The best guitar under $250 (are they any good?!)

Here's an extensive test of 8 budget friendly guitars (all under €250,-). Are they worth it?

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▶GUITARS TESTED◀
Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster FMT HSS MN Sienna Sunburst
Squier Bullet Telecaster Brown Sunburst
Yamaha Pacifica 012 II Dark Blue Metallic
Ibanez GRG140SB RG Gio sunburst
Epiphone SG Special Satin E1 Vintage Worn Cherry
Epiphone Les Paul Special VE VSB
Cort Classic Rock CR100
Harley Benton ST-62CC MN Charcoal Frost
Harley Benton HB-35 VB Vintage Series

0:00 I bought 9 guitars
0:44 The contenders
1:46 Issues! (& setups)
3:54 The build quality & feel
9:15 Learn, Practice, Play
9:53 The tone
17:06 Important message about the guitars
18:01 The final ranking

Hi, my name is Paul Davids! I am a guitar player, teacher, producer, and overall music enthusiast from the Netherlands! I try to inspire people from all over the world with my videos, here on YouTube.

Thank you for watching!
Paul

Below is the gear and services I use to make these videos. They redirect to websites and provide me with a small kickback should purchase any of these things.

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50mm:

Are €200 Guitars Any Good? (Best budget guitar!)

[richardsandson]

The humble Pacifica has been around forever and is always under rated. They're always a fantastic budget option, especially for a beginner.

[krumkarapetrov]

The Pacifica has been the first guitar for so many aspiring guitarists. It's an incredible guitar for it's price and is a wonderful and completely playable instrument

[SpunktAlex]

You know the content is good, but the real highlight is always Paul's calm and rather quiet personality. He gets a point through without costing me nerves. Thanks PauL!

[kebab_boi]

My first electric guitar was an Epiphone SG Special II. I still regret to this day that I sold it, despite the fact that I own more expensive gear now. It’ll always have a special place in my heart.

[TomStrahle]

I'm always on the hunt for cheap guitars. Usually nothing over $100. Usually Squier Strats that I string up in weird ways. But also I like to use them for pop and funk tracks. I wrote and played Justin Bieber's ETA with a $99 Fender Squier that I got used at Guitar Center. I still string it up with 9's. There's a certain lo-fi quality that I love and can't get from my better quality and vintage Strats.

[andertons]

Fantastic video & wonderful gesture to give the guitars away! I'd love for you to look at the Eastcoast guitar range we sell (all great value) & we could definately do something where we give a bunch of guitars away to worthy causes. Cheers man - all the best, Lee

[liammccolgan]

Still have my Pacifica 17 years later. Very underrated. Thin fretboard made it great to learn on. It does what it needs to for the price. Humble guitar.

[lil_bored]

I recently found a Pacifica at a thrift store in great condition and I managed to only pay $100 for it. I just restrung it today (it was missing a string and just needed cleaned up a bit) and I can already tell it has a decent sound and it'll serve its purpose just fine. I was excited to see it score so high on this list

[jicklesjingles]

I think the main "issue" with cheap guitars is that they sometimes seem to have quite some quality variation. I feel like it's a matter of luck if the quality check was done properly...

[antlereddruid]

as a european, Harley benton is usually the ultimate go-to for me, not only because thomann has really stepped up the build quality over the last decade, but also their customer service is absolutely elite.

[taejun]

Yamaha Pacifica Strat was my first guitar. My dad talked me out of buying a BC Rich Warlock lol. I made a really embarrassing emo album with it, but also fell in love with guitar forever!

[larogero]

My first electric guitar was a pacifica 112J. It plays amazingly well. After a few easy mods (replacing the pickups, shielded the electronics, blocked the vibrato) i think it now matches a much more expensive guitar.

[appleslayer]

Paul: "This one sounds a little thin and underwhelming, unfortunately..."

Also Paul: *makes them all sound like guitars from the gates of heaven*

[thomasmb]

My first guitar was a Pacifica in 2001, put some new pickups on it a few years ago and I still play it all the time. It’s got a special place in my heart.

[Meylan]

My first guitar was an Epiphone SG. It is still a great guitar to play. Light, perfectly balanced, lots of power. Epiphone seem to do a much better job with the SGs than it does with the Les Pauls.

[thisguy]

My first electric guitar I got when I was 11 was a Yamaha Pacifica PAC102S. Fast forward 26 years and I still have it with all original hardware minus the original jack plate and all original electronics. I still play it, it sets up well, and I still love that guitar out of all of my guitars. They’re extremely underrated.

[ianboenisch-oakes]

The Pacifica is such a great guitar - it was my first electric and I still play it to this day! Swap some seymour duncan SSL-1's in the neck and middle + a pearly gates in the bridge and the guitar is magic, especially for the price.

[nethbt]

My first Electric guitar in the early 90s was a Les Paul copy called JOY with horrible rough copper frets. The guitars presented here are like super premium in terms of quality compared to what I had back then, these kids are lucky, we live in an age where crap budget guitars are slowly disappearing.

[unknown-fshj]

These videos remind me that I'm poor

[Eko]

Agree, I've sold my les paul studio '14 epiphone to replace it with a yamaha pacifica 612 soon. Versatile guitar with very good sound quality thanks to the alder body, excellent frets work on rosewood and maple handlebars, grover locking tuners, wilkinson tremolo, seymour duncan pickups... Value for money