Top 10 Best Acoustic Guitar Under $1500 in 2021

Many intermediate guitarists on their way to becoming a pro get their second step up while buying their $1500 guitars. Choosing the right guitar from this price range is especially important because everything does matter in this phase. Even if you are a studio artist or a live performer, getting a high-end perfect guitar is necessary. So today, I will bring you a list of The Best Acoustic Guitar Under $1500. As with most of our articles, our list will be unordered because which one is best suited for you is subjective. Without any more delay, let’s get right into it.

If you are looking for a cheaper $300 guitar or an upgrade $500 guitar, we got you covered too!

The line up at a glance

After a series of in-depth research on several products, we’ve selected these Best Acoustic Guitar Under $1500. Read through each product with its pros and cons to find your guitar.

Our Picks For Top 10 Best Acoustic Guitar Under $1500 in 2021

The Taylor 214CE Deluxe Grand Acoustic is one of the best acoustic guitars under $1500. The guitar features impressive sound quality, great tonewood, fantastic craftsmanship, and excellent playability level with top-quality electronics. The build of the guitar is also very good with excellent quality materials. One downside is the laminated back and side; it does not sound as natural as a full-solid guitar. But the forward bracing gives the guitar more bass than most other guitars from this price range. The sounds are still outstanding, to say the least.

The Taylor 214CE Deluxe Grand Acoustic is a grand auditorium shaped guitar. The top material is Solid Sitka spruce, but the guitar’s back and side are made out of layered rosewood. It features an X bracing system—the back, side, and top of the guitar feature a gloss finish. The width of the neck is 1-11/16″ and comes with a Taylor neck joint. The material used for the neck is Sapele. The standard Peghead comes with a satin finish. Lastly, The Taylor Expression System 2 electronics provide a natural, amplified sound.

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The Martin 16 Series D-16GT is a high-quality acoustic guitar that shows excellent craftsmanship while building the guitar. You can expect to feel extremely comfortable playing the guitar. It has a deep, rich, and beautiful sound and tone. The beauty of the guitar lies in the build quality, sound, and playability. This is one of the best deals you can find for $1500.

The Martin 16 Series D-16GT is a dreadnought shaped guitar. The top features Solid Sitka Spruce tonewood, while the back/side of the guitar features Solid Mahogany wood. The selected hardwood neck comes with a modified low oval profile. The scale length is 25.4” and comes with 20 frets. Fingerboard is made out of Richlite with a radius of 16”. Lastly, the natural gloss finish gives the guitar a wondrous beauty.

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The Takamine EF341SC Keystone comes with a warm and full tone. The guitar has a single-cutaway giving the player excellent access to higher frets. This cutaway can come in handy for people who like to play a solo on acoustics. CT4B is one of the guitar’s key features since it has excellent praise among the players. The guitar is also very well-known for its outstanding tonal balance and responsive sound.

The Takamine EF341SC Keystone is a dreadnought shaped guitar. It features a solid cedar top. But the back and the side of the guitar are made out of laminated maple. The body of the guitar features black stage lights like polished, glossy finish. It has a nice single cutaway to it. The bridge and the fingerboard are both made out of rosewood. The scale length is 25.31” and comes with 20fret. Neck joint is a dovetail system and the bridge type is piezo. The guitar comes with a built-in pick up and graphics EQ, volume control. Width of the nut is 1.675”.

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The Blueridge BR-160 is an all-solid built acoustic guitar. The features exceptional tonal quality and sound. It has an excellent mellow sound to it. The small neck is suitable for young players. Many young players struggle with a big neck problem. The blueridge BR-160 fixed the problem for that it makes the guitar very popular among the young players. The guitar also looks very beautiful and unique.

