Your acoustic electric guitar is an instrument that can take you through many different emotions, while also making it possible for you to play some of your favorite songs.
These days, there are so many people looking to invest in a new guitar every day, so there are plenty of options out there. You’ll find that it is difficult to find an acoustic electric guitar that doesn’t have a staggering number of different models, brands, and styles.
The search for an acoustic electric guitar can be frustrating at times. Finding the perfect guitar can be an arduous task, which is why we compiled a list of the best acoustic electric guitars under 1000 dollars.
We took all the hard work out of it for you. It is important to know what you are looking for when looking for the best acoustic electric guitar to buy.
✔️ Made in North America
✔️ New Scalloped Adirondack Spruce bracing
✔️ Rosewood Fingerboard
✔️ New Rosewood Bridge Design
✔️ Select Solid Top and Solid Back & Sides.Top material:Solid cedar
✔️ Steel Strings, Translucent Black Finish
✔️ The SLG is the perfect instrument for practice, travel or stage use – any time an acoustic guitar just won’t do.
✔️ Near-silent performance makes discrete practice simple
✔️ Yamaha’s exclusive SRT-Powered pickup system gives incredibly natural acoustic tone through headphones or line-out
✔️ Studio-quality on-board effects enhance your playing to perfectio and line-in functionality makes jamming easy
✔️ Solid Sitka Spruce top with scalloped bracing for a louder, richer acoustic sound
✔️ Yamaha’s new SRT2 system allows you to blend between microphone models and the piezo pickup to find your perfect tone
✔️ High comfort satin mahogany neck with a slim taper profile
✔️ Dreadnought cutaway body with solid back and sides
✔️ Soft case included
✔️ Deluxe AA Solid Spruce Top with Scalloped Bracing
✔️ Lyrachord Mid-Depth Cutaway
✔️ Elite Multi-Port Soundhole Design
✔️ Ovation OP Pro Preamp and OCP1K Pickup
✔️ Ovation Die Cast Sealed Tuning Machines
✔️ Solid Western Red Cedar Top, Ovangkol Back & Sides, Mahogany Neck
✔️ Indonesian Striped Ebony Fretboard, 25.3″ Scale Length, 1.69″ Nut Width
✔️ Indonesian Striped Ebony Bridge, Offset Dot Inlays, MOP Fret Inlays
✔️ LR Baggs EAS VTC Electronics, Chrome Closed Gear Tuners
✔️ Hand orientation: Right
✔️ Hand-selected premium solid Engelmann Spruce top treated with A.R.E.
✔️ A.R.E. (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement) is an original wood reforming technology developed by Yamaha
✔️ Solid Mahogany Back & Sides
✔️ 5-ply neck with high comfort traditional profile
✔️ SRT Zero Impact (passive) Pickup
✔️ Solid Sitka spruce top with scalloped braces gives you clean articulation and a crisp tone
✔️ Solid mahogany back and sides for robust, warm resonance
✔️ Slim mahogany neck offers fast, easy action and inherently long-lasting stability
✔️ Quality natural bone nut and saddle for best tone transmission
✔️ Fishman Presys Blend pickup system with on board tuner sounds great, whether in your basement or on stage
✔️ Every Blueridge now comes with an exclusive sturdy, padded Blueridge logo bag
✔️ Hand orientation: Right
What to Know About an Acoustic Electric Guitar
Types of Acoustic Pickups
Acoustic-electric guitars set themselves apart from regular acoustics by having a built-in system of electronics. Usually, this will include a pickup and preamp system. They are generally less expensive than their regular acoustic counterparts and can often be found in the sub $100 price range.
There are three main types of acoustic guitar pickup. Most of the time, the guitars will be fitted with a piezo pickup, because it is cheaper and discreetly installed under the saddle. Piezo pickups are the most common type in production acoustic-electrics today. They’re designed to pick up the vibration of the instrument to produce a clean and bright sound that’s free of extraneous noise. The other two main types include magnetic, and transducer.
