Best Bang 4 Buck Acoustic

Schnozz

Howdy Y'All,

I wanted to ask everybody's thoughts on the best bang 4 buck acoustic for under £1000 and then again for under £500, as I would prefer to pay the latter.

I think the USA Guild stuff is lovely, but I'm looking at Tanglewood, Recording King, Sigma, Peerless, Seagull and Gretsch...That type of thing.

I'm not too fussed about body size, but tend to prefer OM and bigger.

What's your thoughts/experiences?

CMW335

Are you looking to buy new or is second hand an option? Should be able to pick up a Gibson J35, J15 (few other Gibson acoustics) or Martin D15 model for under £1k 

A Gibson J45 for a grand is possible too

Andy79

Best sub £500 for me is a 70s Yamaha FG. No question. Enough left in the budget to have an obligatory neck set

A more sensible answer  is Sigma.  The  Historic J45 is incredible for what it costs. £450 new, £300 used. Also had a couple of Martin clones from them which have also been well well worth the money 

Sub £1000 would be a used Gibson J15

McToot

If you can find a used Larivee, they are absolutely wonderful. 

pintspiller

My stock answer for student instruments  and acoustics is generally "the most expensive Yamaha within your budget".

Given your £1000 it'll be a different case, particularly if you are happy to buy used. But if it was me I wouldn't part with money on anything untested. I'd be choosy about sounds on an acoustic moreso than electric, to be honest, and I always like to try a neck regardless as that's 50% of what sells a guitar for me.

brojangles

Eastman - you get really a lot of bang for not that many bucks. Their E series OMs, dreads and slope dreads are all great. Also pretty rare on the second hand market, but a second hand E6 OM (like a Martin 000-18) or E8-OM (000-28), or an E6D (like a D18) or E8D (like an HD-28), should come in well under a grand, and they'll give considerably more expensive guitars a run for their money. Or you could get an E1D, an all solid dread, for 500 quid new.

earwighoney

pintspiller said:

My stock answer for student instruments  and acoustics is generally "the most expensive Yamaha within your budget".

Given your £1000 it'll be a different case, particularly if you are happy to buy used. But if it was me I wouldn't part with money on anything untested. I'd be choosy about sounds on an acoustic moreso than electric, to be honest, and I always like to try a neck regardless as that's 50% of what sells a guitar for me.

+1

I've spent a ridiculous amount on acoustic instruments over the last 10 years or so and had a huge number of gripes, issues with humidity, warping necks and so on. 

At the start of this journey I had a Yamaha FS720S (Om Shape of sorts) which I played the life out of for a few years, never put the guitar in case, never had to lower the string height at the bridge, or even adjust the truss rod.

For not that much the FG series are hard to beat, and for a little more their modified Dread shape LL guitars are superb. I played a friend's FG840 (maple back) which I couldn't quite believe how good it was.

Heartfeltdawn

brojangles said:

Eastman - you get really a lot of bang for not that many bucks. Their E series OMs, dreads and slope dreads are all great. Also pretty rare on the second hand market, but a second hand E6 OM (like a Martin 000-18) or E8-OM (000-28), or an E6D (like a D18) or E8D (like an HD-28), should come in well under a grand, and they'll give considerably more expensive guitars a run for their money. Or you could get an E1D, an all solid dread, for 500 quid new.

Even the cheaper Eastmans are excellent. I bought one of these at the start of lockdown and can't say enough good things about it. 

https://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/acoustic-guitars/6-string/eastman-pch1-om-classic.htm

stimpsonslostson

Faith for me. Every one I’ve played has been great. 

My Faith Naked Mercury is brilliant & I wouldn’t swap it for anything else... (almost) regardless of budget. 

malcolmkindness

Eastman or recording King.

sticker

https://www.peachguitars.com/brands/yamaha-mega-deal/

There’s some great choices/prices here ...

LPManic

Big fan of Yamaha CSF3M https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/27460-yamaha-csf3m-review. Review in Guitarist magazine excellent also.

Andy79

That’s some serious Yamaha goodness there. 

