Review : Fender Enseneda ESM 10

Fender Enseneda ESM 10

It was an accident I boguht this and sold my Guild guitar I loved.

I missed my Guild so much, so I didn’t play this fender much. 

However, ESM 10 is my favorite guitar. 

Specifications

* Mini Jumbo Body (Gibson J-185 Style)

* Solid Sitka spruce top

* Solid Palo Escrito back and sides 

* Ebony fretboard and bridge

* Gold Grover tuners

* Multiple Wood Body tortoise binding 

* Full body and fretboard binding 

* Plastic nut and Saddle
* Rosewood End Pin, Plastic Bridge Pins

* Mahogany neck 

* C profile 

* Dove-tail Neck Joint   

* 1.7" nut width (a Little bit Wider than 43mm) 

* 2-3/16" string spacing at the saddle (55mm)

* 25.3” Scale (643mm)
* 16” Radius fretboard  

* Upper bout : 11.5”

* Waist : 9.5”

* Lower bout : 16"  

* Body Depth : 4.75”  

Apperance

Beautiful Woods. Palo Escrito (somebody calls Mexican Rosewood) is fantastic! Nice matched truss cover, Black ebony fretboard… Really Attractive! 

Build Quality

I could understand why fender acoustics always have issues for quality control. It was not perfect on fretworks, bowed neck on high 12 fret. My luthier could made it perfect for normal uses, however I was disappointed with Fender’s Craftsmanship. not matched with Guild guitars quality. 

Neck Feeling 

After my luthier fixed it, It became fantastic like customized for me! Slightly slim C neck profile, about 43.5mm wide on nut, perfect string spacing on saddle (55mm), Great for fingerpicking and flat picking both. 

Sound 

Dynamics ★★★★☆ 4 (Strong Punch!)

Projection ★★★★☆ 4.5 (Very nice for large hall) 

Clarity ★★★★☆ 4 (Crisp and Detailed)

Low-end ★★★★☆ 4 (Plenty Deep end, Middle lows are slightly too strong. it’s boomer) 

String Balance ★★★★☆ 4 (Every string is fairly even)

Frequency Wide ★★★★☆ 4 (Deep end is nicer than most guitars) 

Overtones ★★★☆☆ 3.5 (Comparable with Taylor 310 410 Series) 

Tonal Balance ★★★☆☆ 3.5 (Distinctive Character, but not for Everyone) 

Total 31.5 Point

• Distinctive, Beautiful sound.
• Palo Escrito sound is between mahogany and rosewood. although It has wide frequency responses like rosewood, Middle range stands out like mahogany. Different with Ovangol. Ovangol has not plenty deep end. 
• Low middle range responses excessive, often.
• Don’t use Bone saddle. It makes low middle bumps worse. Tusq saddle would be nice. 

Conclusion

ESM 10 has Balanced, beautiful sound suitable for Ballads, Fingerstyle, Singer-songwriter, Alternative musics. Bass Bumped sound suitable for Worship. However, this guitar has very distinctive tone character. It’s cannot matched with voices needs traditional, typical guitar sound.