When you decide to buy a new acoustic guitar, it’s more than just how it sounds and how comfortable and easy it is to play. You also need a rock-solid warranty and return policy to ensure a hassle-free experience that you can trust. Getting up and running on a new guitar is difficult if you don’t have confidence that the brand is reputable or reliable enough to deal with any issues. Otherwise, you’re playing an expensive instrument and keeping your fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong.
An acoustic guitar warranty also shapes your overall brand impression and experience. Getting behind a big purchase is challenging when you feel like the brand doesn’t care about what happens once you hit “Buy.”
To make your buying experience better, we put together everything you need to know about the best acoustic guitar warranties, what to look for, and how to plan.
Criteria for Evaluating Guarantees and Return Policies
First, let’s dig into the criteria for evaluating acoustic guitar warranties, guarantees, and return policies.
Warranty Coverage
Before you buy an acoustic guitar, thoroughly read the warranty to see how long it lasts and the coverage offered. Many acoustic guitars provide some kind of lifetime warranty for specific issues and reject claims relating to wear and tear. Others only cover specific damage for up to a year and only cover defects in the materials and workmanship.
It may not be a deal breaker to you if the warranty is limited, but it should be an informed decision rather than something you stumble into. It also depends on how you plan to use your new acoustic guitar. If you’re hoping to tinker with it and get up and running as a hobby, an inexpensive guitar with a scant warranty is probably fine. But when you invest thousands into a premier guitar, you want a rock-solid guarantee to back up your purchase.
Just because some of the world’s best guitar brands offer a warranty doesn’t always mean they hold up to the standard you expect. For example, Martin Guitars says two years, but when you dig into forums and reviews, you quickly see musicians complaining that they had to jump through hoops or were denied service regarding specific issues.
Martin formerly offered a lifetime warranty, which seems to have caused disappointment and frustration among musicians who took them up on the offer. Of course, other musicians report no issue with the brand or using their warranty, but it’s essential to do your due diligence to determine what kind of warranty and service you want.
Coverage and Return Policies
It’s not that common anymore to see Lifetime Warranties on guitars, although they still exist. Instead, you’ll see Limited Warranties that are usually good for about a year. Regarding return policies, this is more of an issue to take up with the store where you bought your instrument than the guitar brand itself.
Some store policies are pretty flexible and offer 30 to 60 days to return a guitar. It also depends on how you bought the guitar. For example, Guitar Store offers a 45-day return policy on most items but three days on vintage instruments and “all sales are final” on clearance items.
Customer Support
You should expect any long-standing guitar brand to have some documented lackluster customer history from time to time. Things happen. But they shouldn’t have a track record for lousy service. Any repeated online reviews or Better Business Bureau complaints about poor communication, poor quality, and poor return policies are red flags, no matter the guitar brand.
When you look at online reviews, look for companies that honor their policies, especially for basic issues like buzzing. You want a brand that stands behind what they do, even if there are a few steps requiring purchase documentation and a bit of a waiting game. Above all else, you want a brand that exercises good communication and listens to the issue without giving you the runaround.
10 Acoustic Guitar Brand Warranties to Consider
Now that you know what to look for from a guitar warranty, return policy, and service, here are some brands to consider before your next purchase.
10 Acoustic Guitar Brand Warranties to Consider
Now that you know what to look for from a guitar warranty, return policy, and service, here are some brands to consider before your next purchase.
1) Zager Guitars
Zager Guitars is one of the few guitar brands that still offers a Lifetime Warranty on everything except improper care. So this isn’t the guitar for you if you plan to slay and slam it against the stage (and really, no guitar brand covers that). Unique to most brands, Zager will also replace all of the nuts, saddles, tuners, and other parts free of charge if they wear out over the years. You won’t find the combination of all these things in pretty much any other guitar brand.
2) Taylor Guitars
Taylor Guitars offers a Limited Warranty on any of their certified guitars. Their warranty varies by country, but their U.S. and Canadian policies last 12 months and cover any issues with materials and workmanship. You need to be the original owner of the guitar, meaning you can’t buy it used from someone else and try to claim the warranty coverage.
3) Alvarez Guitars
Alvarez Guitars offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty provided by St. Louis Music but is only available to customers in the U.S. However, your guitar must be bought from an authorized Alvarez dealer with your serial number intact. They also reserve the right to reject your claim based on misuse or neglect. Alvarez states that they don’t cover accidents or wear and tear from regular use. They’ll replace pickups, tuners, and electronic components for two years from your purchase date.
4) Fender Guitars
Fender and Squier fall under the same parent company, and both offer a global warranty on their guitars. You’ll receive a 2-year warranty that covers defects in materials and workmanship for two years from the original purchase. It’s one of the more generous and global guitar warranties you’ll find on the market.
5) Gibson Guitars
Gibson offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty on its guitars for any defects in materials or workmanship. It won’t cover damage from wear and tear, accidents, or misuse and doesn’t necessarily cover guitars outside of the U.S. Instead, they may recommend contacting a local distributor.
