Decent starter guitar? £100-ish

[Legend83]

Tis my little sisters birthday in a few weeks and she is always borrowing my guitar (she wants to join a band at Uni).

So I was thinking of buying her a steel-string acoustic for her birthday. It's been a while since I bought one so probably a bit behind the times. I have a Tanglewood which is ok.

Budget is about £100 I guess, maybe more if I can get by folks to chip in.

[dmitsi]

Wouldn't nylon be better to get her to stick at it, or is she already fairly useful?

[dmitsi]

Also a new solid top steel string would be more than £100 for a decent enough one.

[Legend83]

dmitsi said:

Wouldn't nylon be better to get her to stick at it, or is she already fairly useful?

Possibly.

She is not useful.

[dmitsi]

Fender CD140S is a little over £100, but well made with a good sound and solid top.

[Mr GrimNasty]

Yamahas are OK in that price range, some on offer at GAK.co.uk .

[davepoth]

There's a good deal on at Amazon for Yamaha too.

But if she wants to be in a band it'll be worth getting something that can be plugged in.

[GetCarter]

Another vote for nylon. SO much easier as a starter box.

[davepoth]

GetCarter said:

Another vote for nylon. SO much easier as a starter box.

Very much so. But if she has mastered the Barre chord on a steel string guitar than there's no reason to go for nylon, especially if she wants to be in a band.

Although if she really wants to be in the band the best thing to do would be to buy her a bass. Just having a bass or a drum kit generally means you can walk into a band pretty much straight away (I used to be chairman of the Live Music Society at Cardiff Uni and guitarists/singer/songwriters outnumbered bassists and drummers by at least ten to one in our membership database).

It's a bit out of your price range, but this Squier is a short-scale bass, so much easier to manage.

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/squier-affinity-bronco-bla...

Edited by davepoth on Monday 7th February 15:37

[Black can man]

Legend83 said:

Tis my little sisters birthday in a few weeks and she is always borrowing my guitar (she wants to join a band at Uni).

So I was thinking of buying her a steel-string acoustic for her birthday. It's been a while since I bought one so probably a bit behind the times. I have a Tanglewood which is ok.

Budget is about £100 I guess, maybe more if I can get by folks to chip in.

I've got an electric fender guitar & unused amp , used the guitar only a couple of times

if your interested give us a shout i paid £300.00 for the pair about 18 months ago

[Diabolik]

Pretty happy with my 'Eko Ranger' for £110. Italian and all

[vsonix]

I'd wholeheartedly recommend the standard Washburn D10 (no electronics, no cutaway dreadnought shape).
The RRP is about £179 but you can pick them up for considerably less - I bought mine for £120 and there's one advertised here for £109. It does say 'out of stock' but you could do what I did and show the ad to another store that offers a 'price match' policy - I ended up being able to get mine the same day that I decided I wanted to take a guitar to a festival that weekend, if I'd waited for delivery there's a good chance I'd have missed out.

For that kind of money it's amazing - I've had acoustics that cost twice that from brands better known as being acoustic guitar specialists and the craftsmanship and sound have been nowhere near as good. As with most Washburns, the neck is superb. I've had three of their electrics in the past, from entry level 'Made in Korea' cheapies to posh USA models and the neck has always been exemplary. The action is very low, the strings don't "choke" as you fret them and the intonation is spot-on. Acoustic Guitar Magazine in the US rated the D10S as 'best acoustic guitar under $500' a few years ago and though I'm sure other people will argue the toss, it was the cheapest model in their round-up by about $100.