The BEST Electric Guitars for Under £1000: Your 2025 Guide

How much guitar do you get for under a thousand quid these days? We all know that guitar building across the world is improving and improving, so it makes sense for us guitarists to expect more for our hard-earned cash.

I’ve had a good root around at what’s available at the moment (November 2025) and I have to say, I’m very impressed! Across the styles and brands, there’s a lot of very cool stuff available, in more variations than ever before. What you want and need is available, at prices that are often well within reach.

Whichever level of playing you are at as a guitar player, value is value. I’ve picked out a selection of instruments that all punch squarely above their weight, and I present them to you today as worthy possibilities for your next affordable axe. I’ve got traditional guitars, contemporary takes, extended range axes and even a headless one here! Dive in with me and let’s see what’s available for under a grand!

I’ll begin with a guitar that made my Guitars of the Year list last year, and which is still going strong now! It’s the Strandberg Boden Essential 6, a niche guitar from what is becoming a pretty big niche! Whilst headless guitars aren’t for everyone, there’s no denying quality and performance wherever you find it, and this guitar has both in bags. 

The Essential range distills some of Strandberg’s greatest innovations into their most affordable design. You still get the patented Endurneck (to try it is to love it, frankly), you get 24 stainless steel frets, Strandberg’s own custom-made pickups and their own design bridge. Everything you need for an authentic Strandberg experience, and a chunk cheaper than their standard models. It’s currently available in 4 finishes too, so it’s a great time to buy into the Strandberg world.

Big dogs Yamaha have delivered one of the most successful new guitar designs of recent years in the form of the Revstar. This motorbike culture-inspired range feels genuinely fresh, as is available in a wide range of price points to suit all players and pockets.

I’ve opted for the Revstar RSS20 here, not the very cheapest but still well within today’s price boundaries. In truth, all of the Revstars are good, but the price hike brings a more substantial neck profile and a slightly fancier finish, both of which I entirely agree with!

Revstars are elegant guitars that are somewhat reminiscent of Yamaha’s own SG models, but with a dash or Reverend thrown in. This model comes in 8 finishes, which is excellent in terms of choice. You get a chambered body, stainless steel frets, a ‘Focus Switch’ which is like a built in EQ filter, and the satisfaction of having a guitar that’s not only good but also not one of the usual suspects.

ESP’s cost-effective (though often still costly) LTD range are hugely popular with hard rockers, and rightly so. Solidly made, sleek looking and chosen by a large swathe of the professional metal community, they’re an obvious bet for anyone who likes a mosh!

I picked the single-pickup LTD EC-201 for inclusion today, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s an epic riff machine with a chunky tone and an easy feel. Secondly, I want to dispel the notion that ‘more’ automatically means ‘better’. I’ve never thought that way, personally, and the inclusion of only a bridge pickup here is, in my opinion, a confident move by LTD. They realise that most hard rock and metal players use the bridge pickup 98% of the time, and have delivered a very effective instrument that zones in on what’s designed to do, rather than compromising on intention in order to offer unwanted features. 

Basically, it’s really utilitarian, and really satisfying to play!

PRS SE guitars are quickly becoming the ones to beat in the sub-grand price bracket. They are made to very rigid standards, include many features that similarly-priced guitars don’t (treble bleed circuit, coil taps) and are generally very impressive.

I picked the PRS SE DGT Moons model for this blog above the others in order to draw attention to the fact that Dave Grissom (the DG of the DGT) himself had to personally approve of these models before they went to market. Grissom had specific ideas about his signature guitars that were different from PRS Custom 22 or Custom 24 models. These included a special DGT neck carve (the T stands for tremolo, by the way), specially wound DGT ‘s’ pickups, a different control layout (individual volume controls) and specific colour choices.

Pound for pound, it’s very hard to beat this guitar, and if you are someone who doesn’t prefer the bird inlays (I love them but I realise that not everybody does) then certain models have ‘moon’ inlays, which are effectively fancy dots.

Fender currently make roughly eight gazillion versions of their famous guitar and bass shapes, so it can be a bit confusing to navigate the numerous ranges. Fender’s Player II range is where many players find their first serious guitar. They aren’t entry level, but are made to be as price-effective as possible. You get all of the main offenders here: Strats, Teles, P & J basses, and even Jazzmasters.

But we’ve gone one further, with a Fender Special Run (FSR) Stratocaster model. This is where certain dealers get to spec up small production runs of unique versions of existing models. This allows us to add a little bit of special sauce to what we sell, and build in extra value. You get a guitar that can’t be found elsewhere. 

This Stratocaster is a great example, with two extra talking points on top of the already-great guitar. Firstly, there’s a roasted maple neck. Roasting - torrefaction, to give it its proper name - is a process that dries out the timber, strengthens it and turns it a dark shade caramel in color. Secondly, we requested that this model have a set of full-on Fender Custom Shop pickups! These allow more nuance and detail in your sound, and for Stratocasters, I think that’s a huge part of the experience.