Higher end guitars come with a microphone receiver or adapter, which acts like a microphone picking up the sound of the guitar. The benefits of this include a more natural sound, but it’s more susceptible to feedback background noise.
Being able to use an acoustic-electric guitar comes with many perks, including the ability to amplify your sound as well as a wide range of pickup options. But these tools often cost much more. Luckily, there are a number of aftermarket pickups you can choose from.
Active vs Passive Pickups
A passive pickup may not produce a very strong signal, resulting in a small amount of volume and an anemic tone. However, the signal can be boosted at the p.a., your amp, or the most versatile option’ via an Acoustic Preamp.
Not to worry, though, as today’s market provides plenty of guitars that come with active pickups! Active pickups need no outside technology to boost, but they do require a battery; for this reason, some people still use acoustic preamps for the tone shaping and DI benefits. Though it seems counterintuitive, many artists actually use active pickups on their acoustic guitars for this reason.
Aesthetics
Why not choose a guitar that looks good to you, even better if it inspires you to practice and play? There are a multitude of guitar styles and colors, and finishes to match! There are guitars here that come with decorated pickguards and bodies, while others have a more streamlined look.
Guitar Body Styles
The guitar has many different body styles, some more iconic than others. Below are the main types, along with their features. The guitar body styles and their features are as follows:
Dreadnought: Some say that dreadnought is by far the most famous body style and can be recognized with ease by everyone as the default looking guitar. Dreadnought has no cutaways anywhere, making it stand out from other types of guitars.
Dreadnought is easily recognized by its full pear shape. A dreadnought guitar, the quintessential go-to style for many musicians, is so versatile because the sound can adapt to any genre of music, from jazz to indie, to rock to punk.
Parlour: The body style of a parlour guitar is a relatively small, typically built for a smaller player, and typically called a “penny whistle” guitar due to its shorter stature. The small stature of a parlour guitar lends itself to being the smallest guitar available.
The acoustics in the room are better suited for folk and indie musicians because of the sound that is produced by the atmosphere. An additional feature of the parlour design is that it usually only has 12 frets on the guitar.
Jumbo: Out of all the guitars available on the market, the Jumbo body style is the go-to style for musicians that perform live. One reason for this is because Bob Dylan, one of the most notable musicians of our time, has stated this to be his favorite style.
Jumbo body style guitars are popular for their brash, loud sound, making them ideal for artists looking to have a big impact on stage. This larger guitar is more resonant, and the size of the guitar’s top and back can produce a stronger resonance.
Auditorium: The perfect size for an average guitar player, the auditorium body style is a combination of both the dreadnought and parlour guitars. When you take a look at the body style, the dreadnought shape is the bottom of the body while the parlour shape is the top.
Wood Types
Wood is used for an acoustic guitar not only to give it aesthetic appeal, but also to give it structural stability. The type of wood used affects everything from the type of sound the guitar produces to how much work it needs for a string to resonate. Now let us take a closer look and see why they are so different from each other!
Spruce: To the best of our knowledge, spruce wood is the most common type of wood used for guitar tops. The reason being it’s both durable and light-weight which makes it the perfect candidate. Don’t let the thin neck be an issue because you can rest assured that it will not break thanks to its strong qualities.
You can use this type of wood to create beautiful, resonant sound and many people praise its responsiveness. You can pluck, hit, and strum this type of wood and the resonant and responsive sound will be projected for all to hear, without losing any of its responsiveness.
Cedar: This particular type of wood is dark in color, with the potential to turn into a deep, rich red. Solid cedar guitars are perfect for players who like to play with a lighter touch because the wood responds well to lighter fingerpicking.
However, the guitar player should be cautious if they want to play hard since this can cause the sound to compress and the natural tone of the wood lessens with prolonged playing.
Rosewood: According to a guitar player this type of wood is by far the most popular, since the neck and body of a guitar are usually made of it! Rosewood is dark and rich and gives your guitar the perfect sound, whether you’re playing heavy metal or classical music!
