Are Tariffs Making Used Guitars More Expensive? What's Actually Happening to Prices in 2026

Short answer, from someone who has a stream of these instruments crossing the bench every week: new guitar prices are climbing, tariffs are a real part of why, and the used market has barely flinched. If you've been putting off a used purchase because you assumed the whole market was getting dragged up along with new retail, you can relax a little. That isn't what's happening.

But "just buy used, it's cheaper" is a lazy answer, and I'm not going to hand it to you. What's actually going on is more interesting than that, and it changes how I'd shop right now.

New prices are climbing, and tariffs are a genuine reason why

This part isn't a rumor. Trade economists tracking musical-instrument imports put the average effective tariff on instruments and parts at roughly 16–17% in early 2026 — up from the prior year and close to triple what it was in 2024. Import volumes fell about 20% over the same stretch, and some categories of parts and accessories saw their duties roughly triple. That last detail matters more than people realize: even a guitar assembled in the United States is full of imported parts. Tuners, pickups, pots, switches, hardware, and cases very often come in from overseas, so "Made in USA" on the headstock doesn't make a build tariff-proof.

The brands have said the quiet part out loud. Fender pushed through an across-the-board price increase of about 5% in the summer of 2025 specifically to offset tariff-driven costs, and industry analysts noted that a large share of the company's supply runs through China. When a manufacturer raises the whole catalog by a set percentage, that flows straight to the new-guitar sticker you see at the shop. The same reports flagged something else worth noting: buyers responded by trading down to the second-hand market or simply holding off. In other words, the people writing those reports already see players voting with their wallets for used.

The used market held steady, and there's a simple reason

Here's the part that surprises people. Used electric guitar prices did their wild ride years ago, during the pandemic. By the numbers tracked in the Reverb Price Index, used prices peaked in 2022 at roughly 32% above their 2019 level, then gave a big chunk of that back. Major brands like Gibson and Fender have settled at around 20% above 2019 and mostly drift with the seasons now — small swings of a few percent, not big moves.

Why didn't tariffs light a fire under used prices the way they did new? Because a tariff is charged at the border, on the way in. A used guitar that's already in the country has been here for years. When it changes hands from one player to the next, nobody pays an import duty on it. The cost that's inflating new guitars simply doesn't touch a guitar that's already sitting on a wall in a shop like ours. Used pricing is set by supply and demand between players, not by a customs schedule.

So the gap between new and used quietly got wider

Put the two trends next to each other and the takeaway falls out on its own. New keeps ticking up; used holds roughly flat. The distance between the two — the amount you save by buying pre-owned — has quietly stretched. That's the real story of 2026, and it's a better story than "used is crashing," because used isn't crashing. You're not going to find a wall of panic-priced Les Pauls. What you'll find is that the same used guitar that was a sensible buy two years ago is now an even bigger discount against its new-retail sibling, purely because the new one went up.

The near-new used guitar is where this shows the most. A two- or three-year-old instrument that's already taken its first big depreciation hit, plays in, and comes set up right can sit a long way under new money. You're letting the first owner eat the steepest part of the drop. That math was always good on used gear; tariffs on the new side just made it look even better.

Imports took the hardest hit, which is exactly where used shines

If tariffs land at the border, then the guitars most exposed are the ones built overseas — and that's a huge slice of the market, from beginner instruments up through a lot of very good mid-priced imports. The import squeeze has been real enough that some makers pulled back on their cheapest overseas lines entirely. For a used buyer, that's an opportunity, not a problem. A clean used Japanese- or Mexican-built guitar dodges the whole tariff conversation and often plays every bit as well as the model that now costs more brand-new.

The honest caveats, so you don't get burned chasing a "deal"

Now the part a lot of blogs skip. A used guitar is only a bargain if it's actually a good guitar. The sticker price is not the real price. A used instrument that needs a proper setup, fresh frets, a new nut, or an electronics cleanup can quietly erase a chunk of what you saved. I level frets and chase crackly pots for a living, so I'll tell you plainly: budget for a setup on any used guitar unless you know it's already been gone through, and walk away from anything with a truss rod at its limit, a suspicious headstock repair, or fretwork that's past a level and needs a full refret — unless the price already accounts for it.

That's the whole case for buying used from somebody who checks the guitar before it goes on the wall, rather than rolling the dice on a blind online listing. The market being stable is good news; it also means there's no fire sale forcing anyone to dump problem guitars cheap. Condition still separates a real deal from a project.

What I'd actually do right now

If you're buying: used is the value play in 2026, and it's a wider gap than it was a couple of years ago. Buy the guitar in front of you, not the story attached to it, factor a setup into your budget, and lean toward clean, recent used pieces and good imports where the new-price jump has been steepest. If you're selling: you're not in a falling market, so there's no need to panic-price — a well-presented, properly set-up guitar holds its value fine right now.

Either way, the headline hasn't changed much despite all the tariff noise: the smart money in guitars has always been on the used wall. The 2025–2026 price story just widened the discount. If you want to see what that looks like in practice, our in-stock used guitars are all gone through on the bench before they're listed.

Frequently asked questions

Are used guitar prices going up in 2026?

Not meaningfully. Used electric prices spiked during the pandemic, peaking around 2022, then came back down and have held roughly steady since — moving with normal seasonal demand rather than climbing. The price increases you're hearing about are mostly on new guitars.

Do tariffs make used guitars more expensive?

Only indirectly. Tariffs are charged on imports at the border, so a used guitar already in the country isn't tariffed when it's resold. Tariffs raise new-guitar prices, which can nudge more buyers toward used and firm up demand, but they don't add a duty to a pre-owned instrument.

Is now a good time to buy a used guitar?

For value, yes. New prices have risen while used has stayed flat, so the savings on buying pre-owned are wider than they were a couple of years ago — especially on near-new instruments and imports. Just budget for a setup and buy from someone who inspects the guitar first.

Will tariffs eventually push used prices up too?

It's possible if new prices climb far enough that more buyers give up on new and crowd into the used market, tightening supply. So far that hasn't happened in a big way — used has absorbed the extra interest and stayed stable. We watch the numbers, and we'd rather tell you what's true today than guess at next year.