Near the end of each year, we like to pause as it draws to a close to take stock of the year's best-selling music gear.
The guitar lists below begin with an all-in view of the electric guitar market. This "overall" list includes guitars purchased across all conditions, whether the happy buyer got something brand new from a brick-and-mortar dealer or used from a fellow musician.
Because many regular readers of our annual best-sellers lists have asked for sales of new and used items to be broken out separately, we have done so here in our best-selling electric and acoustic guitars lists, and in others—for synths and electronic gear, pedals and amps, and recording equipment—that will follow.
As always, these lists exclude items that were exclusively for sale on Reverb, on sale for exclusive-to-Reverb prices, or otherwise benefitted from exclusive promotions on our site.
Note: All rankings are determined by total order count—that is, the actual number of items sold, not the total price of sold items.
Key takeaways
- The SE Silver Sky reigns supreme for the second year in a row, helped this year by PRS' brand-wide 20%-off sale on SE guitars, which the company extended across all of its dealers.
- The decades-long competition between Stratocasters and Telecasters has a close yet decisive winner this year in the Strat. Five of the top 20 guitars are proper Stratocasters, seven if you count the Silver Skies.
- Despite PRS taking top honors, Fender's US-built Strats and Teles—in the form of the American Professional II Stratocaster and Telecaster—both outsold the non-SE, John Mayer Signature Silver Sky (which had edged out all US-built Fenders back in 2021).
Key takeaways
- A notable entrant to this list of top-selling guitars is the PRS SE DGT. Launched in January 2023, it brought the David Grissom Tremolo Signature model to a lower price point—and, also notably, was the only exclusion from PRS' year-end sale on SE models.
- The Yamaha Revstar series, which got an overhaul back in 2022, is represented here in the best-selling Revstar II Standard RSS02T.
- The top-selling American Vintage II model from Fender? The '61 Stratocaster, which sold more than any other guitar from the historic-spec line relaunched in late 2022.
Key takeaways
- When separating out top-selling used guitars from new, the Gibson Les Paul Standard '60s jumps up to the number-one spot.
- A truly vintage LP model cracks the top 20 in this view too, with Norlin-era Les Paul Customs, as a group, coming in at No. 14. Earlier this year, we wrote about how these once-derided '70s Gibsons have been steadily gaining value on the used market.
Key takeaways
- After breaking into last year's best-selling acoustics list with just a few days' worth of sales, the Ibanez's Tim Henson Signature TOD10N tops 2023's. (Check out our video with Tim and Polyphia's Scott LePage to hear about the duo's signature models and more.)
- Fender's Made-in-Mexico Acoustasonic Player Telecaster—had it not been removed from rankings because of an exclusive sale price on Reverb—would also make a strong appearance here.
Key takeaways
- While the top five guitars in the new sales list are remarkably similar, we do here see the addition of the Gretsch G9520E Gin Rickey Parlor.
- The Ibanez FRH10N, a model brand new to 2023, is similar to Ibanez's Tim Henson nylon-string acoustic-electric guitar, and claims the No. 10 spot, while the Talman TCY10E is Ibanez's fourth and final on the top 20.
Key takeaways
- The entire Acoustasonic series—whether US-built or MIM—is well-represented in our best-selling used guitar list. (To reiterate our note from the introduction to this article, sales of Reverb-exclusive deals have been excluded from the total orders that inform our rankings here.)
- The Yamaha FG-180, one of several now-vintage FG models often recommended as an affordable alternatives to top-tier vintage acoustics, is the top vintage acousticc, though far from the only one on this list, which also includes the Gibson LG-0s built form 1951-'74, Martin D-28s built from '70 to '84, Gibson LG-1s from '47-'68, and B-25s from '62-'77.