We Asked 500+ Guitarists for the Most Underrated Guitar Brand. Here Are the Top 20.
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I polled 500+ guitarists with one question: what’s the most underrated guitar brand?
The answers came in fast. Strong opinions. A lot of one-word responses. People showing up to defend their pick like they’d been waiting for someone to ask.
Once I tallied the votes, a clear ranking shook out. Here are the top 20:
1. Yamaha (83 votes)
The runaway winner. By a mile.
Yamaha has been making guitars since the 1940s and started exporting acoustics in the late 1960s. The FG180 from 1966 was their first big folk guitar, and it’s still a thing people post about today.
The Pacifica electric came out in 1990, designed in Yamaha’s Hollywood custom shop for L.A. session players, and it’s become one of the most-recommended affordable electrics on the planet.
What pollers kept saying was some version of “I compared it to a guitar four times the price and the Yamaha won.”
One guy said his Yamaha LL16 was the equal of a Martin D-28.
Another said his FG800 has been recorded on his last single and he treats it like dirt and it just keeps going. A music store employee chimed in to say he sees people walk past Yamahas every day to spend twice as much on a Taylor.
If you’ve never picked one up because the brand also makes motorcycles and pianos, you’re missing out.
2. Epiphone (26 votes)
Owned by Gibson, sold for half the price, and apparently a lot of people think they’re just as good.
The most common theme among pollers was something like “my Epiphone Les Paul plays as well as my Gibson Standard.” A few folks said the Alleykat is one of the best feeling guitars they’ve ever held.
>> Click here to check out some of the best Epiphone Guitars
One person pointed out that an Epiphone-branded Junior he picked up cheap was so good he sold all his Fenders.
The catch is that Epiphone quality varies a lot by era and factory. Some are made by Cort. Some used to come out of the Japanese Terada factory and those are highly collectible now. The Inspired by Gibson (“IBG”) line gets the most love from serious players, and that’s where the value really is.
If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll buy a “real Gibson someday,” you might just be ignoring a perfectly good Les Paul.
3. Godin (24 votes)
These are Canadian guitars from Quebec. They’re made in factories that the company owns, not contracted out.
Robert Godin started building guitars in La Patrie, Quebec back in 1972, and the company now operates five factories in Quebec plus one in New Hampshire. They also own Seagull, Norman, Simon & Patrick, Art & Lutherie, and La Patrie. So if you’ve ever played any of those, you’ve played a Godin.
The 5th Avenue archtop kept coming up among the guitarists we polled. Someone pointed out that with a TV Jones pickup swap, a 5th Avenue can hang with a Gretsch 6120 for way less money.
The Multiac (their nylon-string electric) gets played by a lot of jazz and Latin guitarists. The Session and Progression electrics are basically what Strats wish they were if Strats were Canadian.
People who buy one Godin tend to buy four more.
4. Cort (21 votes)
Here’s the wild thing about Cort.. they make a huge percentage of the guitars in your local store. Just not under their own name.
Cort is a South Korean company founded in 1960 that produces over a million guitars a year across factories in Korea, Indonesia, and China. They build instruments for Ibanez, PRS SE, Squier, ESP, Schecter, G&L Tribute, and at various points Epiphone and Fender too. So when you read “Made in Korea” on a guitar from a brand you recognize, there’s a real chance Cort built it.
Their own-brand guitars use the same factories. So you’re getting the same wood, same CNC machines, same quality control, etc. But because Cort doesn’t have the name recognition, you can get a guitar for 20-30% less than a competitor with identical specs.
One poller said his 15-year-old Cort has an indestructible neck. Another picked up a used Cort X-6 for 200 bucks and said it plays better than guitars he’s spent four times that on.
5. Washburn (18 votes)
Founded in Chicago in 1883. Yes, that’s older than Gibson.
