Best Budget Electric Guitars Australia 2025

Buying a budget electric guitar can be an absolute stress. With the amount of models and an ever increasing push from ‘fast fashion’ instrument makers, it can be hard for the novice guitarist to make a decision on what they may like to buy and what suits them. So I figured that I would put together a guide of what I see are some of the Best Budget Electric Guitars in Australia as of 2025.

The rules

• The guitar must be available in Australia from standard music retailers
• The price range is in the ~$500-$700 range, with a focus on the lower end of that spectrum
• Guitars must be from a range of brands

What to look out for in Budget Electric Guitars

When looking at budget builds there are a few things that I would definitely be looking out for. In this price range there can be a LOT of variance so here are a few things that I look out for:

• Not buying from massive stores that have brand names that are not recognisable – JingFan, Congolin (I’m making up names here). These are usually mass made, cheap guitars that are often sold as ‘Premium’ on some sites. Try to make sure that you are buying from a reputable store OR that the brand can also be bought elsewhere so you can compare reviews;
• Get it in your hands, if you can. Otherwise make sure that the store offers refunds for change of mind (like Artist Guitars for example)
• You can get a lot of tones from a guitar no matter the configuration, but make sure that the pickups and hardware at least somewhat match the type of music that you like to play
• Don’t pick something just on price, if you don’t love the look of it, it is unlikely that you are ever going to pick it up to play.

My Picks

The Classic

The Squier Affinity Series is my next pick at around $450 you are getting a good deal of guitar for the price. The Squier’s have been a mainstay of beginner and intermediate players for a long time and have been many a guitarist’s introduction to a stratocaster model. I pick this one over the cheaper Sonic models for the simple fact that I haven’t had the opportunity to play on of the Sonic’s as yet.

The only drawback of these is that some people find that quality control a little lacking and that some parts may be a little on the cheaper side.

For: Players looking to pick up their first strat.

The Added Extras

The Artist AT53 (and it’s previous model little sibling the TC59) at around $460 is a great pick for anyone looking for a few of the ‘added extra’ features like nitro paint, quarter sawn neck and hand made pickups. Every Artist guitar that I have picked up has been fantastic overall and plays pretty well straight out of the box.

The team at Artist have been great with curating and designing gear that works well in your hands (along with that 100 day refund period).

For: New or Intermediate players wanting something different than a LP or Strat shape. Players of all types of rock, blues or country.

The Utility Knife

The Yamaha Pacifica comes in a range of different setups, but this one with a Humbucker and 2 Single Coils (HSS) is definitely one to check out for its versatility. This one is around $519 at the time of writing and anyone who has owned a Pacifica will tell you these things will outlive you. Again, the Pacifica’s have been a mainstay for players who are early in their playing career. They are great quality and you can often pick them up for a good price on the secondhand market.

For: Someone looking for a workhorse strat that has a bit more utility than the SSS models.

For More Grunt

For something with a bit more grunt, I pick the Epiphone SG Tribute – a bit on the higher end of the prices at $699, but the Epiphones really have a lot in common with their more expensive sibling, Gibson. Great quality gear and great customer service from Epiphone (I had an issue once and they dealt with it immediately with a new replacement). These SGs are a look apart from most other pieces of gear in this price range and have the horns to start playing some metal (if that’s what you want).

For: As mentioned, more grunt.

The Secondhand

The Tokai models in the $500-650 price range are my picks for Secondhand. These guitars often go for quite a higher premium when new and they play incredibly. A few of the other Japanese owned models like Fernandes and Bacchus are also good at this price range. While often made in China or Indonesia, these companies are well known for their Quality Control, which means that you are often getting a great piece of gear for not too much money at all. Making sure you compare model numbers though so you are getting a guitar that was originally higher priced and not one of their beginners models is my recommendation here.

For: You’re a vintage lover, looking for something different than the same few brands.

From my building mindset

You may have seen that I am building a guitar at the moment, and when researching this gear, I have applied some of the same methods – don’t reach for the most expensive tools or materials before you’ve honed your skills! It’s all too easy to covet a Les Paul Custom or a Fender Custom shop and then avoid anything that doesn’t meet that lofty criteria.

I could buy the most expensive tools for building a guitar, but as a novice I have to balance the fact I might get bored of it, break shit, or it’s just not working out and I bail altogether from building (I hope not). I feel like these guitars hit that middle ground, they allow you to get the feel of the gear without it being a painful experience that will drive you away from the game altogether.

Use any and all feedback that you have from your current gear to help you to make the decisions for the next piece of gear (and the next…and the next).

Overall

• Buy something that speaks to you and that you will want to play, otherwise you just bought a fancy dust collector;
• Buy something with a brand that has reviews and good product support
• Not every guitar is for every genre, but most guitars can get close to lots of genres. Don’t rule something out because it isn’t the perfect blues or metal machine, especially in the early days of learning.
• Don’t be afraid to buy second hand but check models and make sure you are getting a secondhand discount and not a sneaky ‘but it’s a collectors item’ markup.