Acoustic Guitar by Takamine: GS330S G Series DREADNOUGHT - $200
Takamine G Series G340 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar, Natural - $180
Sigma DM-2 Acoustic Guitar - $150
takamine eg334SC cut away - $200
Takamine G-330 Acoustic Guitar - $150
I am looking to buy an acoustic guitar and I am looking on Craig’s list right now at some used ones. Can anyone tell me if any of these guitars are a good deal at their price?
Also, can anyone recommend a decent acoustic for $200 or less?
OP wants opinions. Moved from General Questions to IMHO.
samclem, Moderator
If they’re used, you’d need to know their condition. Shouldn’t this be in Cafe Society?
ETA: Reported for forum re-change.
I bought a Takamine C-128 I bought in 1984 for a Beginning Folk Guitar class at the community college. I think I paid about $230 for it at the local music store. It has a nice sound, and it’s a much better guitar than someone like me can use. My best fiend is a very good guitarist, and he always liked my Takamine. The C-128 is discontinued, but I would definitely buy another Takamine if I could use one.
The thing about guitars is that you really ought to play them. Or, if you are a newbie, you ought to have someone who knows something about guitars play them.
Takamine makes some nice guitars. I’d not heard of Sigma before but apparently they are owned by C.F. Martin and Martin make awesome guitars.
Slee
I always say that you can’t go wrong with Yamaha.
They have inexpensive guitars that are well made. My first classical guitar is still good after fifteen years.
And you do need to play each guitar before buying it. Even new guitars differ in enough subtle ways between brands to make personal choice important. Used guitars introduce issues about fret condition, neck straightness, intonation.
Moved from IMHO to Cafe Society.
I don’t think you can go wrong with Takamine. If it’s used it will play well and sound good, unless it has actually been seriously damaged (e.g. sound box coming apart; neck removed and improperly reattached, etc.).
minor7flat5 is right about playing each one before you make a choice, but even if you don’t, or you end up regretting your choice, a good luthier can usually work wonders setting it up to play better.
I got an entry-level Alvarez about 20 years ago for around $100 that plays way better than it deserves to for so cheap. I think their entry line is still sub-$200 and seems to get positive reviews.
Long time player and guitar geek here; I think the other posters are trying the best they can. Tak, Yamaha, Alvarez - all are decent high-volume makers of lower-cost guitars (yes, they have pricier models, too). The thing with lower-cost guitars is that: a) the variability from example to example is huge; and b) most of that is lost on a beginner, who really just needs a guitar that is not so out of whack as to be unplayable or a detriment to learning…
Wherever possible, try the guitar or have a guitar-playing friend try it which would be even better. To the extent you can NOT play it in advance, you need to stay disciplined and only buy a guitar that YOU CAN RETURN - even if that means getting an agreement from a seller on eBay or CL which can be a crap shoot but has worked for me in the past…
Good luck.
Another vote for Takamine. I own a 6- and a 12-string Tak and I love them both. And big dittos on letting a skilled luthier work magic on them.
I like Ibanez myself, because I have smallish hands and regular acoustics are a little difficult for me to get around (don’t even talk about those nylon string things with whole logs for necks). A lot of the Ibanez acoustics have necks with the same profile as electric guitars. I bought an EW series acoustic for myself.
Thanks to this thread (and a few earlier ones), I’m picking up a Takamine GS330S (solid top) tonight. It’s new, in-box, for $200 from a guy who formerly had a guitar store (this is left-over inventory).
I haven’t played in well over 30 years, and I wasn’t good even when I did play, so I didn’t want to spend too much to start with.
Yay! Sounds like a great way to pick it back up. And remember: there’s nothing better for playing guitar than:
In addition to practicing chords, play your favorite riffs on one string. Not only is it fun to quit the painful stuff and play a real groove, but learning to play a groove is actually just as important as playing chords. And also, you can’t make cool rock-crowd arena noises with chords the way you can when you play on a single string 
When you get a few chords down, figure out a cool, repeating pattern - such as EADA (That’s What I Like About You) or CFGF (Good Love) or DGAG (La Bamba), sit in front of a TV with a ball game or other mindless TV on, and play the chords for an hour. You aren’t trying to sound great; you’re trying to build some muscle memory into your hands. Just think of it as “getting your reps in”…
My $.02
I’ll put in a good word for Sigma. I’ve had mine for 15 years, it plays nice & sounds good & the only issue I’ve ever had with is is a peg missing. And yes, Sigma is a division of Martin.
I know this is “post-decision”, but I have a Takamine GS330S and love love love it…
Thanks, WordMan. Knowing myself as I do, I’ll need to feel that I’m making progress somewhat quickly, otherwise I’ll give up. Even playing one simple 4-chord song would be enough. Your tips are appreciated.
My near-term goal is to build up to one of the songs from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, since the quality of my voice would be appropriate to some of those tunes.
I strongly recommend you find some 1-string riffs that feel appropriately challenging - they are a great way to feel like you are making progress with the groove aspect of playing.
Or the **Mannish Boy Riff **- Low E string: OO/5/O/3/O (trust me, you’ll recognize it - here’s a link to a clipto identify the riff, but this guy is playing it on multiple strings in a different key…)
Get your groove on with those two and it is a great way to start getting a feel for the guitar…
Just curious, how do you like the Takamine? I haven’t liked any of the ones I’ve played lately, but they used to be really good. Especially back when they were copying Martins, they sounded like a million bucks.
Shouldn’t that be 00/2/0/3/0/5/3?