What *should* my budget be?

[nightchef]

That might seem like an odd question, but I'm trying to juggle budget for several upcoming purchases, including a new dreadnought, and I'm realizing that I don't really have a handle on a pretty fundamental question: what's the most efficient amount of money to spend on a new acoustic guitar?

By this I mean, if you made a scatterplot with every available guitar on it, with the X-axis being price and the Y-axis being quality, where along the x-axis would there be the highest concentration of points above the trendline?

Or to put it another way, if you think in terms of roughly doubling price, for instance....

$200 to $400
$400 to $800
$800 to $1500
$1500 to $3000
$3000 to $6000

....which of those doublings is accompanied by the largest relative increase in quality?

I realize that I'm being reductionist here, and that in real life quality is a highly complex and somewhat subjective thing that doesn't correlate to price in a simple, linear way. But I'd still be curious to hear people's thoughts.

[anjoga]

I have two Taylors that cost retail $1600 brand new. Great guitars, can be found cheaper when used of course. However, I just picked up an all solid mahogany Guild D-120e that is blowing me away. Retail the non-pickup D-120 sells for $649 new I believe. Comes with a nice polyfoam ridged gig bag case as well. Plays great, sounds great, looks great....

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=596515

Under $2000, I’m not sure the quality of guitars is all that far apart these days. Eastman is putting out a lot of fan favorites here on AGF. Yamaha has many great options in both solid and laminate guitars. My Guild is an absolute steal for what they are selling them for in my opinion. Don’t make the same mistake I made. I like my Taylors, don’t get me wrong, but for the price of the Guild and the way it plays and sounds, I’m kicking myself for spending so much money in the recent past.

[baw3]

It's just my opinion, but I think the sweet spot in a good acoustic is the 800 to 1500 range. I think the value for your bucks is pretty hard to beat. Sure you can spend twice that much and more, but is the other guitar worth twice the price of the 800 to 1500 dollar guitar. Only you can answer that question.

[emtsteve]

Very nice new dreads can be bought for around $500. Examples that garner praise often are the Alvarez Masterworks MD60BG and the Seagull S6. These are 2 that I have direct experience with and consider these excellent value guitars for not a lot of money.

That being said, only you can decide your budget. In reality, there are quality instruments at every price level (I'd set a minimum of $200 - Yamaha FG800). It just comes down to what you like and want.

[Mr. Jelly]

To have an increase of quality you must first have a baseline. You don't state any.

Without being well versed in all the guitars on the market I'd point at Eastman guitars as great bang for the buck guitars. To get a quality guitar I'd point at a Martin D-18 or D-28. A person could easily live their whole life with one of those guitars and want for nothing. IMO.

[brad4d8]

The most you can afford without putting any hardship on your overall budget, will differ for everyone. Just my 2¢.

[jklotz]

IMHO, it's the $800-$1500 where you get the biggest jump in quality, particularly with materials used and hardware.

That being said, cheap guitars keep getting better and better every year, possibly due to the advent of CNC and computerized manufacturing. But as scientific as a lot of us like to be when it comes to choosing a guitar, nothing beats playing it and letting your ears and hands tell you.

[pickinray]

Originally Posted by baw3

It's just my opinion, but I think the sweet spot in a good acoustic is the 800 to 1500 range. I think the value for your bucks is pretty hard to beat. Sure you can spend twice that much and more, but is the other guitar worth twice the price of the 800 to 1500 dollar guitar. Only you can answer that question.

I also think that that the sweet spot for a good acoustic guitar is $800-1500. That's where you can get the most bang for your buck, IMO. If you move up to $1500-3000, you can get a very good instrument and higher than that you can get a great one. But the correlation with price isn't necessarily linear.

[warfrat73]

I lot of folks on here feel that the Martin model 18 is pretty close to the sweet spot. Professional level instrument, no compromises. You can buy one new at the low end of the $1500-3000 range.

Eastman does produce really nice guitars for the money too.

Personally, I'd put the sweet spot of the range at about $1200-$2000.
At the bottom end of that range you can buy a new Eastman E10D at the top you can buy a Martin D-18.
You can also get a Larrivee 40 series in there pretty comfortably.

