Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic Electric Guitar Review to Love

The Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic Electric sports a laminated mahogany top, back, and sides, which provides the tonality of the guitar with a warm and rich voice.

This guitar also has a rosewood fingerboard, vintage-style open-gear tuners, Fender’s advanced scalloped bracing, and a maple neck. The Scalloped X Bracing helps to increase the resonance of the CD-60, as well as to expand the reach of its volume and tone.

By using laminated mahogany provides the guitar with a professional look, as well as a bold and rich sound. Using laminated wood instead of real mahogany ensures that the guitar is light weight for beginners to feel comfortable playing, as well as being in a price range that’s comfortable for all levels of users to afford.

The neck of the CD-60 is made from real mahogany, to give support and strength to the rest of the guitar. The die-cast tuners that the CD-6O comes equipped with allow the guitar to stay in tune for long periods of time, as well as ensuring that the strings have better intonation

Fender uses synthetic bone compensated saddle on their CD-60; this guitar also has a built-in Fishman ISYS III System with Active Onboard Preamp and tuner, which helps to aid in easier turning when you have your guitar plugged in.

CD-60 has a nut width of 43mm and a scale length of 64.3 cm, which is the perfect length for any dreadnought guitar.

Fender CD-60 Dreadnought — Image from Flickr

Criteria:

It is most definitely easy to become overwhelmed by the massive guitar market that’s available; there are a countless number of guitars available in every single style in the world.

In order to know how to evaluate a guitar’s quality to make sure that the guitar you’re looking at is the proper one for your needs, you need to understand what criteria is used to evaluate a guitar’s quality.

This review of the Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar will look at the following criteria:

The playability to the CD-60
The materials that this guitar is made from
Who the CD-60is best guitar is best suited for
The tone
The value of the CD-60 for your money

Do you recommend it the CD-60?

I personally do not recommend the CD-60. While it is a decent sounding guitar and plays well, you can find better sounding guitars at the same price range. While this guitar does a fairly good job producing a deep and moderately rich tone while strummed, it lacks sound projection, clarity, and definition of individual notes when fingerpicking.

However, if you are looking for a guitar that feels like it’s built to last, the CD-60 would be a good guitar for you. But, if you are looking for a guitar that has quality sound projection, tonality, and clarity, I would suggest looking at a different guitar.

Fender promises that this guitar is perfect for live performances, due to the dreadnought shape of the body. However, the sound projection is not perfect for on-stage, live performances, due to the lack of projection while finger picking.

Core features of the Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic Electric

If you’re deciding that you’re falling in love with this guitar and want to do more research, chances are you’re going to run into several terms that you don’t understand what they mean. That’s why we’re here to help! If you want to know what all of those numbers and letters that talk about the CD-60 guitar stand for, I’ve compiled a list that explained what they are!

CD: Classic Design

What does Fender advertise the CD-60 as?

Fender describes their CD-60 Acoustic Electric to produce a mellow, yet strong sound with the distinction between each pitch.

The CD-60 is also said to maintain a consistent sound while played in different settings while producing enough sound to satisfy beginning and intermediate players.

What features does the CD-60 have to offer?

Comes in several colors; black, natural, or sunburst
Scalloped X Bracing
Laminated Mahogany
3” scale
69” nut width
Indian rosewood fingerboard
20 frets
Fender FTE3-TN Active On-Board Preamp
Built in chromic tuner, volume, bass, mid, and treble
Fender style Dreadnought
Chrome Die Cast Heads
Includes hardshell case

Who is the CD-60 Guitar suited for?

Fender claims that the CD-60 is suited for beginning guitarist, as well as people who like to travel with their guitar and are looking for an affordable, yet high-quality instrument to add to their collection.

However, I would have to say that the CD-60 is suited more for players who want to learn how to play guitar, but aren’t certain if they are going to stick with it. If you want to play just for yourself or a small audience, I would also suggest this guitar to you.

If you are planning to be someone who performs in front of large, live audiences or a concert setting, I would suggest for you to pick a different guitar.

If you are a beginner and choose to pick up this guitar, I would suggest for you to purchase an extra set of strings. The original strings that come with the guitar aren’t of the best quality and break easily.

Pick up and an extra bag of strings so you can replace them when your first set breaks! Maybe you are just looking for a guitar that can travel with you and you’re not worried too much about the quality sound coming from your guitar; I would also suggest this instrument to you.

Does the CD-60 work as advertised?

The Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic Electric is described to be a guitar that has concert level sound projection, consistent tonality, and a high-quality build.

While the build of the CD-60 isn’t really in the question here, as it has been constructed to withstand a small amount of mishandling, the sound projection, sound quality, and tonality don’t live up to what Fender says it to be.

If you’re a beginner and you’re just looking for a basic acoustic-electric guitar, this is most definitely suitable for you. However, if you’re looking for a guitar that’s going to grow with you through your advancing skill level, I would suggest looking at a different guitar.

Also, if you’re looking for a guitar that has professional sound quality, I would also suggest to you to look at a different guitar.

Pros

Since this guitar comes with a hardshell case, this means that your guitar will come in once piece; this also means that you’ll be able to travel with your guitar and keep it safe. This also means you’ll be saving $60-$100 on a hard case.
The rosewood fretboard helps to minimize and absorb the tiny sound in the higher tones
Great audio
The tone is consistent
Stays in tune for a long period of time
Comes in a large variety of body types and colors
Is much cheaper than other high-quality guitars, but has the same playing quality in comparison to high-end guitars

Cons

The rounded fretboard makes fingerstyle playing more difficult but is still possible
The tones of the guitar are unbalanced; the higher tones are more bright in comparison to the middle tones and bass
Only good for right-handed players
Needs replacement strings, as the strings that come with the original guitar aren’t high quality
This guitar is a little bit heavier compared to the standard dreadnought guitar

Other alternative guitars to consider

Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat Acoustic-Electric Guitar

While the Fender CD-60 is made from laminated mahogany, the Tim Armstrong Hellcat is made from solid mahogany; this provides the Tim Armstrong Hellcat with a more solid and better sound quality, in comparison to the CD-60.

The Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat also uses the vintage style open gear to make sure that the guitar stays in tune, even after hours of playing. While the Tim Armstrong Hellcat is considered to be a bit more on the pricier side, it most definitely is one of Fender’s most favorite guitars.

Alvarez Artist Series AD30 Dreadnought Guitar

The AD30 is a part of the “Award Winning” Artist Series. Artist hand selects each of their solid tops and place forward shifted scalloped bracing on each of their guitars, ensuring that sweet and solid sounds come from each and every one of their guitars.

What’s our final take on the Fender CD-60 Dreadnought Acoustic?

Whether you’re a beginning guitarist or just someone who is looking to add to their travel collection, and you are looking to make a good investment, the Fender CD-60 offers a medium-quality instrument for a value that isn’t too pricey. However, if you’re an intermediate player, a performer, or a professional, I would suggest looking at a different guitar like the Martin DX1AE.