>> Click here to check out some of the best Washburn Guitars
The vibe among the guitarists we polled was nostalgia mixed with respect. A lot of folks own old Washburns from the 80s and 90s and refuse to sell them. The HB35 (their 335 copy) came up several times.
The Cumberland jumbo acoustic got mentioned by multiple people, including one guy who’s owned three Gibson Hummingbirds and still says his old Washburn jumbo was the best-sounding acoustic he’s ever played.
The Idol electric from the mid-2000s has a quiet cult following. The Cumberland Tree of Life jumbo is the kind of guitar people post photos of unprompted.
Washburn has been making instruments through every era of American guitar history. They’re not flashy, but worth it.
6. Reverend (18 votes)
Joe Naylor started Reverend in 1997 in a garage behind a bicycle shop in East Detroit. He had a degree in industrial design and had trained at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. The early guitars were unusual because the bodies were chambered and lightweight; something nobody else was doing.
>> Click here to check out some of the best Reverend Guitars
Reverend got bought by Ken and Penny Haas in 2010, and Joe stayed on as the head designer. The guitars are made in South Korea now (at a shop called Mirr Music), but the designs all still come out of the Detroit area.
What our pollers loved is that Reverends look weird in a good way. They’re built for working musicians, not collectors. Most models use korina wood (lightweight, super resonant), and they all have this bass contour knob that lets you roll off low end without losing brightness.
Billy Corgan, Reeves Gabrels, and Pete Anderson all play one. They’ve all got signature models.
7. Seagull (17 votes)
Seagull is one of the brands Godin owns, but it has its own loyal following that’s almost separate from the Godin name.
The S6 was the model that’s been talked about non-stop in our guitar community. People talked about banging one around for 25+ years and having it still sound great.
One guy said he sees folks dropping thousands on Martins without realizing a Seagull is better and cheaper. Whether you agree or not, the fact that he said it with that much confidence tells you something.
Seagull guitars use solid wood tops, which at their price point is unusual. They’re made in La Patrie, Quebec, with a slightly tapered headstock that helps keep them in tune (the strings pull straight rather than at an angle). They sound warm and woody and not particularly fancy.
8. Ibanez (16 votes)
Ibanez gets called underrated because it’s known mainly for shred guitars and metal, even though they make some genuinely beautiful acoustics and jazz boxes.
The 80s and 90s Made in Japan Ibanez models were a very common theme in our poll. The PF acoustic series got a few specific shoutouts. One person said they still miss the warm tones of their old Ibanez acoustic even though he plays a Taylor 214ce now.
The RG and Gio electrics are everywhere because they’re cheap and play well, which paradoxically might be why people don’t appreciate them. When a beginner electric is also a totally legit professional instrument, players tend to “outgrow” it without realizing they shouldn’t.
Ibanez also has the AZ series now, which is essentially a Strat-killer at the price point. If you’ve written off the brand because you don’t play metal, you’re missing a lot.
9. Alvarez (16 votes)
Pure acoustic territory. Multiple commenters said their old Alvarez is the best acoustic they’ve ever owned. The Master Series got specific callouts.
Alvarez has been around since 1965 and was for a long time one of the main “Martin alternatives” people would buy. The brand had a quiet decade in the 2000s but their reputation has been climbing again, especially the Yairi line (made in Japan by master luthier Kazuo Yairi).
If your dad has an Alvarez in the closet from 1979, get it set up, and don’t sell it.
10. Guild (15 votes)
This one is loaded.
Guild has gone through more ownership changes than maybe any major American guitar brand. Started in 1952 in New York, then moved to Hoboken, then Westerly, Rhode Island. Then they were bought by Fender. Got moved to California. Got bought by Cordoba. Got moved to Oxnard. And now Yamaha has acquired them. Phew!
Responses split between “old Guilds are amazing, the new ones are made in China and aren’t the same” and “people who say that haven’t picked up a new one.” A 1964 D-41. A 1991 D-55. A 2001 Bluesbird. Multiple people said their Guild is the guitar they’d grab in a fire.
