The best beginner guitars under $200

The shape of this price band

There is a pattern under $200 that the listings do not advertise: almost every guitar in it is a 3/4-scale instrument. That is not an accident. A shorter neck uses less wood, less fretwire and a smaller body, so a manufacturer can hold a real standard at a lower price by making the guitar smaller rather than by making it worse.

For a child this is excellent news — a 3/4 guitar at $190 is a better instrument than a full-size one at $190, and it is also the size they should be playing. For an adult it is a constraint, and the honest response is to say so rather than to pretend a junior guitar suits a grown player. There is exactly one full-size acoustic on this page and we have ranked it accordingly.

Acoustic or electric at this budget

The usual advice is “start on acoustic because it builds finger strength”, and at this price it is worth questioning. A cheap acoustic has high action and heavy strings, which is a lot of resistance for a beginner’s fingertips. A cheap electric has light strings and a low action, so chords are physically easier — but it needs an amplifier, and that is another $90.

The decision that actually matters is what the student wants to play. A child who asked for a guitar because of a rock song will practice more on an electric, and practice beats theory about finger strength every time. Our acoustic versus electric page works through it properly, and the beginner amp roundup covers the $90 part honestly, including the ones with a headphone socket.

What $200 cannot buy, whatever the listing says

A solid top. Every acoustic guitar at this price has a laminated top. A solid spruce or mahogany top opens up as it is played; laminate sounds the same in year five as it does on day one. That is the single clearest thing the next price band buys, and the cheapest solid-top guitar we recommend is around $230.

A factory setup worth the name. Budget guitars leave the factory with the action set high, because a high action hides a multitude of fret problems and never buzzes. A local setup costs $40–$70, lowers the strings to where a beginner can press them, and is the best money anyone spends on a guitar at this price.

An amplifier, in most cases. Read the electric listings carefully — some bundle a tiny practice amp and some do not, and the Squier Mini is usually sold bare.

Left-handed, at the same price

Left-handed beginners are usually told to learn right-handed because the instruments are cheaper and easier to find. On this page that argument does not hold: the left-handed Mini Stratocaster costs the same $199.99 as the right-handed one, in the same size, with the same two-year warranty. A left-handed child can start on the instrument their classmates are using. Our left-handed guide covers when to go left-handed at all, which is the decision that comes first.

The three-string question

The cheapest pick here is not a guitar and does not claim to be. Three strings, tuned like the top three of a guitar, listed for ages three and up: a four-year-old plays a real chord shape on it in an afternoon and the shapes transfer to a six-string later. It is a bridge, and it is honest about being one. For a child who is old enough for a 3/4 guitar, buy the 3/4 guitar instead — the guitar sizing page has the arm and height measurements that settle it.

Every price on this page is read from the live listing by our daily price check, and the date it was read is printed under each buy button. Prices move, and a page that quotes a number without saying when it was true is not worth reading — so if a pick has drifted over the cap since the last check, the button will tell you before you click it.