Best Acoustic Guitars Under $200

If you are looking for affordable price best acoustic guitars, whether you need a cheap acoustic best guitars for beginners or just an affordable guitar  that you can beat up, you will want to do a little research first. Acoustic guitars in the lower price ranges can range from great deals to cheap toys with terrible sound quality.

Since you likely wont have the ability to try all the acoustic options under $200, we’ve narrowed down our top choices for you.  Like all musical instruments, there are a wide range of things to consider from sound quality to whether it’s a pure acoustic or an acoustic electric, whats the quality of the neck, and does it come with accessories like a tuner, strap, gig bags, effect pedals, and other things that might come in a starter kit. Beginners may also want to steer towards beginner-friendly types of guitars like a 3/4 size guitar.

With our buying guide, you will be able to pick the right acoustic budget guitar that can both qualify as affordable and quality at the same time.

Top Acoustic Guitars Under $200

How we rated the Acoustic Guitars?

How is the Sound Quality?

Beginners vs Pro Pick Budget Acoustics

Is it one of the best Brands in this Price Range?

How does it feel to play?

How is the Sound Quality?

Judging the Sound Quality of an Acoustic Guitar takes many things into consideration. Having a warm tone can be affected by the neck, body shapes, be it a dreadnought or one of the nylon string classical bodies.

A model like the Jasmine jo36 Orchestra is going to feel and sound different than dreadnought  because of the difference body shape. The way sound resonates with the different styles is one of the first things to hit the ears.

The balanced tone and quality sound can also be affected by the wood itself.  Whether it’s solid mahogany like the guitar in our Ibanez IJV50 review, select spruce, laminated spruce, solid spruce, or spalted maple, each has it’s own brightness and depth that can be understood to help navigate the world of affordable options.

The sound quality can also be effected by the neck, strings, the fretboard, the electronics and pickups on acoustic-electric and even the truss rods. We take a look at everything we can, to determine the best affordable price options under $200.

Beginners vs. Pro Pick Budget Acoustics

There might not be professional quality cheap acoustic guitars, but there are options that a professional guitarist, and intermediate players would buy to have for songwriting at the beach and singalongs at campfires and general daily abuse that they wouldn’t want to expose their expensive guitars to…we call them beater instruments for a tight budget when you want to stray away from the best acoustic guitars under 1000.

Don’t go looking for high-end guitars like a Vintage Les Paul with a hundred dollars, or something that a professional uses for big gigs like Eric Clapton’s guitar, but for a low price you can look at the top acoustic guitars we found for under $200.

While finding Pro Pick Budget Acoustic Gear presents a challenge, there are some good options of acoustic for beginners.

For a beginner, we consider the same things we would for all guitars as well as:
– Are the acoustic options are easy to play
– Can you get an acoustic guitar bundle with a gig bag?
– Is a stater kit available?
– Which instrument will inspire you to start playing?

Beginner options seem to be everywhere, but from what we have found, you have to be careful not to get a cheap toy that wont inspire you to want to play, and if you don’t play you wont be able to improve and express yourself the way you deserve to. You can also record yourself as a beginner to figure out what areas you can improve. First, you’ll need to learn how to strum a guitar in general to ensure you have the proper technique. Then you should learn how to record guitar on GarageBand.

Even beginner instruments can be good value gear that are worth more than their price. We have seen decent beginners with the traditional dreadnought guitar body, solid mahogany neck, a rosewood fingerboard, die cast tuners and a select spruce top all in a bundle with a gig bag. There are some great options suited for children and those with small hands that are made of stunning materials like the Meranti and spruce on this guitalele we discuss more in the Yamaha GL1 review.

Some good deals are out there and we’ve made great efforts to find them for you!

Is it one of the best Brands in this Price Range?

There are some brands that really stand out in their ability to craft affordable instruments that any guitarist would agree are quality, despite being cheap.

With examples like the Epiphone dr100, Fender fa100, Gretsch G9500 Jim Dandy, Gibson SJ-200, Jasmine S34C, it is easy to see the brands that stand out. Brands like Epiphone, Fender, Gretsch, Gibson and Jasmine have proven to know how to get the best tones and feels out of their affordable instrument lines. Epiphone also makes the best acoustic guitar under 500, so we love the range you can get out of the brand.

For our buyer guide, we took a close look at the brands that offer reputable and affordable gear and weeded out the cheap options that would sound terrible and amount to throwing your money away.

How does it feel to play?

There are some factors that determine if an instrument is going to be easy to play and inspire you to be the guitarist you know you can be or if they are going to reflect the low price and truly play like a hundred dollar instrument.

Ultimately you want gear that is easy to play and makes you want to start playing the moment the strings touch your fingers. Typically, the more you pay, the better this feature ultimately becomes, but there are some good budget options that have sweet rosewood fretboards and rosewood bridges that feel good on the fingers. Of course visual design can be a big deciding factor in what guitar you want to buy like the stunning, unique one in our Alvarez Grateful Dead Guitar review, but it’s important to make sure it feels comfortable playing it.

The Action and how the instrument plays is effected by the make of the bridge is something that is very personal for guitarists. We try not to judge how these feel out of the box in regards to things that are easily adjusted like the action or the strings, but for the buyers guide we look at every aspect of the feel.
We assessed the “Feel” of the gear based on:
– Strings
– Fretboards
– Bridge

While we are assessing these factors, we do go into depth with individual reviews and point out instances where small adjustments can highly increase the value of a guitar. Sometimes to get the most value out of a cheap instrument is to buy one of the ones that are built quickly but with great materials like the rosewood fretboard in our Maestro by Gibson acoustic guitar review. In those mass produced scenarios you get good quality gear that are rough around the edges, which is what makes them affordable.

With a little TLC, you can make something cheap feel like something quality.

For Instance:
– Strings can be replaced and picked for the feel and size you prefer.
– The fretboards can be sanded, buff and made to feel better is they come a little rough from mass production, ideal to have a shop take care of this.
– The Bridge can be adjusted to adjust the action, recommended to take it to a specialized shop until you feel comfortable doing this yourself.

Are Bundles worth the Money?

When shopping for an affordable acoustic guitar, it’s easy to be tempted to get a bundle.  Sometimes that is a great decision. Buying a bundle can make it easy to start playing quickly.

You can get a bundle with a gig bag, sometimes a hard case, straps, and strings.  Some even come with effect pedals and guitar amplifiers.

Especially if you are in the market for guitars for beginners, it can be nice to make one purchase and get everything you need to start playing.

I would caution to be skeptical of the ones that cost the same or less then the acoustic guitars that are offered for the same price without all the extras, however, if it is the same guitar and you don’t mind that the included accessories may be less than impressive, it’s not a bad decision considered some of the starter kits are essentially throwing all that in for next to nothing in most cases.

In the end if you end up with a couple nice gig bags, it could be worth it, but don’t be scared to by the guitar by itself and get your accessories separately.  We are reviewing accessories now too, so if there is something you want to know about that we haven’t reviewed yet, please leave it in the comments.