The guitar is a consummately accessible instrument, capable of vast variety in expression despite the ease with which it can be learned. Its impact on music is profound and indelible – from the early guitarras of 12th century Spain to the electrifying caterwauls of today’s amped-up instruments.
The guitar can be an equally inspiring and insufferable instrument but is unavoidably rewarding to play. Beginners get to see the fruits of their early efforts within weeks of picking one up for the first time, and seasoned pros have near-endless wells of advanced technique to explore. The guitar tutor’s favourite mantra “easy to learn, difficult to master” is repeated ad nauseum for good reason.
The electro acoustic guitar is a highly versatile invention, combining the tonality and feel of an acoustic guitar with the sound-sculpting and volume potential of an electric guitar. They enable quiet yet responsive at-home practice, and easy, reliable amplification for any performance or recording needs. The majority of new players learn on an acoustic guitar, and electro acoustics offer that little bit more versatility – making them a popular choice for guitarists of all skill levels.
Acoustic guitars in general are diverse in design, with different designs appealing to different play styles and use cases. Body shape and size, for example, together inform the way in which a guitar resonates and the way it plays in a space.
Larger body shapes – i.e., dreadnought and auditorium – tend to provide more clarity in the low end, where smaller bodies – i.e., parlour and travel – give less articulation but more felt depth to a sound. The woods used to build the body, in particular its top panel, affect the quality of its resonance; spruce tops provide more bell-like high end, while mahogany offers focused mid-range and cedar gives a clear ‘woody’ bass.
With electro acoustics, there is also the matter of the preamp. A piezoelectric pickup or element is used to convert vibrations from the guitar’s body into electrical energy, which is then boosted by an active (battery-powered) preamp before being delivered to your destination of choice via jack cable. These preamp units can colour sound in their own distinct way, and also might feature other utilities such as an on-board tuner.
Best electro acoustic guitars at a glance
- Best overall: Gretsch G5021E Rancher Penguin - £479, Amazon
- Best for an impeccable playing experience at a steal: Vintage Historic Series ‘Parlour’ - £139, Ivor Mairants
- Best for Fender Stratocaster fans: Fender Newporter Player - £279, PMT Online
- Best for pristine performance: Vintage VGA990 - £352, R Guitars
- Best for a solid learning experience: Fender FA-235E - £245, Fender
- Best for town-centre buskers: Squier SA-105CE - £135, Gear4Music
- Best for blues on the porch: Vintage Statesboro’ ‘Dreadnought’ 12-String - £169, PMT Online
- Best for travel with a tricked-out guitar: Blue Lava Original Freeboost - £498, Thomann
- Best for flirting with learning: Gear4Music Student Electro Acoustic, £89.99, Gear4Music
- Best for classical and flamenco musicians: Washburn C5CE, £255, PMT Online
The market for sub-£500 electro acoustics is broader than ever, and the quality gap between budget and high-value models shorter than ever. With a stacked market, it can be hard to discern which are the best value for money. Here are ten of the best electro acoustics on the market that come in below £500.
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Gretsch G5021E Rancher Penguin Parlor Acoustic/Electric, Mint Metallic
Best: overall
Gretsch has built a significant amount of goodwill over its years of guitar design, with stylish designs that range from lithe Les-Paul-killers to jumbo country megaliths. The Rancher Penguin is an electro acoustic design that somehow does both.
Its small-scale parlour design is at odds with the ostentatious headstock and the maximalist delights of its gold-flecked binding, which both traces the guitar’s outline and glimmers from the inside edge of Gretsch’s trademark triangular soundhole.
The neck is wider than its looks would suggest, feeling as if a short-scale Gibson Les Paul. After five minutes of play, it feels absolutely right for the instrument, giving the hand a good solid hold for big chords and enough room to experiment with voicings.
Playing it as it is, the Rancher Penguin is a seriously bright guitar. Its smaller form factor and tighter parlour body lead to a tautness and clarity of sound. Open-tunings might sound a little less dramatic on this guitar, but this is in service of a precise and practical sound for complex finger-picking, or subdued accompaniment. Besides, when amplified, the Rancher Penguin becomes something else entirely.
