Best Acoustic Guitars for Picking Under £300 (2026)
Prices correct at time of publication. Please check the retailer for current pricing.
I have a guitar on my wall that cost me £5 from a charity shop in 2005. I still play it. Guitars are for playing, not posing, and you don’t need to spend a fortune to get started with fingerpicking.
This list is for two kinds of player: beginners who’ve caught the picking bug and want a guitar that rewards it, or players who fancy a dedicated second instrument without remortgaging the house to get one. Everything here is under £300 and available from UK retailers.
One thing worth noting: you’ll have read about cedar tops being the fingerstylist’s choice. They are, but solid cedar tends to appear above £300. Everything here has a spruce or mahogany top, which is no bad thing, spruce has been making pickers happy for over a century. If cedar is non-negotiable, head to our under-£500 guide.
Now then. Five guitars.
Yamaha FG800 — Best Overall
Available at Thomann and Gear4Music
If you walk into any guitar shop in the country and ask what to buy for under £300, there’s a good chance you’ll walk out with an FG800. Yamaha have been making this guitar in various forms since 1966, and the reason it keeps selling is simple: it’s very hard to fault at the price.
Solid sitka spruce top, scalloped bracing, good factory setup. The sound is bright and projecting, with decent note separation when you’re picking individual strings. It comes in a range of finishes too, natural, black, sunburst, so there’s something for most tastes.
Worth knowing for pickers: the nut width is 43mm, which is on the narrow side if you have bigger hands. Perfectly playable, but if you’ve ever found a guitar on the skinny side, the FS800 lower down this list has a little more room.
As a first proper acoustic, or a reliable workhorse for someone who picks as much as they strum, the FG800 is about as safe a bet as this price range offers.
Yamaha FS800 — Best for Pickers
Available at Thomann and Gear4Music
Same Yamaha quality as the FG800, smaller body. The FS800 is a concert-size guitar, which means a more focused, balanced tone across the strings, less boom in the bass, cleaner note separation when you’re picking. For fingerstyle work it’s arguably the better choice of the two.
The nut width is 43mm, which as we’ve already discussed is on the narrower side, but the shorter scale length makes for slightly less string tension, which some pickers find easier on the fingers.
Honest word of warning: the smaller body means less natural projection. If you’re playing unplugged in a big room, or trying to fill a pub, you’ll notice it. For home playing, practice, or recording, it’s not an issue.
Fender CD-60S: Spruce vs Mahogany
Available at Thomann and Gear4Music
Fender make two versions of the CD-60S and the difference between them is worth understanding, because it’s really a question about what kind of picker you are.
The spruce-top version is the brighter of the two, more articulate, good dynamic range, responds well to variation in your attack. The all-mahogany version is warmer, woodier, more even across the frequency range. The spruce is brighter and more dynamic.
The mahogany is warmer and more even across the strings.
Both have solid tops, both are well made for the price, both have that slightly chunky Fender feel that some players love and some find a bit much. The nut width is 43mm on both.
For picking, the mahogany version has the edge. That warmth and evenness suits fingerstyle work well. But if you’re picking and strumming in equal measure, the spruce holds its own.
Tanglewood TWCR O — Best Value
Available at Gear4Music
I’ll be honest with you. Tanglewood won’t win any blindfold tests against the Yamahas or the Fenders on this list. But one of my first guitars was a Tanglewood, and I’ve had a soft spot for them ever since, and I’m not going to apologise for that.
The TWCR O is an orchestra-body guitar, all mahogany, warm and punchy, comfortable to hold. It’s not sophisticated and that’s what I like about it. At this price you’re getting a guitar that plays, stays roughly in tune, and sounds like a guitar ought to sound. For a first instrument, or a beater you’re not precious about, that’s enough.
I’ve never met someone who regretted buying a Tanglewood.