sparquelito Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 I was in a guitar shop today, noodling around and picking up some new guitar strings and extra picks. I went back into the acoustic room and had it all to myself. I decided to spend exactly one minute with several guitars, all in a row. Picked one off the wall, right behind the other, and played the exact same figure on each guitar. I thought, "Well, this will be fun. I have no expected outcomes, I'm not particularly comparing apples to oranges, I'm just having fun and seeing if anything jumps out at me that is unique about these guitars." That, and I'm not in the market for a new guitar, not for another year or so. Luckily for me, all the guitars were in perfect tune. Don't ask me to name the exact models. I tried a $600 Taylor. I tried a beautiful $1,300 Martin. I tried a really gorgeous $1,200 Gibson. An Epiphone Hummingbird. A Luna, a Washburn, and a Yamaha. I even fished a $4,000 Gibson off the wall and gave it a ginger, tender test run. One minute each, same figure, over and over. There were no clunkers. They all played well and sounded nice, some nicer than others. But nothing really kicked me between the eyes like a lightning bolt of awesomeness, not really. But one guitar was such a surprise that I had to go back to it at the end, just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. It was, of all things, a Fender. Now, I know it and you know it; Fender makes fine electrics, but their acoustics have always been student-level, not-very-impressive guitars. Nothing to write home about. Mediocre, even. But this thing just knocked my socks off. Beautiful fit and finish. Gorgeous sound, splendid feel, and perfect intonation. And it played like a guitar that cost five times as much. The model was the improbably-named Fender T-Bucket 300CE. $299 was the sticker price. I'm telling you, if you are out shopping for your son, daughter, or nephew, and they are on a budget, then this crazy Fender may just be the ticket. I was genuinely impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 A cupla years ago I ended up with a "mail order" steal on a slightly bashed Fender 12-string AE. I figured, what the heck, what can I lose? Well, I lost my prejudice against Fender acoustics. There may still be a lot of 'em that are crud, but... Mine, if it's not the CD-160SE, it's a predecessor. Current price is around $450 mail order. I got mine for about than a third of that, with case, from a major online "store." The price gave me courage to try, the playing? It did a half dozen gigs AE through various PA qualities with great results and a wide range of potential "tone" as well as excellent playability. I would have preferred a shorter scale, but given I tuned it down and use a capo anyway, no big deal. It can sound almost like a Ric, or like whatever picker you wanna mention you've heard live or on recordings. I wrote its praises "here" when I bought it, and here we go again. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glp2012 Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 The Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat is a nice guitar too. If I had an extra $350, I'd buy one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 I did something similar to what you did a few years ago myself. And I came to the same conclusion. The Fender won. I compared it to some very expensive guitars. But it held it's own. Ever since then I have always thought Fender acoustics were underrated. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StRanger7032 Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 I agree that Fender acoustics can be underrated. They've made some good ones over the years. I bought a Korean Fender F-210 as my first steel string acoustic when I was 14. It was a very well built guitar, if not the greatest tone-wise. I played it for decades until I wore the open chord frets down to the board. It wasn't worth a re-fret so I gave it to KSDaddy to fix up and give to someone who could use it. I played some of the new solid wood Fenders a few weeks back and they were pretty darn good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 Looks like some knobs sticking up from the upper bout. Does it have a pickup as well? Or a tuner built in? Either way pretty amazing for $299. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 I've been looking for a better acoustic guitar. I did the same thing awhile back and while some of the most expensive sounded good I couldn't afford them. Then played some lower priced ones and figured I'd go back home and play mine again. It's a cheap Fender FA-135 CE. The 1st one I bought when I started learning again. For just playing at home you know, it sounds pretty nice and always stays in tune. So I guess I'll just keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quapman Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 I've only ever played a couple Fender acoustics. I must say they were really bad. If I was to spend cheap money on a cheap acoustic I would go Yamaha, or a Tak. I've played plenty of them they both played nice and sounded nice. Just my 2 bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Imports are all pretty consistent around the board actually.. 300 bucks can buy a lot of guitar these days. and btw.. Fender's new acoustic line up "Paramount" are excellent http://shop.fender.com/en-US/paramount-series but, they are not cheap.. you're going to be paying around 800~1k for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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