The Rancher Penguin hides its low end until it’s plugged in, at which point the thing booms to life through its Fishman preamp. Deep, rich, full and seriously loud, the Gretsch is an utterly changed guitar to play and perform with. This is to the delight of the reviewer, who revels in big, buttery bass sounds as a foundation for expressive performance. If this isn’t to your liking, the powerful on-board EQ can tame it completely. The austere on-board tuner – featuring an octal display and three LEDs – feels a tad imprecise, simply by virtue of returning less information, but it still gets the job done.
Buy now £479.00, Amazon
Vintage Historic Series 'Parlour' Acoustic Guitar ~ Vintage Sunburst
Best for: an impeccable playing experience at a steal
The Vintage brand has been a market mainstay for nearly three decades, dependably releasing highly reliable instruments at remarkable price points. Vintage’s acoustic contributions are cut from the same cloth as their electric counterparts, marrying solid design with expert execution at affordable price points.
The Historic Series Parlour comes in well under £200, but does not at all feel like it. The guitar has a pleasing weight to it, both physically and sonically. Its parlour body shape is a small and slender one, that sits nicely and balances well, while striking a great balance between portability and sonority.
The Parlour is indeed a sonorous thing, with a wide bed of low-end supporting pleasing high-mid resonance. Its action is solid and consistent, with a slim and narrow neck that’s surprisingly comfortable to cradle. This neck is also fast and smooth – a joy at any price point, let alone this one. Just as much as playing rewards articulate runs up and down the neck, the Parlour takes open tunings extremely well, facilitating warm drones and complex harmony.
These qualities are reproduced extremely well via its preamp, which features an expressive three-band EQ and – another joy at this price point – a dedicated phase button to help eliminate feedback if playing loud. The preamp includes a tuner with an easy-to-read graphic display. Playing the Parlour is addictive, and its output seems well at odds with its price.
Buy now £139.00, Ivor Mairants
Fender Newporter Player Champagne
Best for: Fender Stratocaster fans
Fender is one of the most recognisable names in music, thanks to its rich seam of genre-defining and trend-setting guitars that have defined much of today’s guitar industry. The cultural impacts of the Stratocaster, Telecaster and Jazzmaster need no explanation. Fender is lesser-known for its acoustic contributions, with rival brand Gibson leading the charge on top-end models – but Fender’s lower-end electro acoustic models are nonetheless rightfully well-regarded. The Newporter Player trucks in Fender’s rich electrical heritage, while providing a versatile acoustic player instrument.
The finish on the Newporter’s neck itself is pleasingly smooth, and travel up and down the fretboard perhaps the most luxurious experience of the guitars reviewed here. Fender’s distinctive Stratocaster headstock gives the Newporter Player a mark of authenticity, so to speak, empowering the player to indulge. The neck plays fast and cleanly, the action comfortable and the strings a joy to manipulate.
The sound sans-amplifier is focused, even ‘flat’. Besides a slight roll-off of bass frequencies, the body presents a clear and balanced sound that lets the player shine on their own merits. This is a real all-rounder guitar, that legitimately takes whatever you give it. The ‘electro’ side of the equation is delivered by a Fishman pre-amp, with a tuner and a two-band EQ. The EQ allows you to tackle the oft-unpleasant ‘shine’ from newer strings, and to add a little heft in the bottom for chuggier playing. It is an easy thing to play, and its results are suitable for practically every purpose.
Buy now £279.00, PMT Online
Richard Guitars Vintage VGA990
Best for: pristine performance
The Vintage VGA990 is one of Vintage’s higher end stock models, being an instrument designed and attuned toward professional performance. It boasts a ‘grand auditorium’ body shape – a relatively new standard of body shape that combines a wide base with a narrow waist. The result is something that projects well, and that gives a clear, rich low end without sacrificing tightness at the top. The body features a cut-away for ease of access past the 12th fret.
