Fender GA 45 SCE cutaway electro acoustic guitar

I won't go through the full spec on this guitar as a visit to any of the online retailers or the fender.co website will give you every detail. My main wish is to give you an overall impression of the guitar and what makes it worthy instrument.

In about thirty years of playing and dabblinbg around with guitars there are only a small number of instruments that stand out in my memory. One is my Vicente Sanchiz flamenco guitar, another is ther Ovation guitar I sold to a frind and the third one is the Fender GA 45 SCE.

Priced at $999.99 on the Fender website you will find it selling for around £400 here in the UK add in about £50 for a decent case, it deserves one. At the UK price the instrument is an absolute bargain. In the run up to buying one I tried somnething in the order of a dozen quality guitars ranging from Simon and Patrick, Tanglewood, Takamine and Martin. The Fender beats the lot on the set up and the ease of playing. The neck is near perfect and the tone, although a little on the queit side is perfectly ballanced acroos the whole tonal range

The appearance is also very pleasing. The top is a solid AA grade choice Spruce and the back is solid Rosewood with the side being laminated Rosewood. A well formed Mahogany neck is faced with a Rosewood fingerboard. The bridge has a compensated inset and the tuning is absolutely spot above the 12th fret. String height has been set at such a good level that it is easy to finger full Barre chords without the need to have a grip like a vice. The machine heads are gold plated grovers and are very reliable and accurate.

The electrics are provided by a Fishman/ Fender internal pick up with full EQ and a volume controls. I have only managed a few sessions though an amp but the sound is vivid and lively with very little sign of any feedback problems.

On a purely personal note I think that my playing has improved just by owning an using a superior instrument. I might even have paid Fenders UK list price of £699.00 but fortunatly Alligator Music in Heaton Moor came in at the prices quoted above. You may not find many of these instruments in the UK but they are a 'must try' guitar if you are planning to spend £350 to £500!