Fender Acoustic Guitars: Fender T-BUCKET-300CE Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Flame Maple Top, 3 Tone Sunburst

FENDER ACOUSTIC GUITAR
Best Sellers in Acoustic Guitars - Best Sellers in Acoustic-Electric Guitars

Fender T-BUCKET-300CE Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Flame Maple Top, 3 Tone Sunburst

Buy New : $274.95 - $299.99

Used from : $240.00

Product Features

Laminated Flame Maple Top, Laminated Mahogany back and sides
Scalloped X Bracing
Fishman Isys III System
Rosewood Bridge with Compensated Saddle and chrome die cast tuning keys

Product Description : On your mark, get ready, get set ... and go! With an authentic pinstriping motif designed by hot rod artist extraordinaire Vince Ray, you can feel the wind blowing in your hair as you put the pedal to metal strumming one of our new T-Buckets acoustics that are greased up, dirty and hot rodded! This T-Bucket 300 CE is a single-cutaway Three-color Sunburst dreadnought beauty with a laminated flame maple top and laminated mahogany back and sides. Other features include scalloped bracing, die-cast machine heads, all-solid rosewood bridge with compensated saddle and Fishman® preamp with built-in tuner. Pick up, plug in and rock the house!

Specifications

Body

Body Back: Laminated Mahogany Back
Body Sides: Laminated Mahogany Sides
Body Top: Laminated Flame Maple Top
Bracing: Scalloped X Bracing
Neck
Position Inlays: White Dot Position Inlays
Fretboard: Rosewood
Nut Width: 1.69” (43 mm)
Scale Length: 25.3" (64.3 cm)

Electronics

Special Electronics: Fishman® Isys III System with Active On-Board Pre-Amp and Tuner
Controls: Built In Chromatic Tuner with On/Off Switch, Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble

Hardware

Hardware Finish: Chrome

Bridge: Rosewood with Compensated Saddle

Bridge Pins: Black Bridge Pins w/ White Dots

Tuning Machines: Die-Cast Tuners

String Nut: Synthetic Bone

Miscellaneous

Strings: Fender® Dura-Tone® Coated 80/20 Bronze (.012-.052 Gauge)

Ok, I have to confess that this is a case of love at first sight, from the first moment I saw this guitar I knew I had to get it (well I went on and did a little investigation on it too, of course).

I got the Sunburst version in May 2011 from a different vendor (whose name has to do with "Guitar"s and since it is a huge store it is kind of a "Center", no offenses Amazon... lol) mostly because I wanted to make sure it was well set up instead of purchasing it on line (and a $50 off cupon from GC finally convinced me). I tested one of these guitars at the store, but later when I finally decided to buy it, they had no stock and we had to order one from their distribution center, given the price I decided to move on and take the risk to purchase something untested.

Since I could not play the actual one before the purchase, I was a little nervous about the setup when it arrived, but happily the one I got, as far as I am concerned, was perfectly setup: the neck was straight and the string height (action) is not as low as an electric guitar (no surprise since this an electro acoustic babe) and not very high considering the nature of this beauty, so no issues there. My point here is... it appears to be a decently setup guitar, so it might be worth the risk of ordering it online with no major issues (otherwise, Amazon returns usually work very good).

The neck is pretty comfortable, its "thickness" can be compared to an electric guitar's neck, so it makes easier playing for longer periods with less "hand fatigue" I guess (I own a classical guitar and now its neck "thickness" seems huge compared to the T-Bucket's).

The body is kind of big, since this is a "dreadnought" size body (not a jumbo though), so consider that if you are a small sized person. However the body size is what gives this guitar a very good sound and volume (even unplugged), so maybe you would want to skip that little issue. The top and bottom and all the body are made from laminated wood, experts say that solid tops and bottoms deliver better sound but for the price range this guitar sounds very, very good even compared side to side to some solid top/bottom guitars.

The electronics work flawlessly, they include Vol. control of course (lol); bass, mid & treble controls; and a built in tuner which is very helpful if you are playing live and need to re-tune strings between songs (when you press the tuner button the output is "killed" and the tuner display will show you the actual note from the string you are playing, a red led will turn on if it is sharp or flat and a green one if it is in tune). Uses a 9V battery (included) which I believe does not require to be replaced frequently, just make sure to turn off the tuner when not in use.

I have seen no issues with tunning, overall stays in tune pretty well and I already had to change the orginal strings (Fender coated) since the bass strings were already "dead" after two months (I went with normal D'Addarios but I will be testing several brands I guess). The saddle bridge (bottom) is a compensated saddle, supposedly for better intonation, which I believe is not an issue.

Overall, I think the Fender T-Bucket is a very good deal for the price, I would say it is a mid to low price guitar with a higer priced guitar performance and the looks... oh well, I DO believe it IS gorgeous and since a lot of people has asked me where I got it and for how much, I believe others believe it IS gorgeous too.

Final comment: If you are planning to buy a case for this guitar, I suggest to try the Musician's Gear Deluxe Dreadnought Case (Black)(5 ply laminte wood) , for $50 bucks you can't go wrong and YES, I can testify that it DOES fit this baby pretty well. Enjoy! :D *** EDIT 3/20/12: This case's description was changed by Amazon and I am not sure that the one offered meets the T-Buckets dimensions (I guess it should since the case is made for dreadnoughts) just wanted to place a warn about that.
By Juan Manuel Garcia