Have you ever played a Fender Acoustic?
The first time I saw Fender on an acoustic headstock, I was very surprised. I’ve owned a couple of Fender Strats over the years and my favorite one’s also a Fender, so I was very excited to hear how the acoustic sounded.
The Fender Acoustic CDSCE is a budget instrument that packs excellent playability and fantastic looks into a cheap package.
In this article, we take a look at the Fender CD 60SCE to see how it fares as mid-range acoustic and if it suits an intermediate player well. Let’s get on with it!
Table of Contents
Overview of Fender Acoustic CD 60SCE
Fender CD-60SCE Semi-Acoustic Guitar
What We Like
- Fantastic looks
- Excellent playability
- Great value for price
- Perfect for any beginner – intermediate
Our Verdict
The Fender CD 60SCE is a wonderful budget choice because of the fantastic design and fuller tone.
The CD60 SCE is made out of quality materials with no defects or rough points. It’s a great choice for somebody looking for an inexpensive instrument that doesn’t feel cheap when playing.
Fender- The Brand
Apart from the classic Fender Strat Series which every guitarist knows, Fender has a proud line of fantastic acoustic guitars that are worth their weight in gold!
The Fender Acoustic CD 60SCE has an excellent playability with fantastic attention to construction detail.
The CD 60SCE is one of the popular S series acoustic guitars. The CD means that it’s a Classic Design model. The letters S, C and E stand for S series, Cut-away and Electro-acoustic respectively.
Aesthetics
The full scale Fender CD 60SCE is set apart from the standard dreadnoughts by a single-cutaway body style.
The classic Fender logo on the headstock looks cool too!
I find well-crafted guitars very attractive. The clean fingerboard edges on the CD60 SCE not only look nice but also make playing a pain-free experience.
The CD 60SCE also features a slim neck shape that adds to the beauty of the instrument.
I don’t think it matters much to a beginner whether the top is laminate or a solid-body. Personally, I don’t like laminated wood on my guitars if I can help it.
The Fender CD 60SCE comes in two flavors- one with an elegant mahogany top and one with a beautiful Spruce top. I prefer the Mahogany top but you may like the other just as much or even more!
The gloss finish on the body adds to the finesse of the Fender instrument.
If there’s one thing I don’t like about this acoustic, it’s the plastic nut which is quite understandable given the inexpensive aspect. You can easily replace one with a nice bone nut if you like.
Fender seems to have done everything right on this and there’s no room to complain about the design aspect!
Tuning
Whether an instrument can stay in tune for extended periods or not is what makes or breaks its value to an intermediate. I know the struggle firsthand- if you’ve got a cheap guitar that won’t hold tune while you do even a half-step bend, you won’t have much motivation to keep playing.
As much as I’d like to not say this- I’m a lazy person and find tuning guitars bothersome. Is the CD 60SCE good for me?
It sure is!
The chrome die-cast tuning machines are nice enough for me to not get annoyed tuning the instrument frequently.
The intonation on this bad boy comes set up well, so it plays great straight out of the box!
It’s certainly not the best you could find on high-end guitars, but it’s great on this guitar. And for the low price, it’s certainly nice.
Neck
The Fender CD 60SCE features a mahogany neck which looks great.
The choice of neck wood is fantastic as mahogany also helps with the warm tone and resonance.
You can glide effortlessly on the easy-to-play-neck which has a gloss finish. I prefer satin or matte finish on my guitars as they feel better to my hands but you can go for gloss ones too. To me, a satin neck doesn’t feel sticky since I have sweaty hands.
To a beginner or an intermediate player, the difference isn’t noticeable to a large extent and you may just like the gloss ones better.
The Gloss Urethane neck finish looks great.
There are also beautiful Pearloid inlays to help keep track of frets while playing.
20 vintage-style frets help with the incredibly comfortable fret-hand feel. Vintage just means that they’re a bit smaller than standard which is a good thing for beginners as it makes learning and playing chords less of a stretch.
Vintage-style necks aren’t great for bending but you probably won’t do that on an acoustic anyway. Most acoustic guitarists stick to rhythm and the CD 60SCE is great for that!
This acoustic guitar offers two wonderful choices for the fingerboard. You can get a walnut fingerboard and bridge if you go for the mahogany version or rosewood for the same if you decide to get the Spruce top.
It may feel odd to have a walnut fingerboard and bridge but trust me, it’s one of the exotic woods that look really good on your guitar. Tone-wise, walnut lends a deep tone but is somewhat less durable than rosewood as walnut is softer.
Body
The CD-60S solid top dreadnought acoustic guitar is set apart from the classic dread-body by a single-cutaway body.
The Fender CD 60SCE features a choice between a solid spruce top and a beautiful mahogany top. The top is supported by scalloped x-bracing which helps bring out a more resonant sound and lends the acoustic a characteristic sound.
The scalloped X-bracing isn’t a new thing but it’s found on most premium guitars nowadays. Martin produces guitars with both straight and scalloped bracings. You may or may not feel the difference in resonant tone due to the bracing.
I prefer the CD 60SCE with a mahogany top as it sounds great to me. I like to think that the choice of modern tonewood on your guitar is always a personal one.
The Fender semi-acoustic guitar has a built-in Fishman pre-amp with 2-band EQ. 2-band EQ means that you can adjust the bass and treble on this. Not having access to the mids is something that bugs me because it’s where the range of guitar lies.
For intermediate-level players, it’s no problem at all. In fact, there’s a built-in tuner that comes in real handy when you’re at a gig and need to quickly get set up for the show.
How It Sounds?
The Fender 60SCE sounds great when played unamplified.
There are very few things that can beat the unaltered natural tones of this warm acoustic guitar.
If you want to play blazing fast lead lines, an electric is obviously the appropriate instrument but if you want to play rhythm as to accompany the lead player, an acoustic is the perfect choice for you!
It’s good for some laid-back fingerstyle as well as blues. If you’re into jazzy sevenths or thirteens, it’s great for that too!
I am more into blues solos than rhythm but I still like using this acoustic to learn theory bits. I find it easy to learn the sound of scales and arpeggios without getting distracted by the loud amplified sound of electric.
Score
Bottom Line
The CD 60SCE is a fantastic budget instrument for the intermediate – pro guitarist and sounds great. It’s got laminated back and sides which is reasonable for the price, but other than that, it offers a solid value for the price.
It sounds excellent in an acoustic setting and you have the option to hook it up to an amp to get a louder sound.
FAQ
What batteries go into the pre-amp?
The Fender CD 60SCE uses standard 9-Volt batteries for the pre-amp. I personally prefer using rechargeable batteries so I can reuse them without worrying about new ones.