Recommended Classical Guitars For Beginners

Classical guitar is such a noble instrument, but do you wonder what is the best value classical guitar for a beginner? Even though these guitars are so affordable compared with wind or brass instruments, getting the best value classical guitar can be a minefield for beginner guitarists or parents. Classical guitars all look the same, so where do you start with buying a budget classical guitar ?

Guitars have mysterious specifications and technical jargon from the manufacturers and what looks like a good deal in guitars may not be. Buying a guitar might not be as simple as you first thought. Manufacturers do really bad things like using "classical guitar" as a description for a steel strung acoustic just to get more keywords and this is confusing too. As a professional guitarist and teacher I often have parents asking advice and I have experience in playing many guitars of all types. I have put this page together to show what I think are a few good deals in buying classical guitars for older beginners. These classical guitars are nearly all full size and available in the USA.

All of these classical guitars have been chosen for the budget price. At under $70 a guitar works out much cheaper than many other instruments and can be upgraded when the beginner guitarist makes progress. It may not hold its value as well as a better quality instrument, but costing less than a family meal at a diner makes it worth the risk.

At this price range, Amazon's ability to bulk buy and discount shows some great household names in guitars, such as Fender, Yamaha or Oscar Schidt.

Unless you are happy to rest your left foot on a pile of library books, I would recommend a good quality stable footstool. It improves the playing position by making it more easy and comfortable to hold the guitar correctly. My personal preference would be for a handmade footstool for home use because of its stability, but adjustable footstools take care of varied seat heights and leg lengths!

Excellent quality classical guitars at a reasonable price. A solid top guitar for less than $200? That in my book is incredibly good value for money,

When I started playing I crossed over from classical to electric. These days it is just as common for guitarists to do the opposite and obviously the full width fretboard of a classical guitar is a world away from an easy electric or acoustic guitar neck. A classical guitar with a narrower neck can be a useful halfway point.

Again these guitars are nearly good enough for professionals. Some of them are unbelievable value for money and very playable for adult beginners too. As well as Cordoba I also recommend Yamaha and Ibanez guitars. Yamaha is superbly reliable for good quality classical guitars at affordable prices, Ibanez are usually very playable with a lowish action and a sweet tone.

The Alvarez RC210 Regent Series Classical Guitar is an intermediate classical guitar with a mahogany body, a spruce top to give it superior projection and crisp tone, rosewood fingerboard and bridge and traditional mosaic soundhole rosette.

Cordoba guitars are a lovely transitional instrument for the more advanced player. They are well constructed and sound great. Going for a classical guitar outfit also gives you useful accessories to keep your guitar safe.The Cordoba guitar has low comfortable string action, solid cedar top, inlaid rosette, mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard and bridge. A typical classical guitar package might include also gig bag, electronic tuner, DVD, polishing cloth, and string winder

Takamine are not such a household name, but I love my Takamine. A visit to the Spanish Guitar Centre in London revealed the true value of this guitar was surprisingly high. I retired my Takamine concert when it got attacked by a music stand. This broke my heart! Maybe one day I will be able to afford a new one or perhaps that George Harrison Ramirez? I played a Ramirez with cutaway at Hanks music in London but fortunately I forgot my cheque book....

Update, my current guitar is an award winning Picado, which I love, and I am restringing the injured Takamine for my best friend to play...

Flamenco guitars have a lighter feel and a tone more conducive to dnce rhythms and flamenco. Ramirez are a great name in flamenco guitars. Ramirez have also been the name in classical guitars for many, many years. The family now produce many beautiful professional quality instruments.

Ramirez are to classical guitars as Reebok are to sports gear! There is a reason for this.

I spent a happy hour playing on a Ramirez cutaway at a famous London music store. If I had stayed longer it might have needed surgical removal. The only drawback is a slight loss of resonance due to the cutaway. For this reason I stuck with the standard concert guitar I now have but the Ramirez was a beauty.

I do hope you found this page helpful and that you might check out some of my other guitar pages. Playing and teaching the guitar has been my life's work, so if I can help I am happy to do so. Thank you for visiting this page.