On the back of this I dug out my old L6 tonight, glad I did

pjf

Not what you asked. But best for under £100 must be the Recording King Bakersfield at Thomann. 

richman6100

I have a Faith Venus (well, my son has it now) which is very good for the money and can probably be found at a good price second hand. Had a couple of other models too that I eventually moved on. I currently have a couple of Audens which, if you can find one on the used market, would be my suggestion. They're a definite step up from the Faiths I've owned and I prefer them to anything else in the price range that I tried including Eastman, which were very nice to be honest. I've yet to play a bad Yamaha, but I much preferred the higher end models. I have a wonderful Furch, but probably hard to find in the price point that you're looking at. Sigma might also be worth a look at the cheaper end of the market. I've tried quite a few and although some were a bit meh, I did come across a couple of absolute crackers. My Auden parlour and dreadnought get played the most of my acoustics these days. I occasionally try Martin dreads to see what I'm missing, but as yet I've not found one noticeably better than my Auden Colton.

Jez6345789

There seems to be a wealth of amazing acoustics at the value end of the market these days. I found this a few years ago with a solid Adirondack top for less than 300 quid Cort 300v think they tip in about 400 now but if you want budget and Adirondack rather than Sitka then this is a classic copy of an old-style Martin OOO

https://pegheadnation.com/instruments-gear/instrument-demos/cort-l300v/

It took a good year of playing pretty much every day to start getting broken in but it now has that defined nice dry woody tone you think of from an older Martin 4 years on its still the best bargain I have bought and continues to gently age. 

As acoustics go, I can't praise it enough I was happy to drop whatever for a Martin version but never been a label snob and this is more than good regardless of price. 

Its not an exact copy but the forward shifted X brace is not a bad thing on a smaller body OOO



For all of my love for this poor mans, OOO just get out and play some of the ones recommended here there is an absolute feast of great acoustics from 100 quid Tanglewood Crossroads Series which are amazing value at sub £100 quid and if you shop around for 500-1k skies the limit. 

McSwaggerty

Eastman.!!! 

WindmillGuitars

Eastman - and if you fancy one please drop me a line

Nibulniblin

One to seriously consider: Auden. I have a Chester Neo 45mm nut model - modified 000 size. Designed and fettled by Gordon Smith folks. Faultless small workshop build, game changing electronics. Plays and sounds superb. Around £800 with highest quality case/bag. I'd have paid pretty much twice the price for this class of instrument. Completely happy with it.

In my time I've had Huss & Dalton, Guild USA,  Furch, Eastman, Atkin, Lakewood and others - all moved on. The Auden is going nowhere, ever.

LooseMoose

I bought this recently. I never thought I’d say it as I’ve always been a little sniffy about Tanglewood but it is frankly astonishingly good value,I kinda feel everyone should buy one!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362991873052

earwighoney

Jez6345789 said:

There seems to be a wealth of amazing acoustics at the value end of the market these days. I found this a few years ago with a solid Adirondack top for less than 300 quid Cort 300v think they tip in about 400 now but if you want budget and Adirondack rather than Sitka then this is a classic copy of an old-style Martin OOO

https://pegheadnation.com/instruments-gear/instrument-demos/cort-l300v/

It took a good year of playing pretty much every day to start getting broken in but it now has that defined nice dry woody tone you think of from an older Martin 4 years on its still the best bargain I have bought and continues to gently age. 

As acoustics go, I can't praise it enough I was happy to drop whatever for a Martin version but never been a label snob and this is more than good regardless of price. 

Its not an exact copy but the forward shifted X brace is not a bad thing on a smaller body OOO



For all of my love for this poor mans, OOO just get out and play some of the ones recommended here there is an absolute feast of great acoustics from 100 quid Tanglewood Crossroads Series which are amazing value at sub £100 quid and if you shop around for 500-1k skies the limit. 

Thanks for posting the lightbox pictures, is the 000-18 bracing 'in the middle' or rear shifted? Yes, you are right that a OM being forward shifted makes a lot of sense. I'm really impressed with the Cort tbh, it looks incredibly well made and a Red Spruce soundboard OM for less than £400 is an exceptional deal.