Guilds tend to be louder and bolder than equivalent Martins, especially the dreadnoughts. If you can find a 70s or 80s Westerly-era Guild used, you’re getting a workhorse.
11. Takamine (15 votes)
The acoustic-electric specialist that gets overshadowed by Taylor.
Takamine is a Japanese brand (founded in 1959, named after a mountain near their factory) that more or less invented the modern stage acoustic. Their CTP-1 Cool Tube preamp from 2008 was a really clever piece of engineering for live use. Bruce Springsteen, Glenn Frey, and Jon Bon Jovi have all played them.
>> Click here to check out some of the best Takamine Guitars
The F375 came up among pollers as a Martin D-35 copy from the 70s that one player has held onto since high school. The takeaway from the thread is basically that for stage use, Takamine is hard to beat at the price.
If you play out and need something that sounds good plugged in but doesn’t cost five figures, this is the brand to try first.
12. Schecter (14 votes)
Schecter is a weird case because some commenters argued they’re not underrated, since they’re popular in the metal community. But 14 people said they were, so here we are.
>> Click here to check out some of the best Schecter Guitars
The line between “popular for one thing” and “underrated overall” is what’s at play.
Schecter makes a ton of clean-toned guitars (Solo IIs, PT models, semi-hollow stuff) that get totally ignored because the brand is associated with downtuned, pointy-headstock metal guitars. Their bass guitars in particular came up in the thread as being absurdly good for the money.
Worth a look if you’ve never given them a chance because you assumed they only made shredders.
13. Squier (13 votes)
Yes, Fender’s budget brand. And yes, people fight about Squier on the internet constantly.
Squier is a tiered brand. The Classic Vibe and Vintage Modified series are genuinely great guitars. The Affinity series is also fine but built to a much lower price. The Indonesian-made Classic Vibes especially have been winning blind comparison tests against American Standards for years now.
Multiple commenters mentioned setting up an Affinity and being shocked at how good it became. A few specifically called out the Squier Classic Vibe Tele as one of the best electric guitars they own, period.
The “upper class Squier” comment in the thread basically captures it: there’s a Squier for every budget, and the higher you go in the line, the better.
14. Eastman (11 votes)
Eastman started in 1992 when a Chinese music student named Qian Ni founded a violin importing business in Boston. He was buying instruments from old-school Chinese violin makers who still worked the way 19th-century European luthiers worked, by hand, with chisels and rasps.
The guitars came later. Today Eastman makes archtops, flat-tops, and electrics out of a workshop in Beijing where the only power tool is a band saw. They use solid wood, hand-scalloped bracing, and dovetail neck joints on most models. Pickups are usually Seymour Duncan or Kent Armstrong. Hardware is Gotoh.
What makes Eastman strange in the modern guitar world is that they don’t make instruments for any other brand, just their own. That focus shows up in the build quality. The E20D dreadnought and the T486 thinline electric were two specific models that came up in the thread.
If you wanted a Martin-quality guitar without the Martin price tag, this is probably the closest you’ll get.
15. Peavey (8 votes)
Mostly USA-made Peaveys came up. Specifically the older T-series guitars from the 80s and the Wolfgang model designed by Eddie Van Halen.
Peavey is mostly known for amps. But Hartley Peavey ran the company out of Meridian, Mississippi for 60+ years and built up a real guitar program along the way.
The T-60 from 1978 was one of the first guitars whose body was shaped by computer-controlled machinery. The Wolfgang has its own following thanks to EVH.
The HP signature model came up in the poll, too. One person said a Peavey Raptor (a budget Strat-style) could hang with any MIM Strat at a fraction of the price, which tracks with what I’ve heard from other players.
16. Charvel (7 votes)
The original superstrat brand.
