“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.”
The best guitar VST for most producers is Native Instruments’ Session Guitarist, because you hold a chord and it plays a real recorded strum: Strummed Acoustic 2 ($99) for acoustic and Electric Neon (from $79) for pop and EDM electric. For rock and metal, get Shreddage 3 Hydra ($149), and to record a real guitar, get an amp sim like IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 5. The best free guitar VSTs are Ample Guitar M Lite, the LABS guitar packs in Splice INSTRUMENT and Shreddage 3 Stratus FREE.
You’ve got chords that sound good on piano, and you can hear a guitar part on top of them. The problem is you don’t play guitar, or the one in the corner hasn’t been tuned in years.
A guitar VST gets that part into your song anyway. The good ones fool almost anyone, and the bad ones sound like an old phone ringtone, so we checked every plugin below on its maker’s website in October 2026. Then we added the part most lists skip: Mix Elite’s tricks for making any guitar VST sound played, with screenshots.
Table of Contents
What is a guitar VST?
A guitar VST is a plugin that plays guitar sounds from MIDI notes, so you can write a guitar part without holding a guitar. Most are sample libraries. The makers recorded a real guitar note by note and string by string, often in many playing styles, and the plugin picks the right recording for every note you play.
Don’t mix them up with amp sims. An amp sim is an effect for a real guitar that you plug into your audio interface, while a guitar VST is the guitar itself, played from your keyboard or the piano roll. Most of this list is guitar instruments. If you own a guitar, the three best amp sims for it come further down, and our list of the best amp simulators has more.
Max, the founder of Mix Elite, loves real instruments in his tracks. In Mix Elite’s free 4.5-hour FL Studio course he says “I love real instruments, they bring life into your music,” and for most producers a guitar VST is the easiest way to get one into a beat.
Guitar VSTs come in two main kinds, and the difference matters more than the brand:
- Pattern players: you hold a chord, and the plugin plays a recorded strum, riff or picking pattern in time with your song. They’re the easiest choice if you don’t play guitar. Session Guitarist and UJAM’s Virtual Guitarist work this way.
- Playable libraries: you play every note yourself, and keyswitches (special keys below the playing range) switch between techniques like palm mutes, slides and harmonics. Shreddage 3 works this way, and Ample Guitar and MusicLab do both.
Many guitar libraries also run inside Kontakt, Native Instruments’ sampler plugin. Every Kontakt library on this list runs in the free Kontakt Player, but some others need the paid full Kontakt, so check the product page before you buy. Our list of free Kontakt libraries has more instruments that run in it.
What is the best guitar VST?
For most producers, the best guitar VST is Native Instruments’ Session Guitarist, because you hold a chord and it plays a real recorded strum or riff. Strummed Acoustic 2 ($99) covers acoustic, and Electric Neon (from $79) covers pop and EDM electric. For rock and metal riffs, Impact Soundworks’ Shreddage 3 Hydra ($149) is the pick.
If you’d rather play every note yourself, Ample Guitar M ($169) needs no Kontakt. If you play a real guitar, you want an amp sim like AmpliTube 5 instead. And if you don’t want to spend anything yet, start with the free guitar VSTs further down.
How to choose a guitar VST
Think about the parts your songs need before you look at prices. These five questions narrow it down fast:
- Acoustic or electric? They’re different instruments, and most producers end up with one of each.
- Patterns or playing? If you don’t play guitar, start with a pattern player. If you like writing every note, pick a playable library.
- Which style? Rock and metal need palm mutes and power chords. Pop, house and EDM need clean, bright strums and plucks.
- Kontakt or not? Kontakt libraries need the free Kontakt Player at least. Ample Sound and MusicLab make their own plugins, so they also open as standalone apps.
- How much disk space? The Session Guitarist libraries are roughly 6 to 28 GB downloads, while Ample Guitar M Lite is under 1 GB.
We re-checked every price and free download below on each maker’s own website on October 12, 2026, and the newest picks on October 21. We checked versions and formats earlier in October. Prices are regular US prices, and where a maker showed a sale that day, we give the date. Check the maker’s page before you buy.
Which guitar VST is best for beginners?
A pattern player, because you only hold a chord and it plays a real recorded part. UJAM’s Virtual Guitarist is the simplest guitar VST on this list, and Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic 2 is the easiest way to get a real strummed acoustic. To start free, Ample Guitar M Lite 4 has a built-in Strummer and sounds professional.
