Fender ESV10E

12 fret, slothead, vintage-style open Gotoh tuners, heavy lacquer finish, auditorium body but I'd call it a parlor for my size (6'3" 225), 2 3/4" width at nut for ease of fingerstyle playing, don't know the year, but this is a collaboration between the Fender luthiers of the Baja & Corona factories, and it shows. Solid palo escrito, wooden binding, and they didn't corrupt the body to put in the pick-up; it's a Fishman Ellipse VT that sits neatly in the soundhole.

My style of music is rock n' roll to country w/ lots of blues, naturally. I still have much to learn, but I wanted an affordable fingerstyle guitar to learn on, and this Fender fit the bill. Deep and warm, w/ tinkling bright spots. It's not perfect up the neck, and I've had a slight truss buzz emanating from somewhere around the third fret that I need to have looked at, but overall the sound fills a room, and when amplified continues to be highly faithful.

Biggest complaint (after I bought it used on eBay) was the truss rod seemed to be a trifle off. The neck is well set-up for my hamfisted playing, at least, and everything feels right when I hold her in my hands.

Built like a bloody tank; this guitar feels solid from the moment you pick her up, and I would gig w/ her without hesitation, though I have not done so as of this typing.

Never dealt w/ the company. I'm a back alley deal kind of guy.

I've been playing about 7 years now I think, and while I still have a ton to learn, I really like this guitar. It sounds good picked or plucked, and next to my Babicz acoustic dreadnought, it holds its own. I also own a 1999 Gretsch 6118 Double Anniversary, and play them all thru a Fender Tweed Blues Jr., but if this guitar was lost or stolen I would exhaust my efforts to find a replacement. They are still out there, but I doubt you'd find one at the price I paid for mine. Word is out that Fender made a pretty damned good acoustic; too bad they felt the need to discontinue the model.

Solid spruce top, solid palo escrito back and sides, polyester high gloss finish, auditorium style body, slotted headstock, Grover Vintage Style Tuners, 12 fret (to body) ebony fretboard with 1 3/4" nut width, bolt on neck & Fishman Ellipse VT pickup. Made in Mexico in 2006.

While the ESV-10E doesn't sound as lush and full as a dreadnought when flat picked, this guitar is a finger picker's dream. The wider than usual nut gives you more space between strings to dig your fingers into. The sound is well balanced, warm and full. Each string seems to project with it's own "voice" and the overall sound comes across fuller than finger picking on a dread.

The Fishman Ellipse VT system is very basic with only a volume control, tone control and a phase switch, but delivers a well balanced, natural sound. I've even used it to record and was surprised at the respectable results I got.

Great action. It is sometimes difficult to get the guitar in tune all the way up the neck, but that's a problem inherent to pretty much all 12 fret guitars. The palo escrito is a beautiful wood with tonal qualities very similar to rosewood. The slotted headstock is a bit difficult when it comes time to change strings (I probably just need more practice at it), but it looks so vintage and cool!

I'm not usually a fan of poly finish (my 2 dreadnoughts both have nitrocellulose lacquer finishes) but this guitar looks great, sounds great and is much more durable than my nitro finish guitars. (Which seem to "ding" if you look at them the wrong way.)
The Grover Vintage style tuners look cool and work flawlessly.
This is one tough, solid, little guitar. I've used it on many a gig and couldn't be happier with it.

I haven't tried to get it fixed...Nothings ever been wrong with it.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years. I chose this guitar because it sounded great and was so different from the other instruments I already owned. My other acoustics are a Guild D55 and a Guild DCE5. Both really fine instruments. As much as I love my dreadnoughts, I have to admit, the ESV-10E is the guitar I play most of the time. It's just so comfortable and is so much fun to play.

It's really sad that Fender has discontinued this model, but they have never really been known for decent mid-priced acoustics and I'm sure this was not an easy instrument for them to market. Hopefully, we'll see them resurrect this concept and design sometime in the future. For what it is, this is one great guitar.

Solid spruce top, solid palo escrito ("mexican rosewood") back and sides, polyester finish, auditorium (double-ought) body, slotted headstock, 12 fret ebony fretboard with 1 3/4" nut width, Fishman electronics hidden in sound hole.

Nice full sound with solid wood overtones. Quite loud for a smaller body guitar.

Frets are a bit rough, but otherwise a remarkable guitar for the money. The ebony board and body woods are beautiful, and the slotted headstock is a killer vintage detail.

As with any thick polyester finish, what you lose sound-wise is made up for in terms of durability. Everything is solid, and I think it will remain that way for many years to come.

This model is now discontinued, and it was hard to find useful information when I was researching it prior to purchasing online. I own two other acoustics, an Alvarez AJ-60S and a Morgan Monroe Blues 32. The body on this is similar to the latter, though perhaps slightly larger. This is now without a doubt the best acoustic I own, owing mostly to features you'd expect on a higher-priced guitar, like the ebony fretboard and all solid woods (wasn't too familiar with palo escrito, but it sounds sweet). The slotted headstock was also a cool-looking feature that influenced my purchase. The neck and slightly wider nut width is perfect for someone with larger hands, like myself. Overall, I'm completely satisfied with this purchase, despite having never played one or seen one prior to purchasing. I plugged it in once, and though I'm no expert, the electronics seemed to capture the acoustic sound with surprising fidelity. This guitar originally sold for about $1,000, and was just too good to pass up at less than $400. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Fender stopped making this guitar. Though Fender does not have a reputation for acoustics that equals its reputation for electrics, this guitar went a long way in changing my attitude. I'd highly recommend this model to anyone looking for a cool, vintage-looking guitar with all solid woods, nice electronics, sturdy construction and a wider nut width. The only drawbacks are that the fretwork could be improved and the case could be better constructed.