My brother wants an accoustic guitar for his birthday, about which I know nowt. What’s good for around 80 quid or so?

This looks pretty good for the money and to be honest guitars under £150 are all going to be of similar quality but it will definitely be a good guitar to start learning on

Ah, should have mentioned that he’s been playing for a while.

Ah ok, does he already own any acoustics? How long has he been playing?

Yamaha are generally decent.

Tell him to spend a bit more and get one of these though. Beautiful guitars.

http://www.northernmusiconline.co.uk/product/lagspring/

He’s been playing for about 20 odd years, but mostly electric/double bass. I don’t think he has any accoustics. And he’s not buying, I am.

The Yamaha or something similar from a large manufacturer is your best bet for the money

Crafter – pretty decent for the cash. Got an electro accoustic one to start playing again, and it sounds remarkably good. That was £180 I think, but loose the electrics and something similar would probably come in about on budget.

Give him the cash and let him choose his own, guitars are very personal things, one mans ace is anothers sh1t.

Yeah that’s a good point – or even better take him shopping for one somewhere with lots of guitars to try.

Yeah – best if he tries one. Like flip says – they’re very personal things. Might be worth trying to persuade another family member/friend to contribute though, as imo it’ll be hard to get anything really nice to play for £80 – unless you pick up something secondhand of course (if he doesn’t mind something a bit asthetically battered, you could pick up a real gem).

If it has to be a surprise, I agree that Yamaha is a good starting point, they’re very good value and you can set pretty much any of them up to play nicely. Personally I don’t like crafters, but then that kind of supports my first point. Sorry if that doesn’t help much!

Forget Yamaha for GBP80-00 guitars.

Tanglewood is the best bang for your buck in the lower price ranges.

Again – really not a fan of Tanglewood! Admittedly, I was suggesting spending a bit more tha £80 on a Yamaha (or anything really)

I’m getting the impression I’m not helping though so will leave it there! 😀

The last guitar i bought was a Tanglewood Sundance, it took nearly all afternoon to choose, no one could have chosen it for me.
If he’s gonna love playing it he needs to choose it.

You’re probably right about just giving him money and lettign him pick it. Just seems like I haven’t made much of an effort, though.

rj – yeah, I know giving money often feels like that, but if you explain I’m sure he’ll understand – and once he’s choosen it be grateful too! You could always go along and show your interest that way…

Yeah like I said, take him shopping for one in a big city with lots of choice, go out for some lunch etc – be a fun day out.

Vintage V300 – just over your budget. “This award winning guitar was voted as the best acoustic guitar under £1000 by ‘Guitar Magazine’.”

Quote taken from HERE.

My wife bought me one for my Birthday a year and a bit ago, and I can honestly say it’s as good as anything I’ve ever played (and I’ve been playing for over 20 years, on a huge variety of gear). Only small niggle is that it’s a bit quieter than larger bodied guitars – it’s quite dinky.

if he can play already he ought to try a few and choose it: i don’t get on so well the way some of my friends’ cherished guitars play and vice versa. ‘Guitar geometry’ particularly at the neck/fretboard is far more subjective and variable than a bike’s!

And possibly factor in some nice new strings too: some guitars still come with rubbish ones (although many high volume acoustic makers have changed this since they realised that a couple of quid extra on a bright sounding set will sell a guitar over duller-sounding ones. A while back I bought a cheap electro for drinky pub nights and it had looovely strings on it.)