Playable libraries sound great too. They just take more practice, because you have to learn their keyswitches before your parts sound played.
The best acoustic guitar VSTs
Acoustic guitar is the hardest guitar to fake, because every strum has so much detail in it. These three get closest.
1. Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic 2 (Native Instruments)
Strummed Acoustic 2 is the easiest way to get a real strummed acoustic into a song. You hold a chord, and it plays one of 163 recorded strum patterns, organized into 34 songs, in time with your track. Change the chord, and the strum follows.
It was recorded on two guitars, a 1934 Martin 0-17 and a Guild 12-string, and it has a Tap Rhythm Finder: tap a rhythm on your keyboard and it finds the matching pattern. It costs $99, runs in the free Kontakt Player and is a 9.6 GB download.
Best for: strummed acoustic for non-guitarists.
2. Ample Guitar M (Ample Sound)
Ample Guitar M is a sampled Martin D-41, and it’s the one to get if you want to play the guitar part yourself. Every string and fret was recorded in three styles: fingerpicked, played with a pick, and strummed.
It has a built-in Strummer for chords, Riffer 4 for patterns and a Tab Reader that plays Guitar Pro files. It costs $169, needs no Kontakt, and runs as VST, VST3, AU, AAX or a standalone app. There’s no trial. The free Lite version further down is a good test drive, though.
Best for: playing every note, no Kontakt needed.
3. RealGuitar 6 (MusicLab)
RealGuitar 6 is built for keyboard players. It has performance modes for solo lines, harmonies and chords, and a Song sequencer that builds a whole guitar part from the chord names you type in and the recorded rhythm patterns you pick.
Version 6 has two instruments in one, the original Classic models and a new Steel String set. It costs $199 and runs as VST, VST3, AU, AAX or a standalone app.
Best for: guitar parts played from a MIDI keyboard.
The best electric guitar VSTs
Electric guitar is easier to fake than acoustic, because the amp hides small flaws. The trick is picking a library made for your style.
4. Session Guitarist Electric Neon (Native Instruments)
Electric Neon is the newest Session Guitarist, made for pop and EDM producers. It works like Strummed Acoustic 2: hold a chord and it plays a recorded pattern. A second mode lets you play your own melodies on the same guitar.
Electric Neon Essentials costs $79 with 148 patterns, and the Deluxe version costs $149 with 240 patterns. Both run in the free Kontakt Player.
Best for: clean pop and EDM guitar parts.
5. Session Guitarist Electric Sunburst (Native Instruments)
Electric Sunburst is the original electric Session Guitarist, a sampled six-string electric with a warm, flexible tone. You hold a chord, and it plays one of 154 recorded strums, riffs and arpeggios, organized into 31 songs, in time with your track. Change the chord and it follows.
It comes with its own pedals, amps, cabinets and mix effects. It costs $99. It runs in the free Kontakt Player and is a 5.8 GB download. Electric Sunburst Deluxe ($149) adds a second instrument for playing your own melodies, 237 patterns in 51 songs, real-time bends and vibrato, and more amps and effects.
Best for: electric strums, riffs and arpeggios without playing a note.
6. Shreddage 3 Hydra (Impact Soundworks)
Shreddage 3 Hydra is an eight-string electric for rock and metal leads and heavy chugs. It has more than 30,000 samples from two pickups and more than 50 tone snapshots to start from.
Like the whole series, it’s recorded as a clean DI signal, the dry guitar before any amp, so you shape the tone with your own amp sim. It costs $149, runs in the free Kontakt Player and takes 14 GB. The Shreddage 3 series also has 6-, 7- and 9-string guitars and a hollowbody.
Best for: rock and metal riffs and chugs.
7. RealStrat 6 (MusicLab)
RealStrat 6 is a sampled Fender Stratocaster with the same keyboard-friendly performance modes as RealGuitar. The new Elite set was recorded from each of the three pickups, so you can choose the pickup sound you want.
It costs $139, runs as VST, VST3, AU, AAX or a standalone app, and needs no Kontakt.
Best for: classic Strat parts without Kontakt.
8. Virtual Guitarist SPARKLE 2 (UJAM)
UJAM’s Virtual Guitarist plugins are the simplest guitar VSTs on this list. You play a chord in the Play Range and pick a phrase with your left hand, and the plugin plays a full strummed or picked part in time with your song. SPARKLE 2 is the clean-to-crunchy pop electric, with more than 30 styles and 350 phrases.
