How much do acoustic guitars cost?(typical price)
HOW MUCH DO ACOUSTIC GUITARS TYPICALLY COST?
Between $400 and $900
While the price of an acoustic guitar can vary a lot, depending on a wide range of factors, most of them fall between $400 and $900 from the more well-known retailers. Quality of the guitar and external economic factors (price of wood, steel, etc.) can impact these numbers significantly.
This article covers the average acoustic guitar pricing tiers based on well-known retailers and my own experience with them. Reverb, Guitar Center, Musician’s Friend, and Sweetwater are common places to look, for both used and new acoustic guitar price ranges.
Here’s a quick summary of what we’ll cover:
- How much do acoustic guitars cost? The Simple Answer
- Beginner Pricing
- Intermediate Pricing
- High-End Pricing
- Used VS New
We’ll start out with a simple answer, then narrow into the more specific pricing questions.
Read more: Best acoustic guitars overall
How much does an acoustic guitar cost on average?
The most typical price range for an acoustic guitar is between $400 and $900. This includes the high end of the beginner acoustic guitar pricing tier and the low end of the intermediate pricing tier.
Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration things like used options, geographic location, online or offline sales, manufacturer overhead, or retail markup.
These are all variables that can change an acoustic guitar’s price.
Beginner or “Low-End” Pricing Tier
To get more specific, let’s say you want to buy a beginner acoustic guitar. What should you expect to spend? I also call this the “low-end” pricing tier or what you might consider a cheap acoustic guitar.
Generally, this price range hovers from $100 to $300.
Acoustic guitars that retail over $300 are getting outside of what we’d consider low-cost, though there are some that would still classify as beginner acoustic guitars. Buying in this price range means you’re unlikely to see high-end features, and your acoustic guitar will be mostly laminate (as opposed to solid wood).
Intermediate Pricing: The Middle Tier
We’d consider acoustics in the intermediate price range to be upgrades over beginner guitars that you may have out-grown or out-played. In other words, it’s a more professional and reliable instrument.
My Taylor 114ce, hailing from the mid-level pricing category.
These guitars typically retail in the $500 to $1000 range. Examples include the Taylor 114CE and the Takamine GN93CE.
While they aren’t considered the cream of the crop, they’re certainly able to function in a more professional context and can last players for life. If you’re in this pricing tier, you’re playing for keeps and not questioning your interest in the guitar.
Read more: Best intermediate acoustic guitars
Top Tier or “High-End” Pricing
As one might expect, the $1000 threshold is a significant point of morale change. It’s also what we’d consider the breaking point where you move firmly from the middle range of acoustic guitar cost to the upper-tier. These acoustics are nearly all designed with high-end features, solid tonewood, and are usually built by hand, in part or total.
While they are some of the nicest acoustics by pure quality standards, they’re often so expensive that their value decreases.
In other words, you get a lot of quality and great features, but you lose ground because you’re paying so much more.
Used VS New
What about the difference in price between used and new acoustic guitars?
While this is extremely difficult to measure, you can often count on around a 20 to 30 percent price reduction (off retail) if you’re buying used. Take the following reverb entries for the Taylor 114ce:
Pricing for used Taylor 114CE acoustics on reverb. Image via Reverb
If you buy one new, this acoustic costs around $800 (at the time of publishing this article) making the $600-$650 used price range fairly expected. Assuming a 20 percent price reduction, you’d land right at $640. Most used acoustic guitars will post similar discounts, depending on the condition of the guitar in question.
Conclusion and Questions
If you have questions about how much acoustic guitars cost, you can leave them in the comments section below. I’d also recommend just getting familiar with retailers and what they’re charging. Pay close attention to the different brands and features, especially the presence (or lack thereof) of solid tonewood and onboard preamps.