The Blueridge BR-160 is a dreadnought shaped guitar. It features a solid Sitka Spruce top. But the back and the side of the guitar are made out of Indian rosewood. The body of the guitar has a nice natural high-gloss finish. It does not have any cutaway. The bridge, Peghead, and the fingerboard are all made out of rosewood. The scale length is 25.6” and comes with 20fret. One of the unique features of the guitar is the Saga’s exclusive Dalmatian style pickguard. The nut and the saddle are made from bones and the width of the nut is 1-11/16”.

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The Loar LH-700 is a unique acoustic guitar. It features an excellent depression-era look. The tonewood is also high-quality. The unique design of the guitar with a well-balanced tone makes the guitar a complete package. The guitar does not have any soundhole, but you can find two F-holes on the top. This guitar is not your everyday guitar, but it is exciting and unique, to say the least.

The Loar LH-700 is an archtop design guitar. The top material is Solid Hand-carved, Hand-graduated AAA spruce, but the guitar’s back and side are made out of Solid Hand-carved AAA flamed maple and flamed maple. The material used for the Vintage “V” profile neck is figured maple. The fretboard is made out of bound Ebony, and the headstock inlay is an Abalone flowerpot. Fingerboard inlays are MOP inlay markers. The guitar has a nice hand-buffed nitrocellulose lacquer finish to it with vintage sunburst color. The scale length is 24-3/4″ with 19 frets and a compression truss rod. There are no pickups with the guitar.

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The Ovation Melissa Etheridge Signature features an amazing and unique ice white look and multi-soundhole for decoration and function. The guitar sounds incredibly good because of the bright and vibrant sound it provides. To achieve this excellent sound, you can already tell the materials used are from high-quality tonewoods. Ovation-designed electronics are also excellent and pro-graded. It’s the perfect choice for people who like to perform on plug-in shows.

The Ovation Melissa Etheridge Signature is a Lyrachord® shaped Hollowbody type Deep Contour design guitar. It features a solid Spruce top. But the back and the side of the guitar are made out of composite. The body of the guitar features a pearlescent white finish. It has a nice single cutaway to it. The bridge is made out of ebony, and the fingerboard is from rosewood. The neck is from 5 PC mahogany/maple. The scale length is 25.31” and comes with 22 frets. The fretboard radius is 11 13/16,” and the nut is 1 11/16”. The guitar comes with a built-in Ovation OP Pro Studio preamp and Ovation OCP1K pickup.

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The Journey Instruments OF660 Carbon Fiber Acoustic is a unique acoustic guitar. The guitar is made out of carbon. So it is very durable. This guitar is best suited for people who travel a lot. It comes in a bag, and it’s not a guitar-shaped back. Ask why? Because the neck is collapsible. While traveling, it wouldn’t take as much space as a traditional guitar would take.  The guitar can produce a more resonant sound than a dreadnought guitar.

The Journey Instruments OF660 Carbon Fiber Acoustic is made out of fiberglass reinforced carbon fiber. The markings are the MOP logo and position markings. The scale length is 24.5”. Lastly, the guitar has a nice high-gloss polyurethane finish to it.

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The Martin Road Series 000-10E is an amazing performing guitar that looks good. It got some of the premium guitars features making it our absolute favorite. The solid all-Sapele body gives the guitar a rich and full tone. It is ideal for using multiple techniques like fingerstyle because of the slim neck. Lastly, the Fishman MX-T electronics give an amazing tone while plugged-in.

The Martin Road Series 000-10E is a 000-14 fret sized guitar with Sapele top, back and side. It features a performing Artists neck shape with high-performance tapers. The top features cherry color with Modern Belly – Drop in Saddle bridge. There are 20 frets on the fingerboard, and the material used for the fretboard is FSC® Certified Richlite®. The fingerboard also features Mother-of-pearl Pattern dot inlays.

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The Seagull Artist Mosaic is an amazing pure acoustic guitar. The guitar is almost perfect with one drawback; it does not feature any electronics. But the sound of the guitar is superb. The quality of the guitar is also excellent. For an almost premium guitar, the price is very reasonable and very much affordable.