The family covers most styles: AMBER 2 is a steel-string acoustic, SILK 2 a nylon guitar, IRON 2 plays rock and CARBON plays metal. Each one lists at $129, but on October 12, 2026, UJAM’s own pages showed sale prices: $28.38 for SPARKLE 2, AMBER 2 and SILK 2, and $9.03 for IRON 2 and CARBON. They run as VST2, VST3, AU and AAX, and an Instrument mode lets you play the notes yourself.
Best for: instant guitar parts for non-guitarists.
What is the best VST for ambient guitar textures?
For dreamy pads, slow swells and guitar sounds that don’t sound like a guitar anymore, a synth with a big guitar library goes further than any guitar VST.
9. Omnisphere 3 (Spectrasonics)
Omnisphere 3 is a synth, not a guitar VST. Still, a big part of its sound library started as guitar. Spectrasonics’ library page lists hundreds of patches in its Guitars categories and a Guitar Family of 78 core soundsources, the raw recordings its sounds are built from. You can stretch, layer and filter them into ambient guitar parts that a normal guitar library can’t make.
It costs $499, runs as VST2, VST3, AU or AAX plus a standalone app, and needs 64 GB of free disk space. Spectrasonics doesn’t offer a demo version because of the library’s size. Our guide to the best synth plugins covers the rest of what it can do.
Best for: ambient guitar textures.
What are the best guitar VSTs for recording a real guitar?
If you play guitar yourself, you need an amp sim, not a guitar instrument. You plug your guitar into an audio interface, and the plugin makes it sound like it’s coming out of a real amp, speaker and mic. No loud amp needed. AmpliTube 5 gives you the most gear, BIAS X builds a tone from a description, and EZmix 3 gets you a finished tone with one preset.
Our full list of the best amp simulators has more, including free ones and the two already in FL Studio.
10. AmpliTube 5 (IK Multimedia)
AmpliTube 5 is a whole guitar store in one plugin: pedals, amps, cabinets, mics, rooms and rack effects that you wire up however you like. IK developed its gear with brands like Fender, Mesa/Boogie and Orange, and AmpliTube 5 also plays TONEX Tone Models, IK’s AI captures of real amps.
It lists at $199.99. On October 21, 2026, IK’s store had it on sale for $29.99. To start free, get AmpliTube 5 CS, which comes with 41 gear models, and add more later. It runs as VST3, AU or AAX, plus a standalone app.
Best for: the most amps, cabinets and pedals in one plugin.
11. BIAS X (Positive Grid)
BIAS X is Positive Grid’s newest amp sim. Its older BIAS FX 2 is no longer for sale, and BIAS FX 2 owners can upgrade for $99. Type the sound you want into Text to Tone, or give Music to Tone a song, and it builds a rig for you with an amp, a cabinet and effects. Then you tweak it.
It costs $149. There’s a 14-day free trial, it runs as VST3, AU or AAX plus a standalone app, and it needs a free Positive Grid account. The AI features need an internet connection.
Best for: building a tone from a description of it.
12. EZmix 3 with Metal Guitar Gods 3 (Toontrack)
EZmix 3 is Toontrack’s preset-based mixing plugin, and it handles guitar too. Its guitar and bass presets include AI amp captures based on real guitar and bass rigs, and it can analyze your clean DI guitar signal and tune the preset to it. Pick a preset and tweak its macro knobs. That’s it.
For heavier tones, add an EZmix Pack like Metal Guitar Gods 3 ($39): about 50 guitar and bass settings modeled on the personal tones of Ola Englund, Keith Merrow, Andy James and Adam Dutkiewicz. EZmix 3 costs $149, or $69 to upgrade from an older EZmix, and there’s a free trial. It runs as VST3, AU or AAX plus a standalone app.
Best for: ready-made guitar tones without learning amps.
What are the best free guitar VSTs?
The best free guitar VSTs are Ample Guitar M Lite 4 for acoustic, Shreddage 3 Stratus FREE for rock electric, the LABS Electric Guitars pack in Splice INSTRUMENT, and Heavyocity’s FOUNDATIONS Nylon Guitar. FL Studio 2026 also includes a free Core Guitars pack in FLEX, and Distructor’s amp and speaker modules add amp tone for free. You can get all four for $0.
