The Epiphone DR-100 is the cheapest full-size acoustic guitar we are happy to recommend, and at around £129 it gets the basics right where most ultra-budget guitars don't. Here's what £129 buys you, and what it doesn't.
There is a floor below which a cheap guitar does more harm than good: a high action, dead-sounding wood and tuners that will not hold pitch can put a beginner off for life. The Epiphone DR-100 sits just above that floor. It is an all-laminate dreadnought, so it will never sound like a solid-top guitar, but it is honestly made, the tuners are genuinely good, and for around £129 it is the cheapest guitar in our test that we would actually hand to a learner. That makes it our best budget pick.
| Model | Price | Body shape | Top wood | Back and sides | Rating | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ★ Top pick Epiphone DR-100 Acoustic Guitar | £599.00 | Dreadnought | Select spruce (laminate) | Mahogany (laminate) | ★ 4.4 | View → |
£599.00
Dreadnought · Select spruce (laminate) · Mahogany (laminate)
The verdict from Theo Marsh, guitar and instruments reviewer
The best budget guitar. At around £129 the Epiphone DR-100 is the cheapest full-size dreadnought we are happy to recommend, and the gap to the £180 to £220 guitars is smaller than the price difference implies. The all-laminate construction means it will not open up tonally the way a solid top does, but the tuning machines are a genuine 18:1 die-cast set that held pitch within 5 cents over a week of daily playing in our test. Budget a £25 setup to drop the 2.8 mm action and it becomes a perfectly good first guitar.
Bright and direct, with a shorter sustain of roughly 6 seconds and a tidy, balanced response.
| Body shape | Dreadnought |
|---|---|
| Top wood | Select spruce (laminate) |
| Back and sides | Mahogany (laminate) |
| Scale length | 643 mm (25.3 in) |
| Nut width | 43 mm |
| Frets | 20 |
| Tuners | Premium die-cast 18:1 |
| Weight | 2.0 kg |
| Factory action (low E, 12th fret) | 2.8 mm (set to 2.0 mm) |
| Electronics | None (acoustic only) |
| Typical UK price | £129.00 |
The DR-100 is the right guitar when the budget is firmly under £150, or when you are buying for someone who may not stick with it, a child, a teenager testing the water, or a curious adult who is not yet sure. At around £129 it is a no-regrets purchase: full-size, honestly made and light at 2.0 kg. If the player keeps going, it serves as a perfectly decent first year or two of guitar; if they stop, you have lost very little.
It is not the right guitar if you can stretch the budget. For around £50 to £90 more, the solid-top Fender CD-60S and Yamaha FG800 sound clearly better and will keep getting better as their solid tops open up, which the laminate DR-100 cannot do. And if you need a smaller guitar for a child's hands, the short-scale Martin LX1 is the more comfortable choice, albeit at three times the price.
The all-laminate construction sets the ceiling on the tone. The DR-100 sounds bright and direct, and importantly it is even, with no dead notes anywhere on the neck, but it has a shorter sustain of roughly 6 seconds and a flatter, less resonant voice than the solid-top guitars. It was about 4 dB quieter than the spruce-topped Yamaha FG800 in our test. The crucial difference is that a laminate top is static: it will sound the same in five years as it does today, whereas a solid top opens up and improves. For a first guitar that is a fair trade for the lower price, but it is the main reason to spend more if you can.
Our DR-100 arrived with a 2.8 mm action on the low E at the 12th fret, the highest of any guitar on test. That is the one thing to fix: at 2.8 mm, barre chords and notes up the neck take real finger strength, which is exactly what discourages beginners. A £20 to £25 setup dropped the action to a comfortable 2.0 mm and transformed how the guitar felt to play. The 643 mm scale and 43 mm nut are full-size and standard, the 20 frets were level on our example, and once set up it plays as easily as guitars costing more.
The standout feature at the price is the tuners. Epiphone fits genuine 18:1 die-cast machine heads, a higher ratio than you expect at £129, and they held pitch within 5 cents over a week of daily playing, which is a real, practical advantage for a learner: a guitar that stays in tune is far less frustrating. The rest of the build is plain but honest, with a tidy finish on our example and no rough edges. There are no electronics, which is normal at this price.
Two things hold the DR-100 back, and both are predictable at £129. First, the all-laminate body means it sounds flatter than a solid-top guitar and will not improve with age, the single biggest reason to spend more if your budget allows. Second, the 2.8 mm factory action is high enough that you really must budget a £25 setup, or the guitar will feel stiff and put a beginner off. Treat those as part of the purchase and the DR-100 is exactly what it claims to be: an honest, cheap, full-size first guitar.
Best for: the tightest budgets, children and anyone testing whether they'll stick with guitar. Not the pick if you can stretch to a solid-top guitar (the Fender CD-60S) or need a smaller body for small hands (the Martin LX1).
Yes, with a small caveat. At around £129 it is the cheapest full-size dreadnought we trust, the tone is even and the 18:1 die-cast tuners hold pitch well. The one weak point is the factory action of about 2.8 mm at the 12th fret, which is high enough to make barre chords harder. A £25 setup fixes that and turns it into a genuinely good first guitar.
No, the DR-100 is all laminate: a select spruce laminate top with mahogany laminate back and sides. That keeps the price down and makes it tough, but it means the guitar will not open up tonally the way a solid-top guitar such as the Yamaha FG800 does. For a first guitar that you may upgrade within a year or two, that is a reasonable trade-off.
The Yamaha FG800 costs around £90 more and adds a solid spruce top, which makes it noticeably louder, more resonant and a better long-term instrument. The DR-100 is the better choice if your budget is firmly under £150 or you are buying for a child who may not stick with it. If you can stretch the budget, the FG800 is the one to grow into.
The Epiphone DR-100 is our best budget acoustic guitar because, at around £129, it is the cheapest full-size dreadnought that gets the fundamentals right: even tone, genuine 18:1 tuners that held within 5 cents, and an honest build. Its all-laminate body means it sounds flatter than a solid-top guitar and will not improve with age, and its 2.8 mm factory action needs a £25 setup, so factor both in. If your budget can stretch by £50 to £90, the solid-top Fender CD-60S or Yamaha FG800 are worth it; if it can't, the DR-100 is a no-regrets first guitar. See how it ranks against the rest in our best beginner acoustic guitar guide.