The Seagull Artist Mosaic features a solid spruce top, solid Mahogany back and side with a semi-gloss finish. The body’s length is 19.8”. There are 21 frets available for playing with a scale length of 25.5”. The guitar does not feature any cutaway. Neck material is also Mahogany with rosewood fingerboard.

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The Fender Paramount PM-2 is an amazing guitar with good tonal and sound quality. It has a great vintage look. Though the guitar is not best suited for beginners because of the price. This one is better suited for people who want to travel with their guitar. The guitar particularly does not have any drawback other than it does not sound like a dreadnought. But the build quality of the guitar makes it up for it.

The Fender Paramount PM-2 is a sized parlor guitar. It features a solid Sitka spruce body top. The guitar features East Indian Rosewood back and sides Solid with Quartersawn Scalloped “X” bracing with a high Gloss body finish. The material used for the neck is mahogany with a C shape profile. There are 19 frets on the fretboard with a scale length of 24.75”. The guitar also features bone nuts, dual-action truss rod. You can find Fender ®/Fishman® PM System special electronics with the guitar. Other miscellaneous features include bound fingerboard, factory-mounted forward strap button with internal block reinforcement, modified fender traditional bridge, bone nut, and saddle.

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Criteria used for evaluation

Body shapes and woods

The guitar shapes affect both the sound and the playability. There are many guitar body shapes like the dreadnought, grand auditorium, orchestra, Parlor, and Jumbo. A parlor shaped guitar has a light, focused, and balanced sound. Grand auditorium and orchestra guitar shapes come in outstanding balance, projection, and volume. They are usually not dependent on any plug-ins or amps. They tend to sound good on their own.

The dreadnought guitars are larger in size and more focused on the low frequencies. It is highly famous among flat pickers. The body shapes also include cutaways. A single-cutaway can give you access to higher notes. It is more prominent among people who tend to play solo or leads. But guitar with no cutaways tends to have better volume and bass. Different tonewoods sound and feel different. A good tonewood resonates better, gets better with age, and improves the visual. But it comes to us with no surprise; the definition of great sound is subjective as it depends on each individual’s genre and taste.

The spruce is the best choice for the top of the guitar. It gives the guitar tonal properties. Sitka spruce is slightly harder than average spruce. The rosewood will be the perfect one for the back and side. It provides the guitar with a rich and warm tone. The Mahogany is the more commonly used tonewood as it is famous for its durability. It is also renowned for producing subtle overtones and earthy midrange tonality.

Fingerboard and Neck

The neck of your guitar does not affect the tone. But it does put a huge difference when it comes to comfort. Acoustic neck usually has 12 or 14 fret necks. This number of frets is above the guitar body. On a 12th fret neck guitar, the 13th and 14th frets will be on the body. Thus it will be harder to reach the high notes.

Another factor is the neck joint. Most acoustic guitars come with a set neck, which is basically glued. Then there is a bolt-on neck. The advantages of bolt-on necks are they are replaceable, and the guitar with bolt-on necks are cheap. The dovetail neck joint is the best choice for acoustic guitars. Dive tail necks are structurally strong. It also helps the vibration of your playing. It can somewhat give your instrument a warm and more fullness in the sound.

The fingerboard is an essential part of a guitar, and your fingerboard must be made out of high-quality material. Woods used for the fingerboards are Rosewood, Maple, and Granadillo. Rosewood is more preferred for the majority of the player as it is naturally oily and a medium density wood. You can expect your guitar to be lightweight and smooth. The rosewood also provides a warm and soft tone.

The maple is more famous for its stunning visuals. Maple is very dense, and it’s a strong wood. Rosewood is better than maple because the maple fingerboard can be a bit sticky after the finish. So it should come to us with no surprise, you should choose an acoustic with rosewood fingerboard rather than a maple fingerboard.

There are many good acoustic guitars in the market. But our focus was to bring out the best from each type of guitar. I hope after reading our article, you are a bit more confident in choosing your guitar. Thank you for reading!

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