Fender’s younger sibling Squier have been making some of the best - and certainly most interesting - affordable guitars of recent years. Because of the official nature of them - all of the shapes are proper licensed Fender designs - they’ve proven to be amazingly popular as gigging instruments for guitarists who are definitely not beginners. Bear in mind too that Squier are sub-£500 guitars, so we are FAR below the £1000 watermark for this blog!

I could’ve chosen one of about 35 cool Squiers that are currently available, because it’s actually quite hard to find one that isn’t cool! In the end, I couldn’t resist the amazing colour of this Classic Vibe 60s Jazzmaster, and also wanted an offset guitar represented in the blog. This model is actually more historically faithful to original vintage 60s Jazzmasters than many current models in the Fender lines!

When it’s time to rock hard, nobody does it like Jackson. The classic 80s thrash brand have remained resolutely true to their pointy roots, retaining all of the trademarks that make them such a recognisable brand. 

Jackson make guitars at all price levels, so there’s a huge range to pick from under £1000. I figured we may as well be as ‘Jackson’ as possible here, so I’ve opted for the Jackson X Series RRX24 Randy Rhoads model, in black with yellow bevels. Because why not? This thing lives and breathes metal, with its iconic reversed headstock, sharkfin inlays and supremely pointed body. It’s a guitar of beautiful menace, and it’s also packing some top-tier hardware: active Seymour Duncan Blackout humbuckers and a gold Floyd Rose tremolo!

Go forth and mosh!

Oh, you want to go even harder than the Jackson? Okay, I’ll raise you this Ibanez RGMS8 Multi Scale 8 string terrorizer. Ibanez’s Iron Label range are exclusively for harder styles, and this bruiser of a guitar is designated strictly for huge levels of sonic damage. It’s an 8 string guitar with fanned frets due to its multiscale neck. 

A multiscale neck, in simple terms, is when a guitar neck has a longer scale length for the heaviest strings, and a slightly shorter scale length for the lighter strings. Why? To keep tension in the strings correct at all points, without sacrificing feel. With a multiscale guitar, you don’t have to suffer tight high strings or flubby low strings in order to get to your desired pitches. This is achieved with fanned frets, which are not straight up and down but carefully measured to sit at appropriate angles for precise intonation.

Long story short: you sound super heavy and perfectly in tune. Win. Multiscale guitars can be very expensive, but Ibanex have always been great at making innovations affordable. This is a mighty guitar indeed, and not for the faint of heart.

This Epiphone is one of the loveliest guitars I’ve played in a while, without any qualifications for price or anything else. It’s not doing anything outrageously unusual either, it’s simply a gorgeous looking guitar with a beautiful neck and a rich sound. It feels easy to play and I cannot take my eyes off it. 

If that’s enough for you then look no further. Epiphone are putting out some pretty incredible guitars right now, and this Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1969 ES-355 has the all-important ‘open book’ Gibson shaped headstock, too. As it’s a pukka 355 model, you also get the ebony fingerboard, extra binding and block inlays. I will genuinely call out the Epiphone naysayers here and challenge them to try this one for themselves, and then find me another guitar for under a grand that gives as much. I’ll wait!

My final guitar choice is a timely reminder that Schecter are not just about heavy metal and weird inlays. This tasteful Tele-style PT Van Nuys is much more in the vein of their original Californian-made custom shop guitars: it’s a traditional looking guitar with a bit of an edge, and some well-appointed performance details that put this into the superleague.

First off, it’s an ash body and a roasted maple neck. To me, that screams the following words: ‘resonance’, ‘sustain’ and ‘bite’. You get some pretty high-output Schecter USA Superrock Vintage pickups on board, and a vintage style whammy bar, so any overtly ‘Sunset Strip’ guitar moments are well catered for. Lastly, the fingerboard has a 14” radius, which makes a pretty huge difference to how fast and accurate you can be in your fretting.

I reckon this guitar can handle anything, and has an awesome boutique-y look too.

The sub-£1000 market is where a great many of us find our ‘battle-axes’, the guitars we actually go out and do some gigging with. What I’ve hopefully shown you today is that there is a huge amount of variety, choice and potential for fun to be had under that price. Most major manufacturers are represented, and those who aren’t major manufacturers often increase the value of their offerings in order to compete.

I recommend all of those guitars today, but obviously not every guitarist is looking for a headless or multiscale guitar. Not everyone wants a Strat or Jazzmaster either, but the very fact that we get to choose from so many excellent guitars is worth celebrating. Did you find something that’s threatening to have you reaching for your wallet? I hope so, but if you are still on the hunt, smash the button below and have a look at every electric guitar we have between £400-1000. Happy hunting!

Click to Browse All Guitars Between £400-£1000