New to Guitars! Whats a good Acoustic for under $300?

Well I want to start playing the guitar, Acoustic that is. Whats a good one for under $300 max, that includes tax and everything. All I know is that Fender and Gibson are the best. So I was thinking this one on the right.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/buyersguide/27.jpg

Or the one in the bottom right hand corner.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/buyersguide/30.jpg

Or would I be better off buying a used one for much less, for my first one?

First off get that "Fender and Gibson" bs out of your head. Just because they're old doesn't make them the best. Not by a long shot. Are they good instruments? Yeah, but not within your price range.

I would recommend Carvin or Cort. They make very different guitars from each other but as far as price for quality is concerned they both blow anything else out of the water equally.

Cort makes more "bold" guitars, so to speak. I prefer Carvin's tone, but your opinion may very easily differ from mine so you should try both. Either company will get you a great deal on a guitar that will last you as long as you still play guitar.

when you mean "bold", does that mean its built better?

also where in Seattle couold I get these carvin or cort guitars? Or on the internet thats pretty legit.

By "Bold" I mean they're more tonally aggressive and more responsive. Every Cort acoustic I've ever laid hands on has projected very well. Carvin guitars tend to be more soft. Go to the Carvin web site sometime, you can listen to sound clips of three of their acoustic guitars, two of which are in your price range.

I think where you live Carvin is only by internet/mail order, I don't know about Cort. There might be a dealer nearby, might not be. It's worth checking out.

I was actually just talking to me friend who has a cort acoustic, and loves it. Reccomend any cort acoustics for under $300

I don't know exactly what you're looking for so here's the US distributor's site-
http://cort.com/home.html

A quick list of guitars in your range-
Earth 70-12
Earth 72
Earth 100
The Standard Series
AC 15 Classical


I'm pretty sure they raised the prices from the last time I was at the site because I remember a few other guitars sold by them being in your range that aren't anymore, like the Earth 200GC. Either way they're worth it, cheap Cort guitars are not cheaply made.

Don't forget to check out the Carvin samples, btw. They're some of the best sounding acoustics I've heard for the price. You'll have to save up an extra $40 or so but you might find it worth it.

thanks for the quick replies dude appreciate it too much.

last one...is this a OK electric guitar for a starter? the black epiphone for $100
http://www.guitarcenter.com/buyersguide/page31.cfm

Epiphones are hit-and-miss, so to speak. That is, some of them are trash and some of them really are pretty close to real Gibson quality. That link isn't working for me so I don't know what guitar you're looking at but I wouldn't order an epi online just in case it's one of the lower quality epis. See if you can find it or something similar in a local store first.

You'll also probably want to pay more for that for an electric if you want something that's going to still be usable for you down the road as you become more skillful.

Never leave Dean out of the mix for an inexpensive acoustic. http://www.deanguitars.com/acoustics.htm quite a nice collection with a lot of guitars under 300 featuring onboard electronics, grover tuners, quilts n such. Nice guitars for the money. There's a performer series at the local guitar shop for like 239 bucks with all the appoinments, good deal.

I have to admit I've never taken a look at Dean's lower-range products but I've never heard a Dean guitar I didn't love. Besides, if Michael Batio himself claims Dean gutiars are the best in the world that right there makes them worth checking out.