeps the strength of the top while increasing resonance and projection.
Despite the change-up on the design front, it still sounds like a Martin, however – albeit one with a little more pronounced mid- and high-end frequencies. While it may lack some characteristic low-end thump, this leads to an overall more balanced sound, and the bold innovation has paid off in spades when it comes to the overall sound, look and feel of the guitar.
Need more? Read our Martin Inception GPCE review.
Best hybrid guitar: Fender Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster
Fender’s Acoustasonic range has long been the gold-standard for splitting the difference across electrics and acoustics. The Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster is a very affordable entry into the line, and while it lacks some of the bells and whistles of the higher-end models the core concept remains excellently executed. The guitar will likely be particularly intriguing from a performance perspective, as it allows for a really varied sound over a single set with no guitar changes.
Need more? Read our Fender Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster review.
Best smart guitar: Lava ME 3
If you’re looking for traditional tonewood, well, look away. But it might feel a little weird to route out a spot for what’s basically a small android phone into Sitka spruce, so carbon fibre maybe makes a bit more sense here. The Lava ME 3 plays great for the price, but more importantly it comes with some incredibly innovative smart features that make it a brilliant learning tool: there’s a recorder, a looper and a chord analysis tool all embedded in the player-facing touchscreen, all going some way to help you understand what you’re actually doing on the instrument.
Need more? Read our Lava ME 3 review.
Best electro-acoustic guitar: LR Baggs AEG-1
Does the world really need another electro-acoustic guitar design? Well, when the person getting involved in the design is Lloyd Baggs, perhaps the world’s greatest exponent of acoustic guitar electrification, and the instrument in question is a revolutionary thinline design that’s been percolating in his mind for decades, absolutely.
Simply put, the AEG-1 is the best sounding electro-acoustic guitar our veteran acoustic reviewer Eric has ever played – or heard – plugged into an amplifier. It’s also a wonderfully ergonomic and comfortable instrument to play either seated or standing, and while its looks are certainly not conventional, they’re unlikely to provoke the same kind of reactions that other ‘stage’ guitars might. A remarkable achievement.
Need more? Read our LR Baggs AEG-1 review.
Why You Can Trust Us
Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.
That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.
Cillian is Guitar.com's Senior Staff Writer, and has written news, features and reviews for Guitar.com since 2019. When not writing about guitars, Cillian spends their time building and modding pedals, rearranging their pedalboard and extolling the virtues of the ProCo RAT.