Acoustic for a teenager

irs101

Hi all

I want to get my teenage son an acoustic for his birthday, so just looking for some advice/suggestions on what I should be looking at. While I know plenty about pianos, apart from restringing I know zero about guitars.

He has the basic nylon strung classical he started off with, and a Yamaha Pacifica electric. He gave up lessons a while back, but actually now plays more than ever. His old guitar is fine for the little bit of classical he stills plays, but I'd like to get him a decent acoustic for rock and pop.

I assume I'm looking at a six string, and I'm looking to spend in the £300 range (although happy to take advice on that if there's something particularly good for a bit more). Any specific suggestions very very welcome.

Many thanks.

munckee

Assuming he is big enough for a dreadnought I would recommend the Washburn harvest. They have gone up to £210 whereas we paid £165 I think but I took my daughter to PMT and we tried all the acoustics under £300. 

It was the one she liked the look of least but it was easily the best, really resonant. 

Teacherphil

A lot of players I've seen recently starting out have cutaway electro acoustics. At the £300 price point, Tanglewood seems to be pretty good.
https://www.gear4music.com/acoustic-guitars/types/electro-acoustic?page=1&filters[manufacturer_id]=420&filters[price]=214,340

This one would be my pick. 
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Tanglewood-DBT-SFCE-AEB-Discovery-Folk-Electro-Acoustic-Ebony/35O0

SlopeSoarer

This is in Glasgow but would be great IMO 

DavidR

Yamaha FG800. FG series is a favourite starter acoustic around the world and has been for decades. With good reason.

Heartfeltdawn

Eastman PCH1-OM or the PCH1-D depending on what size guitar he's after. I have the OM. Plays well, sounds pretty damn good, and I wish I'd had one of these when I started acoustic stuff years and years ago instead of the Yamaha LL6 I bought back then. 

irs101

Brilliant. Thanks so much for the suggestions. Just need to choose one now! But I've got a bit of time, so deal and eBay alerts are set. Thanks again.

ICBM

Can’t help but mention the Vintage V300 again - under £200 new, fairly small body but full scale, solid top. I have the mahogany-top version which I think is a bit more characterful than the spruce one, but they’re both good.

ennspek

Yamaha is what I would go for.