Folk music is a broad church, but the chances are your first guitar will be asked to do three things: fingerpick, strum behind your own singing, and cope with constant retuning. Open D, open G, DADGAD and drop D are the working tunings of the tradition, and they all change what you need from an instrument. A guitar that flatters a hard flatpicked reel may feel stiff and clattery under a delicate ballad. So before you look at prices, think honestly about the songs you actually want to play.

Body Size: The Decision That Matters Most

Body shape affects volume, tone and — crucially — whether you enjoy picking the thing up. For folk, three shapes cover most ground.

• Parlour and 0-size (roughly 12 to 13 inches across the lower bout): small, light and short-scale. Ideal for fingerstyle, quieter singing and sitting on a sofa. They have a focused, mid-heavy voice that suits ballads and anything modal.
• 000 and OM (around 15 inches): the folk workhorse. Balanced, comfortable under the arm, and usually built with a wider nut and a shallower body than a dreadnought. If you can only own one guitar for traditional song, this is the sensible answer.
• Dreadnought (around 15.5 to 16 inches, and much deeper): loud and bassy. Wonderful for strumming in a session, but the depth can be awkward for smaller players, and the boom can smother a quiet fingerpicked arrangement.

If you are under about 5ft 6in, or you have short arms, try a short-scale instrument (around 24.75 inches) before committing to a full-size dreadnought. Comfort keeps you practising; a guitar that hurts to hold will end up in a case.

Tonewoods: Where Your Money Actually Goes

The single most important specification is whether the top is solid wood. A solid spruce or cedar soundboard will open up over a few years and give you a livelier, more responsive instrument. Laminated backs and sides are perfectly acceptable at entry level; a laminated top is not, if you can avoid it.

• Sitka spruce: the versatile default. Crisp, loud, handles strumming and picking alike.
• Cedar: warmer and rounder, and it responds to a light touch — lovely for fingerstyle, though it can compress if you really attack it.
• Mahogany (back and sides): dry, woody and direct. Excellent for song accompaniment because it leaves space for the voice.
• Rosewood or similar: richer, with deeper bass and a shimmer in the treble. Suits solo instrumental work.

Do not be swayed by exotic names on a budget instrument. A well-made mahogany guitar beats a badly-made rosewood one every time.

Playability: Neck, Nut and Action

This is where beginners lose heart. A guitar that is hard to play is a guitar you will stop playing, no matter how good it sounds.

• Nut width: around 43mm is common on dreadnoughts and fine for chords and strumming. Fingerpickers usually prefer 44.5 to 45mm, which gives your picking hand more room and stops fingers tripping over each other.
• Neck profile: a slim C-shape suits small hands; a chunkier V is comfortable for players who wrap their thumb.
• Action: at the twelfth fret, roughly 2mm under the treble strings and 2.5mm under the bass is a good target for folk. Much higher and barre chords become a wrestling match.
• Scale length: a shorter scale means lower string tension — easier on the fingers, and kinder when you tune down to DADGAD.

Any guitar can be improved by a proper set-up. Budget for one, even on a new instrument; it is the cheapest upgrade you will ever make.

Trying Before You Buy

Play the guitar, or ask the seller to play it while you listen. Then check the following.

• Tune it, then fret a note at the twelfth fret — it should match the open string, not waver sharp or flat.
• Capo it at the third and fifth fret. Folk songs live up there, and a poorly set-up guitar will sound sour.
• Look along the neck from the headstock: the fretboard should be a gentle curve, not a bow or a back-bend.
• Check the bridge is not lifting, and that the saddle still has room to be lowered.
• Play it in an open tuning. If it sounds dull in DADGAD, it will sound dull everywhere.

Strings, Tunings and Looking After It

Use light or custom-light phosphor bronze strings (typically 12 to 53) for folk. They are forgiving under the fingers and happy in lowered tunings. If you spend most of your time in open D or DADGAD, consider a slightly heavier set to stop the bass strings flapping.

Keep the guitar somewhere between 45 and 55 per cent relative humidity, away from radiators and draughty windows. Wipe the strings after playing and change them every few weeks if you practise daily — dead strings are the most common reason a decent guitar sounds disappointing.

Above all, buy the instrument you want to reach for. A modest, well-set-up guitar that lives on a stand and gets played every evening will teach you more about folk music than an expensive one that stays in its case.