Need some recommendation on Fender CC-140SCE (Concert) alternative Guitar for FingerStyle

Megam

I have been self-learning guitar for two and a half years now (all I know and practice are scales and barre chords, not a single song so far). I'm into fingerpicking, and I currently have a Yamaha C40 Classical guitar. I'm looking to upgrade and for some reason, I like the cutaway design. Are there any alternatives to the Fender CC-140SCE (Concert) guitar? My budget is between £300 and £500, and I'm looking for a solid spruce top.

Kilgore

There are numerous manufacturers who produce similar instruments at your price point: Yamaha, Cort, Sigma, Eastman and more.

In fact, many would suggest that Yamaha would be the default choice considering your budget.

Historically, Fender have had a reputation for producing uninspiring acoustics. Bear in mind that their production, like most at this price are outsourced to companies in the far East.

Ideally, actually playing lots of guitars is the best way to find out if they suit you, of course this may not always be practical. 

Ask yourself if built in electronics are something you are likely to need. If not, some would say that spending more on a better quality guitar without electronics would be a better choice.

Good luck.

BillDL

You may be limiting your choice a bit with the preference for a cutaway lower bout in a "concert" size acoustic.  There are a lot of concert sized acoustics of good quality in your price range to choose from, but when you start filtering results to cutaway models only, you are going to find that many of them will be electro-acoustics in which probably about £80 of the price will be for the electrics.  Do you definitely want a cutaway model?  Most acoustic guitar players don't play above the 14th fret much at all, so perhaps you might extend your searches to non cutaway models for a wider choice.

If you can get to like the shape and design of Breedlove guitars, something like this one will be a very nice guitar:

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/220125380331008--breedlove-discovery-s-concert-ce-sitka-sprucemahogany

I don't always go with the "now reduced to" prices on sites like GuitarGuitar, however you will note that the one above has purportedly been reduced from £549 to £499.  They have the non-electric version of that same guitar for £499:

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/220125380334008--breedlove-discovery-s-concert-sitka-sprucemahogany

and this exemplifies what I was saying about extra money in the price for the electrics that you most likely don't need or want.

My personal favourites in your price range are Yamaha, Sigma and Cort.  Examples of ones I would personally be considering, and please note that I've just chosen the GuitarGuitar website for convenience because it's easy to filter results.  Shop around.

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/211102376285025--sigma-crossroad-series-sgmc-10e-sitka-spruce-mahogany

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/211102376283025--sigma-crossroad-series-s000m-10e-sitka-spruce-mahogany

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/230810411312008--cort-luce-l200f-atv-semi-gloss

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/160121292662008--yamaha-fs830-natural

As a matter of interest, I have had possession of the Fender CC-140SCE you mentioned, and I liked that guitar a lot.

I don't mean to be at all critical, and I realise that everybody has a different process for learning and playing, however you mentioned:

"I have been self-learning guitar for two and a half years now (all I know and practice are scales and barre chords, not a single song so far). I'm into fingerpicking ....."

As a purely personal observation, I would have been quite fed up practising scales and chords for so long without playing as many songs as possible.  It's good to have all the muscle memory and shapes under your fingers from practice, but using them in songs surely is what playing is all about.  Perhaps you want to ignore playing other peoples' songs and write your own, but most of us need the inspiration of having played a lot of songs before we embark on that journey.  Even taking an existing song and reworking it with different chord inversions and extensions or substitutions can be a really good exercise on the way to discovering your own style.

ICBM

While I know this will not be a universal opinion, I think many of the (especially) more recent Fender acoustics are perfectly decent, and they’re widely maligned for no good - or largely historical - reasons.

I also find most Yamahas over-rated - not bad guitars (although I do have experience with several poorly-made ones, APX series in particular), but I’ve just never found them very inspiring or outstanding at their price points.

Other opinions and experiences may vary! Acoustic guitars are a pretty personal thing.

Megam

Thanks, everyone, for your response!

@BillDL, thanks for opening my eyes to the cutaway design. I was struggling to play the D barre chord on the Yamaha C40, which is why I was looking for a cutaway design. I just realized its fret arrangement is different from other 20-fret acoustic guitars. I owe you a beer for that!