The cut-away is a well-justified invitation to explore the neck, too. Though less forgiving than the cheaper Historic Series Parlour, the VGA990 is all the better for it. It encourages conviction in your playing, and teases better technique out of you in the process. Playing high is rewarded by a consistent feel, where many other mid-range acoustics tend to falter.
The VGA990 shares the same model of preamp as the Historic Series, and benefits from the same positives – a useful and useable tuner, a handy phase button and a three-band EQ well-suited to taming harsher frequencies. Overall, the VGA990 is built solidly and finished well; it is an undeniably beautiful thing, with a pearlescent inlay surround for the soundhole, set off against a bright finish.
Buy now £352.00, Richard Guitars
Fender FA-235E Concert Natural
Best for: a solid learning experience
The Fender FA-235E is one of Fender’s more budget-oriented electro acoustic range – a concert guitar that aims for a strong balance between playability and performance. The FA-235E has a good weight to it, and sits well on the lap. The neck feels short even for a concert body, in the best way; the body gives responsiveness and resonance, with that shorter-scale neck adding depth and wobble to the low end and making travel around the fretboard extremely comfortable.
The unamplified sound is throaty, with a rich mid presence. It sounds – and plays – like a strumming guitar, though fingerpicking does yield a soft and pleasing warmth as well. When plugged in, the throaty-ness gives way to a more sculpted and robust sound. The high end is crystal clear here, and the bass well defined; the two-band EQ on its pre-amp gives more control over the blend of each, and leaves its solid mid presence well alone. Sustained notes resonate beautifully, and harsh strumming is rewarding with tight attack.
The FA-235E is aesthetically striking, too – particularly if you are already familiar with Fender as a brand. The ornate fretboard inlays and intriguing soundhole bindings swerve the traditional retro-futurism of Fender’s more recognisable electric models, standing apart as something else altogether.
Buy now £245.00, Fender
Squier SA-105CE Electro Acoustic, Natural
Best for: town-centre buskers
The Squier brand has obtained a reputation as a dependable budget brand – something it has readily played into, with its wide range of eminently affordable instruments. Squier wasn’t always this way. Its 1990s Japanese-manufactured electric guitars rivalled the Fender name for build quality, and retain a cult status among gigging musicians today.
This is to say that the Squier name is by no means an unreliable one, though today it does lean more into its assumed budget status. The SA-105CE is exemplary of this status, being a perfectly serviceable beginner instrument at a shade under £120. By touch, it is obvious to more seasoned players where costs have been cut; the fretboard finish is a tad scratchy, making bends a little uncomfortable, and the fret ends are sharp to the touch in some places.
But the SA-105CE plays well in spite of these nit-picks. It plays consistently all the way up the neck, and higher scales are much less punishing than they ought to be. Unplugged, there is both depth and clarity to the sound, with boomy bass and creamy highs bookending a slightly scooped mid – in layman’s terms, making this a great guitar for a singalong.
Plugged in, the Squier sounds tight and warm, with a simple tone knob allowing you to roll off any unpleasant fizz. The pre-amp features tone and volume knobs and a tuner, which is bright and easy to read. For someone making their first forays into playing guitar, or looking for a dependable busking instrument, the SA-105CE would serve handily.
Buy now £135.00, Gear4Music
Vintage Statesboro - 12 String Electro Dreadnought Whisky Sour
Best for: blues on the porch
12-strings can be an acquired taste, particularly for newer hands unfamiliar with them. But the sounds they produce when fretted correctly are the stuff of dreams – and the Vintage Statesboro’ 12-string ‘Whisky Sour’ provides them in spades.
Indeed, this reviewer briefly forgot themselves when trialling the 12-string entry into Vintage’s Whisky Sour range, having become uncharacteristically lost in delta-blues drones and sturdy Stevie-Ray licks almost immediately. While the blues don’t appeal in the same way it used to, this noodling reverie was undeniable fun, and fitting for the ‘30s blues angle the series hits. This 12-string is exceedingly fun to play, a novel discovery when so many cheap 12-strings are immovably difficult to work with.