Wayne Charvel started the company in California in the 1970s, and Grover Jackson took it over in 1978. Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat is essentially what put Charvel on the map. Jake E. Lee and Allan Holdsworth both played one.
The Mexican-made Charvels these days are reportedly excellent. The Pro-Mod series specifically gets a lot of love from players who want a hot-rodded Strat without paying boutique prices.
Charvel got mostly forgotten in the 2000s when shred fell out of fashion, but they’ve been making good guitars the whole time.
17. Harley Benton (7 votes)
This one’s interesting because Harley Benton is a house brand for the German online retailer Thomann. They’ve been making instruments since 1998, and at this point their catalog has 2,900+ guitars in it.
The Harley Benton story is just buying power. Thomann has the volume to order direct from the same Asian factories that build for big brands, skip the middleman, and pass the savings on. You can buy a fully solid-wood acoustic for under $400 and a passable Tele copy for $150.
The catch is that fret work and setup are usually mediocre out of the box. A $50 setup at your local shop turns most Harley Bentons into really respectable guitars. The HB35 (their 335 clone) and the CLD-30SCM-CE all-solid-wood dreadnought specifically get a lot of love.
If your budget is tight and you don’t mind doing some setup work, this brand is hard to beat.
18. Heritage (7 votes)
Heritage is the Gibson story that didn’t end.
When Gibson moved out of Kalamazoo, Michigan to Nashville in 1984, a few of the original employees stayed behind. They bought space in the iconic 225 Parsons Street factory (where Gibson had been making guitars since 1917) and started Heritage Guitar in 1985. They were using the same machines, techniques, and sometimes the same wood, just under a different name.
Today Heritage makes guitars at the same address with a small team of craftsmen. The H-150 is essentially a hand-built Les Paul. The H-535 is a 335. The Eagle is an archtop in the tradition of the L-5.
These are not cheap guitars, but they’re a fraction of what an equivalent custom shop Gibson costs, and many players will tell you the build quality is higher.
19. Carvin / Kiesel (7 votes)
Carvin spent most of its history selling direct-to-consumer out of California, which is why a lot of players have never seen one in a store.
In 2015 the company split. Mark Kiesel kept the guitar business and renamed it Kiesel Guitars. Carvin still exists but mostly does pro audio and amps.
The thing about Carvin/Kiesel is that they’re built to order. You spec the wood, the neck profile, the pickups, the inlays, the finish. Ebony fretboards. Stainless steel frets. Neck-through construction. The kind of features you’d pay $4,000 for from a custom shop, you can get for half that from Kiesel.
A few people said they’ve never seen a Kiesel/Carvin neck that wasn’t perfectly fretted. One said the only reason these guitars don’t get more love is that the body shapes are an acquired taste.
20. Firefly (7 votes)
Firefly is the budget end of the budget end. They make 335-style semi-hollow guitars and a few solid bodies, sold mostly through Amazon and Reverb, usually for under $250.
The Firefly story online is wild. People buy them as joke guitars, do basic setup work, and end up gigging with them. The pickups aren’t great out of the box, but the bodies are reportedly built well. A pickup swap turns them into a totally legitimate instrument.
They’re not Heritages, but for a couple hundred bucks plus a setup, you’ve got a 335-style guitar that plays. That’s hard to argue with.
What this list says about the guitar market
The thing that surprised me most putting this together is how many brands in the top 20 are owned by, or made by, the same handful of companies.
Cort builds for Ibanez, Squier, and Schecter. Godin owns Seagull. Gibson owns Epiphone. Yamaha just bought Guild. The vast majority of the world’s affordable and mid-priced guitars come out of a small number of factories in South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, and China.
The “underrated” thing is partly an information problem. Players walk past a $400 Yamaha Pacifica to spend $1,200 on a brand they recognize, not realizing that the Pacifica is built by the same engineers and roughly the same standards.
That’s worth thinking about next time you’re in a guitar store and reaching for the brand you’ve heard of.