Two of them made Mix Elite’s top 10 free instruments in the video below.
13. Ample Guitar M Lite 4 (Ample Sound)
Ample Guitar M Lite is the free version of Ample Guitar M. Max calls it a “really professional sounding guitar that will spice up your tracks,” and it’s number 10 in Mix Elite’s top 10 free instruments for trap, drill and hip-hop.
Version 4 has the fingerstyle samples with five techniques, plus the Strummer, a limited Riffer and the Tab Reader. It’s an 877 MB download, needs no Kontakt, and runs as VST, VST3, AU, AAX or a standalone app. Ample’s download page sends you to partner stores for the free copy.
Best for: a free acoustic that’s actually playable.
14. LABS Electric Guitars (Splice)
LABS started as Spitfire Audio’s free instrument plugin, and Max calls it “the hands down best free VST instrument plugin.” Today LABS lives inside Splice INSTRUMENT, a free plugin that needs a free Splice account. An old LABS install keeps working, but new downloads come through INSTRUMENT.
Electric Guitars is the pack to start with: classic electric tones from dark rock to blues, pop and 80s chorus sounds, put together by three guitarists. The other free guitar packs include Peel Guitar (a Telecaster through a small vintage amp), Ambient Guitars, Guitar Harmonics, Lap Steel and Moon Guitar, a Chinese moon guitar that Mix Elite’s drill melodies tutorial uses for color. INSTRUMENT runs as VST3, AU, AAX or a standalone app.
Best for: free guitar tones and textures.
15. Shreddage 3 Stratus FREE (Impact Soundworks)
Shreddage 3 Stratus FREE is a cut-down version of the $149 Shreddage 3 Stratus, a six-string electric. You get the neck pickup and a set of the most useful playing techniques, with up to 24 samples per note.
It’s name-your-price. Paying $0 works, it runs in the free Kontakt Player, and the download is about 1 GB.
Best for: a free electric for rock parts.
16. FOUNDATIONS Nylon Guitar (Heavyocity)
FOUNDATIONS Nylon Guitar is a free nylon-string guitar from Heavyocity’s line of free instruments. Next to the guitar there’s a second, ambient string texture you can blend in, plus a Gate/Arpeggio control that turns held notes into rhythmic patterns.
It comes with 10 presets, runs in the free Kontakt Player (version 6.7.1 or later) and is a 530 MB download. You check out at $0 in Heavyocity’s store.
Best for: soft nylon parts and textures.
Does FL Studio have a guitar VST?
Not a dedicated one, but you may already have the guitar sound you need. Since FL Studio 2026, FLEX comes with eight free Core Series packs in every edition, and one of them is Core Guitars. Open FLEX, click Library and pick the pack.
Every edition also has Plucked!, a simple plucked-string synth, and BooBass, a bass guitar plugin, and the All Plugins Edition adds Sakura for plucked and string sounds. Most of FL Studio’s other instruments are synths, and our guide to the best synth plugins covers those. For realistic strums, riffs and techniques like palm mutes, a dedicated guitar VST still goes further.
FL Studio also gives you guitar tools. The piano roll’s Strum tool turns any chord into a strum (more on that below), and Distructor, in every edition too, has amp and speaker modules that make a clean guitar sound like it’s coming out of an amp. Our list of the best amp simulators covers bigger options.
Why does my guitar VST sound fake, and how do you fix it?
Usually because the part is written like a piano part: every note hits at once, at the same strength, squeezed into the middle of the keyboard. Spread the chord out, strum it, vary the velocity and use palm mutes and slides. Pattern players like Session Guitarist skip the problem, because every strum was recorded from a real player.
These six fixes take a few minutes and make the biggest difference:
- Spread the chord out. A guitarist plays the root low and stacks the other notes over a wide range, so avoid three notes squashed together in the middle of the keyboard.
- Strum, don’t stab. On a real guitar the strings sound one after another, never all at once.
- Change the velocity. No guitarist hits every strum equally hard. Make the off-beats softer.
- Use the real techniques. Palm mutes, slides and hammer-ons are what make a part sound played, so learn your library’s keyswitches.
- Double it. For wide rhythm guitar, record the part twice, with small differences, and pan one take left and one right.