I decided to go with this one: Sigma Crossroad Series S000M-10E Sitka Spruce/Mahogany, as it ticks all the boxes for me.

I had never heard of Sigma before, but that's probably due to my lack of knowledge. On paper, it looks good, so I'll give it a try.

Regarding your comment, "but using them in songs surely is what playing is all about," I definitely want to get there eventually. I just tend to take the long and hard way, likely due to a fear of trying new things

 

guitarjack66

At concert size I would probably avoid Fender personally. Sigma or Eastman,or if you are very lucky,a used Furch would be my recommendations. I think Fender's larger bodied acoustics,Dreadnought or Jumbo,are decent but their smaller acoustics less so. In my view. Yamaha look great but their nut width and string spacing feel cramped to me.

Tannin

A good choice, @Megam. You'll get a fuller, more satisfying sound with that non-cutaway model, two different ways. (a) because of the extra top surface - this is a very small difference but quite real. And (b) because cutaways cost money to manufacture: there is about £50 you've saved or, to put it the other way around, £50 worth of extra quality in the instrument. You will find that upper fret access is  much easier. Not only is the neck much slimmer than a classical neck, it is a 14-fret design - i.er., the neck-body joint is at the 14th fret (which is standard but not universal in steel string guitars) where the standard for classicals is a 12-fret join. Those 2 extra frets make a big difference!

In your price range, you won't see any guitars made outside the Far East (mostly China and Indonesia). Sigma is a German company, established in 2007, which buys in guitars from China and does a pretty good job of it. They seem to keep a closer eye on quality control than most. In this market segment, Sigma is well-regarded. What's more, you've gone for an all-solid model. Some people make too much of the difference between all-solid and laminated back; nevertheless, solid is nearly always better. Solid guitars are much more likely to mature into something with versatility and real personality. 

You are fingerpicking, so that means you have good control over which strings you make sound and which you leave out. (As compared to strumming.) Good! This frees up your left hand to start playing 3-note and 4-note chords. There is only a handful of usable barre chord shapes, mostly only two main ones with some variations. But there are many, many 3 and 4 note chord shapes. (I have no idea how many - lots!) So that gives you much more room for different flavours in your music. Plus they are easier to play and give you far more opportunity to add all sorts of embellishments, from chord variations to little lead runs to walking bass lines. 

BillDL

guitarjack66 said:

At concert size I would probably avoid Fender personally. Sigma or Eastman,or if you are very lucky,a used Furch would be my recommendations. I think Fender's larger bodied acoustics,Dreadnought or Jumbo,are decent but their smaller acoustics less so. In my view. Yamaha look great but their nut width and string spacing feel cramped to me.

That's a good point given that @Megam has been playing a Yamaha C40 classical with a 52mm nut width.  There has been some interest expressed by Megam in another thread asking about the Micarta fretboard material on a Sigma that seems to fit the criteria - the model being one with a 1.75 inch (44.45mm) nut.  The Yamaha FS830, as an example, has a narrower nut at 43mm.  While that's only 1.45mm narrower than on the Sigma, it can make a difference to the feel and I certainly notice it.

guitarjack66

BillDL said:

guitarjack66 said:

At concert size I would probably avoid Fender personally. Sigma or Eastman,or if you are very lucky,a used Furch would be my recommendations. I think Fender's larger bodied acoustics,Dreadnought or Jumbo,are decent but their smaller acoustics less so. In my view. Yamaha look great but their nut width and string spacing feel cramped to me.

That's a good point given that @Megam has been playing a Yamaha C40 classical with a 52mm nut width.  There has been some interest expressed by Megam in another thread asking about the Micarta fretboard material on a Sigma that seems to fit the criteria - the model being one with a 1.75 inch (44.45mm) nut.  The Yamaha FS830, as an example, has a narrower nut at 43mm.  While that's only 1.45mm narrower than on the Sigma, it can make a difference to the feel and I certainly notice it.

I agree. Sigma 44.5 mm is very comfortable for me. Sorry I let my 000 go in hindsight.