Under £200 is the sweet spot for acoustic guitar value: it's the price at which a solid top, decent tuners and a playable neck all come together. Here are the guitars we'd actually buy for the money, and the one small stretch worth making.
| Model | Price | Body shape | Top wood | Back and sides | Rating | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Fender CD-60S Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar | £199.00 | Dreadnought | Solid mahogany | Mahogany (laminate) | ★ 4.6 | View → |
£199.00
Dreadnought · Solid mahogany · Mahogany (laminate)
Quite a lot, if you spend it well. The key milestone under £200 is a solid top: a guitar with a solid spruce or mahogany top sounds clearly better than an all-laminate one, and it opens up tonally over the first year or two. The Fender CD-60S at around £180 has a solid mahogany top and, in our test, the lowest factory action of any guitar at 2.1 mm on the low E at the 12th fret, so it plays beautifully out of the box. Below that, the Epiphone DR-100 at around £129 is the cheapest full-size dreadnought we trust, with genuine 18:1 die-cast tuners that held pitch within 5 cents over a week of daily playing.
Between them these two cover the realistic under-£200 budget: the CD-60S if you can spend £180 and want a solid top and an easy neck, the DR-100 if you need to keep it under £150 or are buying for someone who may not stick with it. Both are full-size dreadnoughts with a 643 mm scale and a 43 mm nut, so they suit most adult hands.
Three things, mostly. First, solid back and sides: under £200 you get at best a solid top with laminate back and sides, which still sounds far better than an all-laminate guitar, and all-solid construction such as the £459 Tanglewood TW40 is well out of reach. Second, onboard electronics: a built-in pickup adds £30 to £60, so plug-in versions usually push past £200. Third, the finest factory setups: budget guitars often ship with the action set high at 2.6 to 2.8 mm for safe shipping, so you should budget £20 to £30 for a setup to bring it to a comfortable 2.0 mm. None of these is a dealbreaker; they are simply the trade-offs that keep the price down.
For most people, yes. The Yamaha FG800 sits just over the £200 line at around £220, and that extra £20 to £40 buys a solid Sitka spruce top, which in our test projected about 4 dB louder than the laminate-topped Epiphone DR-100 and sustained for roughly 9 seconds against the Epiphone's 6. As a solid top it will keep improving as it opens up. The FG800 is our best overall pick precisely because it offers the most guitar for the money, and the small stretch over a strict £200 budget is the easiest upgrade to justify. If your budget is genuinely firm, though, the £180 Fender CD-60S is an excellent solid-top alternative and the £129 Epiphone DR-100 covers the tightest budgets.
Yes, this is the sweet spot for value. Under £200 you can buy a solid-top guitar that sounds genuinely good: the £180 Fender CD-60S has a solid mahogany top and the easiest neck on test, while the £129 Epiphone DR-100 is the cheapest full-size dreadnought we trust. The £220 Yamaha FG800 sits just over the line and is worth the small stretch for its solid spruce top.
Mostly solid back and sides, onboard electronics and the very finest factory setups. Under £200 you typically get a solid top with laminate back and sides, which still sounds far better than an all-laminate guitar. You will usually want to budget £20 to £30 for a setup, since the factory action on cheaper guitars tends to run high at around 2.6 to 2.8 mm.
For most people, yes. The extra £20 to £40 over a sub-£200 guitar buys a solid Sitka spruce top, which is louder, more resonant and opens up over time. If your budget is firm, the Fender CD-60S at £180 is an excellent solid-top alternative and the Epiphone DR-100 at £129 covers the tightest budgets.
Buy a solid-top guitar and budget £25 for a setup, and you'll have an acoustic that sounds and plays far better than its price suggests. Under £200 the Fender CD-60S at £180 is the value pick, with a solid mahogany top and the easiest neck on test, and the Epiphone DR-100 at £129 covers the tightest budgets. If you can stretch to £220, our best overall pick the Yamaha FG800 adds a solid spruce top that's worth the small extra. For a wider view of every factor, see our buying guide, and for help choosing your very first guitar read our best beginner acoustic guitar page.