Fender CD-140SCE Sunburst

I'm a beginner guitar player and i wanted a decent guitar that i would love to learn and improve my skills. I initially we to a store to play multiple guitars and see what would work for me before ordering one. my rating is based on nearly 8 months of use of this guitar (5 days a week, 45 minutes per day of playing).

1. playability - This was the main criteria for me as a beginner, i used to have a lot of difficult in changing chords and moving quickly between frets with my old cheap guitar. I realized that the setup on this guitar was much better and lower, the neck is thinner and feels more comfortable in the hands making it easy to move around the fretboard.
2. Sound - The guitar sounds really bright and feels nice to the ears. the guitar stays in tune even when i don't play for a few days (holidays). The original strings are not rusted and dull even after 8 months of playing but i do take a bit of care like i wash hands before playing, I apply GHS fast fret before and after playing and always keep the guitar in the case.
3. Look and feel - The triple sunburst color is amazing. It simply shines in comparison to single color options and the pick guard helps keep the scratches away from the body.
4. the guitar came with a really nice hard case - which itself would be over a 100 Euros. The case is strong and can protect the guitar from most dings and small falls. It also has a storage box that can hold a set of strings, plectrums, string winder and fast fret for me.
5. Features: The guitar comes with a built-in pickup and tuner. I have not tested the pickup as I do not have an amp to test the pickup yet. The tuner works accurately when compared to a standard clip-on tuner.
6. build quality: the Guitar seems to be built well and had no noticeable imperfections for me. The packaging / shipping was also good.

Overall, If you are a beginner or an intermediate player, I would think this guitar would be really good to buy. It seems to be priced higher than most other guitars but considering the fact that the guitar has a solid wood top(spruce) and neck (Mahagony) and a walnut fretboard it falls into the intermediate quality guitars. Since it also comes with a hard case, it's a good deal. I considered this as an investment for learning and loving to play an instrument and paying a little extra is probably going to pay itself over the years.

I'm a bedroom guitarist, rarely taking this on stage, but it has already been with me once as of February 2025.

First of all - packaging. The guitar came wrapped nicely in a protective wrap inside the case. The case itself it very sturdy and was clearly designed specifically for this model of guitar, as the fit is perfect. It has a gorgeous black leather finish to it (probably fake, but still) with 4 clamps, 1 of which is lockable (key inside the case). The pocket inside is also very convenient, as it's the perfect size for a strap, capo, tuner and pick tin with loads of room to spare.

Now onto the main event, the guitar itself. The finish on this guitar is nothing short of beautiful. The colour appears just as it does in the pictures, which is a plus. For me, the neck of a guitar is always a selling point for me, and this guitar met the bar by far. The neck is beautifully smooth and easy to glide along when sliding on the fretboard. I've always gone with maple necks in the past, but with this being my first mahogany neck, I think my opinion has been changed of which wood feels the nicest. The only issues I had with the build of the guitar was with the tuning pegs and the bridge pins. Upon arrival, the tuning pegs felt a bit loose, but thanks to the screws visible on the side, a small screwdriver meant an easy fix. As for the bridge pins, they have visible marks across the middle, likely from whatever mould they were made in during production (whether these things are moulded or not, I don't know, it's just a guess). Regardless, while this seems to only be a cosmetic flaw, I'm not putting any money on them holding up for life.

The electronics work just fine. The first song I played with it plugged in was "Nutshell" by Alice In Chains. It had that desired smoothness with just enough bright to shine through the light chorus effect (from Boss CE-5) I had on it. The dials for the volume, treble and bass are nice, just a little bit stiff. The volume dial for me gets stuck at around 75%, and I have to put a little bit more effort into getting it to 100%. Maybe this was intentional to avoid accidental clipping. The tuner also works just fine, but I still end up using my old tuner just out of habit.

Conclusion:
Pros - clean neck, decent electronics, nice finish, good case
Cons - Loose tuning pegs, battery placement, poor tuning pegs