Best acoustic-electric guitars for beginners

An acoustic-electric is an acoustic guitar with a pickup and a preamp built in. It costs more than the same guitar without them, and the great majority of beginners who buy one never once plug it into anything.

That is the whole decision, so it is worth making deliberately rather than by default because the shop had one in stock.

Both picks state their Starter Path band, and we have not physically tested either — the method is on how we pick. Specifications here come from named published spec comparisons, cited below.

When the electronics are worth it

You play with other people. An acoustic guitar loses instantly to a drum kit or an amplified bass. If there is any chance of that, a pickup is not a luxury.

You perform, even casually. Open mics, church groups, community events. Every one of those has a PA and expects you to have a socket.

You want a built-in tuner. A small point that turns out to matter. A tuner in the preamp is always there, always charged from the same battery, and cannot be left at home — and a beginner cannot tell an out-of-tune guitar from their own mistakes.

When it is not worth it: bedroom practice, learning chords, playing for yourself. The money is better spent on a solid top or on a setup.

The picks

The Yamaha FGX800C#ad is the FG800 platform with a cutaway and Yamaha’s System66 preamp. Solid Sitka spruce top — the specification that matters most on any acoustic — plus volume, three-band EQ, a mid-frequency Q control and an onboard tuner.

That mid-frequency control is the reason to choose it. An amplified acoustic in a room tends to develop a boxy honk somewhere in the mids, and a sweepable mid control is the one knob that fixes it. Very few guitars at this price have one.

Against it: the voice is brighter and less warm than the Fender, the cutaway costs a little unplugged volume, and the preamp runs on a battery that will die at the worst possible moment.

The Fender CD-60SCE#ad is the CD-60S with a cutaway and Fishman electronics. Solid spruce top with mahogany back and sides, which gives it a warmer, rounder voice than the Yamaha, and it inherits the easy-playing neck profile the CD-60S is known for — a genuine advantage in month one.

Against it: fewer preamp controls than the Yamaha, so less ability to fix a bad amplified sound; and that warmer voice can read as muddy through a cheap amplifier.

The cutaway question

Almost every acoustic-electric has a cutaway — the scoop that lets the fretting hand reach the highest frets. It is bundled with the electronics rather than chosen separately.

For a beginner it is close to irrelevant, because nothing in the first year happens above the twelfth fret. It costs a small amount of body volume and therefore a little bass. Do not pay extra for one and do not avoid a guitar that has one.

What you still need

A cable. Not usually included, and the guitar is an acoustic until you have one.

Spare batteries. Preamps run on a 9V or on AAs depending on the system. They always die mid-song.

Somewhere to plug in. An acoustic guitar does not want a guitar amp — a guitar amp is voiced to color the sound, which is the opposite of what an acoustic needs. A PA, a small keyboard amp, or a dedicated acoustic amp is the right target. This is a genuinely different question from the electric-guitar one in do you need an amp to learn electric guitar.

If none of that applies to you yet, the plain acoustic picks are in best beginner acoustic guitars and they are the better buy.