Mahogany: Mahogany, like other tonewoods, emphasizes bass and mid-range frequencies, but it has a fairly dark tone. Koa, which is also commonly found, is very similar to mahogany, but has a brighter tone.
Nato: Some guitarists compare it to mahogany with many saying it’s a little brighter. It often gets used by guitar manufacturers due to being slightly less expensive than mahogany and also its similar appearance.
Sapele: Sapele has a density that is close to Mahogany, but has a brighter sound that makes it a favorite for guitar-makers. Its higher frequencies give their guitars a top-end shimmer that is unmatched by any other wood.
Koa: The Koa tree has its roots in Hawaii, where it has been for centuries. It’s native to the islands, so it’s fitting that it would become so closely associated with Hawaiian culture.
These are some of the attributes of the koa tree: it’s a dense hardwood that emphasizes the mid to high overtones, and as it ages it tends to open up, adding warmth to the mid range. This can be advantageous for guitars.
Playability (Neck specifications)
If you’re looking for an enjoyable instrument, it’s crucial to pay attention to the neck specs. The neck should be narrow for those with smaller hands, and you’ll want a guitar with a nut width that’s wider for those with bigger hands.
Length of the strings also needs to be considered. Length of the strings, from the nut to the bridge saddle, can be altered with a longer or shorter scale length.
On the other hand, long scale lengths allow for more string tension. This is harder to play, but they sound better. The choice between scale length lengths is an aesthetic preference. A string’s action is a description of the height of the strings from the fretboard. Too high a string action can be a pain to play, while too low will result in the dreaded fret buzz sound.
Considerations for Buying
Sound and Design
All electric guitars, regardless of their price, must have two key areas in order to compete in the high-end guitar market. These two key areas are that it has to have high-quality sound and playability. I can’t stress enough the importance of sound and design for this price. There’s no way around it, they need to be awesome for this price.
The sound is truly exquisite when you have a guitar that is set up well, it makes all the difference. A good setup is the key to an exquisite sound. You need to know what kind of design will suit your style of play before you buy. And, if the design has an impeccable track record with satisfied customers, you are more likely to find the perfect one.
Type Of Wood & Shape
Though it may look the same, the material an acoustic guitar is made of will make it sound different. While two guitars may have the same shape, if they are made of different material, the sound will change. This is why it is paramount to test and verify what sounds good to you.
Budget and Uses
You will need to ask yourself what you are going to be using the guitar for! Have you thought about what type of music you will be playing and how often you will be playing? Is it a guitar that will endure the daily punishment of 10 hours of playing or is it a guitar that will be used for occasional playing? These are questions you should answer first, as they will help you determine what you should look for in a guitar.
Guitars under 1000 have a wide range to suit you whether you’re a record label artist, an excited beginner or an enthusiastic intermediate.
Affordability
You’ve committed to a price, so your next step is to find the best guitar you can afford in that price range. It’s just a matter of setting up the ceiling and floor and then finding an attractive option in between. Try $700-800, $800-900 or more and you’ll see an amazing difference.
Visual Appeal
This is an inescapable aspect in our quest for the perfect instrument. To me, beauty is subjective. Every person has their own, individual taste that cannot be measured or accounted for. The point is, everyone has their own thoughts on how they would like to look, but in the end, what’s important is how it sounds.
If you love the look of a guitar, that’s a big plus for long-term enjoyment. But please note: there is always a price to pay for all that shines. An eye-catching guitar doesn’t always sound good. Choose the guitar that best suits you.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for an acoustic guitar, the overall quality of the guitar in relation to the price is going to be the key. Take a close look at the sound, the build quality, and features.
If you are just starting out, you will be able to play on this guitar for many years before moving into a more high end one.
Owning an electric guitar is the time of my life. Buying one is a special moment. I can’t imagine myself not having an electric guitar. But don’t just buy one without some consideration. There are different types of guitars, so take some time to think about what you want.
I recommend the guitars on our list, but feel free to post your opinion of them or mention some you like more than ours. I’ll be listening.
