Cheapest, new guitar you've played that was comfortable and stayed in tune, without modding?

[John Armsby]

TLDR: Without modding, what is the cheapest, non-used (brand new) guitar you've owned or played that was comfortable to play and stayed in tune? Bonus points if it sounded good too.


For this particular discussion USED guitars and modded instruments are DISQUALIFIED. What is the Cheapest, Non-Used (Brand New) Guitar You've Been Impressed By? In terms of price vs. quality, how low can you go? In your opinion, how cheap is TOO cheap for a brand new guitar? $500? $300? $100? Even lower? Do you believe you always get what you pay for or have you felt cheated by a guitar? Or maybe, you've bought a very inexpensive instrument and couldn't believe you paid so little for so much quality? I've always wondered about brands like Harley-Benton, Squier, and the low-end Epiphone, low-end LTD, etc.

Well that makes it real thought for me as I’ve got 26 guitars but only bought 4 of them new
My cheapest of those is a baby Taylor and it’s a beautiful guitar and stays in tune and was about $300USD but my Best Buy was a Les Paul Traditional HP model I bought last year for $1200 new at Sam Ash. I’m a lefty amd they seem to dump lefty Gibsons every so often. That’s like a $4k guitar for $1.2k