Build Quality:4.8 out of 5 stars
Hardware:4.7 out of 5 stars
Sound:4.7 out of 5 stars
Value:4.8 out of 5 stars
Average:4.8 out of 5 stars

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Pros:

  • Affordable
  • Warm and balanced sound
  • Easy to play

Cons:

  • Doesn’t have as much volume as you’d expect

Traveling is a spiritual activity for me. No matter where I go – to a countryside filled with mountains and forests or a crowded capital – I always feel inspired. There’s something about wandering that awakens the creativity hidden inside you. By discovering new and interesting places, you forget about your daily problems and struggles. You stop worrying about your schedule and you free yourself from everything that weighs you down.

That’s probably why traveling is the answer when you’re feeling stuck professionally or musically. Our daily life has the tendency to swallow us up and submerge our essence into a chaotic routine. We turn into robots who do the exact same thing every day – most of us work daily jobs and get back home without any inspiration or energy to create. You can hang out with your friends and have some relaxing time at home, but that doesn’t even come close to the rest you get when you travel.

And if you’re a musician, the best companion for you will be your acoustic guitar. With high luggage costs and the heavy backpack you carry around anyway, you want to go as light and small as possible with your instrument. A travel-size acoustic guitar will save your life (and wallet), literally. Today I’ll review Fender CT-60S, dive into all of its specs and features so that I can provide you with all-encompassing information. Let’s cut to the chase and begin our journey!

Build

As surprising as it may be for some, Fender knows how to build their acoustic guitars. Take a look at the variety of choices they offer, scan the specs and listen to demos – you’ll immediately understand how immensely they’ve grown in that field. Their affordable lines look especially attractive, as they offer decent quality along with smaller prices. CT-60S is a beautiful travel guitar that is quite cheap in terms of price, yet that’s the only thing that’s cheap about it. The scale length is 23.5 inches, which turns it into a compact instrument. It has the body shape of auditorium guitars, yet it has shrunken down to contribute to easy transportation. It has a solid spruce top, which means that the most important part i.e. soundboard is made from a quality wood. The back and sides are made from laminate mahogany, but they are quite durable, as well. After all, this bad boy has to withstand the beating from travelling and environmental impact. Speaking of which, it’s covered with a gloss finish that protects it from the humidity and other external factors, and from your inattentive touches at the same time. The design could be called traditional, as this guitar features deep curves, a natural finish and a classic rosette.

CT-60S has a mahogany neck with the easy-to-play profile. The fretboard is made from rosewood and features rolled edges. By combining these two, Fender made sure that the guitar was comfortable for your fingers and smooth to the touch. The fingerboard has dot inlays that will help you understand what you’re doing and where. As you can see, Fender equipped this guitar with all the details that a decent instrument should have. Oh, and one last thing, CT-60S is suitable not only for travel, but also for kids and basically anyone, who has a hard time playing full-size guitars.  

Hardware

The hardware of acoustic guitars isn’t always the most exciting part, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. To tell you the truth, these small pieces have an immense impact on the value of the guitar, and that is why we shouldn’t be lazy to take an attentive look at this section. Though we shouldn’t expect top-notch materials here, CT-60S still excels at equipping hardware with materials that have proven to work really well.

This fella has a fixed rosewood bridge, which is attached to the body securely. The strings seem to pass through it really easily and remain in place even after vigorous utilization. The nut is made from plastic and measures 1.69 inches. It’s smaller than what we’re used to, but the shrunken size makes a lot of sense – after all, we’re talking about a compact guitar. Chrome-plated die cast tuners hold the tuning pretty well. I have to mention that CT-60S has a second strap lock right above the neck, which is really convenient. Some guitars don’t have that feature, which means you have to wrap your strap around the headstock (I hate that method, to be honest). All in all, this puppy offers everything we need to play comfortably and effortlessly.

Fender CT-60S Sound

When you read the words “travel-size” and “compact” you might start doubting the capabilities of CT-60S. I can’t say that you’re wrong to have those thoughts, but I have to tell you that things aren’t that simple with this baby. Even though this guitar isn’t as loud as our beloved full-size models, it’s still quite powerful for its body. Its volume might be a bit shy next to high-end small-size guitars, but we should remember that this fella costs two or even three times less. With volume out of the way, I’m really excited to tell you that the sound of CT-60S is a different sort of pleasure. All the parts of the range are represented equally, meaning that it has warmth, brightness, definition and dynamics. It’s not muddy or messy, rather, it’s clean and expressive. I’m sure you won’t play anything sophisticated while you’re traveling, but even if you do, it will surely reproduce those pieces.

Conclusion

Fender CT-60S is one of the best travel-size guitars for a reason: it’s the guitar you should splurge for if you’re willing to be creative and your imagination is urging you to write something beautiful. It combines all the features we usually look for in a guitar, and it does so at a price that will make you gag. This instrument is worth your attention for so many reasons, and I’m sure I listed most of the above. Just try it out and who knows, you might enjoy it a lot. Good luck! 

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