6) Yamaha Guitars
Yamaha offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty and will swap out your guitar if it can’t be replaced with the same model or reasonable equivalent. It covers defects in materials and workmanship for a period of two years. In some cases, they’ll also cover limited repairs due to normal wear and tear.
7) Martin Guitars
Martin Guitars offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty that covers defects in materials and workmanship. They exclude U.S. territories and Canada from their warranty. There are also a lot of exclusions from what they cover, including tuner hardware, fingerboards, bridges, end pins, strings, frets, nuts, pickguards, saddles, and more. Some of their instruments, like the Little Martin, only come with a one-year warranty, so check the details before you buy.
8) Breedlove Guitars
Breedlove Guitars guarantees your guitar is free of defects in materials and workmanship during its lifetime by the original owner. Like other brands, they exclude repairs relating to missing or altered serial numbers and won’t reset necks for action adjustments. Breedlove also won’t make repairs caused by temperature (i.e., dryness or humidity) and damage from modifications that a Breedlove technician didn’t perform.
9) PRS Guitars
PRS Guitars offers a non-transferable, limited lifetime warranty to the original owner. Among other things they exclude, they don’t cover shipping damage, accidents, or any repairs not made by an authorized service. If you bought an amplifier from PRS, they also offer a 5-year warranty on any defects in materials and workmanship.
10) Seagull Guitars
Seagull Guitars offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty to cover their craftsmanship and guarantee it is free of defects. But they don’t cover an instrument’s strings, batteries, temperature change damage, cracking, finish discoloration, wear and tear, or accidents.
Should You Buy an Extended Warranty for Your Guitar?
It’s also possible to upgrade to a more comprehensive extended warranty, depending on the acoustic guitar you buy and the store you buy it from. It does come at an extra cost, and many people decline it altogether when they see the long list of defects not covered by it.
An extended warranty might be a good idea if you have some breathing room in your budget and want extra peace of mind. But you should weigh the costs of buying the extension against what you’ll likely recoup from it. Hiring someone to fix your guitar may prove cheaper than paying for the warranty.
Don’t Forget to Register Your Guitar and Warranty
Regardless of what guitar brand and warranty you choose, make sure to register it. Most brands require some registration or documentation to activate your warranty and use it to get your guitar repaired or replaced. Even if it’s not required, you should make a copy of your warranty, sales receipt, and serial number, and take a few photos of the guitar the day you buy it to tuck away in a file to use later. You’ll make your life easier if you ever need to lobby the guitar brand for a repair.
Do Guitar Warranties Even Matter?
Whether or not a guitar warranty matters depends on who you ask. Some musicians will say they don’t mean much unless they’re lifetime warranties that cover hardware replacement, as Zager Guitars offers. Other people will say what really matters is that the brand offers a warranty at all which elevates its credibility.
Guitar warranties can also be challenging to use. Most brands will scrutinize the claim first, but they all generally cover the obvious manufacturer defects, offering more peace of mind when making a purchase. You shouldn’t expect ongoing repairs for wear and tear, misuse, or anything extreme. If you leave your guitar outside in the rain, no one is going to want to replace it. Most guitar brands also reserve the right to reject a repair if they feel it falls outside their warranty, which you may disagree with.
Beyond the warranty, other aspects of an acoustic guitar hold more weight to your purchasing decision, like its quality, craftsmanship, and brand history. Every guitar brand will also experience some hiccups with consistency and care, especially if any negative reviews fall during a period of supply chain issues during the pandemic or import regulations on rare wood. But the brand should have an overall solid reputation.
Looking to buy your next acoustic guitar? Get the guides:
- Which is the Best Acoustic Guitar Brand? [Get the Guide]
- What to Look for When Buying an Acoustic Guitar
- Handmade Guitars (and Which Ones to Choose)
- Best Acoustic Guitars (and What to Look For)
The goal of buying a good acoustic guitar is to make sure it’s high-quality from the start. Buying from a no-name brand may work okay, but it’s not the right move if you hope to receive a high-quality product with a sparkling reputation for customer care.
Next Steps
Investing in an acoustic guitar is a big step, and a warranty can help ease the cost burden if you run into a manufacturer defect. But overall, they shouldn’t ultimately dictate your decision. The good news is that several brands with lifetime warranties, like Zager Guitars, will replace hardware and other parts without making a fuss. The end result is peace of mind that you’ve bought a reliable instrument from a brand that cares about your customer experience with the acoustic guitar you buy and the store you buy it from. It does come at an extra cost, and many people decline it altogether when they see the long list of defects not covered by it.
An extended warranty might be a good idea if you have some breathing room in your budget and want extra peace of mind. But you should weigh the costs of buying the extension against what you’ll likely recoup from it. Hiring someone to fix your guitar may prove cheaper than paying for the warranty.