But, this all depends a great deal on what it is that you're looking for and value.

[Boozehound]

Originally Posted by pickinray

I also think that that the sweet spot for a good acoustic guitar is $800-1500. That's where you can get the most bang for your buck, IMO. If you move up to $1500-3000, you can get a very good instrument and higher than that you can get a great one. But the correlation with price isn't necessarily linear.

Agreed. As you get above $1500-$2000 the you pay more for incremental increases in quality. For example a $4K guitar is not necessarily twice as 'good' as a $2K guitar. It's up to you if it's worth it.

I agree that $1500 is right around the sweet spot, particularly if you are willing to buy used. A Martin D18 is always a great choice.

[mawmow]

First, I will assume you live in USA and we are talking US$.
Second, you own no guitar at the moment and it would be the only one.

To make it short, you could get a decent brand new dreadnough under
one gran and for some 500$ on the used market.

If you want a good one, I would say 1500-2000$ brand new and
1000-1500$ used.

These are rough guides as you could miraculously find a dream guitar
lost in an attick for years for well under $500.

eBay and reverb as well as online market places could also lead you to happiness.

Two tips though : I am quite sure you would see any crack, but in my
experience, too many bowed necks and saddles shaved down to bridge
are offered as these guitars actually need a costly neck reset.

Least important, too many high action at first fret are seen
(you could learn to fix that by yourself instead of paying 50-100$).

Good luck !

[Lamenramen]

$1500 (2000 max) used would be the best sweet spot.
Apparently you need to play them personally because many on this forum say that each guitar can vary wildly in sound quality.
You would also need confidence in your ear to allow you to not look at the price tags when deciding.
Best brands bang for your buck in general are Taylor and Eastman in this price range. I played 2 814c and a 414,412 a 114 and my 314 was Every bit as nice. I was surprised. I tried a 114 in a pawn shop and it was used and nicked and at least ten years old and could not believe how nice it sounded.

I now insist on playing any guitar purchase beforehand above $500 and would buy locally even if it wasn’t the best price I could get. That’s how much I value being able to try the guitar out. The real question is how many do you have to play before you are satisfied in your mind that you have played on of the outliers. 10? 25?50?100 guitars? I think for most people the realistic number is around 10 of a particular model number, maybe 20 of a particular brand before you can judge if any specific guitar in your hand is a special one or not. That’s totally subjective and depends on your location and personality

[T.Lime]

assuming you are not a gigging guitarist I would find the guitar that most appeals to you and buy that one. I agree that once you go above around $1500 to $2000 the differences are incremental. Do you need a pickup- if so some of your determinants will be the installed pickup, then the decision becomes the worth of a high end pick up to you. In which Case Takamine make great tools. It also matters if this will be your once in a lifetime purchase or an interim step. I once, a long time ago, played a friends custom shop Gibson J45. I spent a long time buying other guitars before I came to my senses and realized if I wanted that tone in the tool I was performing with, there was only one way to get it. Now 8 years old the Gibby is only now starting to really deliver, but I have no more GAS

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by nightchef

That might seem like an odd question, but I'm trying to juggle budget for several upcoming purchases, including a new dreadnought, and I'm realizing that I don't really have a handle on a pretty fundamental question: what's the most efficient amount of money to spend on a new acoustic guitar?

By this I mean, if you made a scatterplot with every available guitar on it, with the X-axis being price and the Y-axis being quality, where along the x-axis would there be the highest concentration of points above the trendline?

Or to put it another way, if you think in terms of roughly doubling price, for instance....

$200 to $400
$400 to $800
$800 to $1500
$1500 to $3000
$3000 to $6000

....which of those doublings is accompanied by the largest relative increase in quality?

I realize that I'm being reductionist here, and that in real life quality is a highly complex and somewhat subjective thing that doesn't correlate to price in a simple, linear way. But I'd still be curious to hear people's thoughts.

Judging from your record of posts here on AGF you are a gigging musician. It may help folks point you in the direction of how much to spend if you could outline exactly the job you want your new dreadnaught to do (type of gig, type of music genera etc) and the rig you already have.

[Rev Roy]

+/- $2,000 will generally hit the sweet spot in new guitars. If you buy used it’s significantly less...