Fender 0950816021-COMBO-DLX Acoustic Guitar Bundle

Great guitar for the price. Great for a beginner. This was a christmas gift for my father and he has quickly learned how to play! Arrived very quickly.

Now that I’m retired, I thought it would be nice to learn how to play a guitar. After much research and reading reviews, I decided on this bundle package from Austin which included the Fender FA 115. Delivery was quick and efficient. The contents arrived in perfect condition. The only problem I had was with the tuner, that did not work properly. After contacting Austin Bazarr, they promised to ship out a new one, so the customer service was excellent. I did notice that the Austin Bazarr included CD, provides some instruction that opposes what the Fender instructional site gives. For instance, the numbering of the strings from the CD is low toned E string to high, while Fender numbers them from high E to low. This was a little confusing at first, but given the Fender online lessons, I plan to follow their instructions. I also loved the free of charge Fender app to easily tune your guitar. This is really helpful since my tuner didn’t work. I also LOVE that I received three months of lessons with Fender at no additional charge. For a first time guitar player, this will be very helpful. I kind of think I would have found a 3/4 size guitar easier for me to handle, but hopefully I’ll get used to this full size. All in all, I’m very happy with this purchase and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great guitar at a great price, especially for beginners.

Having never previously picked up a guitar in my life, I decided out of the blue that I’d like to learn to play acoustic. Since I’m starting from absolute scratch I didn’t necessarily know what I would need, so I was looking for a decent starter kit that had all of the essentials. This one fit the bill perfectly, and with a FENDER guitar no less! With just a little bit of tuning it was ready to go right out of the box. It may be considered a beginner guitar, but it looks and sounds great. The gig bag doesn’t offer a whole lot of protection, but it does have some light padding and will do just fine for storing it at the house. Would have been nice if it had an external pocket for accessory storage (picks, polishing cloth, tuner, etc.). The picture makes it look like there is an external pocket, but there’s not. If you plan on toting this around to lessons or some such, you may want something a little more heavy duty. One review stated a stand was included, but that must have been a fluke because it’s not in the description and I certainly didn’t receive one. Make sure you get one of those as well.

The only minor issues I had were:

1) the clip on tuner is nothing like the one in the picture. The one included still works just fine, but don’t expect it to look like that. (Edit 7/12/13 – the picture has been changed and the tuner that is now shown is the one that I received)
2) the extra string pack was missing, but Amazon CS more than made up for that.

I’m not letting either of those little quirks affect my 5 star rating, because overall I feel like this is a great package for someone who is taking their first steps in learning how to play.

Very pleased with everything I got with the guitar and including how nice the guitar turned out. Came fast and I was worried through mail might get broken or something. Not even a mark of damage.

I’m a complete novice when it comes to any guitar. This is the first guitar of any kind that I have owned or played, and as I type this, my fingers are still sore from my first practice session. I’m not reviewing the musical quality of this instrument, because at this point I would have to attribute any shortcomings in that area to the player, not the instrument.

So, just a few comments/observations:
First, the reason I deducted a star is the gig bag. I wasn’t expecting much, nevertheless I was disappointed. The padding is about what I expected, just enough protection from light bumps. Unfortunately, whenever I take it out or put it back in, I’m afraid the zipper is going to scratch the guitar, as it runs right up against the edges of the body. But the biggest problem is the lack of a storage pocket. The picture shows a zippered pocket on the front of the bag. The bag I received has no such pocket. There’s no place to put any extra gear.

It’s a beautiful instrument. The reddish-brown back and sides are much nicer than the black I was expecting.

The strap is too short to attach at the headstock, if that’s your thing. It was a little difficult to get the strap attached to the buttons on the top and bottom of the body, but hopefully that means it’s less likely to come undone at an inopportune moment. I still had to let the strap out as far as it would go, but I’m 6’3″ and 220+ lbs.

The tuner appears to be slightly more compact than the model shown in the picture, and it works just fine. I like it.

The strings didn’t look new. Some were slightly discolored. It was probably just a product of moisture from the hands of whatever technician set the instrument up at the factory and the instrument sitting in a box for who-knows-how-long. I went ahead and swapped out the strings with a new set. Problem solved.

I’m off to shop for another gig bag, or a hard case, or something…