- Give electric parts an amp. DI libraries like Shreddage are recorded dry, before any amp, so you shape the tone with an amp sim, and the amp also hides small flaws. Distructor’s amp and speaker modules come with every FL Studio edition, and our list of the best amp simulators has bigger options.
How to strum chords with the Strumizer
FL Studio can do the strum for you. Select the chord notes in the piano roll and press Alt + S to open the Strum tool, which FL Studio’s window calls the strumizer. Turn the Time knob (1) until the chord rolls like a strum, then click Accept (2).
Tick Alternate direction first if you want every other chord to strum upward, like a guitarist’s down-up strokes. It’s the same shortcut Mix Elite’s melody-writing tutorial recommends for chords in the piano roll.
How to use a guitar VST’s strum mode
Most guitar VSTs can also strum on their own. The video above plays Ample Guitar M Lite in single-note mode, but you can switch it to strum mode. Click Strummer (1), pick a chord, and the pattern sequencer (2) plays it as a rhythm.
Good guitar parts start with good chords, so if you’re stuck on what to play, our guide to writing chords in FL Studio is the place to start.
How to add a guitar VST to FL Studio
Every guitar VST that comes as its own plugin installs the same way. Mix Elite’s free FL Studio course shows it with LABS:
- Download the plugin from the maker’s website and run the installer. Note the folder it uses for VST3 files.
- In FL Studio, open Options, then File settings (1), and click Manage plugins (2).
- Click Find installed plugins, type the name in the Find box and click the star next to it, so it’s quick to find later.
- Close the window, click + in the Channel Rack and choose your guitar.
Kontakt libraries like Session Guitarist and Shreddage work a little differently. Install the free Kontakt Player, activate the library in Native Access, Native Instruments’ install app, then add Kontakt in FL Studio and load the guitar inside it.
If a plugin doesn’t show up, it’s almost always installed in a folder FL Studio doesn’t scan. Our full guide to installing VST plugins in FL Studio walks you through the fixes.
DAY 2 OF THE 7-DAY MUSIC PRODUCER COURSE
Guitar sorted. Day 2 teaches you the chords to play on it.
Day 2 of the 7-Day course covers music theory, chords and melodies, plus where to find pro-quality instruments, paid and free, and how to install them. You get a 3-step formula for chord progressions that hook listeners, 4 easy ways to write melodies even if you’ve never touched a keyboard, 30+ chord progressions and 20+ free plugins and tools. It’s taught in FL Studio (the free trial works), about 45 minutes a day, and it’s $27 with 60 days to decide if it was worth it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best guitar VST?
For most producers it’s Native Instruments’ Session Guitarist. You hold a chord and it plays a real recorded strum or riff, so you don’t need to play guitar. Strummed Acoustic 2 costs $99, and Electric Neon starts at $79. For rock and metal, Impact Soundworks’ Shreddage 3 is the better pick, and for playing every note yourself, Ample Guitar M. If you play a real guitar, get an amp sim like AmpliTube 5 instead.
Which guitar VST is best for beginners?
A pattern player, because you hold a chord and it plays a real recorded part, so you don’t need to play guitar. UJAM’s Virtual Guitarist is the simplest to use, and Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic 2 ($99) is the easiest way to a real strummed acoustic. To start free, try Ample Guitar M Lite 4.
What is the best free guitar VST?
Ample Guitar M Lite 4 is the best free acoustic: a sampled Martin D-41 with a built-in Strummer, and it sounds really professional. For electric, get Shreddage 3 Stratus FREE, which runs in the free Kontakt Player. The LABS guitar packs in Splice INSTRUMENT and Heavyocity’s FOUNDATIONS Nylon Guitar are free too.
Why does my guitar VST sound fake or robotic?
Usually because the part is written like a piano part, with every note hitting at once at the same velocity. Spread the chord out, strum it, vary the velocity, use palm mutes and slides, and put electric parts through an amp sim. Pattern players like Session Guitarist sound real right away, because every strum was recorded from a real player.
Does FL Studio have a guitar plugin?
Not a dedicated one, but every edition of FL Studio 2026 comes with FLEX and its free Core Guitars pack, plus Plucked! and BooBass. The piano roll’s Strum tool (Alt + S) turns chords into strums, and Distructor adds amp and speaker sound. For realistic strums and techniques, add a guitar VST like Ample Guitar M Lite, which is free.
