The Yamaha FG800 is, for us, the best all-round acoustic guitar under £250: a solid Sitka spruce top, loud and even projection, and a price that's justified by the tone on offer. Here's what it does well, and where its limits lie.
Yamaha has been building affordable acoustic guitars that punch above their price for more than fifty years, and the FG line is the name most teachers reach for first when a beginner asks what to buy. The FG800 is the entry point, and it earns its reputation. At around £220 it offers a solid Sitka spruce top, a specification almost no rival matches at this money, and a build that feels like a real instrument rather than a toy. That blend is exactly what makes it our best overall pick.
| Model | Price | Body shape | Top wood | Back and sides | Rating | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ★ Top pick Yamaha FG800 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar | £279.00 | Dreadnought | Solid Sitka spruce | Nato / Okoume | ★ 4.7 | View → |
£279.00
Dreadnought · Solid Sitka spruce · Nato / Okoume
The verdict from Theo Marsh, guitar and instruments reviewer
Our best overall pick. The Yamaha FG800 is the guitar we hand to anyone who asks for one good acoustic under £250. The solid Sitka spruce top is the headline: most rivals at this price use a laminate, and you can hear the difference, with around 4 dB more projection and a low end that grows as the top opens up over the first year. We measured the action at 2.6 mm on the low E at the 12th fret out of the box, a touch high but a 15 minute setup brings it to a comfortable 2.0 mm.
Rings out warm and loud, with a sustain that runs to roughly 9 seconds on an open low E.
| Body shape | Dreadnought |
|---|---|
| Top wood | Solid Sitka spruce |
| Back and sides | Nato / Okoume (laminate) |
| Scale length | 650 mm (25.6 in) |
| Nut width | 43 mm |
| Frets | 20 |
| Body depth | 100 to 118 mm |
| Weight | 2.1 kg |
| Factory action (low E, 12th fret) | 2.6 mm (set to 2.0 mm) |
| Electronics | None (acoustic only) |
| Typical UK price | £219.99 |
The FG800 is the right guitar if you want one good acoustic that you will not outgrow, whether you are a complete beginner or a returning player. It is a full-size 650 mm scale dreadnought, so the body and string spacing suit most adults, and the 43 mm nut width is a comfortable middle ground between the narrow necks on cheap electrics and the wide necks on classical guitars. At 2.1 kg it is neither heavy nor flyweight. For a first guitar that needs to sound encouraging from day one and still satisfy you two years later, it is hard to beat.
It is less suited to two groups. Players with small hands or children may find the 650 mm scale a stretch, and would be better served by the short 584 mm scale of the Martin LX1. And anyone who needs to plug into an amp or PA will have to add a pickup, because the FG800 is a plain acoustic with no onboard electronics; for a gig-ready guitar look at the Tanglewood TW40 or the Taylor Academy 12e instead. For a home player, though, the lack of electronics is a feature, not a fault: you get more guitar for your £220.
The solid Sitka spruce top is the whole story here. Strummed hard, the FG800 is loud, with about 4 dB more projection than the all-laminate Epiphone DR-100 in our side-by-side test, and the sound is even from the low E to the top E with no weak or boomy notes. The scalloped X-bracing Yamaha uses on this model gives it a fuller low end than you expect at the price, and the sustain on an open low E ran to roughly 9 seconds before fading. Best of all, a solid top opens up: over the first 12 to 24 months of regular playing the wood settles and the tone grows richer, something a laminate top simply cannot do.
Out of the box our FG800 measured a 2.6 mm action on the low E at the 12th fret, which is a little high, set deliberately so for safe shipping. That is the one job to do before you fall in love with it: a £20 to £30 professional setup dropped the action to a comfortable 2.0 mm, dressed the nut slots and checked the neck relief, after which barre chords up the neck became noticeably easier. The neck profile is a medium C that suits most hands, and the 20 frets were level with no sharp ends on our example. Set up properly, it plays as well as guitars costing far more.
The die-cast tuners held pitch impressively: over our 30 day test the FG800 stayed within 3 cents of pitch between sessions, which is excellent for a guitar at this price and means less time tuning and more time playing. The finish on our example was clean, the bridge was glued square, and the binding was tidy. Nothing about the build feels cut to a price beyond the laminate back and sides, which are completely normal at £220 and have little effect on the tone compared with the top.
There are only two real ones. First, the factory action of 2.6 mm is high enough that an unset FG800 can feel stiff to a beginner, so you should budget the extra £25 for a setup rather than judge the guitar straight from the box. Second, there is no pickup, so if you intend to play out you will either need to add one (typically £40 to £100 fitted) or buy a different guitar. Neither is a flaw in the instrument itself; the FG800 simply puts its money into the top and the build rather than electronics, which for a home player is exactly the right call.
Best for: the beginner or returning player who wants one genuinely good, full-size acoustic under £250 and is happy to add a £25 setup. Not the pick if you have small hands (try the Martin LX1) or need to plug in (try the Tanglewood TW40).
Yes, it is one of the best beginner guitars you can buy, with one caveat. The solid spruce top, even tone and rock-solid tuners make it a guitar you can grow into rather than out of. The only thing a beginner should budget for is a quick £20 to £30 setup, because the factory action of around 2.6 mm at the 12th fret is a little high straight from the box.
Yes. The FG800 has a solid Sitka spruce top, which is unusual at its sub-£250 price, where most rivals use a laminate. A solid top vibrates more freely, so the guitar is louder, around 4 dB more projection in our test, and it opens up tonally over the first year or two of regular playing. The back and sides are nato laminate, which is normal at this price.
Both share the same solid Sitka spruce top. The main difference is the back and sides: the FG800 uses nato, while the dearer FG830 uses rosewood, which adds a little more sparkle and bass complexity. For most players the FG800 is the better value, and the upgrade to the FG830 is a refinement rather than a transformation.
The Yamaha FG800 is our best overall acoustic guitar because it gets the two things that matter most right: a solid spruce top that sounds loud, even and only gets better, and a build that feels like a proper instrument at around £220. It needs a £25 setup to drop its 2.6 mm factory action to an easy 2.0 mm, and it has no pickup, but neither holds it back as a home guitar. For most beginners and returning players it is simply the smartest buy here. If your budget is tighter, the Fender CD-60S is the value alternative and the Epiphone DR-100 the budget choice; if you want to plug in, look at the Tanglewood TW40. Before you decide, it is worth reading our buying guide and our best beginner acoustic guitar page.