Concert or Parlour steel string for around £200-300? (UK)

[JamesC01]

I'm looking for a good build-quality, brand new, small concert or parlour size guitar. A few brands I've noticed are yamaha, tanglewood, alvarez, takamine, sigma. I was look at the yamaha fs800, which goes for about £250 in the UK, but noticed that the US price is closer to £140 ($200), so I'm not sure if the build quality is very good.

I'd like the sound to not be too boomy. Just in the middle, a decent balanced sound. There's too many choices, and I'm so scared I'll end up buying one that isn't right for me, or one I'll end up disappointed with. I have a yamaha c40 classical, for ~£100, and while it's not bad, you can definitely tell that it's a £100 guitar. I'd rather something much higher quality than that, if it's possible for my budget.

[EdwardMarlowe]

To be honest, when it comes to an acoustic guitar, I'd be very leery of buying without trying - though if you're wanting to have one to play now during lockdown, that ain't much help... 

In this sort of price bracket, there are increasingly nice guitars around, and I find as long as you like the sound/ feel of the individual model, it's harder to go wrong than it might have been twenty years ago. A few things I'd consider that might help narrow down the choice:

1] a solid top is a big plus in an acoustic (they should pretty much all have it in this price band). The sound will develop and open up as it ages. The effect of solid wood elsewhere is more debatable. Personally I'm not convinced there's a huge tonal advantage to solid sides and back, and there is an argument that laminate sides can be more stable. 

2] The look of the thing.  If you hate the look of it, will you want to play it all that much? That might iron out a few options (certainly irons out most any acoustic with a cutaway for me). 

3] Do you need electronics? It's become increasingly common for guitars in this price bracket to have pretty decent (Fishman and such) on board electronics. If you don't need those - i.e. it's not going to be a guitar you'll play on stage with a band - then you can either save a bit of cash by buying basically the same guitar without the electronics, or you might choose to buy one for the same price without them. IT's not *always* the case, but it *can* be that you'll end up with a better guitar as a pure acoustic guitar spending the same money where none of the 'cost' has gone into providing electronics (these guitars are all built to a price point, with a particular profit margin in mind - the more you put in, the less each component has to cost). 

4] Nut width seems to vary a lot in this style between 43mm and 45mm. The difference in feel can be surprising - for me, nut width can make a bigger difference to playing comfort than overall thickness of the neck. A lot of electric players prefer a narrower nut with a feel closer an electric guitar. If you're used to the 48mmish norm on a nylon strung classical guitar, you might prefer 45mm on a steel strung acoustic. 

In terms of brand. Tanglewood are always very competitive. They started out back in the late 80s as a 'me too', cheap acoustics and electrics brand, but over time have really built up a reputation and now have a wide range of quality guitars, primarily acoustic (they've almost entirely dropped electrics, just one model in their range now). Always worth a look, and really quite stunning quality for what you pay. Some nice features - from quite low in the range, if my knowledge is still accurate, they're one of the few big makers whose designs include a neck volute, which significantly strengthens the headstock. 

Sigma I have no direct experience of, but I hear good things; they're basically Martin's 'Squier' line, and they benefit from that R&D expertise. 

Washburn I've always appreciated as acoustics. 

Any of the Godin brands are worth looking at: 

 - Norman (across all price ranges)

- Art & Luthiere (supposedly entry level and budget, but tbh I'd struggle to describe the ones I've tried as 'budget'; I've seen a few pro / semi-pros gigging with them very succesfully)

 - Simon & Patrick (all price ranges)

 - Seagull (all price ranges) 

TBH, I think acoustics are fast hitting the spot electric guitars did ten or fifteen years ago, in that it's not very possible to buy a very playable / gig-able guitar for much less than was the case twenty years ago. I'm idly keeping an eye on this sort of sector of the market myself, with the aim of eventually picking up something in a year or two to put in the time to learn to play like Robert Johnson; something with a pre-war look to it, sort of thing Johnson played, and/or that got beaten to death by proto rock and roll rockabillies in due course. Art & Luthiere cosmetically at least have a lot of nice stuff if you want to get away from that 'clean and simple, natural, modern minimalist' look in an acoustic that has (in my experience at least) dominated the acoustic market since brands like Lowden and Takamine made it fashionable back in the 90s. The A&L 'Roadhouse" model has  a sort of proto-rock and roll/ Johnny Cash cool to it. 

[leftybassman392]

Might be a touch above your price range, but have you considered Faith guitars?

https://www.andertons.co.uk/acoustic-dept/acoustic-guitars/parlour-acoustic-guitars/faith-naked-series-mercury-acoustic-guitar

 

I have a Lefty high gloss cutaway version of this guitar (which in fairness is quite a lot more expensive), but the quality on offer at the price is astonishing.

Made in Indonesia (at least mine was whatever the official blurb about Shropshire may say), designed by Patrick Eggle and imported into the UK under his watchful gaze. Each instrument undergoes a rigorous quality check.