10 FREE Guitar VST Plugins That Actually Sound Real

Free guitar plugins can be a little risky. Sometimes you get a genuinely useful instrument. Sometimes you get a MIDI guitar that sounds like it is being played through a microwave.

In my latest video, I test 10 free guitar VSTs and libraries covering acoustic, nylon, electric, bass, lo-fi and cinematic sounds.

1. Vinyl Guitar 2

A characterful guitar plugin made for lo-fi, chillout, hip-hop and nostalgic production. Great when you want something more textured than a clean traditional guitar sound.

2. The Deer, the Fox and the Guitar

A soft, intimate nylon guitar library with cinematic and ambient potential. Easily one of the nicest-looking free guitar instruments around as well.

Requires: Free Kontakt Player

3. Heavyocity Foundations Nylon Guitar

A mellow nylon guitar with atmospheric textures built in. Ideal for emotional chords, cinematic intros, ambient tracks and softer melodic ideas.

Requires: Free Kontakt Player

4. Stella Free Edition by Venus Theory

A beautifully imperfect sampled guitar with an aged, folky tone. This one is perfect for intimate indie, lo-fi, ambient and cinematic ideas.

Requires: Free Decent Sampler

5. MG Soft Nylon Guitar Lite

A straightforward soft nylon guitar library with a natural, close-up feel. Great for layering under vocals or building emotional chord progressions quickly.

Requires: Free Decent Sampler

6. Ample Guitar M Lite II

One of the classic free acoustic guitar plugins. It has enough control and articulation options to make convincing parts when you program it like a guitarist rather than a piano player.

7. Ample Bass P Lite II

Not technically a guitar, but far too useful to leave out. A free bass guitar instrument for adding more realism and movement to your productions.

8. Shreddage 3 Stratus Free

A seriously capable free electric guitar library. Best suited to people who want a more detailed electric-guitar sound with plenty of performance control.

Requires: Free Kontakt Player

9. Classic GTR 2 Lite

A creative guitar tool with built-in effects for quickly getting distorted, modulated and more experimental guitar-style sounds into a track.

10. Splice INSTRUMENT

A free instrument plugin with playable sounds and regular free drops. Great for fast inspiration when you want polished guitar-style sounds without loading up another huge library.

Note: The plugin download is free, while some libraries and packs are subscription-based.

Which One Sounded Best?

Watch the full video for demos, my favourites, and the ones I would actually use in a real track.