In case you’re not in the loop, the domain of the best cheap electric guitar has seen an amazing expansion in recent years! With the ever-increasing popularity of guitars in general, the realm of beginner six-strings grew into a very significant portion of the market, resulting with manufacturers trying to best each other by releasing more and more high-quality instruments at amazingly low prices. However, the situation is nowhere nearly as utopian as that description makes it sound like. First and foremost, the market still packs a fair share of cheap stinkers to watch out for. Additionally, there are plenty of plain mediocre guitars, and who wants those with some shiny gems lying around? Therefore, what you need is a good guide to help you find the best cheap guitars out there. We took the liberty of putting our years of experience to work in an attempt to present you with the best cheap electric guitar and things to watch out for when buying one. Here goes!

 

In our pursuit for the best deals on electric guitars, we singled out the following 10 champions.

2. Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC012:

The thing about the pursuit for best value electric guitar is that quite a lot of them are aimed towards rock and metal music, which is perfectly understandable since so many beginners are into those genres.   But if you want a pinch of versatility and a sound that can tackle blues, jazz, pop, country, and other styles, a nice little Yamaha Pacifica is the thing for you.   As one of the best electric guitars under 200 dollars, the instrument utilizes an agathis body, a bolt-on maple neck, a sonokeling neck, and a classic rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets and white dot inlays. The electronic section features a peculiar combination of one humbucker and two single pickups, allowing the guitar to cover plenty of sonic ground.   For more about Yamaha Pacifica, check out customers reviews on Amazon.  

4. Epiphone SG Special:

If a Les Paul is too beefy for you, don’t be threatened by these devil horns, because an SG is a surprisingly versatile beast. If you’re into the beefy sound of Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and sludgy rock, but also like to jazz it up with crispy clean notes, this is a perfectly valid choice for you.   The axe rocks a laminated alder and maple body, combined with a light maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets, and white dot markers. The electronic department is driven by a standard set of two humbuckers, a Volume knob, a Tone knob, and a three-way selector switch.   The sound of this fella is raw and organic, but still free of unwanted fuzz and overbearing feedback. It certainly falls into the category of awesome cheap guitars and products we wholeheartedly recommend. For this price range, it’s as close to the iconic SG sound you can get. For more about Epiphone SG-Special, check out customers reviews on Amazon.    

5. Squier Affinity Telecaster:

7. Squier Vintage Modified ’70s Stratocaster:

Needless to say, one of our top choices for best electric guitars for beginners had to belong to the iconic Stratocaster family. In our opinion, the cheap Squier Bullet series is fine for the budget, but it’s the Vintage Modified ’70s series that offers truly the best bang for the buck.   Loaded with a strong basswood body, this fella is the closest you can get to that booming mahogany tone of high-end instrument. The iconic combination of three single-coil pickups is of course there, and so is the three-way pickup selector. The sound is very resonant and articulate, making the guitar very well suited for the realms of classic rock, blues, jazz, and country. Metal is also within its reach, and so is light pop on the clear side.   One of the things users praise about this fella is that it comes in very good shape and proper intonation out of the box, and we tend to agree. A strong contender for the title of the best electric guitar under 300 dollars, too!   For more about Squier Vintage Modified 70′, check out customers reviews on Amazon.  

8. Jackson JS22 Dinky:

Switching to the gain-driven domain, we bring you another favorite of beginner metal guitarists and one of the best guitars for metal on this list – the JS22 Dinky from Jackson.   The axe utilizes a basswood body with plenty of crunch and boom, and quite possibly the strongest mid-range punch on the entire list. If you need a guitar that can cut right through the mix without eating away the other instruments but just focusing on the six-string frequencies, this is it.   In our guitar prices guide, this thing stands out as one of the stronger representatives, as even the experts tend to estimate its value as two times higher than it actually is.   One of the features that makes the Dinky additionally stand out is the synchronized fulcrum tremolo bridge, which secures those loveable dive bombs with nothing but minimum interference to the tuning and stability. For guitarists who appreciate both heavy soloing and heavy riffage, this six-string is a great choice.   The instrument is available in three colors – elegant black, wild blue, and sexy red. For more about Jackson JS22 Dinky, check out customers reviews on Amazon.  

10. Dean ML XM:

Finally, let’s go balls out and full on metal! Closing our rundown of best budget electric guitars, we bring you the affordable edition of groove metal tone of late great axe icon Dimebag Darrell of Pantera – the ML XM from Dean Guitars.   The company went out on a limb here with a paulownia body combined with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard, not exactly a commonly used combo in the metal world.   But when combined with those Dean humbuckers, this thing full-on rocks! It’s full of gain, fuzz, buzz, but still articulate enough thanks to the strong middle frequencies, reeling in that Dime sound to cut any mix and in style. Additionally, the price is lower than many of the models on the rundown, making this puppy a safe choice for cheap good guitars.   The rest of the mix includes a set of 22 frets, a 24.75-inch scale length, Grover tuners, black hardware, and more.   For more about Dean ML XM, check out customers reviews on Amazon.  

So this is how it goes – we’ll first single out the most important for you to be aware of, and then dive right into guitars we think match those conditions best. When it comes to buying good guitars at a fair price, a factor that is constantly overlooked is the use of given budget. What most people need to understand is that buying an electric guitar is not a process limited to buying just the instrument.

Instead, you need a string of additional equipment to make that instrument produce sounds, and that extra gear will usually cost you as much as the guitar itself. All of this is perfectly fine, but many beginners tend to overlook it, spend all their money on a six-string and end up not being able to play it. So, if you’re in pursuit for the best cheapest guitar, know that you absolutely must buy or already own these things as well:

• Metronome: A crucial tool for developing a sense of rhythm, musical articulation and accuracy. The thing about this puppy is that it often comes a 2-in-1 package with a tuner and that’s the option we recommend the most. Price for tuner and metronome: around $30.
• Guitar strap: If you intend to stand up while playing on guitar during live shows (and most people do), then you need to practice in the same position like when you’re playing live. Your muscles and hands are in a completely different position when you’re sitting down and when you’re standing, and that’s why you MUST get a strap right from the start and practice standing up, as well as sitting down. Price: $10 – $15 should do the trick.
• Gig bag: Your guitar needs protection, end of discussion. Price: $20

As you can see, this brings us to a total of at least $170 for extra gear you can’t go without. That’s not a whole lot of money, but it’s not a negligible amount since that’s around the price of a good cheap guitar. Additionally, you might want to consider getting an extra set of strings to replace the stock strings. Of course, if you want pedals, that’s another story and something worthy of a separate article. But with these things out of the way, let us proceed to specific guitars, shall we?

Just to let you know about some of the issues you can encounter if you don’t pay enough attention to what you’re buying, these are the frequent issues with affordable models, problems we made sure are NOT present on the instruments we have just listed.  

• Poor fret dressing and leveling – this causes pain to your fingers and unwanted fuzz to your tone. Sonic impact can be devastating, hence we avoided these flaws at all cost.
• Difficult tailpieces with poor saddles – this affects ease of use, intonation, tuning, and general playing experience. You want none of that, of course.
• Low output – Silent guitars are not our thing, but neither is gain oversaturation.
• Poor routing – This leads to guitars being prone to breakage, and we don’t want that, now do we?

Strangely enough, our experience has shown that the internet is packed with the best deals you can find. If you do the proper digging, it beats just about any local store out there. We did our best to conduct such a proper dig, and the results have been presented in the rundown above!