Again, the Statesboro shares a preamp in common with the other Vintage guitars presented earlier. When amplified, the sound does not muddy. High end remains clear without becoming cluttered or jangly, and the low-end feels well-shaped. This is a strong entry-point to 12-string playing, for folk fans and Led Zeppelin enthusiasts alike.
Buy now £169.00, PMT Online
BLUE LAVA ORIGINAL FREEBOOST
Best for: travel with a tricked-out guitar
This is an extremely curious thing. The Blue Lava Original Freeboost is, ostensibly, a lightweight travel guitar. And yet, despite its diminutive scale length, it is heavier than a great many of the guitars listed here. That extra weight comes from two distinct places: the sturdy all-HPL (High-Pressure Laminate) body and neck, and a unique L2 preamp and speaker system.
The Blue Lava’s USP is that it can be amplified without an amplifier. An internal speaker system resonates the body, generating additional volume without needing to jack in to a PA. Not only that, but onboard effects can be applied to the sound without any need to plug into an amp or separate effects unit. A global reverb effect can be dialled in with one control knob, while another controls either of two switchable effects – a digital delay or a simple chorus.
The guitar itself plays remarkably well; its narrow and squat neck is relatively easy to engage with, and its unamplified sound is robust in spite of its non-natural wood construction. The guitar plays as sturdily as it feels, and the esoteric soundhole placement puts the guitar’s natural resonance closer to your ear as you play. The price point is justified by the tech more than the instrument itself, meaning this might appeal to a narrow band of players between new learners and experienced musicians.
Buy now £498.00, Thomann
GEAR4MUSIC STUDENT ELECTRO ACOUSTIC
Best for: flirting with learning
Gear4Music is a clear leader for entry-level products, offering an extremely wide range of low-cost beginner instruments from drum machines to keyboards and even brass instruments. Its range of guitars is particularly wide, through both the Gear4Music brand and other in-house names like SubZero and Hartwood.
The Gear4Music Student Electro Acoustic is clearly marketed with learners in mind. The concert-style body aims for a middle ground of size and sound colour, as an accessible starting point for the vast majority of beginners. It has a clear, slightly brassy tone thanks to its spruce top, though the low-end is somewhat lacking. Its on-board preamp has a four-band EQ, enabling precise tone-shaping through an amp or PA. The sound plugged-in is dependable, if not deeply inspiring. There is little more to say about this guitar, but that it suits its remit to a tee: a true Ronseal instrument.
Buy now £89.99, Gear4Music
WASHBURN C5CE
Best for: classical and flamenco musicians
The Washburn C5CE is a nylon-stringed electro acoustic guitar, trucking in the earlier tradition and roots of the guitar and providing a well-priced option for players of a more classical or European bent. Classical guitars have a wider, shallower neck with more space between strings, in order to facilitate intricate composition and performance; combining this with the piezoelectric pickups of conventional electro acoustics makes for an extremely versatile instrument that is friendly to beginners just as much as classical guitarists.
The unique woolly and woody sound provided by those high nylon strings is also a key draw, as well as their friendliness to newer fingers. The ideal nylon-stringed guitar is clear and defined, with articulate bass and a sweetness to the treble; the C5CE delivers this handily, particularly unplugged and in the room.
Unfortunately, something is lost in translation when amplified via the on-board preamp. Those sweet highs become a tad harsh, and the focused bass becomes a little less distinct. This would not be much of an issue, were it not for a lack of EQ control on the preamp unit. Still, the guitar has overall appeal as a nice-playing nylon acoustic at a fantastic price point.
Buy now £255.00, PMT
Verdict
Choosing the best of these guitars was exceedingly tough. The Vintage Historic Series Parlour is genuinely a steal at its low price, handily winning out over many instruments more than twice its price in terms of playability, build quality and features.
However, as a matter of personal preference, the Gretsch Rancher Penguin’s weighty build and unbelievable amplified sound just barely edge it out.
