If you were buying your first guitar today, what would you get?

[Mycroft]

Used Webber 00 or W00. Anything else I'd be interested in would be over the $2000 threshold. I don't play enough $500 guitars to have an informed opinion.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

...What acoustic guitar would be your first if you had a $500 budget?

How about $1000?

$1500?

$2000?

$500 - Seagull Entourage mini-jumbo (used), Godin 5th Avenue acoustic (used), Guild F-250E
$1000 -Taylor 100 or 200 Series/GS Mini-e koa
$1500 - Gibson J-15 (used or NOS), Taylor AD27e, Martin 000-15SM/DSS-17
$2000 - Guild F-40E, Taylor 317e/327e, Eastman AR610

[Shadowfox]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

It’s self-explanatory. What acoustic guitar would be your first if you had a $500 budget?

How about $1000?

$1500?

$2000?


Just curious.


Wade Hampton Miller

$500: Yamaha A1CR or A1R

$1000: LL16R Probably

$1500: Taylor AD27

$2000: Furch SR of some type

[Dave Hicks]

I'd do about the same thing. I bought a Yamaha FG 140 for $90 in 1972. With inflation that would be about $600 now, and there's a bunch of nice Yamahas at that price or below.

D.H.

[Jengstrom]

Every time I play my Eastman E1D, I am amazed at how good it sounds. And it just keeps getting better. I have an E10D too, and it is also a fantastic instrument, but that $500 E1D is a better all-round guitar and it sounds better than the road series Martins I’ve played (which weren’t half bad, BTW). It also sounds better than my GPCPA4, which cost well over twice the E1D.

Maybe some day I’ll run across a D18 I just can’t live without, but until then I’m happy and have no desire to seek any increment between what I have and that D18.

John

[KalamazooGuy]

My first guitar was a gift and cheap Mexican made classical guitar. If it weren’t for Nirvana, ida never kept it up.

[FingahPickah]

Originally Posted by Merak

Yamaha FS800 or any of the Alvarez artist series

I bought a Yamaha FS800T last year (a great $200 guitar) and had a local luth convert it to a mandocello for me. Plays and sounds awesome.

[Brushwood]

My first guitar do over? A short scale, 12 frets to the body, 1 13/16 nut width with 1.56 string spacing, 2 5/16" string spacing at bridge, 16" fretboard radius, jumbo frets, modified v neck profile, 000 style guitar with a K&K pure mini pickup. These specs just seem to fit me and if I had a guitar like that as my first one...I feel I would've picked it up to play, write songs and practice much more often. I fought with the first few I owned as I knew nothing about options for specifications and had no one to advise me of the great importance of how a guitar should physically fit the owner...not just how it sounded.

[Brent Nelson]

Can I assume used is ok? Some of these might take some searching, but all doable.

$500: Faith FRMG
$1000: Taylor 410 or Faith FRSB45
$1500: Beard Highball
$2000: Martin CEO7 or Bedell Coffee House dread

If just one, I'd score the Highball and be done with it.

[gmel555]

What a great question. First pass, quick thoughts:
Under $500 I’d look for a gs-mini mahogany
Under $1000 a used Eastman, not blingy but w nice tone woods
Under $1500 a used Martin 000-15sm 12 fret
Under $2000 slightly used upper end Larrivee or CE0-7

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

It’s self-explanatory. What acoustic guitar would be your first if you had a $500 budget?

How about $1000?

$1500?

$2000?


Just curious.


Wade Hampton Miller

I like to tinker. I’d get a kit from Stewmac or Martin and build it. That would fit the $500 niche. What better way to get comfortable with a guitar and it worry about quality of workmanship?

At $1000 I’d be looking at the Taylor 200 series. In my case it would be a Taylor 254ce. I couldn’t see me paying any more for a 12 string.

At $1500 I’d be thinking something all solid wood with gloss finish. I’d be looking for a deal on a Martin GC MMV.

At $2000 I’d be looking at a used Martin D-35.

These days though $3000 seems to be the magic gateway price to the really high end stuff. That’s where all the new all gloss/all solid factory guitars seem to be priced - after discounts. A reimagined Martin Standard series is priced at $4k in my neck of the woods - and I’m 275 miles from the factory. If I had that kind of money I’d be calling in a custom from an independent luthier.

[rollypolly]

$500 - Eastman E2OM-CD

$1000 - Martin Custom D

$2000 - used 000-18

$4000 - Collings 000

[Charmed Life Picks]

For about $3000, I'd buy a new standard series Martin D-28. Can't go wrong with the icon.

scott memmer

[Glennwillow]

If I had it to do over again, I would do the same thing I did my first time around. I would buy a Martin D-35. For me, it's not about price limits. That's the sound I have always appreciated.

- Glenn

[Corndog]

I tend to agree with posts that (more or less) say get a Yamaha to start, FS or FG 800/820.
Decide if acoustic guitar is for you.
If it is, go straight to a Martin 00/000/OM/D.
Keep the Yamaha for a knock around/ leave it out/ travel/ campfire guitar.