£100-£140 accoustic

tricky question. Like saying what's the best car for £15,000? Ask 10 people and get 10 replies!

Simply, its whatever guitar in this price bracket suits YOU. But there are some things you should definitely look for -

* solid top (not laminated)
* low action (ie strings are not too hard to fret)

My first accoustic was only £120 but had these attributes and got me off to a good start.

The other thing to consider, is second hand. You might get a quality instrument at a bargain price. Ebay always worth a look,

good luck

Matt

£120 isnt much for a guitar, you will be lucky to find a solid top for that they are upwards of £200. You can still find some ok guitars out there, look out for second hand, but at that price you wont find too much. I think the best advice is play as many guitars in your price range that you can, and find one that you like. I spent £200 on my first guitar, and i used it for 6 years, it wasnt great but we had lots of good times together. When it was time to move on I gave it to a friend who was learning. So for £200 it was well worth it.

I got a Yamaha FG310 for 100quid new , and believe me , when I am with others that have much more expensive guitars nobody can tell the difference.Snob factor stops a lot of people buying Yamaha stuff , which as i am sure you know is b####cks.

good call for that price I would go Yamaha every time.

My first guitar was used, a real beater, paid 80 dollars for it played it several months before I bought my Yamaha. Gave my beater to friend.

If this is your first guitar the biggest improvement in sound will come from practice, you can find a decent guitar with a laminated top for 100-150 dollars not sure how that converts, Try to find something with resonable action, if the strings are to far from the fretboard it will be harder to learn on.

Best of luck, in your search, dont let getting a high priced guitar stop you from starting or playing.

(OK, I'll say it - you probably should have posted this in either the Beginner's forum or the Guitar Player's Discusssion forum) :P

That aside (and no offense intended!) I'm going to put in yet another plug for my Epiphone DR100.

I paid US$120 for it, and even though it's a "cheap laminate" guitar, I dare to say that it easily rivals the Yamaha solid-tops I was test driving at around the $200 mark.

Not everyone likes it, and it's very possible that I just happened to get a real good apple out of the lot, but I'm quite happy with it. The reviews I've read since my purchase have backed me up as well though...most people seem to be pleasantly suprised by the quality of such a "cheap" acoustic. Frankly, price nonwithstanding, I kept gravitating back to the Epi just because it *felt* right in my hands, more so than the others I tried out. You may have a completely different opinion of what feels right for you of course, so it would be to your benefit to try as many guitars out first-hand as you can, if at all possible.

The Epi is something to look into at any rate, IMHO :)

I have a Sigma DM1-st
solid top Martin copy
Solid Spuce top with laminate Mahogany sides/back.
I got it...Martin hard "chip" case...and 1 month of lessons for $300 including tax

Case is worth about $80
Lessons worth $50/month
so I feel I came out pretty good. They also did a "setup" on the guitar for free with purchase.

this was in a local shop.

I have been told by many that is sounds very good....and then they cant believe what I have in it when I tell them.

Thanks a lot guys